Spending on health, education fell sharply during 2008-09

[Naveed Yaseen]

By Israr Khan
ISLAMABAD: The government’s spending on public health and education as a percentage of GDP during fiscal year 2008-09 reduced considerably due to financial constraints. This makes health and education indicators unsatisfactory compared to other Asian countries.

Health expenditure during 2008-09 reduced as a percentage of GDP to 0.55 per cent and education to 2.1 per cent as against the previous year when it stood at 0.57 per cent and 2.47 per cent respectively, says Economic Survey 2008-09 released here the other day.

It says that spending on education in terms of GDP stood at 2.5 per cent in 2006-07 and 2.47 per cent in 2006-07. Interestingly, Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) allocations for education during the year under review were reduced by 33 per cent to Rs4.16 billion against the original allocation of Rs6.27 billion.

With the meager allocation, one cannot expect the country’s health and education sectors to perform well. That was the reason the sector confronts considerable strains, as there is only one doctor for 1212 persons, one dentist for 18010 persons and availability of one hospital bed for 1575 persons, states the Economic Survey 2008-09.

This poor situation could be attributed to unequal distribution of health facilities along with persevering malnutrition, poverty and inadequate allocation for the health sector.

According to the survey, in absolute terms, public sector’s fiscal allocation for health was increased from Rs60 billion in 2007-08 to Rs74 billion in 2008-09, while as per cent of the GDP it declined. Of the total expenditures during the year under review, Rs33 billion was spent on development and Rs41.1 billion on current expenditure.

During FY08-09, there were only 133956 doctors, 9012 dentists, 65387 nurses and 10002 LHVs in Pakistan.

Pakistan is still lagging behind compared to other Asian countries such as China, Thailand, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in terms of human welfare indicators. Among these countries, Pakistan depicts a grim picture regarding health facilities.

Mortality rate under five years per thousand in Pakistan is the highest ie 90, compared to India’s 72, Bangladesh 61, Nepal 55, Sri Lanka 21, China 22, Thailand 7, Philippines 28, Malaysia 11 and Indonesia 31.

Infant mortality rate was the highest in Pakistan at 73 per 1,000 during 2007, as against 70 in 2005, which indicates that Islamabad performed poorly once again in this aspect. In India infant mortality stood at 54, in Sri Lanka at 17, Bangladesh 47, Nepal 43, China 19, Thailand 6, Philippines 23, Malaysia 10 and Indonesia 25.

Although the ratio between available health facilities and the population has recorded a slight improvement over last year and the number of doctors has increased, it is yet insufficient to provide health coverage to the growing population.

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