Reverse development

[zulfiqar shah <zulfiqarshah@HOTMAIL.COM>]

>From: zulfiqarshah@hotmail.com

Reverse development

According to recent reports, the per capita income in Sindh has
declined at an average 0.5 per cent per year since 1999 and in the
Human Development Index rural Sindh ranks the lowest in the country

By Zulfiqar Shah

For Khuda Bakhsh, 35, a farmer from Saeedabad, a small town in
district Hyderabad, eid is a difficult time. As the festival
approaches, his worries multiply; children want new clothes and shoes
and he has no money.

Life has never been easy for Khuda Bakhsh, a labourer at a nearby
cotton factory. But this year has been particularly bad. "This is the
first eid when I have not been able to buy clothes for my children,"
he says. "The contractor at the factory has reduced wages from
Rs. 2200 per month last year to Rs. 1800 now and he has not paid us
any bonus for the last many years now."

Two of his other brothers, part of a 15 member joint family, work as
haris (sharecroppers) but their share from cotton crop is also reduced
this year as they cultivated less area due to water shortage. Besides
cotton rates are also low this year as compared to last year.

This is not about just one family. According to a recent World Bank
report, the per capita income in Sindh has declined at an average 0.5
per cent per year since 1999 whereas the per capita income in other
parts of the country showed an average annual growth of 1.3 per cent.

The World Bank's 'Concept Note' prepared in October 2004 gives 'a
bird's-eye view of the prevailing economic situation in Sindh with
particular reference to growing poverty, lawlessness and breakdown of
the infrastructure'.The bank has reportedly announced undertaking a
study of Sindh's economy to suggest policies and institutional reforms
that can accelerate economic growth and reduce poverty.

Sindh has been the worst victim of poverty with the number of
unemployed, under-employed and people who live below the poverty line
growing each day. The situation is worse in rural areas where many
factors including shortage of water and insufficient investment in
infrastructure have resulted in growing poverty and hunger.

"Drought and less cultivation is the main reason of decline in the per
capita income in recent years in Sindh," says Salam Dharejo, a young
researcher with the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and
Research (PILER). "There has been 30 to 40 per cent less cultivation
in Sindh due to shortage of water in recent years." Consequently, he
says, engagement of labour force in agriculture has also declined by 4
to 6 per cent. "Those disengaged from agriculture cannot find other
jobs in the absence of new industry."

Though the economic situation is dismal all over the country, the
situation in rural Sindh is alarming. Even official reports show a
widening of gap and inequality between urban and rural Sindh. In
National Human Development Index (HDI) 2003 rural Sindh ranks lowest
in the country.

Recent reports suggest due to declining affordability and growing food
prices, millions of Pakistanis have to sustain themselves below the
poverty line. In simpler terms this means that they are not able to
meet their nutritional requirements. Again, Sindh trails others.

According to Pakistan Human Development Condition Report 2002,
incidence of food poverty in rural Sindh increased from 30 per cent in
1993-94 to 39 per cent in year 1988-99 which was 5 per cent higher
than the total average of 34 per cent in the whole country. The
situation remained stable in urban Sindh during the same period.

It's interesting to note that agriculture which is the single largest
contributor to the national economy and employs 48.5 per cent of the
total workforce is on the decline in terms of productivity. As a
consequence agricultural workers are the worst hit by of incidences of
poverty.

"This is because rural areas in Sindh are ignored in terms of
infrastructure development and income opportunities for rural souls
are on the decline," says Asghar Khanothi, President of Sindh Farmers
Association (SFA). "There is also widespread inequality in terms of
allocation of resources and opportunities among provinces.". Water
shortage and lack of alternate livelihood opportunities is the sole
reason pushing rural population of the province to extreme poverty.

Official documents accept that major reason of growing poverty and
shrinking incomes is poor infrastructure where a majority of the
population is deprived access to basic needs like health, sanitation,
safe drinking water, education and road networking.

Besides, the fact that in most cases the farmers don't own the lands
that they till is a major contributor to poverty in rural
Sindh. Reports suggest that landlessness is increasing and due to many
factors share-croppers are being trapped into debt.

Agriculture census reports of recent years mention millions of
sharecroppers in debt. Of these 700,000 share-croppers are believed to
be in bondage and mostly due to debt alone in Sindh.

"State has failed to announce adequate minimum wages and provide
proper social security leaving the poor vulnerable to private market
and profiteers," says Mirza Maqsood, a trade union activist in
Karachi. In his view government is ignorant of its role in protecting
the rights of poor people under existing laws and constitutional
obligations.

The government announced minimum wages at Rs. 2500 monthly for
unskilled workers in 2001. Though this amount is paltry compared to
inflation, that too is violated as many people like Bakhsah are paid
less than Rs 2500 a month.

About rural poverty in Sindh, Khanothi adds, "NFC award and not
getting its due share is the main reason behind increasing poverty in
Sindh." "If Sindh is given authority over its resources it can be
prosperous."

Others think political and bureaucratic management of the province,
widely divided on ethnic basis, is also contributing to its
poverty. Thus a province full of natural resources like coastline,
oil, gas, coal and minerals remains underdeveloped and poor.