Poverty and Household Demographic Behaviour in Pakistan - Insights from PLM Survey 1979

An effort is made to discuss some of the related issues in this paper by identifying the socio-economic correlates of poverty in rural areas of Pakistan. This characterization of poverty is expected to yield insights regarding the link between incidence of poverty and capacity of the poor to participate in the development process - essentially a function of the power structure of the society, socio-economic policies of the regime and asset base of the family. In order to reckon with the opportunities and constraints faced by the household, a major demarcation line has been drawn by asset ownership. Land being a major productive asset in rural areas, households are identified as farm household and non-farm. Admittedly a neat distinction between farm and non-farm households is precluded by various inter-linkages operating through factor and product market, but the classification is useful in understanding the nexus between access to assets and poverty of an household. The calorie deficiency finds its place in the first section, followed by the child schooling in the second section while infant mortality differentials are discussed in the third section. Although the population, labour force and migration (PLM) survey serves as major source of data, various other sources of data pertaining to rural areas of Pakistan are also used to assess the relationship between the poverty so identified and households characteristics such as household income, land ownership, tenurial status and education of the head of the household which form the basis Of the class structure used in this paper. Whether the fertility behaviour of the poverty stricken groups is distinct or not is also briefly disucssed to understand the interrelationship between demography and poverty.(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)