ECONOMIC ACTIVITY AND POVERTY CIRCUMSTANCES.

Byline: AROOJ ASGHAR

The devastating economic fallout of the pandemic is being felt across the globe but

for poor people in Pakistan who are already struggling to survive there are almost no safety nets to stop them falling into poverty. Over 50 million people in Pakistan live under poverty line. This tragic waste of human potential is caused by unemployment, underemployment and low productivity in existing jobs, particularly in agriculture and in the urban informal economy the main source of employment in Pakistan's economy. The performance of economy has gradually deteriorated in last two years and now due to COVID 19, it is at the verge of collapse. Before COVID19 outbreak, independent economists emphasized the Ministry of Finance to cover the current account deficit and other related matters through focusing on economic growth but the Ministry of Finance was too much focused on hot money with high interest rates, which actually forced smallmedium enterprises to scale down their activities.

It is now becoming clear that a high rate of economic growth is not enough to reduce poverty unless it is supported by the public welfare projects. Economic growth can reduce poverty if it takes place in an environment of poverty with employment sensitive macroeconomic policies. At present, the poverty reducing potential of employment is not fully realized in Pakistan because: the productivity of the working poor, including those operating in smallholder agriculture and the informal economy, is not suflcient to generate a surplus for domestic savings, consumption or investment agri producers are unable to move up the value chain which would enable them to compete internationally and to retain a higher share of the value added within the country.

In recent months, Pakistan has seen highest rate of unemployment specially youth unemployment. Women's unemployment in all categories is significantly higher. Women suuer from poverty of opportunities throughout their life cycle.

In particular, women's access in the labor market in Pakistan is determined by rigid gender role, ideologies, social and cultural restriction on women's mobility and integration in the work place.

A large number of active population is either unemployed or engaged in informal economy where they engage in undocumented economic activities, without any social protection and even often in an unsafe working environment. The fact of the matter is that a large portion of women and men are...