Pakistan's Growing Human Capital

[nastikan]

The only heartening fact is most Pakistanis see this man for who he is- a snake oil merchant preying on impressionable young Pakistanis in the hope of making some bucks out of it. What a shameful existance!

 

[Vinod2070]

The only heartening fact is most Pakistanis see this man for who he is- a snake oil merchant preying on impressionable young Pakistanis in the hope of making some bucks out of it. What a shameful existance!

Shameful and sad.

Most of the time, one almost feels pity for the sad, pitiable existence.

But then, there is the individual responsibility as well. At least for the few literate ones.

 

[RiazHaq]

Shameful and sad.

Most of the time, one almost feels pity for the sad, pitiable existence.

But then, there is the individual responsibility as well. At least for the few literate ones.

What is really shameful and extremely tragic is the fact that, after 65 years of independence, India is still home to the world's largest population of poor, hungry and illiterates where most people still defecate in the open and the poor farmers are killing themselves at a rate of 20,000 per year for the last decade. '

Haq's Musings: 63 Years After Independence, India Remains Home to World's Largest Population of Poor, Hungry and Illiterates

Haq's Musings: India Tops in Illiteracy and Defense Spending

 

[Koovie]

What is really shameful and extremely tragic is the fact that, after 65 years of independence, India is still home to the world's largest population of poor, hungry and illiterates where most people still defecate in the open and the poor farmers are killing themselves at a rate of 20,000 per year for the last decade. '

Haq's Musings: 63 Years After Independence, India Remains Home to World's Largest Population of Poor, Hungry and Illiterates

Haq's Musings: India Tops in Illiteracy and Defense Spending

Haq's Musings: India Tops in Illiteracy and Defense Spending ? Really? who writes this complete BS?

The literacy rate in India was at 74% in 2011 (it was 64% 10 years earlier), higher than other neighbouring countries. While Indias defence spending was less than 2 % of its GDP, lower than some neighbouring countries in the region.......

And yes, we have poverty, but things are improving. Millions are lifted out of poverty each year. No country spends as much on anti poverty measures as India does.

But the same country is the 10th largest economy by GDP and the 3rd largest by PPP as well!, the same country is growing with +5% annually despite a global recession and no reforms, the same country has one of the largest middle classes and is one of the largest markets for many many industries, the same country has a huge work force and is lifting millions out of poverty, the same country is a G20 and BRICS member and a top contributor to organizations like the IMF, the same country has one of the largest and most capable armed forces which are expanding with their capabilities on a high pace, the same country is increasing in local defence industry and is capable to produce all kinds of equipment either in license or in form of self designed ones etc etc etc....


And thats whats crucial for economic success. Thats whats crucial for companies seeking for investments!
Thats why India is improving fast (Literacy rate, HDI etc etc which are already at medium level, higher than other countries in the region which are still on lower standards)

 

[Dushmann]

It's no use quoting misguided writers who parrot nonsense about Pak population growth.

Larger population is in fact a blessing for Pakistan in terms of greater human capital and higher demographic dividend.

Sir all the articles I have quoted are from reputable International and Pakistani sources.
.
You make an interesting point that a rising human capital can fuel growth of an economy. US's growth has been fuelled for decades by a continuous inflow of hardworking migrants and India's ongoing rise is being fuelled by a new educated and empowered young population. But here is an article explaining why some Pakistanis are apprehensive about Pakistan's growing human capital. I'am sorry for quoting from a blog but I think it is really well written. The writer is a senior Pakistani journalist and has served in Pakistan's diplomatic missions.

Upright Opinion: Population Explosion Turning Pakistan into a Slum

Population Explosion Turning Pakistan into a Slum
January 5, 2012

By Saeed Qureshi

Do Pakistan’s planners and economic managers ever realize that the fast growing population is the biggest threat to the sustained development of that country? The pace of development is out of sync with the unremitting growth of population that of late has reached a staggering mark of 187 million.

The birth rate outpaces the death rate with 31 births and 8 deaths per thousand. For every thousand individuals Pakistan has to feed 23 more mouths every year. Food already getting scarce, the utilities, housing, roads, jobs, health facilities, water, power, educational institutions have to be proportionately created for the burgeoning population.

The trend of urbanization is taking its toll on the living conditions and environment in the cities. The rural areas being grossly neglected for development of infrastructure and provision of basic facilities, the rural dwellers migrate to the towns and cities where they take up menial and small jobs for survival.

The earning members have to carry the burden of their family members some of whom may also join in the odd jobs they seek to pool the cost of living. The statistics tell us that 36 percent population lives in big cities while 50 per cent population resides in towns with roughly 5000 thousands population or over.

The migrants create shanty towns, or occupy inhabited or odd places to live with several members huddled in a small room made from unbaked bricks or mud. The Pakistan’s cities suffer from inadequacy of utility and social services such as gas, water, electricity, health, education and good public transportation system. The uninhibited trend is to build houses anywhere without approval of the local government or municipalities.

One can witness the ugly and haphazard growth of ramshackle shanty towns or even modesty good houses coming up around the main cities such as Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. Karachi presents the worst scenario as far grabbing of land and expansion of small settlements and colonies around the cities are concerned. These makeshift colonies are cordoning the cities with ***** and dirt and sewerage flowing in the unpaved lanes with swarming worms and flies.

In the absence of a proper and pre-planned town planning, the houses constructed haphazardly, do not have a wider access to move and thus small, narrow lanes and uneven dirt paths are used as approach connections to the houses. Now wherever one builds house of free will and without as we call zoning rules, the access road and provision of electricity and running tap water and gas connections take years before these are piecemeal provided.

It would be interesting to note that in 1951 when both East and West Pakistan were together, Pakistan’s population was around 30 million which at present stands at 180 million alone in West wing now Pakistan. While population has mushroomed exponentially, the resources to cater for the needs of the growing population have not been correspondingly created.

Pakistan is replete with huge natural resources one of which are huge coal deposits But woefully these were not utilized by mining and thus there is acute scarcity of fuel and gas and electricity that could be produced by using coal.

The construction of dams both for irrigation and power generations were always kept on back burners for a variety of untenable reasons. The Kalabagh dam that should have been now functioning for decades was left in lurch due to provincial bickering and thus no government could pick up the courage to complete this very vital project.
We have mayhem situation in Pakistan.

There is an unremitting and unprecedented chaos all over. The industrial sector is being shut down; the people are using firewood to cook food and to warm their houses. We are moving back towards the primitive ages. The agricultural crops are not enough to feed the people. The entire system of governance and provision of essential utilities on sustained bases has been in doldrums.

With the fast growing population which is the easiest pastime for a jobless person, the country has passed into the phase of horrendous backwardness. See our roads, our buses and markets places full of encroachments with animals stalking the roads. Can one believe this is a state that came into being only six decades ago and looks like a medieval land?

The unchecked growth of population is a sure recipe for unemployment, lawlessness, poverty, breaking down of institutions, corruption, environmental degradation, poor quality of life, the spread of diseases, and the loss of hope for a better future among the public. When resources are scarce and demand gets higher and higher by the day, the people would resort to crimes, stealing, and robbing, killing and even prostitution.

The edicts of the religious clergy that population control was a sin should be ignored as these demagogues have no alternatives to give food to the entire population nor have any plan to provide basic needs, utilities and services to the teeming millions.

It is critically important that emergent measures should be taken to cap the wild and unrestrained proliferation of the population in Pakistan. Otherwise beside the poverty graph going up, there can be riots all over country which are already sporadically taking place in Pakistan.

It is up to the authorities and the respective governments in Pakistan as to how they bridle and control the population explosion for better life of the citizens. There are many research documents and studies that are internationally available and also in Pakistan which if implemented earnestly and with full force of law, the population can be restrained.

Thus there will be less new humans to be taken care in several ways from housing to medical care and jobs and provision of basic needs both in terms of social services and public utilities. That situation would take off an enormous load on the government exchequer as well as lessen the burgeoning socio-economic problems.

It is foregone that the people with less socio-economic hazards and minimum public service irritants can be more productive than those reeling under abject and degrading living conditions.

 

[Vinod2070]

Haq's Musings: India Tops in Illiteracy and Defense Spending ? Really? who writes this complete BS?

See, more than the sheer buffoonery, what is really tragic is that some people are so consumed by whatever emotions drive this pathetic behavior.

One feels a mix of contempt and pity.

I would still lean towards pity for the automaton like response system some have been conditioned to.

 

[assassin123]

What is really shameful and extremely tragic is the fact that, after 65 years of independence, India is still home to the world's largest population of poor, hungry and illiterates where most people still defecate in the open and the poor farmers are killing themselves at a rate of 20,000 per year for the last decade. '

all the links that you provide to prove your dreams are from some pakistani websites and are biased,india is a developing country,and the % of poor are decreasing as the counry is urbanising,their are only 29 % poor in our country now and this % is decreasing as per the census of 2011,actually education is not a concern for india as there are a lot of engineers and doctors graduating each year and there is actually abundance in this number and many are going abroad ,and indians are termed as the single most successful community in the US ,also india is a very stabilized country than pakistan and it has got a very stong economy unlike pakistan, and indians dont have to be scared of getting killed by terrorists while walking in the streets.
also india has a index of .678 in quality of education and pakistan is .450

 

[RiazHaq]

Haq's Musings: "Starving" North Korea's Space Pursuit Different From Hungry India's?

 

[RiazHaq]

There are very few place where people are poorer or hungrier than Haiti, with the exception of Bangladesh and some states in India and Sub-Saharan Africa. In addition to Bangladesh and the nations of sub Saharan Africa, the Indian states of Gujarat, Chattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh are worse off than Haiti, according to India's State Hunger Index (ISHI) survey report. Gujarat is often projected as a success story by the right-wing Indian media. The economy of Gujarat is sustaining an overall growth rate of eight percentage points, but the incidence of rural poverty declined at the annual rate of 0.23 per cent, which is the worst Human Development Index (HDI) improvement record among all Indian states. From 1996 to 2006, Gujarat slipped one rank each in education and health indices to eight and tenth positions, respectively, as compared to 20 other states. In improvement in Infant Mortality Rate, it ranked 13th. The state ranked 14th in Child Mortality Rate, 13th in TMR, 17th in stunted children and ninth in underweight children. What it says is that economic growth alone can not solve the problems of poverty and malnutrition in Gujarat, or India, or the rest of the world. Economic growth has to be accompanied with progressive policies to uplift the most vulnerable populations in society.

Haq's Musings: Is Haiti's Tragic Disaster Entirely Natural?

 

[Vinod2070]

Except perhaps Pakistan!

The same automaton like Pavlovian post.

Disregarding the fact that India has higher per capita income, higher HDI and much higher economic base.

While Pakistan is still more or less into primary and primitive economic activities and only depends on textile trade.

The hungry 90 million - Farrukh Saleem

As of January 28, Pakistan’s estimated population is 182,073,559. Shockingly, of the total, 90 million Pakistanis are ‘food insecure’.

Dr Abid Suleri, Pakistan’s foremost expert in food security, says that 48.6 percent of “people in the country are extremely food insecure” and that “our policymakers are in a constant state of denial. Citing bumper production of wheat, milk and export of rice, they simply rule out that food insecurity is an issue in the country. The mindset to deny existence of a problem coupled with governance issues is the root cause of all policy failures against hunger and malnourishment.”

What really is food security? In 1996, the World Food Summit defined food security as existing “when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life”. In other words, food security is the “availability of food and one’s access to it.”

According to the National Nutrition Survey 2011 conducted by the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), around “58 percent of the population is food insecure.” Why are 90 million Pakistanis food insecure? According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), food security is built on three pillars: food availability, food access and food use. There is empirical evidence that 90 million Pakistanis lack “sufficient resources to obtain appropriate foods for a nutritious diet.”

Question: Why do 90 million Pakistanis lack sufficient resources to obtain appropriate foods for a nutritious diet? Answer: Government policy and food inflation. The support price for wheat, for instance, has been jacked up by a factor of nearly 300 percent over the past five years. According to the UN, “inflation, decline in income, natural disasters and stagnating domestic productivity are hampering the attempts to achieve food security for the country’s 180 million citizens.”

Over the past decade, there have been 45,603 fatalities resulting from terrorist violence. Over the past two decades, 12754 people have either been killed or injured in 2,751 incidents of sectarian violence. Over the past decade, there have been 4,048 bomb blasts between Khyber and Karachi. Over the past five years, 569 people have been killed and 1,305 injured inside mosques.

Imagine 90 million hungry human beings. Food insecurity and violent conflict are cousins. There is empirical evidence that food insecurity, interstate war, communal violence, civil conflict and political instability are all closely related.

According to a report by the World Food Programme, “Food insecurity – especially when caused by a rise in food prices – is a threat and impact multiplier for violent conflict. It might not be a direct cause and rarely the only cause, but combined with other factors, for example in the political or economic spheres, it could be the factor that determines whether and when violent conflicts will erupt.”

Imagine 90 million hungry human beings. We have to break the food insecurity-conflict link. The government must design and implement targeted food subsidies. How about school meals, take home rations and food-for-work programmes?

Gives me no pleasure to write this. It is a shame and we should all work to get rid of this.

This difference in mindset is the reason Pakistan is in the state it is. Even literate people like this person are so mired in hate and bigotry rather than doing something positive for their country in this ripe old age.

OTOH, as per the surveys, India has about 20 million people who have hunger issues. We need to make sure it is reduced to zero ASAP.

 

[Koovie]

Haq's Musings: "Starving" North Korea's Space Pursuit Different From Hungry India's?

Another BS article from this latent India basher?

Is that all you can bring up`? Blog articles which completely ignore the facts?

This person criticizes Indias space program and connects it with poor hungry people and even goes so far to compare it with NK?

The fact is, that Indias space budget is one billion USD worth, you can calculate for yourself how much this is compared to a 2 trillion USD economy (apart from the fact that this provides invaluable scientific and engineering experience).

And according to this moron this is a problem of money?
Again he is wrong. India has more than enough money for such things. In fact India produces more than enough food for her population and spends more money on food security than any other nation in the world.

But the problems are bureaucracy and corruption, which make it possible that millions of tons of food simply rot each year....


People like him should rather try improving their own country (in this case Pakistan), otherwise it will always remain where it is today

 

[Vinod2070]

Another BS article from this latent India basher?

Is that all you can bring up`? Blog articles which completely ignore the facts?

This person criticizes Indias space program and connects it with poor hungry people and even goes so far to compare it with NK?

The fact is, that Indias space budget is one billion USD worth, you can calculate for yourself how much this is compared to a 2 trillion USD economy (apart from the fact that this provides invaluable scientific and engineering experience).

And according to this moron this is a problem of money?
Again he is wrong. India has more than enough money for such things. In fact India produces more than enough food for her population and spends more money on food security than any other nation in the world.

But the problems are bureaucracy and corruption, which make it possible that millions of tons of food simply rot each year....


People like him should rather try improving their own country (in this case Pakistan), otherwise it will always remain where it is today

Facts are not something that excite him.

 

[Capt.Popeye]

Facts are not something that excite him.

Facts just TERRIFY Haq......

 

[RiazHaq]

Here's a Wall Street Journal story on the stunting of human capital growth in India:

At least 3,000 children as young as six are being recruited by insurgent groups across India, according to a new report published by a human rights group.

The New Delhi-based Asian Centre for Human Rights says the practice of using child soldiers is “rampant,” with the majority recruited in Maoist-affected states like Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal.

Maoist rebels, also known as Naxalites, have been described by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as India’s greatest internal security challenge. They assert control over vast areas of land in central and eastern India. The insurgency was launched in the late 1960s in West Bengal. The rebels say they are fighting for the rights of indigenous tribes and the rural poor, and their ultimate goal is to create a communist society.

Report: India

 

[Vinod2070]

Facts just TERRIFY Haq......

Like the simple fact.

2% of world population.

More terrorists than the rest of the world combined.

Topping the failed state chart in the region for several years running now.