Punjab turns `somewhat prosperous`

LAHORE, April 14: The percentage of deprived population in Punjab has reduced from 45.2 per cent to 42.8 per cent during the years 2003-04 and 2007-08. This was stated in the report `Punjab Indices of Multiple Deprivations 2003-04 and 2007-08` launched on Thursday at the Punjab Planning and Development Department. The report was prepared under the auspices of the UNDP assisted Strengthening Poverty Reduction Strategy Monitoring Project in Punjab. Dr Allah Bakhsh Malik, secretary (literacy), said the report was a step in the right direction for making a development profile of the province and districts for proper use of the public sector investments. Haroon Jamal, author of the report, explained that Index of Multiple Deprivations informed about percentage of population that was deprived in terms of selected indicators from the education, health, housing, water supply and sanitation and economic s ectors. These indices were prepared at the provincial, regional, district and tehsil levels by using Punjab Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) data. Notable declines in the level of deprivation were observed in the education and housing sectors. There has been some decline in health and economic sectors as well but deprivations in water supply and sanitation sector remained stagnant over 2003-04 and 2007-08. Mr Jamal also highlighted regional inequalities in Punjab. He said there was wide inequality in deprivations between central Punjab where 38 per cent and southern Punjab where 53 per cent population was deprived. Dr Shujat Ali, secretary (industries), said there was a need to analyse public sector expenditure by correlating them with the deprivation indices to see why so much increase in public expenditure has not resulted in proportionate increase in standard of living. Dr Abdul Quddus, director of Punjab Economic Research Institute, said it was surprising why the high growth in the period under study could not achieve improvement in service delivery and public welfare. He recommended that such a study should also be conducted after the completion of on-going MICS 2010-11. Punjab Chief Economist Arif Anwar Baloch said the provincial government was now channeling more investments towards pro-poor sectors and southern Punjab. He expressed his hope that findings of the report would lead to more informed resource allocation particularly through provincial finance commission awards.