page_title: Poverty in Pakistan
section_title: Economic and social vulnerability
hierarchical_section_title: Poverty in Pakistan / Economic and social vulnerability
caption_attribution_description: English: Socio-Economic Situation of Pakistanis
context_page_description: Poverty in Pakistan has fallen dramatically, independent bodies supported estimates of a considerable fall in the statistic by the 2007-08 fiscal year, when it was estimated that 17.2% of the total population lived below the poverty line. The declining trend in poverty as seen in the country during the 1970s and 1980s was reversed in the 1990s by poor federal policies and rampant corruption. This phenomenon has been referred to as the "poverty bomb". In 2001, the government was assisted by the International Monetary Fund in preparing the Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper that suggests guidelines to reduce poverty in the country. According to a report submitted by Ministry of Planning and Development in the National Assembly of Pakistan, about 29.5% Pakistani lived below the poverty line which translates into 55 million people.
  As of 2017, Pakistan's Human Development Index is 0.562, significantly lower than Bangladesh's HDI, which is 0.608. Bangladesh was formerly another part of the country and had a much lower HDI. Pakistan's HDI is one of the lowest in Asia, after Yemen, Afghanistan and Syria.
context_section_description: "Vulnerability" in this case stands for the underlying susceptibility of economically deprived people to fall into poverty as a result of exogenous random shocks. Vulnerable households are generally found to have low expenditure levels. Households are considered vulnerable if they do not have the means to smooth out their expenses in response to changes in income. In general, vulnerability is likely to be high in households clustered around the poverty line. Since coping strategies for vulnerable households depend primarily on their sources of income, exogenous shocks can increase reliance on non-agricultural wages. Such diversification has not occurred in many parts of Pakistan, leading to an increased dependence on credit.
  While economic vulnerability is a key factor in the rise of poverty in Pakistan, vulnerability also arises from social powerlessness, political disenfranchisement, and ill-functioning and distortionary institutions, and these also are important causes of the persistence of vulnerability among the poor.
  Other causes of vulnerability in Pakistan are the everyday harassment by corrupt government officials, as well as their underperformance, exclusion and denial of basic rights to many in Pakistan. Also, lack of adequate health care by the state lead the poor to seek private sources, which are expensive, but still preferable to the possibility of medical malpractice and being given expired medicines in state run medical facilities. Also, the failure by the state to provide adequate law and order in many parts of the country is a factor in the rise of vulnerability of the poor.
caption: Socio-Economic Status of Pakistanis, source:[18]
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