Recent Rise in Poverty and Its Implications for Poor Households in Pakistan

In: The Pakistan development review: PDR, Band 39, Heft 4II, S. 1153-1170

Abstract

There is sample evidence that poverty which declined rapidly
in Pakistan in the 1970s and 1980s has increased in the 1990s.1 This
rise in poverty is likely to have adversely affected the ability of poor
households to enrol their young children in schools. The cost of
schooling even when it is free is usually the most pressing obstacles
for poor people to send their children in school. Similarly, health
correlates strongly with poverty. This does not mean that poverty is
itself a direct cause of diseases, but it lies behind other causes of
disease such as in-sanitary living conditions, lack of adequate
nutrition, poor access to safe drinking water, and sanitation and bad
working conditions [World Bank (1993)]. Because of these factors, the
poor are more affected by communicable diseases than are the rich. They
have also less access to modern health facilities. This paper examines
recent trends in poverty and their impact on primary school enrolment,
health status and housing conditions in Pakistan.