Effects Of Poverty In Pakistan

Chapter 1

Introduction

1.1 Introduction

Poor people live a miserable life. Poverty cause illiteracy and t is based upon the psychological concept of hopelessness. In Pakistan 42% of the population living in households with illiterate heads is poor, compared to 21% of those in households with literate heads. Net primary enrollment rate is 59% for the non-poor, and 37% for the poor, and particularly low among poor female children in rural areas. A p r man who is unskilled and is jobless and who is illiterate too does not want his children to go to school firstly for the economic reason The young people keep on doing what they learn in their childhood and they also get trapped into the same poverty trap in which their parents were trapped and

Prior to the 1990s, poverty is found to have declined sharply, particularly between 1984-85 and 1987-88. The link between growth and consumption poverty in Pakistan can be seen from observing that the later part of the 1980s, characterized by substantial poverty reduction, were also periods of high growth. Since then, as growth in the country slowed in the 1990s, particularly during the later part of the decade, poverty stagnated and some of the earlier gains were even reversed. Disaggregating by region, while, urban poverty fell between 1990-91 and 1998-99, rural poverty held at about 36%, widening the rural-urban gap. This is of particular concern because 50% of Pakistanis live in rural areas. In addition, a significant share of the population appear to be at the risk of falling into poverty - vulnerable to a shock like illness or drought - given that in 1998.99, as many as 43% of the total population were concentrated within a small range of 75% to 125% of the poverty line (in consumption terms). The high volatility of poverty rates during the 1990s, especially in rural areas, leads further evidence suggesting vulnerability of large section of the population. Inequality trends have also played a part in explaining poverty changes. The period of poverty reduction, namely between 1984-85 and 1987-88, was also marked by the sharpest fall in the index of inequality for the county as a whole. By 1998-99, the Gini was at a level slightly higher than in 1990- 91.1nequality in the urban areas increased sharply by 1998-99, irrespective of whether one takes 1990-91 or 1984-85 a the reference period, while rural inequality was reduced