Daily Times

The Pakistan National Human Development Index (HDI) report released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has ranked Punjab ahead of all other provinces.

Among the provinces, Punjab and Azad Jammu and Kashmir come under high medium human development, while Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa fall under medium human development.

On the other hand, very low human development was noted in Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Balochistan, while Gilgit Baltistan fell under low medium human development.

Lahore was the highest ranked city of Pakistan on the HDI with 0.877, followed by Islamabad and then Rawalpindi. Four out of six cities of Punjab feature on the list of high human development, including Rawalpindi (0.871), Sialkot (0.834) and Jhelum (0.829).

Moreover, only one city from Sindh, Karachi, makes it to the high human development list with 0.854.

Overall, the report categorises Pakistan at a medium level of human development.

Immunisation rate stands at 89 percent for Punjab, 78 percent for KP, 73 percent for Sindh and 51 percent for Balochistan. Ninety percent females and 89 percent males in Punjab are immunised while for KP the figure stands at 79.5 and 77 percent, respectively. For Sindh, the immunisation rate is 72 percent for females and 74 percent for males while for Balochistan, the figure is 52 and 50 percent, respectively.

Six districts in the country have been categorised as highly developed, four of which are in Punjab. For the category of high medium-human development, Punjab has the largest share at 19 districts.

With regards to education, average schooling years in Punjab stand at 10.1 years, 9.7 years in KP, 8.3 years in KP and 7.4 years in Balochistan. Balochistan also has the lowest levels of living standards at 33.9 percent. Punjab, Sindh and KP have 83 percent, 67.6 per cent and 67.1 percent, respectively.

In addition, Punjab has a youth literacy rate of 73.6 percent, followed by Sindh 67.7 percent, KP 63.5 percent and Balochistan 50 percent.

However, gender seems to play an important role in youth literacy, with considerable levels of disparity found across the country. Male literacy levels in Punjab stands at 71 percent but 55 percent for females. The figure for Sindh is 70 percent and 49 percent for males and females, respectively. KP males have a 71 percent literacy level but 35 percent for females. Finally, Balochistan has 61 percent for males but 25 percent for females.

With regards to Youth Development, Punjab again stands at the top with 0.57 points, followed by Sindh at 0.538 points, KP at 0.394 and Balochistan at 0.373.

For poverty and unemployment, Balochistan is the poorest with 0.394 points, followed by KP at 0.25 points, Sindh at 0.231 points and Punjab being the least poor at 0.152 points. Likewise, unemployment rate in Punjab is 5.2 percent, 7.9 percent for KP, 4.8 percent for Sindh and 3.9 percent for Balochistan.

Published in Daily Times, May 21^st 2018.