Every day we encounter the grim face of poverty when we see children in dirty and torn clothes. Barefoot, unkempt, malnourished and dejected, they fend not only for themselves, but for their families as well by begging for food, alms or even worse, scavenging in bins and garbage dumps. We are confronted with poverty when we see the agony parents experience while cradling their critically sick child, as they cannot afford the high cost of healthcare. We turn a blind eye when poverty is manifested in tender hands toiling in adverse weather conditions. We silently curse the rhetoric of the policy makers when poverty in all its ugliness is presented in the form of a child crying for food.

Poverty is not the result of the personal failings of those struggling to make ends meet, but is the result of bad government policy that fails to adequately and fairly address the structural dysfunction of the labour market. The policies of government are based on the suggestions of officials who lack awareness about the problems of a common man. After implementation, the policies do not get effective result. After the failure of one policy, government does not consider its failure and announces another policy without studying the aftermaths of last one.

It's not that the adults who head families in poverty don't earn enough; they don't work enough. Critics often charge that nowadays "work doesn't work" in our "broken" economic system, by which they mean that wages are so wretched that the poor can't lift themselves up, even when employed. Heavy taxes and unemployment crush the people and they are forced to live below poverty line. The suitable medical facilities are not provided to people and they are forced to get treatment from private clinics which are too costly.

Poverty has many faces, changing from place to place and across time, and has been described in many ways. Most often, poverty is a situation people want to escape. So poverty is a call to action — for the poor and the wealthy alike — a call to change the world so that many more may have enough to eat, adequate shelter, access to education and health, protection from violence, and a voice in what happens in their communities.

Poverty is the mother of all crimes. Pakistan has pretty big young population but unskilled as compare to other emerging markets like China, Mexico, Turkey and even India. But again the problem is how can we educate when we have no funds to feed them? Gap between rich and poor is getting bigger. On one hand, there are those who have more than enough to last them a lifetime, and on the other, there are those who barely live, uncertain if they can even survive the cold and hunger.

Should we blame the government for not efficiently delivering the services it owes to the people? Should we blame the poor for not helping themselves? Certainly we cannot blame the rich for being too tied-up with their own concerns and sleeping in the comforts of their soft beds and air-conditioned rooms, or dining in fancy restaurants, and wearing branded clothing, or pampering themselves with must-haves and luxuries that they rightly deserve and can afford anyway.

What we need to do is to find solutions. We need to find the solution like macro finance that works very well in Bangladesh and now is being tried in India. The truth is that the easiest and most just way to eradicate poverty is to raise the minimum wages to levels which ensure a decent standard of living. Eradicating poverty is more than a matter of increasing income to purchase market goods and services. It entails more than expanding GNP. It entails creating jobs, meeting basic needs, respecting human rights and popular participation in the development process. The struggle against poverty is simultaneously a struggle for human dignity, sustainable development and peace.