Muhammad Nawaz
Inherently, inflation is general increase in prices and decrease in the purchasing power of money. Inflation has been increasing for several years, every common man has been facing music due to this difficult situation. There are numerous types of inflation but two of them are very common. One of them is “Demand-Pull-Effect” which can be defined as “ too many dollars being lost for few objects”. This inflation is mostly driven by consumers, when objects are in less number but buyers are more than them and willing to pay more money for getting those objects. Second one is “Cost-Pull- Effect” which can be described as “ increasement in the cost of production like labour wages, rise in taxes and in the prices of raw materials”. This inflation is usually driven by producers and this goes up due to high cost of production. When the value of production grows up, supply gets lower at current price because producers can’t make as much for the same amount of money. Furthermore, Pakistan has been dealing with these both issues inflation and poverty. In January 2020, the ratio of inflation jumped to 14.6%. If we see the rate of food inflation, it rose in urban areas by 19.5% in January on year basis and 2.7% on monthly basis where as it increased by 23.8% on year basis and 3.4% on monthly basis respectively in rural areas. These figures clearly reveal that food inflation is high in rural areas. According to world Bank, the ratio of poverty has risen from 4.4% to 5.4%. In Pakistan, more than two million individuals slipped in poverty line. In addition, inflation changes into a grave issue when income doesn’t keep up growing with the passage of time. A common man earns the same amount of money which he used to but dues of objects keep up growing slowly and gradually. At time of inflation, life becomes insufferable, miserable, and painful. High inflation is like adding fuel to fire for the poor people. When the basic needs of common people are not fulfilled. Some of them take out their children from schools or other educational institutions and take them into work shops. Their parents may think that their children may earn some amount of money and they may spend the days of life well. But unfortunately, some of them go for imperfect activities such as: kidnapping, stealing, joining improper gangs, selling objects with dishonesty and so on. Due to these unworthy activities numerous citizens not only lose their loved ones but also deal with different difficult circumstances. Moreover, in Pakistan, poverty is one of the consequential issues, 24.3% of population still lives in this. According to world Bank, the ratio of poverty has risen from 4.4% to 5.4%. In Pakistan more than two million individuals slipped in poverty line. Either for economic or for social well being of any country, it is essential to take out people from poverty line. It can’t be defeated without launching properly targeted programs. In this regard, China is one of the best examples for Pakistan. When China was under the poverty line, it had held different programs and they were customized separately for urban and rural areas. Various jobs were allocated to the poor people through these programs. Not only jobs but people were also given chances to work for government project and get healthy food besides their incomes. In this way, China came out from poverty line. Pakistan must learn something from the successful story of China for defeating poverty. Not only these, on the other side, government has been taking different measure for the stoppage of such grave issues. Government has increased Benazir income support program (BISP) from 44.00 billion to 75.00 billion. 2.00 billion has been allocated by Pakistan Bait-ul- Mal to launch various programs for helping poor people. Not only these but also one more program was launched named, Ahsas Kafalat program, through that almost every person be it a man or woman was given twelve thousands (12000) in cash price. But these steps are not sufficient for the poor people of Pakistan. Government needs to take some more steps for solving these grave issues. And should try to solve these issues as soon as possible so that poor people may begin to Join their lives once more.