There are some significant facts from the Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey of 2018-19 which reveal that overall in Pakistan, 28 percent of the households own a one-room house, 23 percent of the households use wood/bamboo for the material of the roof, and 45 percent of the households use wood/sticks as fuel used for cooking. Other than this, 15.92 percent of the households experience moderate or severe food insecurity, and 2.37 percent of the households experience severe food insecurity. There is another example from PDHS 2017-18, which shows disparity in the country; the percent distribution of the de jure population in the lowest quintile in Punjab is 11.4, similarly it is 36.3 in Sindh, 16.9 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 28.8 in Balochistan, 0.4 in ICT Islamabad and 51.3 percent in FATA respectively. Not everyone in Pakistan can afford bottled water for health safety, and it is concerning to note that according to the National Nutrition Survey of 2018, 36.0 percent of households in Pakistan drink water contaminated with E.Coli, which can lead to many bacterial infections.
The National Human Development Report 2020 has created a ‘Pashum Ratio’, which measures the extent of inequality across the entire population distribution inclusive of the middle income groups. This ratio equals 0.5 in the case of Pakistan where 0 implies perfect equality. In the same report, amongst other ratios, the Robin Hood Ratio highlights that to achieve perfect income equality in Pakistan, 23 percent of the income of two richest quintiles must be redistributed among the remaining three quintiles.
Thus, to achieve significant success on SDG 10, our policies need to be tailored in accordance with the needs of the society. However, for this purpose, our politics should be devoid of any sort of clientelism. Our taxation system is one in which tax is very conveniently collected but very worryingly paid up—this is because of the burden of indirect taxation. Fraudulent activities and loopholes in the tax collection are improving the conditions of a few at the cost of a million lives. It is a sad yet a very harsh reality that a poor person is forced to pay sales tax on necessary commodities when fulfilling basic needs is already a daily dilemma for them. Tax incentives in the form of exemptions, etc. are also one of the contributors towards the dearth of provision of public goods for people. Because we all know, direct taxes fund governments and are progressive. Sales taxes are regressive by nature and heavy reliance on them exacerbates inequality. Moreover, the role of institutional factors in the whole ordeal is not a secret. It is suggested that the government reconsider shifting the IMF debt burden onto an already grief-stricken population succumbing to the afflictions of coronavirus, and reevaluate the areas where our current expenditures are consuming a significant amount of GDP. Even the infrastructure development expenditures which somehow end up benefiting the rich more than the poor in the long run, need to be reevaluated. Progressive taxation should be effectively implemented in the case of direct taxation. Limited taxes on capital gains and the crux falling on the manufacturing industries needs to be corrected by correlating the size of a sector with its associated levied taxation.
Investment in human capital is much needed as technology is already replacing manpower, and machine learning and artificial intelligence is becoming a major trend. If our population is not equipped with modern tools, how can we compete with the demands of the future?
Land inequality is a major concern, especially when it comes to poor, women and minorities. Land inequality enables powerful landowners to suppress the tenants. Moreover, it is difficult to envisage a subsistence based, technologically constrained farmer reaping any meaningful benefits except for ensuring mere survival. Therefore, our land reforms need to be revisited with everyone being given equal opportunities. Digitization of land records is a step in the right direction, but it is just one of a step.
Moreover, investment in human capital is much needed as technology is already replacing manpower, and machine learning and artificial intelligence is becoming a major trend. If our population is not equipped with the modern tools, how can we compete with the demands of the future? We are a slave to digital sovereignty in the current time, and it is especially disheartening to note the technical divide between students who could, or could not afford electronic devices to attend online classes, as highlighted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Although in the past, there were schemes to eradicate the digital gap such as laptop distribution schemes, there should be more policies geared towards digital literacy in an attempt to stop perpetuating inequalities. Furthermore, social protection schemes such as BISP, Bait ul Mall and Ehsaas should be continued to provide a cushion against glaring inequalities.
Inequality and income disparity are some of the significant issues which presently ail Pakistan. The country is home to one of the worst examples of a socio-economic divide. Article 25 of the Constitution of Pakistan states that all citizens are equal before the law. However, this formal equality has not served us well in the past. The government needs to introduce more affirmative action programs and quota systems to eradicate, or at least mitigate, the atrocious effects of inequality; however, that should be preceded by measures taken to eradicate inequality in the first place. Such measures include good quality public education, a higher rate of minimum income, and social support programs to supplement the income of low-wage households. Pakistan also needs to modify its VAT system, and introduce means of VAT refund for low-wage households in order to curb the unequitable impact of VAT. It should also be kept in mind that introducing new legislation and policies is not the end goal, but rather only a means to the end of eradicating inequality in Pakistan. Therefore, strong emphasis should be placed on efficacious implementation of these laws and policies.
Dr. Izza Aftab is the Dean of Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Information Technology University, Lahore. She is also the Director of the SDG Tech Lab and the Program Director of Safer Society for Children. She has a PhD in Economics from The New School University (NY, USA) and is a Fulbrighter. She tweets @izzaaftab.
Noor Ul Islam is currently working as a Research Associate at the Information Technology University, Lahore where she is currently working on a WHO-EMRO funded project. She is a post-graduate in Economics from Lahore University of Management Sciences. She tweets @Noor_Ul_Islam20