Human security predicament

According to news reports, the price of wheat flour — which is a staple diet and used by the overwhelming majority — has reached Rs70 per kilogram. There has been an increase of Rs20 per kilogram in the price of wheat flour since August last year. The price of sugar, another essential commodity, as well as the prices of food items, like chicken and vegetables, and petroleum products have more than doubled over the last 15 months.

Economic crisis is like a time bomb and a major human security predicament for Pakistan. With a population of 220 million people, but blessed with enormous natural resources, Pakistan is experiencing the worst kind of situation as far as the purchasing power of an ordinary citizen is concerned. Punjab, called the bread basket of Pakistan, is unable to produce sufficient wheat and other agricultural products. The wheat crisis is compelling the government to import hundreds of thousands of tons of the staple diet from abroad.

Human security is the measure of access of a common man to life essentials like clean and safe drinking water, electricity, gas, education and healthcare. Another dimension within human security which has emerged in the last few decades is the fast deteriorating environmental condition in the form of climate change and global warming.

Human security is also a measure of the safety of the lives of people from violence, armed conflicts and terrorism. When the country excels in the context of the human security index, it fulfills its major responsibility to keep people away from the lethal dangers that jeopardise their quality of life. The UN General Assembly defines human security as “an approach to assist Member States in identifying and addressing widespread and cross-cutting challenges to the survival, livelihood and dignity of their people.”

Pakistan’s human security predicament is threefold. First is the failure of Pakistan to become a welfare state. In the last 73 years, the state has been unable to perform its duties in terms of providing people with basic necessities of life. As a result almost half of Pakistan’s population is illiterate and one-third is living below the poverty line. Around 20 million children are out of school and more than two-thirds of the people are without clean and safe drinking water. When the state has been collecting taxes and other revenues worth trillions of rupees a year, why is it unable to take care of the critical needs of the people? A welfare state is responsible for utilising the resources for securing the present and future of the people, but the opposite is going on in Pakistan. When public money is misused, the prospects of transforming Pakistan into a welfare state becomes highly remote. That is the reason why even the present government which came into power to ameliorate the socio-economic conditions of the people under a welfare program had miserably failed.

Second, human security is a challenge in Pakistan when ground realities are taken into account. If the prices of essential commodities have more than doubled over the last 15 months, directly impacting the lives of the common people, the concerned authorities, whether elected or unelected, are least mindful of the minefield which will explode if immediate measures to control, in fact reverse, the prices of essential commodities are not taken. Flour, oil, sugar and vegetables are basic items which are used by the poor strata of society; and if such commodities are out of their reach, one can expect social and political turmoil. The so-called prosperity is limited to the privileged class constituting hardly 5 per cent while the remaining 95% of the population is suffering from severe hardships. Growing crimes, intolerance and anger, particularly among the youth, is a direct reflection of the growing human insecurity.

Third, if issues are not promptly addressed, the outcome will be a surge of frustration and anger resulting in large-scale violence, chaos and disorder. Pakistan is already facing an imminent threat of military incursion from India; and internal security threats in the form of extremism, militancy and climate change deepen the country’s security challenges. At the moment, there is no functional human security policy in Pakistan and the sense of insecurity among the vast majority of the people remains unaddressed. Public welfare programmes have been launched for providing relief to the vulnerable segments of society, but critics lament that photo-sessions and publicity seem to be their main purpose. The utility and impact of such programmes are questionable because of large-scale corruption, nepotism and incompetence. Lack of professionalism and integrity had in the past derailed various welfare programmes and one cannot rule out such a possibility in the future, also because the culture of corruption, nepotism and lust for power remains unchanged.

Unless there is realisation on the part of the people in the position of power, human security predicament will persist in Pakistan. While the wheat flour crisis has made things miserable for a vast majority in the country, equally concerning are the issues related to gas, electricity, water and environment. It is not merely realisation on the part of the elites which will help deal with issues central to the survival of the people but practical measures must be taken before it is too late.

From any standpoint, the challenge of national security cannot be met unless issues related to human security are seriously taken into account. The leadership can play a vibrant role in dealing with the challenges of human insecurity.

If the state is mindful of the human security predicament, it should seriously deal with symbols of poverty and social backwardness. The government needs to launch a ‘national anti-beggary policy’ whereby all the beggars must be removed from big and small cites and put in special rehabilitation centers and taught various professional courses so that they are able to stand on their own. Special programmes for the less educated unemployed youths should be launched where the participants are offered various technical and vocational courses along with stipends so that they can earn money through their skills.

The Bangladesh model of human security needs to be studied. It is important to learn how the Grameen Bank, launched by Nobel laureate Dr Mohammad Yunus in 1980, empowered millions of unemployed and uneducated people particularly women by offering loans for setting up small businesses. Now Bangladesh has the highest economic growth rate in South Asia.

Pakistan’s road to human security passes through ensuring clean and safe drinking water, uninterrupted supply of utilities, affordable and respectable public transport as well as housing, health and educational facilities for all. Who is going to transform the idea of human security, in a culture ridden with corruption, inefficiency and nepotism, into a reality is yet to be seen.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 24^th, 2020.

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