When experts sit down and discuss the root cause of poverty (since poverty is cited as a major cause for so many evils including extremism), as they did in a recently televised program 50 minutes on Geo TV, they point to the rising population and lack of family planning by poorer households which lead to their own devastating demise. Creating awareness, education, birth control pills etc etc are identified as measures to solve the issue of poverty.
However, there is an alternative picture to eradicating poverty which we feel uncomfortable discussing essentially because it means change has to be brought to 'our lives' (the rich and ruling) and not theirs (the poor and downtrodden). That issue is the lack of equality amongst our people. I recently blogged about Income Inequality in the US, and we saw that the top 1% take a quarter of the country's wealth. I would be sure that this number is far higher in Pakistan where the Legharis, Zardaris, Saigols, Dawoods, Habibs, Adamjees, Bawany, Hashwani, Sharifs and Manshas rule the roost in all matter of income. I was surprised to learn that some studies have been carried out and as seen in this report even with the officially listed companies, the top few families own an incredible amount of wealth. Back in the early 90's, the disclosed wealth of these families was several billion dollars. I would not be surprised if each of these families is hitting the trillion dollar mark by now.
I would, in no way, doubt that encouraging families to ascertain their ability to raise their off springs before having children, supporting birth control measures etc are very much required in a country like Pakistan where women in rural areas commonly have 6 or more children and suffer tremendously as a result. But the significance of spreading the wealth more judiciously may well be enough to bring poverty levels in Pakistan down to manageable levels. How and when that may happen is not clear, but i can sense it will and hopefully within the life of my generation.
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