Population poverty and human resource development.

Poverty exists because societies find some human conditions unacceptable. To this effect poverty is rather elusive concept hard to define measure and monitor. It is noted that households in low income agricultural societies have high fertility. Poor families view children as net contributors to household income through their labor after a relatively short period of dependency and as sources of old age support. It is noted that poor families practice less contraception and invest less in the health and education of their children. Hence the basic provision of free and universal primary education primary health and family planning service is directed at breaking into the poverty syndrome through public intervention. In Pakistan the governments Social Action Program (SAP) aims to reverse the deteriorating trends in education and accelerate the improvement in these very low basic health indicators. However a review of the progress during the second phase of this program indicates that the SAP was not implemented in the way it was designed.