Naseebullah Khan
The human development index is measured in four indicators such as life expectancy at birth, mean years of schooling, living standards, and per capita income. The HDI was developed by Pakistani economist Mehboob ul Haqas in 1990 as a measure of the progress of three dimensions of human development viz a viz 1 long and healthy life 2 access to education, and 3 a living standard. As per the report 2021_22 of the UNDP, Pakistan stands number 161 out of 191 states. The report says that Pakistan has Dawn by 7 percent more than the previous year. It says that life expectancy in Pakistan is 66.1 years, the expected year of schooling is 8 years and per Capita income is 4624 dollars. The report further says that from 2017 to 2022 people were biased in one or another way in different fields. The report says that 84.56 percent of the people were politically biased, 59.50 were educationally, 91.63 were economically and 92.23 were biased about physical integrity respectively. The pathetic situation of the HDI is not confined to Pakistan only. No Muslim state is on the list of the first 25 countries. The most progressive country in the Muslim world concerning the HDI is the UAE which is on the 26th number. While Bahrain and Saudi Arabia are on 35, Qatar is on 42, Turkiye is on 48, Yemen is on 183 and Afghanistan is number 180 respectively. Contrary, non-Muslim countries particularly in Europe had impressive Human development index positions. Switzerland is in number 1 position, Norway and Iceland are on 2, Hong Kong is on 4, Australia is on 5, Denmark is on 6, Sweedon is on 7, and Germany is on number 9 position respectively. In South Asia Sri Lanka is number 73rd, Bangladesh is 129th and India is number 132 respectively. The education scenario in Pakistan is gloomy as its literacy rate is 60 percent. Millions of children are out of school the budget spending on this sector is short of international standards. For instance, the federal government reserved Rs 91 billion in the budget for 2022_23 while a mere 44 billion was allocated for the HEC. In the fiscal year of 2022_23 Sind allocated 326 Rs billion for education, Balochistan allocated Rs 83 billion, and Punjab allocated Rs 485 billion respectively. The health sector in Pakistan has been ignored too. The WHO says that Pakistan should allocate 6 percent of the budget to healthcare. Whereas, in 2021_21 total federal and provincial budget allocations for health were 1.2 percent of its total budget. For instance, Punjab province’s health budget was Rs 470 billion, Sindh,s was Rs 207 billion, Kyber Pakhtunskhwa’s health budget allocation was Rs 55 billion and Balochistan allocated Rs 43 billion respectively. As per the Pakistan bureau of statistics, there were 266,430 doctors for a population of 207 million in Pakistan in 2021 which means that one doctor is available for 777 people. While the infant mortality rate is 53 per thousand live births When we come to our living standards the situation is abysmal. According to the PSLM, 73 percent of households are not connected to sewerage systems, 36 percent of houses are not connected with drainage systems and only 22 percent of people have access to Tap water. 34 percent of the Pakistani population lives on just 3.2 dollars per day as per World bank statistics of April 2022. It further says that the poor in Pakistan spend 50 percent of their income on food. Are we living in the 21st century? The human development index reflects not. What has gone wrong? What has stopped us from spending on human development? How can we cope with these dwindling indicators? Giving a cool fist to corruption, stopping irrelevant bricks and mortars projects, focusing on economic progress, institutional balance, letting democracy evolve, and political stability could be changing factors. Are we prepared? The current political battles, institutional clashes, and huge economic declines are evidence that we are not. If we do not learn from history, the situation would be more disastrous
