Saarc Failure

South Asia is the poorest, the most illiterate, the most malnourished, the least gender sensitive and the most deprived region of the world. It contains about 22% of the world’s total population. Nearly 40% of the world’s poor live in this region. About 35% of the population is living with daily income of less than one dollar. Almost all the countries of this region are facing similar problems like poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, diseases, income inequality, low productivity and dependence on agricultural sector. Thus the socio-economic condition of this region as a whole is in shambles. In order to deal with this the union of seven South Asian countries was established in 1985 in Colombo. It was named “South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC)” after dedicating to economic, technological and cultural development programs among its member countries which are Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India, Maldives, Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh, while Afghanistan joined this association later in 2007. Initially SAARC was established to retreat and up hold the peace in the south Asia region and create the opportunities of interaction between member countries. Later on strategies were made consisting of five prime objectives i.e. better communication, smooth the progress of trade and investment, expand tourism, assistance in power and energy sector, and endorse private sector.
But Social, technological, economic sector, poverty eradication and trade were major issues faced by SAARC. To overcome the economic and poverty problems in 1993, its member countries signed an agreement, South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA), for reducing tariff within the region. This agreement was implemented in 2006, the member countries agreed to bring tariff duties down by 20% up to 2009. Ever since its formation in 1985, 14 summits of this organization were held and a number of agreements were also signed, however, the plight of the region has not changed so far and as such the