THE country’s economy is growing briskly. Its GDP growth rate is eight per cent a year, with investments, both foreign and domestic, picking up in an environment of macro-economic stability. In general, the overall situation of foreign debts has also improved.
All this sounds good. But the question is, are these improvements of any benefit for the people? Does the poor share the benefits of this growth? If not today, has the economic growth potential to change the destiny of the poor, some time in the near future?
How is government’s initiatives for social welfare/self-help programmes helping the poor for getting out of their miseries? All these questions are not only of fundamental nature but also have a significant role in shaping the future of the country.
If you speak to less privileged people, most of them seem indifferent to the recent turn-around in the economy. They see the situation in the labour market (daily-wages jobs) is improving and more regular jobs are opening up also.
But simultaneously, the wages that they earn are still not enough to meet their daily needs, because of the high prices of basic commodities like sugar, flour, rice etc.
Though the government has been trying to control price spiral in basic commodities through import from India and Dubai, prices in the market are still on the high side, The imported sugar from India costs around Rs26 per kg but its retail prices are still touching Rs32.
A large segment of the population lives in deep poverty (even below the poverty line of $2/day or even $1/day) and there is no system in place to help them out. Programmes like Zakat Fund etc. have proved completely ineffective. Pakistan could learn from the experiences of other developing countries for reducing poverty.
In Brazil, a scheme called “Bolsa Familia”, provides cash for people (30 million people-7.5 million families) having monthly income less of than 100 reais (Brazilian currency unit).
But, to make themselves eligible for this assistance, recipients are required to fulfil the following conditions; they must have their children vaccinated regularly; monitor their health, and lastly keep their children in schools.
In Mexico, ed “Oportunidades”, provides cash to five million poorest families. The payments are made to the female head of the house after two-month period, which covers expenses like food, children’s schooling, transport for school goings from-and-to school etc. But if a child misses 15 per cent of his classes or fails twice in a grade, these payments are suspended.
The schemes like “Bolsa Familia” and “Oportunidades” are very common among countries like Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and Nicaragua. All of them have their own individual programmes running with different set of conditions. These schemes address the basic problems of hunger, health, and education of the poor’s children by binding them to make an efficient use of their funds.
It also introduce the family with the hard facts of life- to accept donations as an obligation. The rich feel comfortable that his money is not going into the pockets of the corrupt administrators, rather they are helping someone out who deserves their support.
Still implementation of such programmes face some hurdles from infrastructure/system. First of all, we don’t have the exact record of the poor. So, it makes it difficult to figure out the corruption level in the disbursement of funds.
Second, the level of corruption and mismanagement in the public services-especially in social welfare programme is known to every one.
Third, the educational system is far from what it should be and there is very little that government is doing about it. Only in Punjab, the provincial government recently made the school education in its own institutions free for the poor.
But more has to be done, to not only to improve the availability of schools but also the quality of the content taught in those schools has to be standardized according to the modern day needs.
Moreover, the Punjab’s initiative is still in its early stages. This scheme covers only for one-fourth of the population and the inflow stable.
Then comes the issue of collecting money from affluent community/ resources available in and outside the country and the need to keep them motivated to donate for this noble cause. Lastly, but most importantly, the need of strict monitoring and control of such system is essential for the success of any scheme.
Though, the recent government’s initiatives are encouraging. But, much more needs to be done in order to meet the two biggest challenges presented by the programmes of this kind i.e. eliminate corruption from the system and change the mentality of the poor through education and inculcating their self respect into them.
Educating children means that the future generations of these poor will have more dignity, self-respect and independence about them. Having achieved macro economic stability and economic growth, it is time to start thinking about the real problems and take initiatives to transfer the benefits of growth and prosperity to the poor individuals.
THE country’s economy is growing briskly. Its GDP growth rate is eight per cent a year, with investments, both foreign and domestic, picking up in an environment of macro-economic stability. In general, the overall situation of foreign debts has also improved.
