Inequality breeds poverty, slows progress

Comment

LAHORE:The inequality we see today has caused a fall in the standard of living of masses below subsistence level, resulting in loss of the sense of right and wrong, of honesty and of self-respect.

Poverty speaks volumes about the moral values of a society. Its creation is a social phenomenon. It’s the outcome of a skewed economy. No nation can progress if half its people are demoralised. This affects their productivity and health. The most unfortunate part of poverty is that a person toils all day and is unable to earn to feed his family properly.

He feels humiliated in front of his children who wait all day hoping that their father would earn enough to afford one full meal for them. Government alone could not eradicate poverty. The politicians would only pay lip service in this regard. The society as a whole would have to stand up and remove the causes that spread poverty. It is not possible to distribute wealth equally among the citizens. Because doing so would remove the incentive to work.

Anyone who works hard and better has a right to earn more. But each citizen should have equal opportunities in the economic sphere. The culture of permits, licenses, special tariffs for some and punitive tariffs for others would have to go.

Our civil society remains inert most of the times. It raises its voice when something wrong is splashed in the media. This is hypocrisy, because most of the civil society activists are fully aware of the injustices in the society.

In most cases, the domestic servants in their own residences are exploited and maltreated. They ignore every injustice that is generally going on in the society but act when any of the injustices goes viral through social, electronic or print media.

The society as a whole needs to be sensitised to the issue of injustice. It should stand up as one wherever they observe slightest injustice or exploitation of the poor. This is essential to reap the real benefits of the 21st century that other economies are enjoying.

Anyone who is poor lives in misery; there may be some that are poor beyond belief. Similarly, there are people who live an adequately comfortable life and then some who are rich beyond the imagination of the common man.

This means that poverty is the effect of inequality as well as the prime signifier of inequality. And inequality is demeaning that has to be addressed. We make policies that could be twisted in favour of the influential. For instance the fertiliser subsidy is given to the fertiliser manufacturers who are required to pass it on to the farmers. Why this subsidy cannot be provided directly to the farmers?

The government experts know what kind of fertiliser is used for each crop and how much quantity per acre is required. The subsidy amount could be reimbursed directly in the bank accounts of the farmers owning up to 12.5 acres, and they should be allowed to buy the fertiliser at producers’ price (fixed by the government).

Why the SROs protecting the upper class not immediately withdrawn. Our planners and leaders should rise to the occasion and stop the policy of protecting sugar and fertiliser mafias and concentrate on policies that lower the burden of millions of Pakistanis mired in mind-numbing poverty.