Effects of poverty
Access to Basic Necessities
There was a 20% increase in wheat prices from November 2007 to February 2008. Food and beverage prices had risen 14.7% between October 2006 and October 2007, only in the span of a year. According to the World Food Programme, one-half of Pakistan’s population is considered to be “food insecure". (Chaudhry, n.d.)
Diseases are easily and widely spread due to the high costs of hygienic food and pure drinking water which most Pakistanis are unable to afford.
Health Related Issues
Diseases such as AIDs, malaria, pneumonia, dengue fever, etc. are the more common diseases amongst people living under the poverty line. Many of these diseases do have treatment but due to expensive medical costs poor patients are not able to get the necessary treatment they need which results in death in some of them. The lack of basic healthcare in some areas of Pakistan especially in the rural or mountainous regions also results in more patients being unable to receive proper treatment for their disease. Mental illnesses also hinder a person’s ability to work. Many of the poor are unable to receive the treatment they need to survive due to the lack of funds while others spend most of their income on health expenses, the continuous poverty cycle amongst the poor have hindered with their abilities to break out of the poverty cycle. (Salahuddin, 2012)
Effect of Poverty on Infant Mortality Rate
Infant mortality rate is often used as an indicator of the level of health in a country. In 2013, total infant mortality rate was 59.35 deaths per 1000 live births. It was 62.56 deaths per 1000 live births for males, and 55.97 deaths per 1000 live births for females. (CIA World Factbook, 2013)
This is because infants born into poverty have a low birth weight, which is associated with many preventable mental and physical disabilities. Not only are these poor infants more likely to be irritable or sickly, they are also more likely to die before their first birthday.
Effect of Poverty on Education
Children living in absolute poverty cannot afford basic education. Those in relative poverty are pushed to drop out of school without completing elementary or middle education, as they are unable to afford school fees and also have to be responsible for their family at their age.(Anwar, 2011)
Thus, the literacy rate of Pakistan is extremely low. Most people do not have an understanding of the modern earning sources. Most people do not have the skill or knowledge to use current technology for their business needs, resulting in businesses being unable to meet international standards and causes a decrease in revenue, leading the society to poor financial conditions.
Increasing Income Gap
The most prominent factor resulting in increasing income and wealth inequalities remains the regressive tax system. The number of times that the poor are being taxed since 1991, when progressive levies were abolished for regressive taxes, has increased substantially (35%) whereas the rich are not paying any tax for their enormous earnings and affluence. Instead, for the rich, their tax burden has decreased by 18% in the same period of time. (Pakistan Financial Daily, 2010)
Pakistan's Gini index is 30.0. Statistics show that average incomes in urban Pakistan are around 42% more than that in rural Pakistan.
For the past 10 years, the (inflation-adjusted) incomes of the top 20% of urban Pakistani families has increased continuously, while the earnings of the bottom 20% of rural Pakistanis has been decreasing.(Pakistan Financial Daily, 2010)
Urban Punjab and urban Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa experienced the fastest increase in salaries, where especially the top quintile did remarkably well, having a 3.79% growth in income annually. Even after taking inflation rates into account, the average middle class family in urban Punjab or urban Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa was still 40% richer in 2011 than they were 10 years ago.(Pakistan Financial Daily, 2010)
The worst affected area was rural Sindh, where earnings of families in the bottom quintile declined by 4.42% on average annually since 10 years ago.(Pakistan Financial Daily, 2010)
Close to 67% of families own no land; 18.25% own less than 5 acres of land; and 9.66% own between 5 to 12.5 acres, which is only enough to provide meagre levels of existence for those huge extended families relying on land as their only source of income. The pattern is skewed towards the few feudal families which own vast areas of land; that 1% of families each owning over 35 acres.(Poverty in Pakistan, 2011)
As can be observed, Pakistan is facing a problem of not just low percentage of land possession, but also extremely disproportionate land division which results in separate classes of ‘land haves and have-nots’.(Poverty in Pakistan, 2011)
Good governance should result in a drop in the percentage of people in poverty, however, Pakistan's government has one of the worst rankings in terms of effective governance.(Poverty in Pakistan, 2011)
In the period 1998-99, there were an approximated 30.6% of Pakistanis living below the poverty line. It decreased to 23.9% in 2004-5, and according to official forecasts, decreased to 22.3% by 2005-6. In 2005-6, while urban poverty was approximated to be 13.1%, rural poverty had an estimated frequency of 27%. (Poverty in Pakistan, 2011)
Pakistan has an extremely unequal wealth distribution, as proven by the top 10% of Pakistanis earning 27.6% of population income compared to the bottom 10%, which earned just 4.1%. Three-quarters of the 40 million Pakistanis living below the poverty line live in rural parts of Pakistan. (Poverty in Pakistan, 2011)
There was a 20% increase in wheat prices from November 2007 to February 2008. Food and beverage prices had risen 14.7% between October 2006 and October 2007, only in the span of a year. According to the World Food Programme, one-half of Pakistan’s population is considered to be “food insecure". (Chaudhry, n.d.)
Diseases are easily and widely spread due to the high costs of hygienic food and pure drinking water which most Pakistanis are unable to afford.
Health Related Issues
Diseases such as AIDs, malaria, pneumonia, dengue fever, etc. are the more common diseases amongst people living under the poverty line. Many of these diseases do have treatment but due to expensive medical costs poor patients are not able to get the necessary treatment they need which results in death in some of them. The lack of basic healthcare in some areas of Pakistan especially in the rural or mountainous regions also results in more patients being unable to receive proper treatment for their disease. Mental illnesses also hinder a person’s ability to work. Many of the poor are unable to receive the treatment they need to survive due to the lack of funds while others spend most of their income on health expenses, the continuous poverty cycle amongst the poor have hindered with their abilities to break out of the poverty cycle. (Salahuddin, 2012)
Effect of Poverty on Infant Mortality Rate
Infant mortality rate is often used as an indicator of the level of health in a country. In 2013, total infant mortality rate was 59.35 deaths per 1000 live births. It was 62.56 deaths per 1000 live births for males, and 55.97 deaths per 1000 live births for females. (CIA World Factbook, 2013)
This is because infants born into poverty have a low birth weight, which is associated with many preventable mental and physical disabilities. Not only are these poor infants more likely to be irritable or sickly, they are also more likely to die before their first birthday.
Effect of Poverty on Education
Children living in absolute poverty cannot afford basic education. Those in relative poverty are pushed to drop out of school without completing elementary or middle education, as they are unable to afford school fees and also have to be responsible for their family at their age.(Anwar, 2011)
Thus, the literacy rate of Pakistan is extremely low. Most people do not have an understanding of the modern earning sources. Most people do not have the skill or knowledge to use current technology for their business needs, resulting in businesses being unable to meet international standards and causes a decrease in revenue, leading the society to poor financial conditions.
Increasing Income Gap
The most prominent factor resulting in increasing income and wealth inequalities remains the regressive tax system. The number of times that the poor are being taxed since 1991, when progressive levies were abolished for regressive taxes, has increased substantially (35%) whereas the rich are not paying any tax for their enormous earnings and affluence. Instead, for the rich, their tax burden has decreased by 18% in the same period of time. (Pakistan Financial Daily, 2010)
Pakistan's Gini index is 30.0. Statistics show that average incomes in urban Pakistan are around 42% more than that in rural Pakistan.
For the past 10 years, the (inflation-adjusted) incomes of the top 20% of urban Pakistani families has increased continuously, while the earnings of the bottom 20% of rural Pakistanis has been decreasing.(Pakistan Financial Daily, 2010)
Urban Punjab and urban Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa experienced the fastest increase in salaries, where especially the top quintile did remarkably well, having a 3.79% growth in income annually. Even after taking inflation rates into account, the average middle class family in urban Punjab or urban Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa was still 40% richer in 2011 than they were 10 years ago.(Pakistan Financial Daily, 2010)
The worst affected area was rural Sindh, where earnings of families in the bottom quintile declined by 4.42% on average annually since 10 years ago.(Pakistan Financial Daily, 2010)
Close to 67% of families own no land; 18.25% own less than 5 acres of land; and 9.66% own between 5 to 12.5 acres, which is only enough to provide meagre levels of existence for those huge extended families relying on land as their only source of income. The pattern is skewed towards the few feudal families which own vast areas of land; that 1% of families each owning over 35 acres.(Poverty in Pakistan, 2011)
As can be observed, Pakistan is facing a problem of not just low percentage of land possession, but also extremely disproportionate land division which results in separate classes of ‘land haves and have-nots’.(Poverty in Pakistan, 2011)
Good governance should result in a drop in the percentage of people in poverty, however, Pakistan's government has one of the worst rankings in terms of effective governance.(Poverty in Pakistan, 2011)
In the period 1998-99, there were an approximated 30.6% of Pakistanis living below the poverty line. It decreased to 23.9% in 2004-5, and according to official forecasts, decreased to 22.3% by 2005-6. In 2005-6, while urban poverty was approximated to be 13.1%, rural poverty had an estimated frequency of 27%. (Poverty in Pakistan, 2011)
Pakistan has an extremely unequal wealth distribution, as proven by the top 10% of Pakistanis earning 27.6% of population income compared to the bottom 10%, which earned just 4.1%. Three-quarters of the 40 million Pakistanis living below the poverty line live in rural parts of Pakistan. (Poverty in Pakistan, 2011)