Flawed poverty paradigm

Pakistan's societal strata are sinking deeper into destitution. The UNDP's Multidimensional Poverty Index report has unmasked the grim reality of the country's stagnant social mobility. Poverty is on the rise, leaving more than one-third of the population facing severe deprivations in healthcare, education and basic living standards. Alarmingly, 38.3% of Pakistanis are "multidimensionally poor," compared to just 16.4% people in India and 14.9% in Bangladesh. These sobering statistics follow closely on the heels of a World Bank assessment, which revealed that Pakistan accounts for approximately 48% of the region's "extreme poor" living on less than $3 a day.

These statistics paint a grim picture for an economy where the lion's share of revenue is consumed by debt servicing and defence, leaving less than Rs1.5 trillion for national development out of a massive Rs17 trillion budget outlay. Unsurprisingly, the human cost is devastating: over 40% of children under five suffer from stunting, approximately 26 million children remain out of school, 70 million people lack access to basic sanitation, and the population of unemployed stands at a staggering 5.9 million.

The fact that these UNDP estimates rely on household surveys from different years is more than enough to highlight the urgency of this widespread deprivation. Furthermore, the world body warns that an additional 12.9% of the population remains highly vulnerable to falling into acute poverty. Critical sectors - including nutrition, child mortality, school attendance, sanitation, drinking water, electricity and household assets - are in desperate need of a comprehensive Marshall Plan. They can no longer be resuscitated through the piecemeal measures.

Sustained economic progress requires a strategic shift toward human resource development, a goal that remains unattainable without meaningful grassroots empowerment. The existing lopsided paradigm of funding from the federal to the provincial domains is infected with lethargy and corruption, further compounded by a lack of accountability. Structural poverty can only be mitigated by mobilising the masses for self-development and placing local communities directly at the vanguard of decision-making.