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Pakistan's Growing Human Capital

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^^^^^Mega facepalm troll - (discussing a banned off topic) ruining his own thread, stay on topic - @RiazHaq.

Haq is the "SULTAN OF ALL TROLLS". He started with Pakistan and its 'human capital'; posted a few posts on that subject and then finally descended in to a "long procession of posts" about India and finally wound down to Human Feces. Why does it hold such a peculiar fascination for him? :astagh:

Why does he round and round and then end up discussing India on a thread devoted to Pakistan? Funny guy. :offpost:
 
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Rampant hunger, poverty and malnutrition and lack of sanitation all impact on human capital formation. These are absolutely relevant issues.

A British government report on child hunger and malnutrition in India says the nation is an "economic powerhouse" but a "nutritional weakling". Here is an excerpt from Times online story:

India is condemning another generation to brain damage, poor education and early death by failing to meet its targets for tackling the malnutrition that affects almost half of its children, a study backed by the British Government concluded yesterday.

The country is an “economic powerhouse but a nutritional weakling”, said the report by the British-based Institute of Development Studies (IDS), which incorporated papers by more than 20 India analysts. It said that despite India’s recent economic boom, at least 46 per cent of children up to the age of 3 still suffer from malnutrition, making the country home to a third of the world’s malnourished children. The UN defines malnutrition as a state in which an individual can no longer maintain natural bodily capacities such as growth, pregnancy, lactation, learning abilities, physical work and resisting and recovering from disease.

In 2001, India committed to the UN Millennium Development Goal of halving its number of hungry by 2015. China has already met its target. India, though, will not meet its goal until 2043, based on its current rate of progress, the IDS report concluded.

“It’s the contrast between India’s fantastic economic growth and its persistent malnutrition which is so shocking,” Lawrence Haddad, director of the IDS, told The Times. He said that an average of 6,000 children died every day in India; 2,000-3,000 of them from malnutrition.


Haq's Musings: Is India a Nutritional Weakling?
 
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A sad story from BBC about some promising human capital being watsed

BBC News - The ultimate tragedy of poverty in Pakistan



The ultimate tragedy of poverty in Pakistan

By Orla Guerin
BBC News, Islamabad



Every few days Pakistan makes the worst kind of headlines: bombings in markets and mosques, battles with the Taleban. But, much less widely reported, the daily lives of millions of Pakistanis are consumed by another problem. They have to cope with desperate poverty. And as one woman's harrowing tale shows, the struggle for some is more than they can bear.

It was a short life, but one full of hard work and high hopes.

Fourteen-year-old Beenish was so determined to be a nurse or doctor that she usually studied late into the night. When there were power cuts - and there often are here - she used a torch.

She was always near the top of her class.

Beenish died at the hands of her father, Akbar, a rickshaw driver in the eastern city of Lahore.

He fed her and two of her sisters poison, then swallowed some himself. As he poisoned his oldest children, the three youngest slept on a bed beside him.

His wife Muzammil says she was outside getting water while her husband set about murdering the family.

He had sent her to the fridge twice to get her out of the room.

She returned in time to see Kainat, their handicapped seven-year-old daughter, awaken.

Her husband tried to give her poison, too, but the little girl refused saying: "No, it has a bad smell. I don't want to eat it."

Seeing what her husband was up to, Muzammil told me she cried out, asking how he could kill his own children, how he could do such a cruel thing.

He replied: "I've given them poison because if we die, they cannot live without us."

Then he said she must take it as well.

Muzammil did not swallow it. Instead she spat it out. That is how she survived the effects of the poison.

'Invisible' poor

After a few days in hospital, she is now in mourning for her daughters, and for the husband she says was always kind and gentle but weighed down by financial pressures and ill health.

"He never did any harm to anyone before," she said, speaking through tears. "He was so caring and loving. There was never any conflict between us."

But there was a serious disagreement with his family over a debt the couple could not repay.

It was causing rows with Akbar's parents, the last one on the day he died. It was after this he came home and killed half the family.

The sum of money that cost so many lives was 60,000 Pakistani rupees. That is about $700 (£465).

In death, as in life, Pakistan's poor are often invisible.

The story of Akbar and his family was front-page news, but suicides linked to poverty are often relegated to the back pages and marked by just a line or two.

One major newspaper recently reported the deaths of five men in five paragraphs.

'Will of God'

The doctor who treated Muzammil, Professor Javed Akram, sees about 10 cases of poisoning a day. It used to be four or five.

"Previously people jumped out of buildings," he said. "Now they just use poison because it is so cheap."

According to Professor Akram, economic pressure is definitely a factor in the deaths. He says most of those who kill themselves are poor.

A well-known human rights campaigner and lawyer, Hina Jilani, says that Pakistan spends too much on defence and too little on defending those in need.

"In all the hysteria about security," she told me, "We've neglected the issue of human security. It's shameful that we are a nuclear state, and we can't feed our own people."

Almost half the population here gets by on just one meal a day, according to the United Nations.

Yet in recent years, Pakistan has received billions in the form of aid, loans and debt rescheduling. The hungry might be forgiven for asking where all the money went.

They probably will not take much comfort in recent statements from their political leaders.

One parliamentarian said the suicides were the will of God.

And Pakistan's information minister, Qamar Zaman Kaira, advised the poor to hand their children over to children's homes, if they could not feed them.

Continuing care

Muzammil will now be able to provide for her remaining children.

After her story made headlines, she was given a generous grant by the provincial government.

She plans to build a small house and set up a business. Her medical bills are being paid, and her doctor says she will have continuing care.

But she has to live without the husband she loved and her three eldest girls.

She says that in their final days her daughters were unusually attentive to her, telling her to rest and helping out a lot, though they did not usually do much housework.

It was, she said, as if they knew they would soon be taken from her.
 
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Haq is the "SULTAN OF ALL TROLLS". He started with Pakistan and its 'human capital'; posted a few posts on that subject and then finally descended in to a "long procession of posts" about India and finally wound down to Human Feces. Why does it hold such a peculiar fascination for him? :astagh:

Why does he round and round and then end up discussing India on a thread devoted to Pakistan? Funny guy. :offpost:

I reported all his off topic banned posts, lets see what happens.
 
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A sad story from BBC about some promising human capital being watsed

BBC News - The ultimate tragedy of poverty in Pakistan



The ultimate tragedy of poverty in Pakistan

By Orla Guerin
BBC News, Islamabad .

Have you ever compared the suicide rates of India with Pakistan's? Indians commit suicides at the rate 10 times higher than in Pakistan.

Of particular note have been the poor India farmers who have been killimg themselves at 20,000 per year for the last decade.

"Peepli Live" highlights the problem of farmers' suicides in India--some 200,000 of them have taken their own lives in the last ten years. But it does more than just satirize this unfolding tragedy; it also demolishes the carefully crafted image of "Peaceful, Stable and Prosperous India" that has been widely promoted in the Western media by the likes of the CNN show host Fareed Zakaria through his TV show and his book "The Post-American World".

Haq's Musings: "Peepli Live" Destroys Indian Myths

Suicide rates in India are among the highest in the world. Most suicides occur between the ages of 15 years and 29 years, especially among women.

Last week, Paramjeet Chaabra, 18, hanged herself from the ceiling fan at her home in Noida, in the outskirts of the capital New Delhi when both her parents were away at work.

Her parents, both white-collar workers, have yet to reconcile the personal tragedy and had no inkling that their lone daughter, a bright and lively teenager, was suffering from depression.
Lethal pills The ingestion of lethal substances is the most common method of suicide



The police said the motive for her suicide had yet to be established but after talking to her friends, they suspected her failure to get on an Indian TV reality show could have been a motive.

"We come across many such cases. Sometimes there are no warning signs of teen suicide," an investigating officer told DW on conditions of anonymity.

In the southern city of Bangalore, often referred to as the suicide capital of the country, another human tragedy played out in the posh outskirts late June when Manish Khullar, an IT consultant, consumed pesticide in the confines of his apartment. No apparent reason was discovered for Khullar's suicide.

On average, police stations across the city record at least two cases of suicide per day.

Adolescent suicides - a worrying factor

The harsh truth of the galloping number of suicides was brought home recently by the first national study of deaths in India published in the British journal "The Lancet." The paper said that Indian suicide rates were among the highest reported from any country.
Hangman's noose Many suicides are invisible to the public health system



Worse, it said the deaths, like many in the developing world, had no certifiable cause and were invisible to the public health system and society at large.

Lead author of the study, Vikram Patel of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said that 187,000 people committed suicide in India in 2010.

The other findings showed about half of suicides were due to poisoning, mainly the ingestion of pesticides. Hanging was the second most common cause, while burns accounted for about one-sixth of suicides committed by women.

"Studies show that for every student who commits suicide, there are at least 13 cases of attempted suicide," Dr Madhu Gupta, a clinical and child psychologist told DW.

"Most youngsters who attempt suicide do not really want to die. Actually, they are crying out for help.”

Scant public health attention

Other specialists believed that academic disappointments, relationship failures and even psychological factors were associated with the soaring suicide rates.

Suicide rates soar among India's young | Asia | DW.DE | 03.07.2012

I reported all his off topic banned posts, lets see what happens.

Poverty, hunger, malnutrition, lack of sanitation are all on topic for human capital formation.

A hungry and malnourished person can neither learn nor work productively.

A British government report on child hunger and malnutrition in India says the nation is an "economic powerhouse" but a "nutritional weakling". Here is an excerpt from Times online story:

India is condemning another generation to brain damage, poor education and early death by failing to meet its targets for tackling the malnutrition that affects almost half of its children, a study backed by the British Government concluded yesterday.

The country is an “economic powerhouse but a nutritional weakling”, said the report by the British-based Institute of Development Studies (IDS), which incorporated papers by more than 20 India analysts. It said that despite India’s recent economic boom, at least 46 per cent of children up to the age of 3 still suffer from malnutrition, making the country home to a third of the world’s malnourished children. The UN defines malnutrition as a state in which an individual can no longer maintain natural bodily capacities such as growth, pregnancy, lactation, learning abilities, physical work and resisting and recovering from disease.

In 2001, India committed to the UN Millennium Development Goal of halving its number of hungry by 2015. China has already met its target. India, though, will not meet its goal until 2043, based on its current rate of progress, the IDS report concluded.

“It’s the contrast between India’s fantastic economic growth and its persistent malnutrition which is so shocking,” Lawrence Haddad, director of the IDS, told The Times. He said that an average of 6,000 children died every day in India; 2,000-3,000 of them from malnutrition.

http://www.riazhaq.com/2009/09/is-india-nutritional-weakling.html
 
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Haq is the "SULTAN OF ALL TROLLS". He started with Pakistan and its 'human capital'; posted a few posts on that subject and then finally descended in to a "long procession of posts" about India and finally wound down to Human Feces. Why does it hold such a peculiar fascination for him? :astagh:

We have an interesting theory of many Pakistanis' obsession with toilets.

Don't want to explain in details here. ;)

Why does he round and round and then end up discussing India on a thread devoted to Pakistan? Funny guy. :offpost:

It can be explained by the ingrained self loathing and identity crisis that has been explained in detail by several Pakistani writers like Ahmed Rashid and others.

It is an intense self loathing that expresses itself in multiple ways, most of which is this pathetic obsession with India, to try and justify their existence (as Pakistan), a justification and reassurance that many of them need every second.

And then again the next second.

This self loathing and identity crisis has reduced the country to a quivering toxic jelly as M J Akbar mentions in his new book.

Partly it can also be explained by Christopher Hitchens observations about the characteristics that define much of the Muslim world:

Self-pity
Self-righteousness
Self-hatred

These characteristics combine to manifest themselves in interesting ways.
 
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The Indian posters here remind me of the following story:

NEW DELHI, India — “Internet Hindus are like swarms of bees,” Indian television anchor Sagarika Ghose tweeted in 2010. “They come swarming after you."

The "Internet Hindus" Ghose refers to — actually, she coined the term — are right-wing bloggers and tweeters who seem to follow her every move, pouncing on any mention of hot-button issues like Muslims or Pakistan.

Liberal journalists and netizens sympathized with Ghose's exasperation. But for right-wingers, it was like throwing gasoline on the fire. Since Ghose's tweet, Hindu nationalists and other conservatives opposed to the Congress Party of Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have, if anything, multiplied and grown more organized — embracing Ghose's derogatory term and making it their own.

Today there are perhaps as many as 20,000 so-called “Internet Hindus,” many tweeting as often as 300 times a day, according to a rough estimate by one of the community's most active members.

“You will find thousands with similar sounding IDs [to mine],” a Twitter user who goes by the handle @internet_hindus said in an anonymous chat interview. “Some [others] prefer to openly do it with their own personal IDs."


India: Meet the 'Internet Hindus' | GlobalPost
 
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Here's an IBN Live story:

Finland best place to be a mother; India behind China, Pakistan
Press Trust of India | 08-May 17:47 PM
Beijing: Finland has topped the list of countries where mothers enjoy the best conditions in the world, while India ranks a low 142nd, below China and Pakistan, according to a new global report.
The annual report called 'State of World's Mothers 2013' was issued by an international NGO "Save the Children" before the Mother's Day in mid-May.
The report was featured by a ranking list of Mothers' index, showing the conditions of mothers in 176 countries, Xinhua news agency reported.
Among the reviewed countries, Finland was ranked the best country for being mothers followed by Sweden, Norway, Iceland while Democratic Republic of Congo was considered to be the toughest place.
The mothers' well-being was assessed under five indexes, including maternal health, child mortality, education, working income and political status.
According to the annual report, one in thirty pregnant women in DR Congo died from maternal causes, while in Finland the ratio was only one in 12,200.
As for education, women in DR Congo were likely to be educated for 8.5 years, compared with 17 years in Finland. Nearly 43 per cent of Finnish parliamentary seats were held by women, whereas the ratio in DR Congo was only 8 per cent.
Although Finland did not perform the absolute "best" in each index, it became the only country with all five indexes ranking among the top 12. The US places 30th this year while Pakistan was 139th on the list.
China ranked at the 68th place, the best ranking among the major emerging developing countries. The top ten countries attained very high scores for mothers' and children's health, educational, economic and political status. They include Finland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Netherlands, Denmark, Spain, Belgium, Germany and Australia.
The 10 bottom-ranked countries, which are all from sub-Saharan Africa, performed poorly on all indicators. They include Cote d'Ivoire (167), Chad (168), Nigeria (169), Gambia (170), Central African Republic (171), Niger (172), Mali (173), Sierra Leone (174), Somalia (175) and Democratic Republic of Congo (176).
Conditions for mothers and their children in the bottom countries are grim. On average, 1 woman in 30 dies from pregnancy-related causes and 1 child in 7 dies before his or her fifth birthday, the report said.

Finland best place to be a mother; India behind China, Pakistan-World News - IBNLive Mobile
 
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We have an interesting theory of many Pakistanis' obsession with toilets.

Don't want to explain in details here. ;)



It can be explained by the ingrained self loathing and identity crisis that has been explained in detail by several Pakistani writers like Ahmed Rashid and others.

It is an intense self loathing that expresses itself in multiple ways, most of which is this pathetic obsession with India, to try and justify their existence (as Pakistan), a justification and reassurance that many of them need every second.

And then again the next second.

This self loathing and identity crisis has reduced the country to a quivering toxic jelly as M J Akbar mentions in his new book.

Partly it can also be explained by Christopher Hitchens observations about the characteristics that define much of the Muslim world:

Self-pity
Self-righteousness
Self-hatred

These characteristics combine to manifest themselves in interesting ways.

Can you post some of their articles? It would be an interesting read!
 
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Faisalabad is one of the largest city of Pakistan, second largest city of Punjab renamed after a Saudi King. An industrial city, also known as Manchester of Pakistan employs large human capital. Here is a documentary showing their condition and rise of the Labour Qaumi Movement.

While crossing the ugly, narrow streets you will find countless small, wooden doors, almost on every wall. They are mostly locked from the outside, but you can hear a continuous, disturbing noise echoing from these rooms.

This haunting noise is the outcome of those power looms that run with the sweat and blood of tens of thousands of workers. If you dare to enter any of the small rooms, you would feel as though you have entered a machine. The walls say it all; they are full of cotton dust and silk web, causing dangerous lung diseases amongst the majority of people who work here. Welcome to Faisalabad, Pakistan’s largest industrial city, with no basic human rights for workers.

This is probably the city with the highest ratio of child labour in Pakistan. Saif-ud-din has been working for 50 years in the power loom industry and he is now in his 60s. He works for 14-16 hours every day, and earns hardly a rupee over 300. He lives in a house that is 75 square meters and he shares this meager space with a family of twenty people. Sadly, however, this is the story of every other house in the industrial areas of Faisalabad, where the vicious circle of exploitation begins at an early age and it continues till death.
Video blog: City of the oppressed – The Express Tribune Blog
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Faisalabad, Pakistan

Surkh Salam to Labour Qaumi Movement
537479_564123900270502_1613254450_n.jpg


But I don't understand why the leaders of the labour organization were tried under anti-terrorism law and sent to prison, while the real terrorists roam free. I hope the elite upper caste judges and factory owners learn some civility and refrain from such human right violations
490 years of jail sentences for labour leaders in Pakistan - International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine
PAKISTAN: Six power loom workers' leaders sentenced for 10 year each by Anti-Terrorist Court in Faisalabad

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Here is an award winning documentary about the contribution of female human capital to Pakistan's economy::


A short documentary about the lives and struggles of home-based female bangle-makers in Hyderabad unveils the irony of poverty. These women cannot even afford to wear what they make. ‘Daughters of a Lesser God‘ is award-winning documentary filmmaker Ammar Aziz’s latest look at the oppressed communities of Pakistan.
The documentary was earlier shown at labour conferences in the United States and Europe, but was screened for the first time in Pakistan at Kuch Khaas on Monday.
The film explores the exploitation that takes place at multiple levels during the complicated process of making bangles. The workers’ interviews are interspersed with images of them working on their machines.
Aziz told The Express Tribune that he used this technique to intensify the mood and tone of the film. The topic, he added, is an undocumented phenomenon in Pakistan that reflects and speaks to the many struggles of socioeconomically oppressed communities.
“After realising the miserable conditions of women in Hyderabad, I felt an ideological responsibility to document the subject,” said Aziz. He added that it is always a challenge to maintain harmony between stark realism and cinematic aestheticism, but he feels he has managed to achieve that in this film.
cows-on-road-hyderabad-pakistan.jpg

Hyderabad, Pakistan

The film had a limited budget and a crew of two. It was produced by Labour Education Foundation and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.
Aziz has been featured in the Christian Science Monitor’s “30 under 30” people from all over the world for his art and activism and is the only Pakistani filmmaker to be selected for the Talent Campus of the Berlin International Film Festival 2012.
However, he has also faced numerous obstacles in making his films.
While working on the film Taqwacore, he faced death threats after the Jamia Binoria seminary issued statements against him. However, such hurdles have not stopped Aziz from speaking his mind and showcasing the lives of the marginalised.
‘Daughters of a lesser god’: A harrowing depiction of the pristine shackles of poverty – The Express Tribune
 
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Here's an NDTV report today:

Of every 100 new-borns that die in the world, 29 are in India. In real, heart-rending numbers that is three lakh babies who die on the day they are born, every year.

Infants fare better even in Pakistan and Bangladesh, says a new report.

Non-governmental organisation Save the Children compared first-day deaths in 186 countries for its "State of World's Mother Report". Luxembourg has the least new-born deaths, India the most, the reports says.

While infant deaths in India have come down by almost half compared to 1990, the rate has been slower than that in, say, Nepal.

The statistics only get worse. More than half the child deaths in India happen in the first month. And India has the biggest disparity between the rich and poor in child deaths.

The country's report card on mother and child health too is abysmal; India is behind Pakistan and Bangladesh on this list.

Most new-born deaths in India, says report; Pakistan, Bangladesh fare better | NDTV.com

Preventable deaths: Pakistan continues to lose 60,000 babies annually

KARACHI: On a hot summer afternoon, a two-year-old sits in his paternal aunt’s lap in a remote village in Tharparkar district. He is too weak and malnourished to brush off the fly that sits on his face. The child would pass for a six-month-old. “His mother and newborn baby sister died three months ago, because the mother had prolonged labour, and with no transport, they died before they could be taken to a proper medical facility,” says the aunt. Some 25 women squatting on the floor start sharing their stories of loss. Every mother has a story to tell – stories of deaths that could have been easily prevented.

Pakistan’s human loss at the hands of neglect of public health is often trivialised when juxtaposed with causes that make headlines. But here’s a headline that should make us think: 60,000 Pakistani babies die every year on the first day of life. Pakistan has the highest first day mortality rate for babies in Asia, making it the most dangerous place in the region to be born, “Save the Children” says. The children’s aid agency launched its 14th annual State of the World’s Mothers report on May 7, revealing that 1-in-77 Pakistani babies die in their first day of life, making up 17 per cent of all under-five deaths in the country.

The report compares 176 countries around the globe, with regards to lives of mothers and their children. Pakistan ranked 139th on the best places to be a mother, based on factors such as mother’s health, education and economic status, as well as critical child indicators such as health and nutrition. It came in ahead of neighbours India and Afghanistan, but trailed behind Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

“The number of newborn deaths in Pakistan is unacceptably high. About 1-in-28 babies in Pakistan do not live past the first month of life, making Pakistan one of 10 countries accounting for nearly two-thirds of the three million newborn deaths that take place globally every year,” said David Skinner, country director for Save the Children in Pakistan. “Pakistan also has the highest number of stillborn babies in the region, at 1-in-23, many of which are preventable.”

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“For Pakistan’s 70 per cent rural population, the major reason for the alarming rates of infant mortality is the absence of functional health facilities,” says Dr Ramesh Kumar, health coordinator of the Participatory Village Development Programme (PVDP), which works closely with local communities in Sindh on health and development. “Malnourished mothers are the reason why babies are born with low birth weight and often don’t survive,” added Dr Ramesh.

Low-cost solutions could dramatically reduce newborn mortality. Proper cord care and newborn/paediatric doses of antibiotics can be life-savers. A simple disinfectant like chlorhexidine, if used for cord cleansing, could prevent umbilical cord and belly button infections that can be fatal for newborns.

A simple, low cost corticosteroid injection given to women in preterm labour can save a child by helping mature the baby’s lungs. Yet, its availability is often a luxury for women for who even clean water and anti-bacterial soaps are a rarity.

Traditional birth attendants (TBAs) if trained and given proper support and supplies can save lives of thousands of mothers and babies. This is what PVDP does with its TBA training programme. “We give TBAs little ‘safe delivery kits’ that are life savers with simple yet indispensable things like gloves for the midwife, a plastic sheet to spread under the woman to avoid contact with soil, a sterile blade etc,” says Dr Ramesh.

However the most basic and underlying cause of newborn mortality remains gender inequality which translates into malnutrition of the mother. Physically, financially and socially stronger mothers would mean a better chance at life for babies.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 9th, 2013.

Preventable deaths: Pakistan continues to lose 60,000 babies annually – The Express Tribune
 
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