Pakistan’s social indicators not in line with per capita income

LAHORE: Economic planners are at a loss to prioritise development programmes that benefit the largest segment of the society to ensure equitable growth; presently resources are allocated more for developed regions that enlarge deprivation in the least developed regions.

The aim of the development should be to provide the same facilities to the entire population irrespective of its financial status. We see that provincial and district governments continue to upgrade facilities in posh localities and neglect slums.

The posh localities have excellent sewerage system, illuminated streets, and a number of green areas. The roads are well maintained with better health and education facilities.

In the slums the roads are in bad shape, the streets are without light, the sewerage overflows. The health and education facilities are non-existent. The planners know the plight of the poor, but tend to serve the influential more.

The MNAs and MPAs can guide the planners on the needs of their constituencies. They can get the true picture of their constituency from the Nadra database.

The database has information about the educational status of each constituency. The data gives an insight on the number of people employed, their education level, any disease or disability.

Programmes can be designed in different fields on the basis of this data. Unfortunately the public representatives have rarely benefited from this data.

Another way to get the real picture of social indicators is to separate the GDP of bottom 20 percent of the population from the remaining 80 percent. This would facilitate them in formulating a superior social development policy. Since most of the available development resources are assigned for the influential class, the human development indicators of Pakistan are not in line with its average per capita income of around $1,350.

The main obstacle in arriving at an ideal social development policy is the concept of GDP that includes not merely ‘positives’ but also ‘negatives’;  like smoking or profits from crime as well as expenditures on health sector like cancer hospitals and the law enforcers.

It is not a true indicator of a nation’s wealth. To remove inequality, the GDP of the bottom 20 percent of the population should be considered a better measure of social well being of a nation. Social indicators of the bottom 20 percent can be a superior measure to measure the health state of the nation compared to one based on entire GDP.

There is no doubt that the GDP of the poorest 20 percent would depict a very dark picture of our human development, but it would be nearer to the reality. All indictors like educational performance, life expectancy, and the economic performance of the bottom 20 percent will be much worse than what is currently calculated on the basis of 100 percent GDP that averages out high and low spenders.

If development programmes are designed to serve the lowest cadre of society, their educational outcomes, health issues and life expectancy would improve. The life expectancy in Pakistan for instance is over 65 years, but there are areas in Pakistan where the life expectancy is merely 45 years.

Ketti Bunder is one such place where education, health and life expectancy is 40 percent lower than the national average. It is located just 90 kilometres from Karachi.

If the 20 percent poorest segment of society is preferred in development, more resources would be diverted from urban to rural regions. The huge investments that produced little benefits should have motivated the planners to rethink their development strategies.

We must realise that the failure to improve social indicators is not because of lack of resources but due to poor governance. We continue to spend more money on schools without assuring the presence of required number of teachers.

The funds are allocated for building new hospitals knowing well that there would be no resources for medicines and no surety that the doctors would accept postings in those hospitals. Immediate reaction of our politicians and bureaucracy on absent teachers and unwilling doctors will be to call for more drastic rules and regulations. They forget that ours is a soft state, that few of our rules are ever enforced. 

There are many honest and dedicated officers who do try to ensure full compliance of rules and regulations but their efforts are countered by local politicians or even by top ones. What we need is not more drastic laws or rules but better and fairer implementation.