LAHORE About 45 per cent South Asian population is compelled to live under different forms of poverty and exclusion, reveals a recent report by South Asian Alliance for Poverty Eradication (SAAPE). The report said that deep rooted structural poverty, exclusion, food insecurity, poor governance, gender injustice, violence and conflicts are the salient features of South Asian society, revealed a recent report by South Asian Alliance for Poverty Eradication (SAAPE). The speakers at launching ceremony of the report Poverty & Vulnerability Cycles in South Asia said South Asia was a region divided between the hopes of the rich and the despairs of the poor where the people were poor because they were systematically deprived of their rights to food, health and education among other rights. They said this means that they are excluded and marginalized from their rightful access to resources opportunities & power. The report said out of the eight countries in the region, five were in the category of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) as defined by the United Nations (UN). The United Nations Development Programs annual Human Development Index of 2009 has placed Pakistan at the 141st position out of 182 countries, which indicates that the country has a poor human development status. It further said that the current global crisis poses the most serious threat and challenge humankind has faced so far. The increase incident of extreme climate changes are likely to be most severe in the region as many SA countries will be affected by the rising the rising sea level due to climate change. The rising sea water level is adversely affecting the coastal poor and especially the countries like Maldives, Bangladesh and other lower lying areas. The melting of the Himalayan glaciers is also having a devastating impact on the farmers and forest dwellers. Given that around 70% of the population of SA depends on climate sensitive sectors such as agriculture for survival, the implications of climate change are enormous. Climate change will affect the water change the most. This is also the core of development for rural communities dependent on agriculture and hence the need for a focus on water security, it disclosed and added Women will be especially vulnerable to the climate phenomenon. The rural communities, specially the women as victims, should form the base for understanding the climate change impact and should provide the perspective to plan a new development paradigm to mitigate and adapt climate change. The climate change has made South Asia a disaster prone place. Bushra Khaliq, General Secretary, women Workers Help Line said that gender inequalities were rooted socially organized system of oppression channeled through class, caste, race, religion and ethnicity. She said the report also points out that women of SA have a disproportionately lower level of participation in world female labor force, that lower education and skill level of women leads to lower earning, that gender discrimination starts even before birth through female feticide, infanticide and continues throughout life and that SA still contains highest number of illiterate women in the world.