Human face of poverty
Friday, JUNE 15,2007
THE toll poverty can take on families was made evident by Wednesday’s story of a pregnant woman in Karachi who wants to sell her unborn child because she does not have the means to raise it. This must be the hardest decision for a woman to make. In this case, the woman and her husband, who is a daily wage earner, have already five children to care for, and lots of debts to pay off. They simply cannot afford another child. Any government would have been shamed by this news, for it reflects its failure to eradicate poverty, but not ours. It holds forth on how this year’s budget is for the poor when nothing is further from the truth. While figures on poverty have been brought down from the previous years’, the number of poor people may not have. That number is going to grow unless the government acts. Part of the problem is that very little attention is paid to the social sector, so that there aren’t enough avenues for the poor for employment or earnings. There must be more low-income housing projects, more schools in far-flung places, more healthcare centres and, of course, more job opportunities so that they can make both ends meet.
But how will this happen? The government needs to set up and encourage more microfinance institutions modelled after the Grameen Bank, which can empower poor people by providing them with small credit. There has been much talk of poverty alleviation and much money earmarked for it — but where has it all gone? For example, where have the funds from the zakat been going? Or the funds from the proceeds of the privatisation of organisations? For that matter, what about the Poverty Alleviation Fund itself — what success does it have to show? There must be an audit of those funds so that one knows where the money has been spent thus far and to what effect. This will indicate what strategy needs to be developed to help steer people out of poverty and enable them to live a decent life.
http://www.dawn.com/2007/06/15/ed.htm#2