Estimating the Middle Class in Pakistan

The concept ‘middle class’ is one of the most commonly used terms in the social sciences, including economics, sociology and political science. Despite its frequent use there is, however, no consensus on what the term exactly implies and its meaning remains ambiguous depending primarily on the context in which it is used. It is viewed as the class that is between, and separates, the lower and the upper classes, that is the rich and the poor, but there is no agreement on the exact boundaries that separates them. Most of the definitions and measurements of the middle class continue to be somewhat arbitrary and vague.

Reproductive Tract Infections among Women in Pakistan: An Urban Case Study

Reproductive tract infections (RTIs) among women—despite being common and having grave consequences—are not given much attention by policy-makers and health planners. The asymptomatic nature of most infections makes their detection and diagnosis difficult, making laboratory testing the most accurate method of bio-medical diagnosis. The present paper assesses the magnitude and nature of infections as diagnosed through laboratory testing and looks into the variation in magnitude and the nature of RTIs among women with different socio-economic and demographic characteristics. The aetiological rate of infection among women is found to be 24 percent, with the majority of these women testing positive for endogenous infections. Factors significantly increasing the likelihood of having an infection include intrauterine device use or getting a tubectomy, short inter-pregnancy intervals, and lower economic status of women.

Self-reported Symptoms of Reproductive Tract Infections: The Question of Accuracy and Meaning

Verbal surveys are the most common way of gauging any population s health status, but questions remain regarding the accuracy of the responses they elicit. The present paper compares women s self-reports regarding their experiences with reproductive tract infections (RTIs) and the medical diagnosis that they went through to ascertain the presence or otherwise of the infections. Weak concordance was found between women s self-reports and the medical diagnosis, with the former over-representing the presence of infections. Some of the selfreported symptoms were pathogenic in nature, as represented by the true positive reports, but the majority of the self-reports were false positives when compared to medical diagnosis. The conventional health surveys, relying solely on verbal responses, thus, do not essentially represent the actual health situation of a population studied, and any policy intervention formulated exclusively on this information would be flawed. There is a need to understand the non-medical context of illnesses to understand the disease fully.Health, Reproductive Health, Health Surveys Accuracy

Demographic Dividend or Demographic Threat in Pakistan

Population growth and size have remained the focus of debate for centuries but the recent demographic transition in developing countries has made social scientists take note of the changing age structure of the population as well. As a result of declining population growth and consequent changes in age structure, the proportion of working-age population is increasing in most developing countries, with an associated decline in the dependent age population, offering a window of opportunity to these countries that is referred to as the “demographic dividend”. Pakistan is also going through the demographic transition, and is experiencing a once-in-a-lifetime demographic dividend as the working-age population bulges and the dependency ratio declines. This paper looks into the demographic dividend available to Pakistan and its implications for the country, mainly through three mechanisms: labour supply, savings, and human capital. For economic benefits to materialise, there is a need for policies dealing with education, public health, and those that promote labour market flexibility and provide incentives for investment and savings. On the contrary, if appropriate policies are not formulated, the demographic dividend might in fact be a cost, leading to unemployment and an unbearable strain on education, health, and old age securityDemographic dividend, age-structure, demographic transition, Pakistan

Demographic Dividend or Demographic Threat in Pakistan

Population growth and size have remained the focus of debate for centuries but the recent demographic transition in developing countries has made social scientists take note of the changing age structure of the population as well. As a result of declining population growth and consequent changes in age structure, the proportion of working-age population is increasing in most developing countries, with an associated decline in the dependent age population, offering a window of opportunity to these countries that is referred to as the demographic dividend. Pakistan is also going through the demographic transition, and is experiencing a once-in-a-lifetime demographic dividend as the working-age population bulges and the dependency ratio declines. This paper looks into the demographic dividend available to Pakistan and its implications for the country, mainly through three mechanisms : labour supply, savings, and human capital. For economic benefits to materialise, there is a need for policies dealing with education, public health, and those that promote labour market flexibility and provide incentives for investment and savings. On the contrary, if appropriate policies are not formulated, the demographic dividend might in fact be a cost, leading to unemployment and an unbearable strain on education, health, and old age security.Demographic dividend, age-structure, demographic transition, Pakistan

Estimating the Middle Class in Pakistan

The middle class is primarily an urban phenomenon generally associated with professional occupations, service sector and salaried jobs. Yet despite a general acceptance of the important economic, political and social role that the middle class plays in society, the term itself remains ambiguous and arbitrary. In much of recent literature the middle class is equated with middle income which does not reflect what „class‟ refers to in classical writings. The present paper takes a multidimensional approach to measure the middle class in Pakistan through a weighted composite index that takes into account all possible factors associated with the concept, including income, occupation, education, housing and lifestyle. Using the Pakistan Social and Living Measurement Survey (PSLM) 2007-08, the magnitude of the middle class in the country, as represented by the „expanded middle class‟, is estimated at around 35 percent of the total population. The proposed measure of the middle class has a sense of stability attached to it, making it less susceptible to sudden inflationary shocks than an income-based measure. JEL classification: Z13, R20, A14 Keywords: Pakistan, Middle Class, Multidimensiona

Gender Dimensions of Demographic Change in Pakistan

The achieving of equality and equity between men and women in different spheres of life is essential for the attainment of sustainable development goals. In this context, the need for enhancement of women’s participation in national development programmes and their full integration into the development process has been widely recognised in various global and regional forums. More recently, the Programme of Action adopted by the International Conference on Population and Development at Cairo in 1994 reaffirmed and elaborated the role of women in national development, and endorsed a new strategy that emphasises “gender equality, equity and empowerment of women”. In this context, the Programme of Action recommends that countries should act to empower women and should take steps to eliminate inequalities between men and women by providing them with more choices through expanded access to education and health services, skill development and employment, and eliminating all practices that discriminate against women [United Nations (1995)]. Pursuant to these principles, it is of interest to study the gender related aspects of population and development with a particular focus on the current situation and role of women in the family. While it is true that men are viewed as head of the family in almost all social structures who participate more in the formal economic and social affairs and decision making in the community, it is equally true that women tend to play a major role in household affairs, in forming production and consumption patterns and in generating income for the family.

Towards Linking Four Emerging Paradigms in Economic Theory—Regulationist, Institutionalist, Post-modernist, and Post-development

This paper is an epistemological attempt to synthesise four emerging paradigms in economic theory. These paradigms are the regulationist, the institutionalist, the post-modernist, and the post-development. Arguably, these are paradigms rather than models of behaviour because they each presents an analytical framework for examining different economic phenomena. We shall attempt to show that the four paradigms are useful, complementary, and can be symbiotically linked into a broader paradigm especially to examine the phenomenon of low growth in the region. If we use a modified Kuhnian (1970) model for paradigmatic shifts in a discipline, we can argue that there are three dominating, competing, normal paradigms in economic theory: neoclassical, Marxist, and development theory. In Kuhnian fashion, these three dominant paradigms are pressured by several crises of inability to explain phenomena. Many of these explanational crises are about Less Industrialised Countries (LICs), but increasingly these crises are also about the inability to explain change in the Industrialised Countries (ICs) and the Newly Industrialising Countries (NICs). One, these three paradigms have to explain the differential growth rates of economies. They have to explain the low growth of LICs relative to both the old NICs (Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong) and the new NICs (Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and China). The collapse of the Soviet model also has to be explained. Two, these paradigms have to explain the coexistence of significant levels of poverty with affluence in the LIs, and NICs, and now emergent poverty in the ICs. Three, these paradigms also increasingly have to explain why in a country growth and distribution is biased in favour of particular ethnic and social groups, excluding others, fuelling ethnic and social conflicts within countries and across countries globally. Four, these paradigms have to establish whether the IC market-determined patterns of consumption demand can be satisfied globally.

An Analysis of Reproductive Health Issues in Pakistan

Population programmes in many developing countries have emphasised on family planning services driven largely by numbers and demographic targets. With the advent of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in 1994, it has been recognised to move beyond a narrow focus on family planning to a more comprehensive concern of reproductive health oriented towards meeting the needs of individuals and families. This advocated shift in population and development strategy, especially in health emphasises that services be offered to women, men and adolescents with a special focus on fulfilling women’s health needs, safeguarding their reproductive rights and involving men as equal partners in meeting the goal of responsible parenthood [United Nations (1995)]. In response to ICPD’s mandate, Pakistan’s population programme has increasingly been focussed on various aspects of reproductive health and is in the process of broadening the scope of services for a transition to reproductive health without losing focus on achieving fertility reduction goal. In this regard, the government has adopted a comprehensive population and development policy incorporating an array of reproductive health services and has integrated population and health departments and their activities in dealing with RH problems.