Recently I conducted a research on poverty in LAHORE and its surroundings. For that purpose I interviewed several people having different occupations and different living style. Questionnaires were also distributed to people with different
earning sources. The scope of my research was very small, and before starting my research my expectations were totally opposite to my results. I was thinking that poverty level in Lahore will not be much higher. But after my research I was completely astonished that the average salary of people in Lahore is US$1.35 per day, which now a days is equivalent to 113.95 PKR (Pakistani rupee).
The poverty line taken by World Bank for the international comparisons is US$2 minimum. But unfortunately in the city of opportunities, and capital of Punjab Province, The LAHORE city people are living below poverty line.
The reasons that I found are following:
v Illiteracy rate.
v Inequality in Income distribution
v Unemployment rate.
v Trade/ Professional or technical skills.
1: The major reason of poverty i found is the unemployment rate. That is increasing day by day and its level is sky touching.
This graph shows that 75% of the people are not getting the job. 46.4% persons are thoes who re
mained unemployed for more than 1 year in total or still unemployed. This is the dangerous situation in Lahore city where every 2nd person is unemployed. But our Govt. is doing nothing to control this increasing unemployment rate. Only 25% people are thoes who are getting jobs either by giving bribes or by using their approach to some higher level. Out of these 46.4% people 80% people were educated with any bachelor or Masters degree. Remaining were those who were neither educated nor they got any technical degree, like
diploma etc...
2: I asked the question that
Where do you see poverty in next ten years?
I was once again surprised by the respondents hopeless answers regarding the situation of poverty, There were just 17.9% respondents who said that poverty will decrease in next 10 years.
57.1% said that poverty will increase in next 10 years.This answer shows that people are completely dissatisfied by the efforts of Govt. Looking to the answers to this question, one can easily guess that Govt is doing nothing for the poverty reduction.
3: The next questions i asked to my respondents
Thinking about the people who lack the things you have said the basic necessities for life, do you think the Govt. is doing too much, too little or about the same to help these people?
The answers to this question were quite in resemblance to the previous
question's answers. 67.9 % respondents said that Govt. is doing too little. 14.3% were those who were unaware of the efforts of Govt. ( if any are bing done). Which shows that either Govt. is doing nothing or these people are not getting any type of benefit.14.3 % are thoes who said that Govt. is d
oing about the same, these 14.3% respondents are those who answered in previous question that they think that poverty will remain the same in next 10 years.
4: The 4th major question that I would like to mention is
If you think Govt is doing something to fight with poverty, Which program do you think works best for you?
The answers are like following.
57.6% people are those who said that Govt. is doing nothing for the poor people, or they don't know if Govt. is doing any thing in this case. This is the huge percentage that shows Govt. failed to respond against the rising poverty level. And if Govt. is doing something to reduce poverty then 57.6% people are those who are not getting any benefit from Govt's programs to improve their living.7.5% people are those who said that Govt's Literacy/Technical training programs are giving benefit to them. 18.5% said that Govt's income and employment support programs are very profitable for them.
This answer shows that Govt is struggling to reduce poverty. But it is on very small scale. because 57.6% are thoes who are still not getting any single benefit out of the Govt's efforts.
From my research I concluded the following points
1 Mostly Poor people are unable to gain access to the quality education. and without the quality education people are unable to find jobs easily. Due to which their poverty increases.
Poverty and education are inter related.
- Greater the poverty Lesser will be access to Education and Lesser the education greater will be poverty.
- When the people are educated their probability of finding jobs increases.
- Education is the only factor that will be proven as the first step in poverty reduction and it will stimulate the economic growth.
