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In the NHDR study for the first time in Pakistan,
human development indices have been estimated for provinces and
districts. The variation in HDI between provinces and districts are
indicative of regional disparities in both the level of economic
growth as well as in terms of health, education and the quality of
life (for more detailed tables and method of calculation, see NHDR).
There is considerable variation across provinces with respect to
literacy rates which vary from 51% in the Sindh to 36% in the
Baluchistan. Similarly the primary enrolment rate varies from 75% in
the Punjab, to 64% in the Baluchistan. As a consequence while the
human development index for Pakistan, as a whole, is 0.541 the
provincial HDI varies from the highest in the Punjab, at 0.557, to the
lowest at 0.499 in Baluchistan. Islamabad (a federally administered
territory), is Pakistan’s capital city, and has a greater weight of
affluent citizens in its population with a far better social
infrastructure than in any province of Pakistan. It is not surprising
therefore that the human development index of Islamabad is 0.612 which
is higher than that of any of the provinces in the country.
In terms of HDI ranking the Sindh urban has the highest rank, with an
HDI of 0.659 which is higher than for Pakistan as a whole (0.541).
Punjab urban comes out second in the ranking with HDI of 0.657, NWFP
urban third with an HDI of 0.627 and Balochistan urban fourth at
0.591. It is interesting that in terms of the rural/urban ranking of
provinces while Sindh urban has the highest rank, Sindh rural has the
lowest with an HDI of 0.456. This suggests a larger urban rural
disparity in Sindh compared to any other province. Punjab rural has
the highest HDI (0.517) compared to the rural areas of any other
province.
Among the districts, Jhelum has the highest HDI rank at 0.703 and Dera
Bugti the lowest at 0.285. Data indicates the large disparities in
terms of human development between the districts of Pakistan.
There is also a wide variation in the human development indices within
each province. For example in the Punjab, while Jhelum has the highest
HDI (0.703), Muzzafargarh has the lowest (0.459). The size and overall
development of a district also affects its HDI rank due to intra
district variations in income and social infrastructure. Thus for
example Lahore has an HDI rank of 0.558 compared to 0.703 for Jhelum
because of the much greater inequality of incomes and level of social
infrastructure available to the poor and rich parts of Lahore district
respectively.
* NHDR 2003, Page
10-15
In the absence of intra district data, the average HDI for larger
districts is pulled down somewhat due to the larger intra district
variation in the level of human development, compared to small
districts.
Again in Sind there is a wide variation in the level of human
development with Karachi HDI being highest, (0.618) and Tharparkar the
lowest (0.343).
Significantly the intra provincial disparity in district HDI is
greater in the provinces of NWFP and Baluchistan where overall
development is lower compared to the more developed provinces of
Punjab and Sind. Thus in NWFP, Haripur has the highest HDI (0.629),
and Shangla the lowest (0.332), while in Baluchistan the highest
ranking district in terms of HDI is Ziarat (0.697) compared to the
lowest ranked district of Dera Bugti (0.285). If the ratio of HDI
between the highest and lowest ranked districts of each province as an
indicator of intra provincial human development inequality is taken,
then the inter-district inequality ratio of Baluchistan at 240% is
highest, followed by NWFP, at 189%, Sind at 180% and Punjab at 153%.
The inter provincial differences with respect to the human development
index of the districts within them, shows the province wise share in
the top, middle and bottom strata of districts in Pakistan with
respect to HDI. In the group of top 31 districts of Pakistan in terms
of their HDI, Punjab districts have by far the largest share at 59%,
with Sind only 13%, NWFP 19% and Baluchistan with the smallest share
at 9%. There is clearly a concentration of high ranking districts of
Pakistan in the Punjab province (in terms of HDI). Conversely in the
group of bottom 30 districts of Pakistan (in terms of HDI) Punjab has
none, while Sindh has 19%, Baluchistan as much as 47% and NWFP 34%. In
the group of middle 30 districts (in terms of HDI), both Punjab and
Sindh have relatively high shares, 32% and 29% respectively, while
NWFP has 21% and Baluchistan 18%.
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