Social stratification is the classification of people according to their social status. As Max Weber, a German political sociologist, said that stratification is based on class, status and power. He also added that traditional stratification is determined by 3Ps (Property, Power and Prestige) and by considering these components, the social position of a person can be determined in a society.
Likewise, this situation is not only matter of individuals in a society, rather this framework can also be used to determine the status of countries in the world. The United Nation Development Programme launched its 2018 report and Pakistan was ranked 150 among 158 countries by combining life expectancy, income and education. It shows the alarming condition of human development in the country.
As the United National Development Programme (UNDP) measured the HDI of the districts of Pakistan through five likert scale from very High to Very low according to their socio-economic and other social factors to find out the social inequality within federating units. According to the rankings, those districts which fall under 0.800 or above would be considered very High in Human Development Index, 0.700-0.799 for High, 0.555-0.699 Medium, 0.555 or below is low, below 0.400 is very low.
The findings of the UNDP present distressing conditions of human development in Balochistan because most of the districts of Balochistan fall under the very low category. Balochistan contains 32 districts and no districts fall in very high and high category. Only one District which is Quetta (0.666), the Capital city of Balochistan, falls at Medium and ten districts fall at low category and other remaining districts are placed in very low category.
According to Pakistan Human Development Index ranking, Punjab is in leading position which stands at 0.732, Sindh 0.640, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 0.628 and on the other hand, Balochistan stands at 0.421 which shows the deteriorating status of human development. The situation of HDI of Balochistan can be compared with those countries like Chad, Niger and other countries of Central Africa whose human development index is in very awful conditions.
The findings of the UNDP present distressing conditions of human development in Balochistan because most of the districts of Balochistan fall under the very low category. Balochistan contains 32 districts and no districts fall in very high and high category. Only one District, which is Quetta (0.666), the Capital city of the province, falls at the Medium level
According to UNDP report 2017, Awaran is a district of Balochistan that stands at 0.173, which is the lowest HDI position in the country and other districts like Washuk, Harnai, Dera Bugti, and Kharan are at very low, with HDIs of less than 0.30.
The Human Development Index is measured by UNDP according to healthy life, access to education and standard of living. Balochistan is the only province where all these three factors are in depraved conditions. Similarly, Balochistan is amongst the worst in terms of education. The Mean of Years of schooling (MYS) — average level of education attainment of a person who is 25 years old — is 2.6 and Expected Years of Schooling (EYS) — measures the number of educational years a child is expected to receive- is 7.6. It shows the bleak picture of the education system of Balochistan.
Despite education, health is also in abysmal condition and Balochistan is facing a great degree of health inequality and ratio of health is 0.400, which falls in low category. In the district level, 16 out of 32 districts placed in very low or low category and only Kalat district falls in high category in terms of health index. Most important thing is that about 50% districts including Quetta experienced decline in health condition in Balochistan in the past ten years. Kharan, Jahl Magsi and Zhob are amongst top districts which have experienced a health Index decline in the last decade.
According to UNDP 2017 report, Balochistan experiences greatest deprivation in terms of living standard index. Only 0.34 people have a maximum number living in substandard conditions and 17 districts fall in very low category, 10 in low category and only one district which is Quetta — the capital of Balochistan — falls in High Medium category. This has happened due to lack of facilities such as bad sanitation system, piped water, electricity, low livestock etc. Pishin, Sibi, Noshki, and Lasbela are performing better in the Living Standard Index.
Thus, the situation of Balochistan in terms of Human Development Index is alarming and the government and other concerned authorities should take serious steps to improve the situation of human development in the province. Many young and energetic politicians have been elected in recent elections and they made huge claims for the development of Balochistan. They should also take serious actions in this regard. Federal government should also intervene and help the provincial governments to improve the education system, standard of living, and health condition in all provinces, especially Balochistan.
The writer is MPhil Scholar at Department of Sociology, University of Karachi, and Freelance writer and Researcher. Can be reached at [email protected]
Published in Daily Times, September 25th 2018.