POVERTY IN PAKISTAN: PROBLEMS, CAUSES AND SOLUTIONS

This study is an attempt to draw attention to the issue of poverty. It has relation to urban areas and rural. However rural areas show higher concentration of poverty. Poverty is an international phenomenon. It is a serious concern in Pakistan. Inadequate access to basic services and financial and other resources, disempowered communities, particularly the exclusion of women from the public sphere and the development process of low social capital, ethnic and religious strife, and spate of natural calamities in the recent years, have all contributed towards the persistence of poverty in Pakistan. This paper covers: the problems of poverty, the causes of poverty, and solutions to poverty in Pakistan. Poverty is hunger, lack of shelter, sick and not being able to see a doctor, not having access to school and not knowing how to read. It is not having a job, fear for the future, living one day at a time. Poverty is losing a child to illness brought about by unclean water. Poverty is powerlessness, lack of representation and freedom. The paper explained in details the various forms of poverty and causes. The efforts to reduce the incidence of poverty in the public sector are also mentioned in the study.