Social protection

According to World Bank’s recent estimates, 10 percent of the world’s population, or 734 million people, lived on less than $1.90 a day. In the wake of Covid-19, World Bank estimates that 40 million to 60 million additional people will fall into extreme poverty (under $1.90/day) in 2020, as compared to 2019, depending on assumptions on the magnitude of the economic shocks. Due to the pandemic, the global situation of poverty may become worse owing to job losses, rising prices, disruptions in supply chains, loss of remittances, education and health services, etc.
Government’s welfare orientation and commitment towards the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have made social protection its top priority, and the government is determined to prepare and implement all-inclusive social- protection policies having transparent and manageable targeting system. Both the federal and the provincial governments are jointly working towards the achievement of optimal social protection.
Pakistan’s multi-dimensional poverty reduction strategy aims at targeted interventions, such as the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), alongside private philanthropy and improved access to microfinance. Key social safety initiatives include Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal, Zakat and Ushr programmes, Employees Old-Age Benefits Institution (EOBI), the Worker’s Welfare Fund (WWF) and provincial Employees’ Social Security Institutions.
Pakistan is committed to alleviation of poverty in line with the SDG-1 “No Poverty” in all its forms and manifestations everywhere by 2030. According to the Planning Commission, the poverty headcount ratio was 24.3 percent by estimating the poverty line for this period as Rs 3,250.28 per adult equivalent per month, which represented around 50 million people living below the national poverty line in 2015-16. The national poverty headcount ratio at $1.90 a day (2011 purchasing power parity, percent of the population) is showing a declining trend from 6.1 percent in 2013-14 to 3.9 percent in 2015-16. It is expected to have a negative impact on the Pakistan’s economy, and the number of people living below the poverty line may rise from the existing figure of 50 to 60 million. Amidst such circumstances, social- protection mechanism becomes all the more important.
The present government has taken following initiatives to reduce poverty, provide income security and increase the people’s access to social protection:
· Creation of a dedicated Poverty Alleviation & Social Safety Division to synergize the efforts of various organizations working for poverty alleviation and social protection in public and private sectors;
· Launch of Ehsaas Programme which, inter alia, includes inflation-adjusted BISP / Ehsaas Kafaalat cash transfers, asset ownership programme for graduation out of poverty, access to finance for the youth, graduate and undergraduate scholarships for the poor and needy students;
· Introduction of a Relief Package of Rs 144 billion, in the backdrop of Covid-19, to provide immediate cash relief of Rs 12,000 per household for four months to almost 12 million poor families under Ehsaas Programme;
· Re-orienting PSDP to include pro-poor and less-developed areas focused on projects;
· Expanding coverage of Prime Minister’s Health Insurance scheme by launching the first phase of the countrywide Sehat Insaf Card Scheme to provide free medical treatment to approximately 80 million people;
· Finalization of the National Nutrition Programme in order to upscale nutrition and ensure food security;
· Launch of Ehsaas-Saylani Langar Scheme, with an aim to reduce hunger and provide hygienic food to the poor, under the government’s Ehsaas Programme;
· Construction of ‘Panagahs’ in major cities to provide shelter to the homeless;
· Extension of Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) Programme (Waseela-e-Taleem) to another 50 districts during 2020 which involves a cash transfer of Rs 750 and Rs 1000 per quarter to boys and girls respectively;
· Capitalizing on tele-health and tele-education facilities to expand health and education coverage.
To accelerate the efforts to alleviate poverty, the present government has focused on human development on its three basic dimensions: a long and healthy life, access to knowledge, and a decent standard of living. According to UNDP’s Human Development Report 2019, Pakistan’s ranking in the global Human Development Index (HDI) slightly declined to 152 in 2018 from 150 in 2017, out of 189 countries based on Health (life expectancy at birth), Education (expected years of schooling) and Gross National Income (GNI) per capita. Pakistan’s HDI value is 0.560 out of 1 as against South Asia’s average HDI value of 0.642 and the world’s average HDI value of 0.731. Overall, Pakistan has shown some progress in the last few years but we are far behind the rest of the countries in the region. Pakistan needs to make its social- protection mechanism more robust in order to bring the vulnerable to the mainstream.

The writer is a Chevening Scholar. He studied International Development at the University of
Manchester.