LAHORE – Amidst serious economic challenges, the Punjab government has embarked on a daunting task of reigning in poverty and bringing some respite to poverty struck people across the province.
Although taking on the complex phenomenon of poverty is itself a herculean task having multiple economic, social, political and cultural dimensions yet undeterred obligation and commitment may make some way to relieve those hit by abject poverty.
Since many countries in the developed world have made progress in poverty reduction, developing countries are still suffering from substantial inequities and struggling to move forward and Pakistan is also not an exception.
A recent study by (May 2024) Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) has revealed overall poverty rate in Pakistan nearly around 39 percent and in Punjab around 30 percent with people in rural areas more poor than those in urban areas and the province as a whole having lowest incidence of multidimensional poverty.
“Poverty is rising and we need to control it. Those leading a bit better life a few years back are now close to poverty line and can slip down,” remarked former Deputy Governor, State Bank of Pakistan Riaz Riazuddin. “Low income groups are under extreme pressure while budget of middle-income households is also squeezing with every passing day.”
He emphasised short, medium and long term policies to curtail poverty as he said “although reducing or eradicating poverty is far more important than measuring poverty, monitoring the poverty situation is also essential for attainment of poverty goals.”
The first goal of the United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals is “eradicating extreme poverty for all people everywhere by 2030” and Pakistan’s progress on SDG1 has been steady, despite a setback in FY20 due to Covid-19.
“We need multi-pronged strategy. Our short term policies should focus on identifying the poor so the cash can be transferred unconditionally to poor households for meeting immediate essential needs (mainly food),” Riazuddin said. “Medium- and long-term policies should include conditional cash transfers that empower the poor to acquire education and vocational skills to become part of the labor force or supplement their income if they are already employed in low-paying jobs.”
He stressed that prudent macroeconomic management must also be part of medium-term policies to keep inflation under check and sustain growth and employment.
In the present circumstances, the most challenging task is to control inflation and price hike, petrol and power prices and hit hard on hoarders and market mafias to save more and more people from falling below the poverty line.
Although both the Federal and the Punjab governments, in a very tight economic situation, have initiated number of initiatives, there is also an urgent need to push the private sector forward to contribute in the government efforts for poverty alleviation.
Benazir Income Support Programme is no doubt a flagship program going long way in reducing extreme poverty through unconditional cash transfers to supplement the income of targeted poor households.
It is also being supplemented by different other initiatives like free medicine at all emergencies of government hospitals in Punjab, package for transgender community, collecting reliable data of “deserving people” in Punjab, making price control committees more effective, revival of health card scheme, provision of solar panels on installments, construction of homes for poor, provision of farm tools at subsidised rate, revival of Punjab Education Endowment Fund, Youth Loan Program including schemes for providing interest free loans, skills training and devices like laptops and tablets and provide youth with resources to start their own businesses.
“We have plans to boost Social Protection Authority’s efforts to combat poverty and bolster social welfare across the province,” informed Punjab Finance Minister Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman. “Central to this initiative is to introduce a provincial-level socio-economic registry system, aimed at fostering accessibility and transparency within social welfare endeavors.”
He reiterated PML-N government’s resolve stating that despite all odds, the provincial government is fighting on multiple fronts to curtail poverty and ameliorate the lot of people.
“Our initial steps will involve seamless information exchange between the national socio-economic registry and the government of Punjab,” the minister said. “Thereon, we shall be fully employing our efforts and resources for fulfillment of promises and initiatives announced by Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz for poverty alleviation and transforming Punjab into an economic hub.”
As the task is gigantic and needs involvement of all segments of society, therefore private philanthropy in the province can also contributes significantly to alleviate poverty. Then there is business community who should honestly pay taxes and lend a hand with the government for revenue generation and poverty alleviation.
The provincial government has already done its bit by announcing a historic annual development plan (ADP) worth Rs842 billion in recent budget to uplift masses and mitigate their sufferings.
No doubt, these measures are appreciable. But, what is needed the most is to purge the government departments of bribery, nepotism and political interference to get policies implemented judiciously where the people become real beneficiaries of these development and empowerment schemes.
