Poverty, class structure and household demographic behaviour in rural Pakistan
Irfan, M.
Population growth and poverty in rural South Asia: 76-120
1989
Document Number: 374759
The Population, Labour and Migration Survey of 1979, together with various other sources of data on the rural areas of Pakistan, are used to assess the relationship between poverty and household characteristics such as income, land-ownership, tenurial status and education of the head of the household. In order to analyse household behaviour in the context of surrounding environments and constraints, a broad class structure, using the criterion of ownership and access to land in rural areas, is used. Investigation of three measures of poverty, adequacy of food or income, infant mortality, and child schooling, suggests that the socioeconomic groups suffering from greater income inadequacy are likely to also have high infant mortality and low child schooling, and the lack of assets emerges as a major correlate of poverty, wherein landless labour and Kamees are the worst sufferers. The findings suggest that the size as well as the formation of households can be partly interpreted in terms of survival strategy. Among landless labour, the households least vulnerable to poverty are those with a large sized family and a higher propensity to participate in the labour market outside their village.