Navigating Challenges: Poverty and Basic Needs in Pakistan

 Poverty is the biggest problem nowadays worldwide. Poverty is nothing but our failure to fulfill the basic needs of the people around us. Poverty is the state or condition in which are unable to complete our basic needs and we don't have enough money to buy things we need on daily basis or to live.  

                                    

Poverty is a curse for society. A society is not called successful until it contains poverty in it.

Poverty in Pakistan

Pakistan, a country with a significant poverty rate, grapples with the dual challenge of development and basic needs for its population. According to the World Bank, a staggering 39.3% of Pakistan's populace lives in poverty, characterized by an income of less than US$3.2 per day. A more comprehensive gauge reveals that 78.4% experience poverty, with earnings below US$5.5 per day.

This developing nation, while steadily expanding, confronts the persistent issue of unemployment, hindering its progress. Many Pakistanis are caught in the conundrum of striving to meet even their most fundamental nutritional requirements. This predicament is further exacerbated by the scarcity of resources for clean water, leaving individuals in Sindh devoid of this essential element. Consequently, a lack of access to safe water has become a pressing concern, further challenging the quality of life for many in the country.

Poverty has different types.

• Absolute Poverty
• Situational Poverty 
• Relative Poverty
• Urban Poverty
• Rural Poverty

Absolute Poverty is a type of poverty in which people even can't meet their basic needs and doesn't have enough resources to meet their basic needs it's really a threatening condition.

Situational poverty is the type of poverty that is occur due to some natural or situational reasons, type of poverty created by Covid-19 is an example of situational Poverty.

Relative Poverty is the type f poverty in which people don't have the minimum amount to maintain the average standards of living in a society. It can be the best way to measure poverty in a society.

Urban Poverty is the type of poverty that is occur due to economic and social problems in industrialized cities. poor sanitation management, drainage, and solid waste can be the reasons for urban poverty. 

Rural Poverty is the type of poverty that is caused in rural areas of a country it is caused by due to weak infrastructure. It can also be caused because of poor facilities given to the rural areas they don't have good roads for direct access to the cities, which affects their financial condition very much.   

Reasons and Effects

Poverty in a country can be due to different reasons some of which we will discuss here

Poor Governance is the biggest reason for poverty in a country. poor governance is the bad relationship between those who govern and those who are being governed based on their decision-making. Poor governance can cause severe poverty in a country and can affect the economical condition of a country. 

Political instability is also a big reason for poverty in a country. If politics is not stable in a country, that country loses the trust of other countries and then those countries and businesses do not invest money there. Due to this, the countries go into crisis. It has many effects on the common man of that country. Such a situation ruins the reputation and economy of that country and poverty increases day by day.

Lack of Transparency can lead the poverty in a country. When corruption increases in a country it also brings a lot of other problems with it. When the valuable government officers of a country become corrupt they ruin that country actually, such people are actually snatching the rights of the common people of that country such dishonesty increases poverty in a country and effects the development of that country.

Illiteracy is the biggest reason for poverty in a country when the people of a country are not literate they cannot distinguish between right and wrong and the illiterate also cannot find jobs that's why they become poor. In Pakistan, the literacy rate is 62.3%. which means that 60 million Pakistanis are illiterate.

                

Many other reasons are available such as low arable land, energy crisis, high taxes, low foreign direct investment (FDI) and so many others.

But this problem is resolvable. we can control poverty through human development, by increasing socio-economic reforms and increasing the social security of workers. Many solutions are available we should find out about them and try to overcome poverty from all over the world. For this, first of all, we should have to understand our responsibilities and should complete them honestly.