Almost half of the people in
Pakistan are food insecure. This is informed by different studies conducted by
various organisations using different datasets and methodologies. Sustainable
Development Policy Institute (SDPI) and World Food Program’s report released in
2010 suggests that 48.6 percent population in Pakistan is food insecure.
Mahboob ul Haq Development Foundation’s
Human Development report 2011 says that food was inaccessible for more than one
third of Pakistanis. It also reveals that food consumption in terms of Kcal/day
is much below other developing countries. National Nutrition Survey
commissioned by UNICEF in 2011 mentions that 58 percent population in Pakistan
is facing food insecurity and moderate to severe hunger. Global Hunger Index by
FAO places Pakistan food insecurity level as alarming.
Let us take a pause here, and look at
poverty statistics. Planning Commission, during Shaukat Aziz government,
revealed that 17 percent people of Pakistan were living below the poverty line.
This claim was challenged by coalition government’s finance minister Ishaq Dar
in 2008, who was of the opinion that 44 percent people in Pakistan were living
below poverty line.
Since then, there is no official disclosure
of poverty figures in Pakistan. Last year, a report was prepared by the
Planning Commission, which on the basis of Pakistan Standard for Social and
Living Measurement survey (PSLM), reflected that 12 percent people in Pakistan
were living below poverty line.
However, the poverty figure was so
unrealistic that the government never officially released that report. Benazir
Income Support Program (BISP) has spent millions of rupees on poverty score
card exercise. They have available data for 27 million households.
Unfortunately, instead of strengthening Pakistan Bureau of Statistics and
getting this data collected through it, BISP policy makers preferred to collect
data through Chartered Accountant firms and National Rural Support Programme.
There is nothing wrong with these
organisations, but they were never specialised in collecting data at such a
huge scale. Thus, we have no analysis of mini poverty census conducted by BISP
and cannot use that data to determine state of poverty in Pakistan either.
Last month, SDPI came up with its
multi-dimensional poverty index (MPI), an international measure of acute
poverty developed by Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative. The MPI
uses 10 indicators to measure poverty in three dimensions: education, health,
assets and living standards.
The study reveals that among the worst 20
districts in Pakistan with acute poverty incidence, 16 were located in the
province of Balochistan and four in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The report also
revealed that “Balochistan is the poorest of all provinces with 52 per cent
population living below poverty line, followed by Sindh with 33 per cent,
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with 32 per cent and Punjab with 19 per cent”. In absolute
numbers, 58.7 million people are living below the poverty line in Pakistan out
of the total population of estimated 180 million.
Here it is worth mentioning that MPI study
of SDPI did not use the data for SDPI’s food security analysis. However, one
thing common in both the reports is state of affairs in Balochistan. According
to food insecurity report, 10 districts of Balochistan are included among the
20 worst food insecure districts of Pakistan.
According to MPI, the number of Balochistan
district among 20 worst poverty districts of Pakistan has gone up to 16. One
can only understand immediate need for finding a political solution for
permanent peace in Baloshistan if above mentioned statistics are given serious
attention.
Coming back to food insecurity and poverty,
we should realise that food insecurity, hunger, and poverty are three distinct
phenomena but are interlinked and their cumulative effect is much worse than
the effect of original problem. In my opinion, the major triggers for
extremism, violence, and lawlessness in society are poverty, hunger,
marginalisation, social exclusion, and class conflict.
People targeting public and private
property, smashing vehicles, and burning cinemas, banks, and restaurants were
not reflecting their religious sentiments. Most of them were challenging the
class divide, and in their opinion were taking revenge from those who “have”.
It was an opportunity for them to show their anger on the system which has
created two classes, a minority that “have” and a majority that “don’t have
anything”.
What matters here is the governmental and
societal response to tackle these problems which are eroding the very basis of
social fabric. First things first, we need to know the exact number of people
who are victims of poverty and food insecurity. The government needs not to shy
away from facts. It should recognise the existence of problems to come up with
a strategy to resolve it. We are using projections based on 1998 Census, have
not released the official poverty figure for the last five years, and claim that
Pakistan produces bumper wheat crop, it exports rice and a major producer of
milk so is not a food insecure country.
The above-mentioned mindset among
policymakers sabotaged the “Zero Hunger
Pakistan” programme which was launched in March 2012 by the then Prime
Minister. The programme could have been one of the flagship programmes of the
PPP government which was designed to take care of hunger and malnutrition among
children, breast feeding mothers, and expecting mothers. Despite Premier
Gilani’s announcement, the ministry of finance never allocated money for this
programme.
This is the mindset which does not allow
our decision makers to recognise that poverty score card used by BISP as
poverty estimation tool has certain flaws and can be improved. Poverty score
card merely captures asset poverty. It is not catered for capturing
multi-dimensional poverty that has trapped every third Pakistani today. Rs 1000
per moth given to selected households can be a temporary relief for few (if at
all) but cannot address poverty until health, education, clean drinking water,
and sanitation services are ensured and livelihood opportunities are created.
For this to happen, uninterrupted supply of
energy at affordable prices is a must. Ad-hoc measures, like BISP, even if it
is increased to rupees 10,000 per month cannot be a substitute to state’s
responsibility of addressing factors which are turning every 2nd Pakistani food
insecure and every 3rd Pakistani poor.
Addressing poverty and food insecurity
requires a paradigm shift, a shift towards human development and individual
security for which governments would have to empower people, hear their voice,
and be accountable to them for pursuing the policies which have turned rich
more rich, fast eliminating the middle class, and pushing the poor in abject
poverty.
The writer is executive director of
Sustainable Development Policy Institute and can be contacted at
suleri@sdpi.org
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