The degree of income inequality is taken as one of the parameters to determine level of poverty in a country, but while probing into the causes of income inequalities one comes to know of factors totally out of control of individuals and nations as a whole responsible for reproducing inequality of opportunities overtime, thus multiplying the number of have-nots. Constraints imposed through various developed and under developed capital market conditions and government failure to remove structural constraints that impede capital accumulation by poor aggravate poverty situation at national level. On the other hand, at individual level, gender disparity, economic, social and cultural environment of the country as a whole and above all one’s family origin are the factors causing inequality of opportunities despite constitutional support provided by almost all the countries for equal opportunities for their citizens.
Resultantly, particularly in low income developing countries gap between rich and poor continues to be widened. Hence it is incumbent upon all societies/governments/policy makers to intervene on continuous basis to protect economically disadvantaged segments of their population, remove all disparities with regard to access to education, health care and economic opportunities.
At individual level inequality of opportunities begins with family origin and is reinforced with individual location region wise within the country. There is wide disparity regarding social and economic sector opportunities available to rural and urban population. In addition to one’s inaccessibility to health and educational facilities, being the root cause of income inequalities the status of security that is law and order situation, cattle rustling, domestic violence, corruption, isolation and lack of awareness regarding government policies on issues affecting their day to day life has added to number of impoverished population in rural areas of almost all the South Asian and African low income developing countries. Consequently children of poor rural as well as less developed urban area families, despite having access to formal education develop skills much more slowly, thus economic opportunities remain out of their reach. This deprivation from opportunities and growth potentials are magnified over life through their restricted access to formal income generating pursuits.
In almost all the less developed countries poor have no say in policy making due to less transparent election of legislatures and representatives to various tiers of assemblies/government. They never bother to consult economically disadvantaged inmates of their constituencies regarding their socio economic needs; hence impoverishment continues to pervade this segment of population. Concept of self-reliance remains an unachievable goal and they remain passive recipients of state benevolence in one form or other.
Despite poverty reduction strategies in force in developing countries, inequalities of opportunities continue to persist through their peculiar economic, socio-culture and political environments causing immense harm to natural process of human development, which is a key to overall development process of the country.
Participation of civic groups and the poor in policy making, monitoring and evaluation is need to be encouraged as it would promote transparency and accountability in the whole system. At the same time masses would be aware of their rights and on denial of their rights, which is usually an outcome of poor governance may compel all tiers of government/legislatures and policy makers to imbibe principles of good governance in their all lines of actions relating to either formulating income/resources redistribution policies or implementing poverty reduction programs.
In order to arrest the growing inequalities, it is incumbent on policy makers to put in place such ‘policies/measures’ both relating to their interaction with their own people and also relating to dealings with international markets that a harmonious and enabling environment needed for uplift of have-nots is created. At domestic level they need to invest in human resources, create just and fair environment – an attribute of freedom, embodied in true democracy to enable poor to have access to justice for preserving their rights to property/resources. In order to promote unhindered participation of poor in economic process required infrastructure must be in place along with fair market environments. At international level they need to focus on functioning of global markets and to perceive any future external threat to economy and to take corrective measures well in time. Further in order to have greater access to export markets for their products they must dismantle fiscal and trade barriers.
How to accelerate economic growth rate, must be a focal point of the strategies to be undertaken to lessen income inequalities and eradication of poverty. The World Bank study on Latin American countries showing poverty trends from 1980 to 1996 reveals that every percentage point decline in economic growth rate enhances poverty by two percent.
Development of social sector must be undertaken with focus on improvement in education standards and health care and improvement in these two vital ingredients of social development must be evaluated on the basis of its impact on development of human capital, which is essential to sustain high growth rate. Education and health policies should be geared to produce highly skilled and energetic work force capable of making use of new technologies for all income generating pursuits.
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Although structural reforms undertaken by majority of developing countries during the last one decade have enabled them to attain high economic growth rate, yet despite substantial increase in their social spending, no improvement is visible in status of economically disadvantaged segment of their population. Little attention has been paid towards removing social disparities particularly in the area of education and health sector. They have failed to remove disparities with regard to standards of education being imparted to children from various income groups. Students from low income families do not have access to quality educational institutions. As such they generally lag behind in their professional life also due to lack of professional acumen, hence poverty perpetuates from generations to generation in such families.
In case of Pakistan, no doubt concerted efforts are being made both at federal and provincial level to eradicate poverty and making economic opportunities accessible to all by providing education to all and maximizing access to technical and higher education, yet education policy in force does not recognize need for bringing in uniformity regarding standards of education in all educational institutions. Similarly poor of the country do not have access to proper health care facilities, hence apart from comparatively high mortality rate of child at birth and of women at reproductive age gaining ground, poor health environment reduce the efficiency of country’s work force. Resultantly this deprived class of population is doomed to remain impoverished. It is apparent from latest UNDP report regarding global Human Development Index (HDI), which has placed Pakistan at 152 rank among group of 189 countries against previous ranking of 151.
It is unfortunate that in majority of developing countries political power has been a close preserve of privileged classes like big landlords and business tycoons etc. They are least concerned with welfare of down trodden. While making policies they do not inquire too deeply into nature and causes of inequality.
Socio economic disparities can be removed only through a transparent and democratic process of governance. Countries striving to remove inequalities and disparities need to scale up development efforts and instead of being guided by imported ready-made strategies for eradicating poverty and squeezing up gap between rich and poor all development program must be guided by countries’ own realistic approach towards poverty reduction.
All economic and social development strategies must articulate a clear national plan for enhancing poor access to economic and social opportunities. Besides that risk management strategies need to be in place to deal with the shocks associated with natural calamities as all types of natural calamities bring tremendous misery to affected population particularly for poor and at the same time inflict substantial financial burden on economies of affected countries.
It is also an established fact that availability of proper infrastructure is a strong motivating factor for mainstreaming deprived class into economic process. Development strategies of majority of low income developing countries are devoid of integrated approach towards improving infrastructure. Inefficient and inadequate utility services and poor transport system is the common feature of low income agrarian economies, thus making their all business less cost effective. In Pakistan alone inadequate energy resources prevent uninterrupted supply of electricity to various industrial concerns, hence cost of production increases and losses of these entities are normally made up by laying off staff or reducing their remunerations.
In context of Pakistan all projects undertaken under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) program when completed will turn around the economy as a whole and will ensure achieving all Sustainable Developmental Goals within specified time.
In fact wide spread socio-economic disparities in developing countries is giving rise to terrorist activities on the globe as a whole. To arrest this rising trend of terrorism and also for putting humanistic values in practice, there is need to develop due concern for equity, in this context defined as equality of opportunities and avoidance of absolute deprivation. To achieve this end that is equality of opportunities, all development strategies must have focus on substantial increase in investment in poor’s human capital, promotion of micro, small and medium size businesses and microfinance institutions. Access to quality education for all must be ensured. In context of Pakistan one can say that Launching of AHSAS program by present government addressing all above said aspects of growing poverty if implemented in letter and spirit will be an effective remedial measure.