Poverty: Worst Form of Violence
Syeda Mahnoor Ali (BS-6th, GPP)
In Pakistan, 24.3% of the population lived below the
national poverty line in 2015, the proportion of employed population below
$1.90 purchasing power parity a day in 2019 was 1.3%. For every 1,000 babies
born in Pakistan in 2019, 67 die before their 5th birthday. Using the
lower-middle-income poverty rate ($3.2 per day), the World Bank calculated that
Pakistan's poverty rate was 39.3 per cent in 2020-21, 39.2 per cent in 2021-22,
and 37.9 per cent in 2022-23
Majority of the Pakistani citizens are unable to
fulfil their basic needs due to poverty and lack of resources. Hence, this can
be further explained by the Maslow's hierarchy of needs that is a theory of
motivation which states that five categories of human needs dictate an
individual's behavior. Those needs are physiological needs, safety needs, love
and belonging needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs. No one can
fulfil his/her esteem and self-actualization needs if they haven’t passed
through the safety and psychological needs.
We can look into six categories to further define
poverty. Situational, when poverty is caused due to certain disasters,
destructions or situations. Generational, when people suffer from poverty for
more than two generations. Relative, when people the income or standard of
living of one group of people is better than the others. Absolute, when the
people don’t even have basic necessities of life and their only concern is
going through one day at once. Urban, that occurs in urban areas while rural,
that occurs in rural areas.
Illiteracy, gender inequality, unemployment, conflicts
and wars, climate change and natural disasters, lack of access to pure and
clean water, lack of sanitation, lack of reserves and infrastructure, limited
capacity of government and overpopulation are very serious interrelated causes
of poverty. Unbelievably drastic increase in population has caused
unavailability of labor, employment, safe water, education, food and homes,
ultimately resulting in rural to urban migrations that have caused existence of
urban slums, filthy and unsafe drainage systems.
Pakistan being a developing country, has a better
urban system than rural. Explaining why majority of the rural population comes
to urban cities to find employment and better social facilities to improve
their standards of living. Educational, medicinal, employment and recreational
facilities are nearly absent in rural areas of Pakistan. Hence, motivating
rural to urban migration.
The current population of Pakistan is 225,533,376 as
of Tuesday, August 3, 2021, based on World meter elaboration of the latest
United Nations data. It is affecting Karachi more than any part of Pakistan.
The metro area population of Karachi in 2020 was 16,094,000, a 2.24% increase
from 2019.
However, there are many other factors affecting
population growth other than the migration mentioned above. High birth rate and
low death rate play an important role in population growth as well, ultimately
affecting the economy of Pakistan. The excessive amount of resources in
accordance with the population is what makes a country developed, stable and
advanced however Pakistan has more mouths to feed than the food it acquires.
Many contradictions regarding population growth and
use of economy/ resources have been seen in history. Taking china for instance,
Chinese leader Mao Xi Dong quotes that “it’s the people not the things that
are decisive”. He believed that the economy will improve itself, if each
and every person works hard and roots out selfishness from his heart to work
for his country. However, one the other hand it can be seen that china itself
implemented a one child policy which resulted in preventing 400 million births
and a drastic increase in economy. Hence, we can deduce that over population or
population expansion is an enormous issue all over the world and not only in
Pakistan.
"My
statement that ‘development is the best contraceptive’ became widely known and
oft quoted. 20 years later I am inclined to reverse this, and my position now
is that ‘contraception is the best development’.”
–
Karan Singh, Indian politician
The society suffers a lot as a whole and not just one
individual as there are increased crimes, increased diseases, poor living
conditions, mental stress, child labor, antisocial or physic personalities of
individuals. Committing crimes has become easier due to population expansion
and anonymity along with the decline in peoples’ living standards. Not only in
Pakistan but in all the third world countries, we come across this disturbing
fact that the rich and affluent have lesser amount of children than the poor
and lacking. Illiteracy has increased resulting in the downfall of societies
and low economy of the country. The country stays underdeveloped and is unable
to provide for the citizens and the cycle keeps moving in loops. If the
situation stays same or worsens, it is not far away when the poor will rage a
war against the rich.
Poverty, if not completely eradicated can still be
controlled by proper education, proper employment, population control schemes,
interest free loans, raising the minimum wage, shelter homes for poor, gender
equality, women empowerment and most importantly proper administrative measure if
Pakistan wants to improve its economy and enter the privilege of being a
developed and powerful country. Both economic and humanitarian measures should
be taken in account while dealing with the administration of a country.
Good Job.
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