17 April 2004	Saturday	26 Safar 1425

KARACHI, April 16: The government is launching on Monday a quick - two week - countrywide Household Consumption Expenditure Survey to find out the extent of poverty.

The findings of this survey will constitute the core part of finance minister's budget speech next June.

About 5,600 households spread over 361 sample units in some 35 districts of the country will be covered in this survey which seeks information from a simple questionnaire. The sample units and questionnaire have been drawn up by the Federal Bureau of Statistics. There are 175 urban sample units with 2,100 households and 186 rural sample units having about 3,000 households.

Simultaneously, but after a brief interval, from next month, the government is also issuing a more intensive and comprehensive Core Welfare Indicators Questionnaire (CWIQ). Answers of these questions will be sought in interviews of the respondents in small sample units.

Official enumerators and statisticians will visit the households in the marked sample units to find out the number of the family members, marital status, source of earning, education qualifications, quality of life in terms of the nature of abode, available amenities, availability of water, sanitation, facility of electricity, consumption pattern in last two weeks with specific reference to fruits, vegetables, pulses, cereals, access to health care, entertainment.

Findings of this survey is expected to help the finance minister in substantiating his claim of government's effective tackling of the poverty issue. This claim has always been questioned by the independent economists and social scientists who have been lambasting Musharraf government for being completely oblivious and totally indifferent in last four years towards the growing poverty in the country.

Last week, while addressing the members of Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz claimed that his government has successfully put a brake to growing poverty and has reversed the trend.

President General Pervez Musharraf in his meeting with the members of Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry in May 2003 declared that poverty ratio in the country has come down by 0.8 per cent. But he did not tell the LCCI members of the source of his information.

An integrated household income-expenditure survey carried out in 2001 was suppressed by the government on the plea that findings and data carried certain technical inaccuracies and that these need necessary processing. A visiting World Bank team led by an Indian economist Tara Vishvanath also indicted the government rather harshly on this count.

Last week in Karachi, the finance minister promised that henceforth from July next, the government will put in a constantly updated information and data on poverty, unemployment and investment in the country on an official website to put an end to the endless controversy on these issues.

From July next, the government plans to launch a five-year Pakistan Social and Living Standard Measurement (PSLM) at a total cost of Rs304 million. The project has been designed to collect household data at provincial and district level useful for the assessment of social welfare of population in terms of poverty alleviation, family planning, rural water supply, employment, household assets, income and expenditure, household amenities and sanitation.

The survey will provide indicators at the district and provincial levels for assessment of the impact of the new devolution plan of the government in social sector and monitoring programme initiated under Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers.

In the first phase, the provincial level detailed survey will cover about 17,000 households up to end June 2005 and the report is expected to be finalized by December 2005. In the second phase from July 2005 district level survey of 77,000 households would be carried out.

As many as 27,000 enumerator blocks have been identified in urban areas and 50,588 villages for survey. These will continue till 2008-09 and inform government and the general public of the indicators on demographic characteristics, education, health, employment, household assets and amenities, population planning, rural water supply and sanitation, income and expenditure and poverty.

The surveys are being launched without any media support and the enumerators and statisticians consider information gathering of a family a tough job. "Electronic media, mosques, local religious leaders and tribal elders should be used to convince people that the information they offer will be utilized in development of their areas and for their own welfare," an official said while explaining the difficulties in seeking information on marriages, number of wives, the number of children particularly the girls, education of girls and on allied matters.

The Core Welfare Indicators Questionnaire (CWIQ) is a new survey concept based on personal interview and is a big challenge for the enumerators and statisticians. There are language barriers, communication problems and cultural hurdles for getting answers to many questions.