The Geography of Social Inequality: Challenges of National Development and Provincial Disparities in Pakistan

Abstract

One of the key aspects of national performance is represented by social development, which indicates the level of equal access that the state offers in terms of education, health, and welfare services. However, in the case of Pakistan, social development remains rugged in terms of different demographic groups and provinces. The basic aim of the study is to assess the national performance of Pakistan in terms of the disparities observed in maternal health, child health, literacy, and multidimensional poverty in different provinces and between the ruler and urban populations. Secondary data has been used for the purpose of conducting the study, collected from various institutions such as the United Nation’s development programme, Pakistan bureau of statistics, and the World Bank. The study has been conducted using descriptive statistics and regression with regards to identifying structural inequalities in the social development. The findings suggest that the illiteracy rates are high in Punjab compared to Balochistan, and there are large gaps in the level of maternal health and child health services between the urban population and the ruler population, and there is a high rate of multidimensional poverty, which is impacting the national cohesion. The research has made a significant input to the discourse of development inequality in the context of relating it to national integration.