Multidimensional Poverty: India is Home to 75% of World's Population Deprived of Basic Living Standards
Over 75% of the world's poor deprived of basic living standards (nutrition, cooking fuel, sanitation and housing) live in India compared to 4.6% in Bangladesh and 4.1% in Pakistan, according to a recently released OPHI/UNDP report on multidimensional poverty. Here's what the report says: "More than 45.5 million poor people are deprived in only these four indicators (nutrition, cooking fuel, sanitation and housing). Of those people, 34.4 million live in India, 2.1 million in Bangladesh and 1.9 million in Pakistan—making this a predominantly South Asian profile".
 |
| Global Multidimensional Poverty Index 2022. Source: OPHI/UNDP |
 |
| Income Poverty in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. Source: Our World in Data |
The UNDP poverty report shows that the income poverty (people living on $1.90 or less per day) in Pakistan is 3.6% while it is 22.5% in India and 14.3% in Bangladesh. In terms of the population vulnerable to multidimensional poverty, Pakistan (12.9%) does better than Bangladesh (18.2%) and India (18.7%) However, Pakistan fares worse than India and Bangladesh in multiple dimensions of poverty. The headline multidimensional poverty (MPI) figure for Pakistan (0.198) is worse than for Bangladesh (0.104) and India (0.069). This is primarily due to the education and health deficits in Pakistan. Adults with fewer than 6 years of schooling are considered multidimensionally poor by OPHI/UNDP. Income poverty is not included in the MPI calculations. The data used by OHP/UNDP for MPI calculation is from years 2017/18 for Pakistan and from years 2019/2021 for India.
 |
| Multidimensional Poverty in South Asia. Source: UNDP |
The Indian government's reported multidimensional poverty rate of 25.01% is much higher than the OPHI/UNDP estimate of 16.4%. NITI Ayog report released in November 2021 says: "India’s national MPI identifies 25.01 percent of the population as multidimensionally poor".
 |
| Multidimensional Poverty in India. Source: NITI Ayog via IIP |
Earlier this year, Global Hunger Index 2022 reported that India ranks 107th for hunger among 121 nations. The nation fares worse than all of its South Asian neighbors except for war-torn Afghanistan ranked 109, according to the the report. Sri Lanka ranks 64, Nepal 81, Bangladesh 84 and Pakistan 99. India and Pakistan have levels of hunger that are considered serious. Both have slipped on the hunger charts from 2021 when India was ranked 101 and Pakistan 92. Seventeen countries, including Bosnia, China, Kuwait, Turkey and UAE, are collectively ranked between 1 and 17 for having a score of less than five.
Related Links:
Haq's Musings
South Asia Investor Review
Pakistan Among World's Largest Food Producers
Food in Pakistan 2nd Cheapest in the World
India in Crisis: Unemployment and Hunger Persist After COVID
Impact of Russia Sanctions on Food, Fuel Availability
Record Number of Indians Seeking Asylum in US
Vast Majority of Pakistanis Support Imran Khan's Handling of Covid19 Crisis
Incomes of Poorest Pakistanis Growing Faster Than Their Richest Counterparts
Pakistanis Consuming More Calories, Fruits & Vegetables Per Capita
How Grim is Pakistan's Social Sector Progress?
Pakistan Fares Marginally Better Than India On Disease Burdens
COVID Lockdown Decimates India's Middle Class
Pakistan Child Health Indicators
Pakistan's Balance of Payments Crisis
How Has India Built Large Forex Reserves Despite Perennial Trade Deficits
Riaz Haq's Youtube Channel
Comments
The global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) produced by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative said this in its latest report on poverty.
“In India, five out of six multidimensionally poor people are from lower tribes or castes. The Scheduled Tribe group accounts for 9.4 per cent of the population and is the poorest, with 65 million of the 129 million people living in multidimensional poverty. They account for about one-sixth of all people living in multidimensional poverty in India,” it said.
Following the Scheduled Tribe group is the Scheduled Caste group with 33.3 per cent -- 94 million of 283 million people -- living in multidimensional poverty.
The report further said that 27.2 per cent of the Other Backward Class group- 160 million of 588 million people -- live in multidimensional poverty, “showing a lower incidence but a similar intensity compared with the Scheduled Caste group.
“Overall, five out of six multidimensionally poor people in India live in households whose head is from a Scheduled Tribe, a Scheduled Caste or Other Backward Class,” it said.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/in-india-5-out-of-6-multidimensionally-poor-are-from-lower-tribes-or-castes-un-report/articleshow/86843808.cms
At around 27% of the country's population, India has the largest number of people living in multidimensional poverty in the world, says the report.
https://theprint.in/india/every-second-st-every-third-dalit-muslim-in-india-poor-not-just-financially-un-report/262270/
In a damning reflection of how India’s most vulnerable sections continue to remain at the bottom of the pyramid, fresh data shows that the so-called ‘lower’ castes, tribals, Muslims, and children aged below 10 are among the poorest in the country.
In 2021, Pakistan was ranked 153rd in the Global Gender Gap Index. In 2020, it had ranked 154th on the Human Development Index, with 38 percent of its population living with multidimensional poverty.
https://www.thenews.com.pk/tns/detail/955905-pakistans-progress-on-sdgs
So, after one complete year, Pakistan’s ranking has improved just one notch. Keeping the lofty target in mind this is just enough. Population growth is one of the biggest challenges Pakistan is facing. It is hindering the development process and it will remain an issue for the projected future.
----
The government of Pakistan is working on the SDGs through its Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives.
There are several issues. According to the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Index ranking 2021, Pakistan ranked 129th out of 165 countries, with an overall score of 57.7 percent, mainly for its progress on one of the 17 goals – climate action.
The country saw moderate improvements in the goals for poverty, health and well-being, water and sanitation, decent work, peace and justice and partnership, but it has made no progress on zero hunger, quality education, gender equality, clean energy, innovation, sustainable cities and communities. It went backwards on life below water.
According to Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), the main contributors to multi dimensional poverty in Pakistan are years of schooling (29.7 percent), followed by access to health facilities (19.8 percent) and child school attendance (10.5 percent). Deprivations in education are the largest contributor to the MPI (42.8 percent), followed by living standards (31.5 percent) and health (25.7 percent).
The 18th Amendment to the Constitution promised free and compulsory education to all 5–16-year-olds as a fundamental right according to Article 25A. Its implementation has been slow.
With 2.2 million out-of-school children, how can the target be achieved in the absence of appropriate budgetary allocations and weak monitoring methods?
Several studies have highlighted the hazardous impact of political instability on direct foreign investment, which pushes the country further into poverty and away from achieving the SDGs.
The Covid-19 pandemic directly impacted 42m children from the pre-primary and primary-to-higher secondary and degree college levels. Mobility constraints, non-availability of the internet, lack of access to tele-schooling facilities had an adverse impact on the most vulnerable groups.
SDG 3: Good health and well-being
Even before Covid-19, Pakistan had a weak healthcare system with insufficient facilities to meet the needs of its growing population. There is on average one hospital bed available for over 1,680 people.
Some of the dimensions of the health sector are closely related to education and awareness. The relatively high levels of maternal mortality rate, infant mortality rate, low nutritional status and disparities in immunisation rates are related to the social status and education of women. These factors need to be kept in mind while making policies and implementation plans.
Pakistan has a booming private health sector. Due to high levels of poverty and illiteracy, frequent natural disasters and a tense security situation, people have to face the challenges of accessing good quality and equitable health services.
Another big issue is the cost of good medical facilities. Private facilities are often too expensive for the common man to avail quality healthcare facilities.
The governments have been initiating healthcare initiatives. These include health cards, a national health insurance programme, but the quality and accessibility of the facilities is far from uniform.
Goal 6: Clean water and sanitation
Safe and affordable drinking water for all by 2030 requires investment in adequate infrastructure.
As the winter season is around the corner, as many as eight Indian cities on Sunday made it to the list of top 10 polluted cities in Asia. As per the data released by the World Air Quality Index, eight Indian cities recorded the worst air quality in Asia, while just one city - Rajamahendravaram in Andhra Pradesh - managed to feature in the list of top 10 cities with the best air quality.
Gurugram made it to the top of the list with an air quality index (AQI) of 679 on Sunday morning, followed by Dharuhera near Rewari in Haryana with an AQI of 543 and Muzaffarpur in Bihar with an AQI of 316.
According to data available on www.aqicn.org, Delhi's AQI was recorded at 194 on Sunday.
Other cities that come on the list are Talkator, Lucknow (AQI 298), DRCC Anandpur, Begusarai (AQI 269), Bhopal Chauraha, Dewas (AQI 266), Khadakpada, Kalyan (AQI 256), Darshan Nagar and Chhapra (AQI 239).
Apart from Indian cities, China's Xiaoshishang Port in Luzhou (AQI 262) is also in the list of stations with worse air quality. Bayankhoshuu in Mangolia’s Ulaanbaata also featured in the list.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/403937/global-progress-safety-confidence-police-stalls.aspx
India ranked 60th of 121 countries in the Gallup Law and Order Index for 2021, scoring 80 on an index that ranges from 1 to 100, with a higher score indicating that more people in a country feel secure. Singapore ranked the highest with a score of 96, while Afghanistan was at the bottom of the list with 51.
Tajikistan, Norway, Switzerland and Indonesia were ranked in the top five after Singapore, while Venezuela in South America and Sierra Leone, Congo, and Gabon in Africa were among the bottom five.
Pakistan ranked 48th in the list, recording a score of 82, on par with Laos, Serbia, Iran and New Zealand.
The United States, Italy, and Germany all scored 83, while Australia scored 84, and Canada 87.
The polls found that as many as seven in 10 people globally feel safe walking alone at night where they live and have confidence in their local police. The report said that overall, the security metrics have remained stable between 2020 and 2021.
The annual Gallup survey interviewed around 1,27,000 persons over 15 years of age, in more than 122 countries and areas in 2021 and early 2022. In each country, around 1,000 respondents participated via telephone or face-to-face. Without explaining the methodology, Gallup said the index is a composite score based on the responses to four questions to measure their sense of security and faith in law enforcement.
The questions are as follows: 1) In the city or area where you live, do you have confidence in the local police force?; 2) Do you feel safe walking alone at night in the city or area where you live?; 3) Within the last 12 months, have you had money or property stolen from you or another household member?; 4) Within the past 12 months, have you been assaulted or mugged?
As per the report, 71% of the respondents said they felt safe walking alone at night where they lived and 70% said they had confidence in their local police. Additionally, 11% said they had property stolen from them or other household members in the past year, and 6% said they had been assaulted or mugged.
Overall, countries in East Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, the Commonwealth of Independent States, Latin America and the Caribbean showed a positive trend in their answers.
Countries like the United States, Canada and Western Europe, which have seen several protests against the police and government, unsurprisingly showed a downward trend in their responses to queries on faith in local police. In 2020, for instance, prior to the George Floyd killing, 82% of respondents in the US said they trusted the police. In 2021, this number fell to 74%.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/403937/global-progress-safety-confidence-police-stalls.aspx
Gallup Global Law and Order rankings (not full list):
Singapore — 96
Tajikistan — 95
Norway — 93
Switzerland — 92
Indonesia — 92
United Arab Emirates — 92
Canada — 87
Japan — 86
France — 85
Australia — 84
United States — 83
Italy — 83
Germany — 83
Iran — 82
Pakistan — 82
New Zealand — 82
Sri Lanka — 80
India — 80
Iraq — 80
United Kingdom — 79
Bangladesh — 79
Russian Federation — 77
Brazil — 71
Sierra Leone — 59
Republic of the Congo — 58
Venezuela — 55
Gabon — 54
Afghanistan — 51
https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/these-are-5-most-and-least-secure-countries-on-gallup-s-law-and-order-index-101666841222013.html
Gallup's Law and Order Index 2022 - a report by global analytics firm Gallup -- has positioned Taliban-captured Afghanistan as the least secure country for the third year. Region-wise, the report has declared East Asia as the most secure while Southeast Asia came second to it. Gallup’s survey which takes into consideration four questions to gauge “people’s sense of personal security and their personal experiences with crime and law enforcement” said it has interviewed about 127,000 people in over 120 countries to compile the list.
The five most secure countries on Gallup’s index
Singapore 96
Tajikistan 95
Norway 93
Switzerland 92
Indonesia 92
The five least secure countries on Gallup's index
Sierra Leone 59
DR Congo 58
Venezuela 55
Gabon 54
Afghanistan 51
India scored 80 points on the table, below its neighbours Pakistan and Sri Lanka with a marginal difference in points but was placed above the United Kingdom and Bangladesh. As per the reports, Southeast Asia was home to the largest gains in confidence - due to contributions from Singapore and Indonesia’s improved police services.
Afghanistan which maintained the lowest score in the last two surveys conducted in 2018 and 2019 too (survey was not conducted in 2020 due to pandemic) - improved its score relatively due to a drop in violence following the end of the Taliban’s insurgency as it had completed the takeover from US troops. The report also said that North America and Western Europe have lost ground mainly due to people’s falling confidence in the police, especially after the high-profile police shootings including the killing of George Floyd which sparked a racial injustice movement.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/403937/global-progress-safety-confidence-police-stalls.aspx
Among the top findings of the survey are that India comes in the top 10 countries for personal finance, expats with full-time jobs in India work 3.8 hours per week more than the global average, and 83% of respondents rate the quality of the environmentally negatively.
https://www.financialexpress.com/india-news/survey-ranks-india-5th-most-dangerous-country-to-live-in-the-world-top-factors-that-weighed-down-ranking/1698399/
India has been ranked as the fifth most dangerous country in the world for expats. In a survey — Expat Insider 2019 — that covered and interviewed people who live and work abroad, India has been placed at 60 of 64 countries on safety and security. According to the survey which was conducted by InterNations, over four men in ten respondents reported negative feelings about the peacefulness in the country and 27% were displeased with their personal safety — three times the global average of 9%.
“A US American expat, for example, does not like “always having to keep my guard up — as a female, I don’t feel safe. As a resident, I often feel taken advantage of at work and outside work,” the survey said.
The expats also rated negatively to the question of political stability in India. “Almost double the global average (32% vs 17% worldwide) rate the political stability of the country negatively. An Australian expat shares that ‘politics has become hardline, and there are social tensions’,” the survey found.
Young girls in the northern Indian state of Rajasthan are being sold as “repayment” for loans their parents cannot afford, the national body that protects human rights has said.
The National Human Rights Commission has issued a notice to the state government demanding a police inquiry and answers within a month to what it called an “abominable” practice.
People living in many rural areas in India often have to borrow money from fellow villagers when a family member falls seriously ill and needs medical treatment.
Local media reports say that in half a dozen districts around Bhilwara, if a family cannot repay a loan, the aggrieved creditor has complained to the “caste panchayats” or caste councils.
By way of “settlement”, the councils have ordered the family to hand over their daughter – sometimes more than one depending on the size of the loan – so that the creditor can sell her to a trafficker to recoup his money.
In its notice, the commission said that if the family refuses to sell their daughter, “their mothers are subjected to rape on the diktats of caste panchayats for the settlement of disputes”.
Among the cases highlighted by the commission is that of a man who borrowed 1.5m rupees (£15,800) from a neighbour who was forced by the panchayat to sell his sister and 12-year-old daughter to settle the debt.
In another, a man who borrowed 600,000 rupees (£6,300) when his wife fell ill and needed hospital treatment was unable to repay it. The panchayat compelled him to hand over his young daughter to the creditor, who later sold her to a trafficker in Agra. From there, “she was sold three times and became pregnant four times”, the commission said.
The commission has sent an official to Rajasthan to investigate the cases. The Bhilwara district collector, Ashish Modi, said the crimes were the first of their kind. “They are total illegal. The police are investigating and we will make sure the victims get justice and the guilty are punished,” Modi said.
Panchayats are often a profoundly regressive force in rural India, acting as kangaroo courts. They have ordered so-called honour killings of couples who have defied tradition by marrying into a different caste or faith or ordered brutal punishments for couples suspected of adultery.
In terms of safety in South Asia region, Islamabad (50) ranks the highest followed by Lahore (103), Colombo (110), Chennai (112), Hyderabad (130), Mumbai (140), Karachi (188), Bangalore (200), New Delhi (216) and Dhaka (232).
On quality of life in South Asia, Islamabad ranks 144 followed by Bangalore 167, Hyderabad 195, Chennai 218, Lahore 219, Karachi 237, New Delhi 239, Mumbai 246, Colombo 251 and Dhaka 252.
https://www.riazhaq.com/2022/10/law-and-order-index-2022-pakistan-is.html
https://www.reuters.com/world/india/indias-growth-slow-2023-fading-reopening-impact-goldman-sachs-2022-11-21/
Goldman Sachs expects India's economic growth to slow to 5.9% next year, from an estimated 6.9% growth in 2022, as the boost from the post-COVID reopening fades and monetary tightening weighs on domestic demand.
"We expect growth to be a tale of two halves in 2023, with a slowdown in the first half (due to dwindling reopening effects)," Santanu Sengupta, India economist at Goldman Sachs, said in a note on Sunday.
India's growth in the seven months since March 2022, which Goldman Sachs considers the post-COVID reopening, was faster than most other emerging markets in the first seven months after they reopened, the U.S. investment bank said.
"In the second half, we expect growth to re-accelerate as global growth recovers, the net export drag declines, and the investment cycle picks up," Sengupta said.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), last week, pegged the domestic growth rate at 7% for 2022-23.
Sengupta expects the government to continue its focus on capital spending and sees signs of the nascent investment recovery continuing, with conducive conditions helping the economy pick up in the second half.
Goldman Sachs expects headline inflation to drop to 6.1% in 2023, from 6.8% in 2022, saying government intervention was likely to cap food prices and that core goods inflation had probably peaked.
"But upside risks to services inflation are likely to keep core inflation sticky around 6% year-on-year," Sengupta added.
Goldman expects the RBI to hike the repo rate by 50 basis points (bps) in December 2022 and by 35 bps in February, taking the repo rate to 6.75%. The forecast is more hawkish than the market consensus of 6.50%.
On India's external position, Sengupta reckons the worst is over, with the dollar likely near the peak. He expects the current account deficit to remain wide due to weak exports, but said growth capital may continue to chase India.
Sengupta pegs the USD/INR INR=IN at 84, 83, and 82 over 3-, 6- and 12-month horizons, respectively, compared with 81.88 currently.
AUGUST 2019
https://migration.iom.int/sites/g/files/tmzbdl1461/files/reports/Pakistan%20Migration%20Snapshot%20Final.pdf
Table 1: Pakistan Key demographic indicators
Indicator Pakistan
Total area, in sq km, million 0.796
Population (2017), thousand d 197,016
Migrant population (2017), thousand d 3,398
Migrant population (2017), % total population d 1.7%
Urban Population (2017), % of total b 36.4%
Population Growth rate (2017), annual % b 1.9%
Human Development Index (2017) c 0.562
Country Rank out of 189 c 150/189
Unemployment (2017), % of labour force c 4.0%
Youth Unemployment (2017), % ages 15-24 c 7.7%
Multidimensional Poverty Headcount (2015), % 38.8%
Gini Coefficient (2010-2017)
c 30.7
Foreign Direct Investment (net inflows, 2017), current USD, billion b 2.815
Net Official Development Assistance Received (2017), current USD, billion b 2.953
Personal Remittances Received (2017), current USD, billion b 19.698
Personal Remittances Received (2017), % GDP b 6.5%
Source: b World Bank, 2018; c UNDP, 2018; d UNDESA, 2017;
e UNDP and OPHI (2016).
The decline in India’s rankings on a number of global opinion-based indices are due to "cherry-picking of certain media reports" and are primarily based on the opinions of a group of unknown “experts”, a recent study has concluded.
A new working paper titled "Why India does poorly on global perception indices" found that while such indices cannot be ignored as "mere opinions" since they feed into World Bank’s World Governance Indicators (WGI), there needs to be a closer inspection on the methodology used to arrive at the data.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/indias-declining-rank-in-global-indices-due-to-serious-problems-in-methodology-analysis/articleshow/95692106.cms
The findings were published by Sanjeev Sanyal, member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister and Aakanksha Arora, deputy director of (EAC to PM).
In the report, the authors conducted a case study of three o ..
In the report, the authors conducted a case study of three
opinion-based indices: Freedom in the World index, EIU
Democracy index and Variety of Democracy.
They drew four broad conclusions from the study:
1) Lack of transparency: The indices were primarily based on
the opinions of a tiny group of unknown “experts”.
2) Subjectivity: The questions used were subjective and
worded in a way that is impossible to answer objectively
even for a country.
3) Omission of important questions: Key questions which
are pertinent to a measure of democracy, like “Is the head of
state democratically elected?”, were not asked.
4) Ambiguous questions: Certain questions used by these
indices were not an appropriate measure of democracy
across all countries.
Here's a look at the three indices examined by the study:
Freedom in the World Index
India’s score on the US-based Freedom in the World Index —
an annual global report on political rights and civil liberties
— has consistently declined post 2018.
It's score on civil liberties was flat at 42 till 2018 but dropped
sharply to 33 by 2022. It's political rights score dropped from
35 to 33. Thus, India’s total score dropped to 66 which places
India in the “partially free” category – the same status it had
during the Emergency.
The study found that only two previous instances where
India was considered as Partially Free was during the time of
Emergency and then during 1991-96 which were years of
economic liberalisation.
"Clearly this is arbitrary. What did the years of Emergency,
which was a period of obvious political repression,
suspended elections, official censoring of the press, jailing of
opponents without charge, banned labour strikes etc, have
in common with period of economic liberalisation and of
today," the study asked.
It concluded that the index "cherry-picked" some media
reports and issues to make the judgement.
The authors further found that in Freedom House's latest
report of 2022, India’s score of the Freedom in the World
Index is 66 and it is in category "Partially Free".
"Cross country comparisons point towards the arbitrariness
in the way scoring is done. There are some examples of
countries which have scores higher than India which seem
clearly unusual. Northern Cyprus is considered as a free
territory with a score of 77 (in 2022 report). It is ironical as
North Cyprus is not even recognised by United Nations as a
country. It is recognised only by Turkey," the authors noted.
Economist Intelligence Unit
In the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) Democracy Index,
published the research and consulting arm of the firm that
publishes the Economist magazine, India is placed in the
category of “Flawed Democracy”.
Its rank deteriorated sharply from 27 in 2014 to 53 in 2020
and then improved a bit to 46 in 2021. The decline in rank
has been on account of decline in scores primarily in the
categories of civil liberties and political culture.
The authors found that list of questions used to determine
the outcome was "quite subjective", making objective
https://reliefweb.int/report/pakistan/pakistan-market-monitor-report-november-2022
HIGHLIGHTS
• Headline inflation based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased in October 2022 by 4.71% over September 2022 and increased by 26.56% over October 2021. CPI food inflation in October 2022 increased by 36.24% over October 2021.
• In October 2022, prices increased for staple cereals including wheat flour (+7.4%), wheat (+3.8%), rice Irri-6 (+7.0%) and rice Basmati (+1.6%) compared to September 2022.
• Among non-cereal food commodities, price increased for pulse Moong (+2.4%) from the previous month.
On the other hand, prices decreased for pulse Masoor (-12.0%), live chicken (-3.4%), cooking oil (-2.4%), pulse Mash (-2.1%), vegetable ghee (-1.7%) and pulse Gram (-1.1%) from September 2022.
• A comparison of pre-flood (June) and post-flood (October) prices of some food commodities indicated huge increase in prices; for instance, tomatoes increased by up to 199%, onions 79%, pulse moong 48%, potatoes 43% and wheat flour 38%.
• Average Terms of Trade (ToT) for October 2022, measuring the amount of wheat flour that can be purchased with one-day of casual unskilled labour wage, worsened by 6.5% from the previous month. It was recorded at 12.5 kg of wheat flour compared to 13.4 kg the previous month.
• The retail prices of automotive fuels in comparison to September 2022 decreased during October 2022 i.e.,
Super Petrol (-4.7%) and High-Speed Diesel (-4.9%).
Why millions of Indians don't use the toilets they have
Oct 5, 2019 — According to Census 2011, 69.3% of rural households didn't own a toilet or latrine, but by June 2019
Roshani Bhandari takes short, quick steps and disappears behind shrubs near a natural spring in her village in Uttarakhand’s Uttarkashi district. After answering nature’s call, the 48-year-old starts her km-long trek back home. Like other families in her village of Malna, Roshani has a toilet at home — one she seldom uses. “The toilet at home has no water. Sometimes, we store water in cans but it is not enough for the entire family. It’s easier in the open where water is readily available.”
Water-scarce Malna was among Indian villages that saw toilets being built at an unprecedented pace under Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM). From a mere 37,112 toilets in rural areas of Uttarakhand in 2014, the number now stands at 4,86,362. All 35 families in Malna have had a toilet since 2015, but lack of water means not everyone is using these. It’s the same story in Kharwada village in Rajasthan’s Sirohi district, where toilets without water are being used to store discarded items. Both Rajasthan and Uttarakhand were declared open defecation-free as early as 2018.
Tackling Open Defecation in India | Our Stories - LIXIL
https://www.lixil.com/en/stories/stories_10/
Jan 21, 2022 — As a consequence, an estimated 800 children under the age of 5 die every day from diarrheal diseases caused by a lack of safe water and sanitary living conditions.
Experts draw attention to India's open defecation problem
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/experts-draw-attention-to-indias-open-defecation-problem/2424082
Nov 18, 2021 — Even though India was declared open defecation free by the government in October 2019, a report of the Joint Monitoring Program for Water Supply ...
No latrines and drinking water for more than half of India ...
https://www.downtoearth.org.in/infographics/no-latrines--and-drinking-water-for-more-than-half-of-india-finds-survey--43111
Nov 30, 2020 — More than half of rural households in India don’t have toilet infrastructure and drinking water facilities within their homes, according to latest statistics released by the government.
At 732 Million, India Tops List on Number of People Without Access to Toilets
https://thewire.in/health/732-million-india-tops-list-number-people-without-access-toilets-report
Nov 16, 2017 — India, the world's second-largest country by population, has the highest number of people (732 million) without access to toilets, ...
India spent $30 billion to fix its broken sanitation. It ended up with more problems
https://www.cnet.com/culture/india-spent-30-billion-to-fix-its-broken-sanitation-it-ended-up-with-more-problems/
Sep 11, 2020 — Swachh Bharat has made huge gains so far, but many challenges remain. Let's run through them.
Charities Aid Foundation rolls out challenge for sanitation ...
https://indianexpress.com/article/india/charities-aid-foundation-rolls-out-challenge-for-sanitation-awareness/
Jul 2, 2015 — To address this problem of sanitation, Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) India has rolled out a unique challenge to involve more people in the ...
Here's Why India Is Struggling to Be Truly Open Defecation Free
https://thewire.in/government/heres-why-india-is-struggling-to-be-truly-open-defecation-free
Oct 28, 2021 — India built over 9.5 crore toilets across the country and was declared Open Defecation Free (ODF) in October, 2019. Three years later, a walk in the village, Bargadia in Uttar Pradesh shows a different reality.
Indian toilet charity renames village after Trump | Reuters
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-usa-trump-village/indian-toilet-charity-renames-village-after-trump-idUSKBN19E209
Jun 23, 2017 — A toilet charity has renamed an Indian village after U.S. President Donald Trump as part of a promotional push to raise cash and support ...
Second. my previous empathy for the people (all the people) has been destroyed by more than a decade of learning about the realities there, including a revulsion to their vile "Hindu religion".
Third, Hindutva is based on myth and lies from the outset. It takes no more than a few minutes using a google search to learn that.
Fourth, I started checking on India's reputation when Donald Trump started yammering about "shit hole" countries. This is what the developed world knows about it:
Is India a shithole country? | Debate.org
https://www.debate.org/opinions/is-india-a-shithole-country
I've never seen anywhere come even close to being as filthy as India. It's literally one giant shit hole.
Drowning in liquid filth – in 21st century India | New Internationalist
https://newint.org/blog/2016/03/24/drowning-in-liquid-filth-india-in-21st-century
Mar 25, 2016 - India. A dalit manual scavenging. Dalit ... Imagine the indignity, the sheer horror, of drowning in shit. Imagine the ...
'The Dump Killed My Son': Mountains of Garbage Engulf India's Capital
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/10/world/asia/india-delhi-garbage.html
Jun 10, 2018
It Snowed In India! Just Kidding - 1.5 Billion Liters Of Shit Turned An Entire River Into A Toxic Foam Pit
https://www.barstoolsports.com/barstoolu/it-snowed-in-india-just-kidding-1-5-billion-liters-of-shit-turned-an-entire-river-into-a-toxic-foam-pit
Sep 27, 2018 - The Yamuna, along with India’s holiest river, the Ganges, are considered among the most polluted in the world. Activist Brij Khandelwal once described the Yamuna as “ecologically dead.” Sewage from Delhi and other cities, chemical waste from manufacturing plants and pesticide runoff are all part of the problem.
Prion Diseases | Johns Hopkins Medicine
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/prion-diseases
Genetic PrP Prion Diseases - CSH Perspectives
https://cshperspectives.cshlp.org/content/10/5/a033134.short
A Clear Fix for a Common Birth Defect in India
https://www.thinkglobalhealth.org/article/clear-fix-common-birth-defect-india
Birth defects in India: Hidden truth, need for urgent attention
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/256481757_Birth_defects_in_India_Hidden_truth_need_for_urgent_attention
Child malnutrition in India: A systemic failure - Down To Earth
https://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/health/child-malnutrition-in-india-a-systemic-failure-76507
Apr 15, 2021 — Despite decades of investment to tackle this malaise, India’s child malnutrition rates are still one of the most alarming in the world.
Malnutrition in India is a worry in a modern scenario - The Hindu
https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/malnutrition-in-india-is-a-worry-in-a-modern-scenario/article65527411.ece
Why Does a Quaint Town in India Have the World's Highest Suicide Rate?
https://www.ozy.com/around-the-world/why-does-a-quaint-town-in-india-have-the-worlds-highest-suicide-rate/92655/
Feb 28, 2019 — The ubiquity of suicides and suicide attempts here only serves to normalize it.
Gravitas: India's suicide deaths at all-time high - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=km7A33RY35A
Sep 2, 2022 — India's suicide deaths hit an all-time high in 2021. Student suicides surged 4.5% compared to the previous year. How must India deal with this worrying trend Palki Sharma tells you.
https://www.independenturdu.com/node/124601?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1672283178-1
ایک غیر سرکاری ادارے نے بلوچستان کے 14 شہروں میں ٹیلی ہیلتھ سینٹرز قائم کیے ہیں، جہاں دوردراز علاقوں سے آنے والی خواتین کا علاج اسلام آباد میں بیٹھے ڈاکٹر کرتے ہیں۔
بلوچستان کے ضلع موسیٰ خیل کے پہاڑی گاؤں لوغی سے تعلق رکھنے والی عمر رسیدہ خاتون بی بی سارہ اپنی حاملہ بہو کو شہر لائی ہیں، جہاں کے طبی مرکز میں اسلام آباد سے ایک گائناکالوجسٹ ان کا آن لائن معائنہ کرتی ہیں۔
روایتی بشتون لباس میں ملبوس 50 سالہ بی بی سارہ نے انڈپینڈنٹ اردو کو بتایا کہ ان کے گاؤں کے کلینک میں ڈاکٹر نہیں ہوتے بلکہ غیر تربیت یافتہ دائیاں علاج کرتی ہیں، جو ان سے پیسے بھی لیتی ہیں۔
انہوں نے مزید بتایا کہ ’یہاں ڈاکٹر بھی بڑی ہے اور پیسے بھی نہیں لیتے، علاج بھی بہت اچھا ہوتا ہے۔‘
بی بی سارہ ان ہزاروں خواتین میں سے ایک ہیں، جو علاج کے اخراجات برداشت نہیں کرسکتیں اور نہ ہی علاج کروانے کے لیے کسی متصل بڑے شہر کا سفر کر سکتی ہیں۔
بلوچستان میں دو ہزار کی آبادی کے لیے صرف ایک ڈاکٹر موجود ہے۔ اس خلا کو پورا کرنے کے لیے نیم سرکاری ادارے پیپلز پرائمری ہیلتھ کیئر انیشی ایٹو (پی پی ایچ آئی) کی جانب سے ٹیلی ہیلتھ سینٹر کا قیام عمل میں لایا گیا ہے، جہاں بچوں اور خواتین مریضوں کا وفاقی دارالحکومت اسلام آباد کے ماہر ڈاکٹروں سے ویڈیو لنک کے ذریعے معائنہ اور علاج کرایا جاتا ہے۔
مرکز میں کام کرنے والی ایل ایچ وی زرمینہ کا کہنا تھا کہ یہاں ان کے پاس گائنی، سکن اور دیگر امراض کے مریض آتے ہیں۔
’ہم مریضوں کی ہسٹری لے کر ڈاکٹر کو بھیجتے ہیں، وہ ادویات تجویز کرتی ہیں، جس کے بعد فارمیسی سے مریضوں کو مفت ادویات فراہم کی جاتی ہیں۔‘
ڈسٹرکٹ سپورٹ مینیجر پی پی ایچ آئی سید امان شاہ نے انڈپینڈنٹ اردو کو بتایا کہ ٹیلی ہیلتھ سینٹر کا قیام گذشتہ سال جون میں عمل میں لایا گیا، جس کا بنیادی مقصد صوبے کے دور دراز علاقوں میں لوگوں کو ان کی دہلیز پر طبی سہولیات فراہم کرنا ہے۔
انہوں نے بتایا کہ ’صوبے میں قائم 14 ٹیلی ہیلتھ سینٹرز میں گائناکالوجسٹ، ماہرامراض جلد، جنرل فزیشن اور دیگر ڈاکٹرز موجود ہیں۔‘
جنوبی پنجاب سے متصل ضلع موسیٰ خیل کا شمار بلوچستان کے ان پسماندہ و دور دراز اضلاع میں ہوتا ہے، جہاں کے لوگ صحت، تعلیم اور پینے کے صاف پانی سمیت تمام بنیادی ضروریات زندگی سے محروم ہیں۔
اس ضلع میں سڑک اور ٹرانسپورٹ کی سہولت کی عدم موجودگی کے باعث زچگی کے دوران اکثر خواتین دم توڑ جاتی ہیں، جبکہ نوزائیدہ بچوں میں غذائی قلت کی شرح بھی دیگر اضلاع سے کئی گنا زیادہ ہے، جس کی بنیادی وجہ غربت اور کم شرح خواندگی بتائی جاتی ہیں۔
https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news-feature/2022/12/19/India-hunger-starvation-data-malnutrition
The government is accused of failing to log starvation deaths, while the safety net isn’t catching all it should.
The government hasn’t logged a single death from starvation since 2016, but Mrinalini Paul, who works with the Right to Food and Work Network (RTFWN), a local NGO, said it’s clear Sardar’s death should have been recorded as one, as should many others.
The Sardar family was eligible for 35 kilos of rice and grain monthly from a government-run aid programme but had been approved for just two kilos because they lacked the right ID documents, according to Paul. “They had been without even these minimal benefits for six months,” she told The New Humanitarian.
Sunil Agarwala, the district magistrate of Jhargram, refuted the allegations, telling The Hindu newspaper they were "baseless", while insisting that Sardar’s death “was due to illness, TB, and other reasons”.
According to the World Health Organization, undernutrition is a key driver of TB, while malnutrition also makes TB therapy less effective and raises the risk of TB-related death.
The recently published Medical Certification Cause of Death (MCCD), 2020 report found that fewer than a quarter of the 81,15,882 registered deaths in India that year had known causes. Hunger activists are alarmed that a country with 1.4 billion people can only verify the causes of 22.5% of its documented fatalities.
Swati Narayan, assistant professor at the School for Public Health and Human Development at O.P. Jindal Global University, told The New Humanitarian that medical workers are unlikely to catch if the cause of death is starvation given how post-mortems are typically carried out.
She said it was crucial to also consider the person's socioeconomic position and the condition of their body, including the weight of their organs, visceral fat, and diseases brought on by a weaker immune system and malnutrition.
“The post-mortem reports are not an accurate reflection of hunger or starvation deaths in the country,” Narayan said. “Oral autopsies are much better at determining if the cause of death was hunger.”
Worsening hunger and the fight for a stronger safety net
Question marks around Sardar’s death and others like it – a similar case involving three “hunger deaths” in the same family went before the high court last month in Jharkhand, which borders West Bengal to the east – come amid signs of growing food insecurity in India.
The 2022 Global Hunger Index ranks India at 107 out of 121 nations, six places lower than its previous ranking, and below the likes of Ethiopia, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.
While India remains in the “serious” category rather than “alarming” or “very alarming”, it recorded the highest percentage (19.3%) of any country of children under five who are “wasting”, meaning they’re below average weight for their height.
The pandemic made hunger worse, but income losses and rising debt continued to drive it up long after the worst of the health crisis had passed. A survey by the Right to Food Campaign in late 2021/early 2022 found that nearly 80% of respondents faced food insecurity, and almost half had run out of food the previous month.
However, the hunger problems also pre-date COVID. India’s last National Family Health Survey, which used data from 2019, found that stunting – a sign of chronic malnutrition – had risen in 11 out of the 17 states. In 13 states, wasting had also increased.
But it may suit Narendra Modi just fine
https://www.economist.com/asia/2023/01/05/postponing-indias-census-is-terrible-for-the-country
Narendra Modi often overstates his achievements. For example, the Hindu-nationalist prime minister’s claim that all Indian villages have been electrified on his watch glosses over the definition: only public buildings and 10% of households need a connection for the village to count as such. And three years after Mr Modi declared India “open-defecation free”, millions of villagers are still purging al fresco. An absence of up-to-date census information makes it harder to check such inflated claims. It is also a disaster for the vast array of policymaking reliant on solid population and development data.
----------
Three years ago India’s government was scheduled to pose its citizens a long list of basic but important questions. How many people live in your house? What is it made of? Do you have a toilet? A car? An internet connection? The answers would refresh data from the country’s previous census in 2011, which, given India’s rapid development, were wildly out of date. Because of India’s covid-19 lockdown, however, the questions were never asked.
Almost three years later, and though India has officially left the pandemic behind, there has been no attempt to reschedule the decennial census. It may not happen until after parliamentary elections in 2024, or at all. Opposition politicians and development experts smell a rat.
----------
For a while policymakers can tide themselves over with estimates, but eventually these need to be corrected with accurate numbers. “Right now we’re relying on data from the 2011 census, but we know our results will be off by a lot because things have changed so much since then,” says Pronab Sen, a former chairman of the National Statistical Commission who works on the household-consumption survey. And bad data lead to bad policy. A study in 2020 estimated that some 100m people may have missed out on food aid to which they were entitled because the distribution system uses decade-old numbers.
Similarly, it is important to know how many children live in an area before building schools and hiring teachers. The educational misfiring caused by the absence of such knowledge is particularly acute in fast-growing cities such as Delhi or Bangalore, says Narayanan Unni, who is advising the government on the census. “We basically don’t know how many people live in these places now, so proper planning for public services is really hard.”
The home ministry, which is in charge of the census, continues to blame its postponement on the pandemic, most recently in response to a parliamentary question on December 13th. It said the delay would continue “until further orders”, giving no time-frame for a resumption of data-gathering. Many statisticians and social scientists are mystified by this explanation: it is over a year since India resumed holding elections and other big political events.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1732029
https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@dgreports/@inst/documents/publication/wcms_865332.pdf
The report also places India and Bangladesh among lower-middle-income countries despite their economic gains and urges the entire South Asian region to reduce its energy consumption. Nepal is also placed in the same category, although Afghanistan is listed among low-income countries.
The report by the UN labour agency warns that finding a decent and well-paid job will be harder in 2023 than it was in 2022, thanks to the continuing global economic downturn.
The report notes that South Asia has not been affected by the Ukraine war as it has few direct links with Russia and Ukraine. But it is “very vulnerable to the higher global commodity prices that have resulted from the conflict.”
According to this report, South Asia “remains highly vulnerable to natural disasters, for example on the flood plains of Pakistan and Bangladesh.” Countries such as Pakistan “are also increasingly held back by very high levels of energy subsidies, which weigh heavily on public finances and are failing to reduce poverty effectively.”
The report argues that recent high and volatile energy prices have shown South Asia’s vulnerability to energy imports, and underlines “a clear need to become less dependent on these imports.”
The UN labour agency predicts that the number of people unemployed around the world would rise slightly to 208 million in 2023. This corresponds to a global unemployment rate of 5.8 per cent — or 16 million people — according to the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) World Employment and Social Outlook Trends report. Today’s economic slowdown “means that many workers will have to accept lower quality jobs, often at very low pay, sometimes with insufficient hours,” the report adds.
The UN agency notes that this already happening in Europe and other developed countries, thanks to the Ukraine war and the continued disruption of global supply chains, both of which are counteracting the robust stimulus packages implemented to ride out the Covid-19 crisis. “Real wages we project for 2022 to have declined by 2.2pc in advanced countries and of course, Europe makes up a significant proportion of advanced countries, versus a rise in real wages in developing countries,” says Richard Samans, Director of ILO’s Research Department. The report also predicts a setback to the informal economy, which will adversely affect efforts to help the world’s two billion informal workers join the formal employment sector.
As prices rise faster than wages, the cost-of-living crisis risks pushing more people into poverty, the report adds, pointing out that the trend follows significant declines in income during the Covid-19 crisis, which affected low-income groups most, in many countries. Some 214m workers live in extreme poverty today, “in other words with $1.90 a day.
From a gender perspective, the unequal development of the global jobs market continues to be concerning. There are 290 million youth who are not in employment, or in education or training and “young women are faring much worse,” the report warns.
"while Pakistan's are from 2017/18"
Pakiland would have slid further in 2022! The 2022 data as and when they are available will show Pakiland as even worse off.
"Besides, Modi's numbers are not trustworthy"
The GHI calculations for India are also based on the source data provided by the Govt of India. You have no difficulty in believing Modi's numbers for hunger, but not for others! Very strange.
So why is the Modi government questioning GHI India's low ranking on hunger?
https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/public-health/india-slips-in-global-hunger-index-ranking-narendra-modi-government-cries-foul/article66056086.ece
The Global Hunger Index report of 2022, published in mid October, shows India’s place to have fallen to 107 from the previous year’s 101, out of 121 countries. Once again, the Government of India has questioned the survey’s methodology and sample size and accused the authors, Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe, of bias. In a statement almost identical to that of last year, the Women and Child Development Ministry alleged that a consistent effort was on to tarnish India’s image.
GHI calculations are based on four indicators: undernourishment in adult and child populations, under-five mortality, stunting (low height for age) and wasting. Undernourishment, measured against adequacy of food access, was used as a lead indicator of international hunger eradication targets, including the Sustainable Development Goal number 2. Child stunting and wasting went beyond adequate calorie availability and were used as indicators for child nutrition. Child mortality reflected the most serious consequence of hunger. Critics of the report argued that there was no concrete evidence to establish the connection between hunger and these four indicators.
For the 2022 report, data from 136 countries were analysed. There were sufficient data from 121 countries to calculate GHI scores and rank them. India was ranked 107 with a GHI score of 29.1, considered as “serious”. In South Asia, India was ahead of only Afghanistan (109).
https://www.reuters.com/world/india/india-soon-worlds-most-populous-nation-doesnt-know-how-many-people-it-has-2023-02-15/
Experts say the delay in updating data like employment, housing, literacy levels, migration patterns and infant mortality, which are captured by the census, affects social and economic planning and policy making in the huge Asian economy.
Calling census data "indispensable", Rachna Sharma, a fellow at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, said studies like the consumption expenditure survey and the periodic labour force survey are estimations based on information from the census.
"In the absence of latest census data, the estimations are based on data that is one decade old and is likely to provide estimates that are far from reality," Sharma said.
A senior official at the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation said census data from 2011, when the count was last conducted, was being used for projections and estimates required to assess government spending.
A spokesman for the ministry said its role was limited to providing the best possible projections and could not comment on the census process. The Prime Minister's Office did not respond to requests for comment
Two other government officials, one from the federal home (interior) ministry and another from the office of the Registrar General of India, said the delay was largely due to the government's decision to fine-tune the census process and make it foolproof with the help of technology.
The home ministry official said the software that will be used to gather census data on a mobile phone app has to be synchronised with existing identity databases, including the national identity card, called Aadhaar, which was taking time.
The office of the Registrar General of India, which is responsible for the census, did not respond to a request for comment.
The main opposition Congress party and critics of Prime Minister Narendra Modi have accused the government of delaying the census to hide data on politically sensitive issues, such as unemployment, ahead of national elections due in 2024.
"This government has often displayed its open rivalry with data," said Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera. "On important matters like employment, Covid deaths etc., we have seen how the Modi government has preferred to cloak critical data.”
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's national spokesperson, Gopal Krishna Agarwal, dismissed the criticism.
"I want to know on what basis they are saying this. Which is the social parameter on which our performance in nine years is worse than their 65 years?" he said, referring to the Congress party's years in power.
TEACHERS' TRAVAILS
The United Nations has projected India's population could touch 1,425,775,850 on April 14, overtaking China on that day.
The 2011 census had put India's population at 1.21 billion, meaning the country has added 210 million, or almost the number of people in Brazil, to its population in 12 years.
India's census is conducted by about 330,000 government school teachers who first go door-to-door listing all houses across the country and then return to them with a second list of questions.
They ask more than two dozen questions each time in 16 languages in the two phases that will be spread over 11 months, according to the plan made for 2021.
The numbers will be tabulated and final data made public months later. The entire exercise was estimated to cost 87.5 billion rupees ($1.05 billion) in 2019.
Ashoka Mody, who was for many years a senior economist at the International Monetary Fund, is the sort of quietly efficient global technocrat who retires to a professorship at a prestigious school—in his case, Princeton. Yet he’s different from his faceless ilk of briefcase-bearers in one astonishing way: 13 years ago, an attempt was made on his life. The alleged assailant, thought to have been passed over for a job at the IMF by Mr. Mody, shot him in the jaw outside his house in Maryland.
He recovered with remarkable verve, his intellectual drive intact. Yet a mood of gloom and pessimism is unmistakable in “India Is Broken.” Today, 75 years after independence from Britain, Mr. Mody believes that India’s democracy and economy are in a state of profound malfunction. The book’s tale, he writes, “is one of continuous erosion of social norms and decay of political accountability.” You might add that it is also a tale of an audacious political experiment on the brink of failure.
India started its post-independence journey, says Mr. Mody, as “an improbable democracy” whose citizens, mostly illiterate and poor, hungered for freedom and prosperity. Generations of Indian politicians—from Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister, to Narendra Modi, the present one—have “betrayed the economic aspirations” of millions. India’s democracy no longer protects fundamental rights and freedoms in a nation over which “a blanket of violence” has fallen. A belief in “equality, tolerance and shared progress” has disappeared. And the country’s collapse isn’t just political and economic; it’s also moral and spiritual.
------------
A notable weakness in Mr. Mody’s analysis is his denial that the economic policies of Nehru and his successors were socialist. He writes of Nehru’s “alleged socialist legacy” and adds that it is a “mistake to identify central planning or big government as socialism.” Socialism, he insists, “means the creation of equal opportunity for all,” which India’s policy makers weren’t doing. Ergo, India wasn’t socialist.
If these protestations are almost laughable, Mr. Mody’s solution also invites some derision. Hope for India, he says, lies in making it a “true democracy.” And how can that be done? “We must move to an equilibrium in which everyone expects others to be honest.” This “honest equilibrium,” he says, will promote enough trust for Indians to work together “in the long-haul tasks of creating public goods and advancing sustainable development” and awakening “civic consciousness.” Mr. Mody, it is clear, has a dream. It is naïve, and it is corny. India, alas, will continue to be “broken” for many years to come.
https://reliefweb.int/report/pakistan/unicef-pakistan-humanitarian-situation-report-no-10-floods-28-february-2023
Moving into 2023, urgent and significant humanitarian needs remain which require continued focus and support, even as reconstruction and rehabilitation begin under the Post-Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) and Resilient, Recovery, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Framework (4RF).
The 2022 flood was equivalent to nearly 2.9 times the national 30-year average – and a combination of riverine, urban, and flash flooding led to a record flood in which 94 districts were declared calamity-hit. The widespread flooding and landslides resulted in major losses of human lives and damage to property and infrastructure. Around 33 million people were affected, nearly 8 million people were reportedly displaced, and as per UN Satellite Centre imagery around 4.5 million people are still exposed to or living close to flood water. As per the last NDMA situation report, 1,739 people lost their lives (of which 647 were children), 12,867 were injured (including 4,006 children) and more than 2.28 million houses were damaged (partially damaged: 1,391,467 and fully damaged: 897,014).
An estimated 20.6 million people, including 9.6 million children, need humanitarian assistance. Many of the hardest-hit districts are amongst the most vulnerable districts in Pakistan, where children already suffer from high malnutrition, poor access to water and sanitation, low school enrolment, and other deprivations. Moreover, the effects of the floods have worsened pre-existing vulnerabilities to key child-protection issues and gender-based violence (GBV). Children, particularly those living in poverty, are at a higher risk of being forced into child labour, child marriage and violence. The affected area in need of community-based psychosocial support and specialized interventions. As per the PDNA, beyond the increase in monetary poverty, estimates indicate an increase in multidimensional poverty from 37.8 per cent to 43.7 per cent, meaning that an additional 1.9 million households will be pushed into non-monetary poverty. This entails significantly increased deprivations around access to adequate health, sanitation, quality maternal health care, electricity, and loss of assets. Multidimensional poverty will increase by 13 percentage points in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), followed by 10.9 in Balochistan, and 10.2 in Sindh province.
As per the latest available reports, more than 5.4 million people do not have access to safe or potable water in flood-affected districts. An estimated 1.1 million people are at risk of sliding from acute food and livelihood crisis (IPC3) situations to humanitarian emergency (IPC4) food security situations due to insufficient support. Malaria outbreaks have been reported in at least 12 districts of Sindh and Balochistan. Over 7 million children and women need immediate access to nutrition services. An estimated 3.5 million children, especially girls, are at high risk of permanent school dropouts.