Poverty paradigm

UNDP reveals 1.1 billion in poverty, with 455 million in conflict zones, highlighting urgent economic inequalities.

Three dismal indicators from the UNDP paint a worrisome picture of human index across the globe. In one of its latest multidimensional studies, the world body estimates that around 1.1 billion people out of 6.3 billion are struggling under the line of poverty. Their gross daily income is less than $3 a day, and they are devoid of civic amenities such as sanitation, health, adequate housing, electricity and schooling. Likewise, the two other lethal assessments are that almost 455 million live in conflict-ridden zones and half a billion children are destitute to the core. These statistics taken from 110 countries simply prove that a fair distribution of wealth and equal opportunity employment is missing, and the current economic order is premised on haves and have-nots.

The revelations in a paper published by Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative are horrendous, to say the least. It accounts that the year 2023 saw most conflicts since the Second World War, pushing 584 million people under 18 below extreme poverty, among which 27.9% are children. It goes on to slog Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia as world's poorest zones, with India accounting for the largest number of people, 234 million, in abject downtrodden-ness, followed by Pakistan, Ethiopia, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In Pakistan, more than 50% people attempt to survive under the poverty line, and there are fears that a sizeable number will be further pushed into the abyss of poverty due to the political turmoil and economic stagnation prevailing in the country for the last two years.

There is, however, a flip side too to this miserable scenario. China has, over the last three decades, successfully lifted more than 800 million from poverty, posting progressive growth at home and across the region. Likewise, it is also a common observation that countries drenched under the influence of post-Bretton Woods financial institutions are lingering in misery to this day, and have not been able to overcome stagnation. This calls for some serious soul-searching on the disparate economic system in vogue, strengthening calls for multilateralism.