Poverty is a term that brings to mind all the negative stigmas one perceives of life, like destitution, wretchedness, impoverishment, inter alia. To make matters worse, no two social scientists agree on how to define poverty and as such what the poverty line actually is and how to measure it. Some relate it to paucity of food, while others call it state of being underpaid for a given job. However, the heated debate among economists and policy makers continues on where to draw the poverty line. Should it bet at less than US$ 1/day, or at US$ 2/day? Today, three definitions of poverty are in vogue: complete poverty, proportional poverty and social exclusion.

Complete poverty is the state when a person does not have the means to sustain his/her life and soul. A person is considered proportionally poor if his/her earnings do not support his/her participation in day-to-day social activities in a given society. The recently introduced term, social exclusion, is defined as a society, infested by unemployment, unskilled workforce, lack of housing facilities, paucity of resources, and entrenched in criminal activities, hence is socially excluded. Likewise a person with such traits would be labeled as socially excluded.

Moreover, the UNDP defines poverty in these dimensions: deprivation of a long and healthy life, knowledge, a decent standard of living and social exclusion. The government of Pakistan’s official definition of poverty is no less amusing though. The Planning and Development Division vide a letter number 1(41) poverty/PC/2002, dated 16th August 2002 suggested that Rs. 673.54/person/month be the official poverty line. The letter implied that the poverty line is being built on a comprehensive household survey conducted in 1998-99. All the economic markers, like inflation and cost of living, have risen since 1998, rendering, sustainable living an unbearable burden for the common man. It seems quite illogical to assume that a man with a family can live on a monthly income of Rs. 673.54.

Generally speaking though, poverty varies from place to place, and every country marks its line with reference to its stage of economic development and social values. According to the Scotland Poverty Information Unit, persons are deemed poor when their earnings fail to support their material needs, and as a consequence, they cannot participate in acceptable activities of a given society.

In Pakistan’s case, none of the foreign monetary institutes, other than the UNDP, formulate to the concept of US$ 2/day as the poverty line. They remain silent on this issue and follow the government figures on poverty. When asked how the World Bank defined the poverty line for Pakistan, a Bank official suggested to refer to their website. However, in the WB report “Poverty and Vulnerability in South Asia”, poverty is defined as being associated with deprivation and health, education, food, knowledge, influence over one’s environment and many other things that make difference between truly living and merely living. To make things even more complicated – as if there weren’t already - the BBC reported that the World Bank deems a person as living below the poverty line if he/she is unable to meet the basic and minimum needs and demands of life. Following this definition another set of question arise. What are those basic needs that one has to have in order to live a modest living? What are the minimal needs? Do they vary for different countries? If so, then surely the poverty line becomes even more dynamic and more difficult to define.

When the question was put to The Asian Development Bank, their reply was vague, quoting the government figures, stating that according to the government survey conducted in 1998, and published in 2001, a total of 32.2 percent of total population of Pakistan is living well below the poverty line, and that the ADB refers to these figures for measuring poverty line. Despite this, ADB officials are of the view that to accurately measure poverty, income should not be taken as the sole criterion. The Bank is currently working with the government of Pakistan on collecting relevant data to improve the mechanism of analysis and get a more substantive assessment of poverty in Pakistan. The representative of IMF, Pakistan mission, when asked about their criterion for demarking the poverty line, stated that the IMF does not fix poverty line in any country, including Pakistan. However the Fund adopts the poverty line defined by the government reports.

According to the UNDP Human Poverty Index, 1997, 72 million people in Pakistan, nearly 50% of the total population was living below poverty line. While according to UNDP Human Development Report, 2002, this figure rose to 84.6 per cent of the total population, translating to roughly 120 million people earning less than US$ 2/day, living an impoverished life, with no access to the basic amenities of life. It may be pertinent to note that all these institutions have their own variants for defining poverty and are often vague and ambiguous. If this is the case, then how can one expect them to alleviate poverty if they cannot agree on its definition?

Furthermore, UNDP Report (2002) presents the poverty index for the year 2000. Therefore, it may not too presumptuous to assume that the poverty figures may well encompass 90 per cent of the populous by 2003. During the past three years the economy of Pakistan has taken a nosedive, worsened by the sanctions imposed on it by the west and the deteriorating global economic scenario. This can be gauged from the fact that between the years 1999 and 2001, in the public and private sectors some 350,000 people were laid-off from their jobs in the name of “right sizing” and “downsizing”.

In addition, numerous industrialist units were also closed down, during the same period, in N.W.F.P. and Sindh, rendering hundreds of thousands of workers jobless. As the demand for skilled workforce increased, so did the competition, resulting in long lines outside the offices of potential employers. Simultaneously, the employer now had a free hand to choose those workers who are willing to work for lower wages, as there was no short supply of a cheap labor workforce. At the same time a desperate worker, willing to work for less, may easily replace a disgruntled employee, seeking a pay hike. In a nutshell, the industrial sector was not helpful in alleviating the plight of the unemployed and impoverished.

To make matters worse, the situation in the agricultural sector was gloomier. Government subsidies were taken back on pesticides and fertilizers, thereby inflating the cost of crop production. Small farmers, especially, found themselves caught in the vicious circle of poverty when their crop yield could not match the cost of production, forcing them to borrow from the bank, or other sources, for both the next crop and to support their livelihood, plunging them deeper into the swelling poverty indices.

Whatever the reasons behind the deteriorating living human condition and rising poverty, such as, flawed socioeconomic policies, the dictates of the foreign donor agencies, or excessive spending on defense, what is evident is that at the end of day the common people suffer the most and are the hardest hit, as the benefits of any improvement in economy never reach them.

Our economic “gurus” never tire of the rhetoric they churn out on the alleged growth in foreign exchange reserves, debt re-servicing and the strengthening of Rupee, vis-à-vis U.S. dollar. What they fail to realize is that these stopgap measures are short-term and that such temporary improvements in fiscal matters do not trickle down to the poor, or have a negligible impact on the impoverished.

The rulers and policy makers in Pakistan have failed to recognize the intensity with which poverty is rising in the country. This was clearly illustrated recently, when the government issued a strongly worded denial after the World Bank reported a rise in the poverty level in Pakistan. The Finance Minister, Mr. Shaukat Aziz, surprised everybody when he claimed that giving importance to reports released by foreign institutes was in vogue, even when their findings “lacked credibility” and were completely inaccurate! Was it not the same honorable Minister who, himself, praised these financial institutions for their active guidance in designing and planning the government’s fiscal policies? Were they not credible then? In his rebuttal, the finance minister did emphasize the need to re-examine the data collected to analyze the true extent of poverty in Pakistan. However, he failed to give a time frame as to when the WB report will be re-evaluated.

Whether the public gets to know the truth about the nature of poverty in Pakistan is still debatable. But one thing is for certain and that is the inflation will continue to rise and the poverty line will be re-defined yet again, as the divide between the rich and poor widens. One can only hope and pray that saner minds prevail and indigenous policies, “for the people and by the people”, take a lead in government legislation. Till such a time the poor will keep struggling as they wait for the promised economic uplift through the dictates of donor agencies – which have yet to materialize.