Why Pakistan Has Large Gap Between Rich and Poor

Pakistan is a south-western country in Asia, it has a population of 197 million and 97% of them are Muslim. Some reasons for the income gap are Gender, Education, and Political Power. Due to the different beliefs of different generations, it leads to many disagreements including Gender. The older generation believes women should get married and either not work at all or work very little, her main concern they believe should be her family. The new generation believes that marriage comes after work, they want to be financially stable and educated before they get rushed into marriage.

Many children are forced out of school because their parents can not make a living without help from their children. Political Power is a very debatable topic, many politicians are corrupt and take money from the government for themselves. This leads to distrust between the people and politicians.

The income gap in Pakistan occurs because of several reasons, Gender, Education, and Political Power. Gender roles in the Muslim world and the political world in Pakistan are highly debated.

Women work domestically but it is not been measured and they are not rewarded as much. 63% of women’s teenage and childhood years are spent doing things not really expected of most teenagers and children. The fact that their work is unmeasured often means that they do not work with a solid income and the amount of money they make depends on their employer. “Women are mostly engaged in unpaid family work and their very real economic contribution is not counted….

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” (Junaidi, 1). This reveals that women are often not seen as serious when it comes to employment, this puts them at a disadvantage against men. The disappointing fact is that although women contribute so much only 3% of women own land.

This is related back to Gender roles, much of the older generation believes women should not have that kind of power. The heavy role of status is also involved when it comes to the inequality that women face. This leads them to not be able to move past the status they are in. If they are seen with a lower status chance are they will not be able to develop the skills needed to get a well-paying job. It does not apply to men as much because they are seen as hardworking and just trying to get live a better life.

The inequality that citizens have to face in Pakistan is so awful that it is ranked 2nd in the world for gender inequality. Although education in Pakistan has been a concern for many people it has not really improved. “2% of rich go to school only 50% of poorest go to school. 2nd place in the number of kids not in school” (Ali, 1) These statistics show that kids who are poor can not even use schools as a way to get out of poverty. Many of these children have to get a job to help their parents with the bills or to provide food for their siblings.

The higher education statistic is even lower, only 8% of citizens enrolled at Universities. Higher education is really the only way you can get a job that allows you to live comfortably. “Education and health infrastructures are on the verge of collapse. Institutions are rotten. Moral and ethical values are decaying.” (Talpur, 1). If the base of educational and health buildings are at their breaking point it makes it nearly impossible for people to work or go there. “Most teachers at private schools lack efficient qualifications, which results in them being seen as illiterate and inexperienced. In public schools, however, there are more teachers with efficient qualifications,” (WordPress, 1) Private schools are what most parents in Pakistan enroll their children in.

Often public schools are farther away or there is not a possible way for the child to get there. Busses are not often provided and most children walk to school. If teachers are unqualified for their job and a child complains many parents would not have the time to go to the school and complain since they are working. Many schools in Pakistan are single-sex this leads to women’s education not held at the same level as boys. Women are left facing two inequalities at once. Politicians in Pakistan are corrupt, deceiving, and dishonest.

The beginning of Pakistan, politicians were only interested in keeping their political power and pleasing the high class. This has maintained throughout history, most if not all politicians are only concerned about their wealth. A solution to this could be a poor person running as city or state official but election and campaign costs are often meant to rule out poor people running. Elected officials often ignore the poorer districts, The richest districts in Pakistan receive, on average, five times more public funds than the poorest, (Junaidi, 1).

This keeps the rich happy and makes the Elected officials more likely to win if they want to run again. “Politicians, bureaucrats, civil society, the media, many development partners and the wider publics ignore inequality in the Pakistani society and economy” (Junaidi,1). Many who face inequality are often too powerless or uneducated to do anything. If they are not informed that they should not be experiencing any inequality they will likely always face inequality. These three inequalities that citizens of Pakistan are facing has led to the income gap getting bigger and bigger.

My question was ‘Why is there such a big gap between the rich and poor in Pakistan?’ I can answer my question by saying gender and education inequality are often faced by citizens and that politicians are corrupt and are only concerned by how much power they have. Gender inequalities are just the patriarchy enforcing women to do what they want and the older generation forcing their beliefs on women.

Laws can be passed to solve these problems. Educational inequalities are faced due to the poor having no choice but to choose between life or education. This is once again a fault of the people in power and could be resolved. Political power is the main cause for a lot of these inequalities if politicians were not concerned about how much power they have and how to get richer, Pakistan could be a wonderful country.