Impact of Village-specific, Household-specific, and Technological Variables on Poverty in Punjab

Rural poverty remains a serious problem in Pakistan, with more than 30 percent of rural population living in absolute poverty. In rural Pakistan there is a big gap between rich and the poor. While the stake of competition for position and status concerns the rich, the struggle for survival in the midst of increasing crises embarrasses the poor. The rural poor—the pauperised class—are week and powerless with inadequate command over resources relative to needs. In fact, the polarisation process which is making the rich richer and poor poorer is a consequence of poverty. Neither the poor nor the outside well wishers have the power to break the vicious deprivation trap. It is consensus that rural social structure is responsible for rural underdevelopment. A number of attempts can be seen in the literature having discussed the different dimensions of the above phenomenon related to developing economies in general and to Pakistan in particular, The present study is the continuity of the above efforts. However, this study discusses the enigma of poverty based on a village study. Within above setting, a village survey has been conducted in the Southern Punjab. The study analyses the determinants of rural poverty in the above village and its relation with productive assets, tools and instruments, gender, rural employment, household size, earner size, education level, etc. The analysis explicitly takes into account such attributes as the village specific, household specific and technological variables.