Pakistan is facing high budget deficit which is hitting the economy badly. For reducing budget deficit, the government is cutting down expenditures in the social sector like education and health. When the government reduces expenditures on education, health, population issues, the poor is hit the hardest. No nation can progress without a strong human capital base and investment in this area will be as essential as sound macroeconomic policies in achieving the desired economic boom. They are the ones who depend most upon state provided facilities.
Though all might be enjoying the subsidy, the poor have the highest value for it. When infrastructure prices are raised, the poor are again the hardest hit, as they have to pay more. When jobs are cut, they again are the hardest hit segment of the society, as they have no assets to depend upon apart from the labour that they can sell. The recent cutting in expenditures of the public sector development has increased the incidence of poverty in the country.
The main aim of public sector development create human resource development at substantial cost, adopting new technologies by a work which is not only skilled, but also has sound knowledge and finally, producing quality consumer products at competitive prices, which in our case means reducing the ever increasing cost of electricity, gas, transportation and health services.
Education is central to overall human resource development. While basic education develops basic skills related to literacy, higher education especially at the tertiary level involves specialization in fields of study and occupation relevant to developing technological capabilities. Better access of the poor to education and health care, and a better quality of these services, expand opportunities for them to improve their own well-being. Therefore, this calls for allocating adequate government resources for the development of human capital development.
Low population growth, accelerating rural development in order to bring the development to the majority of citizens, well designed and directed public works projects, labour utilization, reasonable wages, well designed educational policies, matching skills with job opportunities and removal of discrimination against ethnic and racial groups can bring fruitful results in this sector.
The general public mostly the poor, lower and middle classes, look up to the state for indirect financial assistance, particularly in infrastructure, health and education sectors. The government should improve economic condition by allocating higher funds for social sector while ensuring their judicious at the grass-root level. In the same context, public utilities must be made cheap by checking leakage of funds and misuse of services.
Performance of public sector organizations must improve substantially through good governance. Implementation of plans is more important than simply allocating the funds. The common man is impatient to get economic relief, which is possible only if politicians provide good governance as well as visionary leadership in all aspects of public life, which till now, unfortunately, has not been their cup of tea.
Comments
2 responses to “Importance of Social Sector Development”
I agree, the Govt should instead cut down the fat bellies of *decorated* pimps.
By investing more in social development we can address the dilemma of radicalism. As often the grievances are rooted in social deprivation. Donors are keen to invest in the social development programs if they are ensured of transparency in utilization of these funds.