This presentation presents an overview of the current situation of rural development in Pakistan.

1. EXISTING
SITUATION IN
RURAL AREAS
Khalid Saifullah

2. We will together try to find out the
questions of following answers
■ What is the existing situation of demography, health,
education, economy, agriculture and other sectors in rural
areas of Pakistan?
■ How rural areas contribute to overall economy of Pakistan?
■ What are the existing rural – urban links in Pakistan?

3. Demographic Situation
■ Pakistan predominantly is a rural country, with over 60 percent of
the population living in rural areas.
■ High fertility and mortality rates
■ Half of the youth of Pakistan live in rural areas (what about national
development agenda)
■ Outmigration of their elite and educated citizens (leadership crises)
■ Lack of investment and infrastructure.

5. Education
■ The majority working age population (54 percent) in rural
areas is illiterate as compared to 28 percent in urban areas.
■ Literacy is much higher in urban areas (74 percent) than in
rural areas (49 percent).

7. Health
■ Large disparities exist among urban and rural areas - malnutrition,
infant mortality, maternal mortality and immunisation.
■ Geographic coverage and accessibility of public health services in
rural areas is also very poor.
■ Access to the health services in terms of distance to the nearest
health facility in rural areas - better in Punjab, with three-quarters of
the population having access to a hospital or dispensary within 10
km, compared with two-thirds in Sindh, an estimated 60.0% in
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and a little over a third in Baluchistan.
■ Primary Health Services: More than 100 000 lady health workers
provide primary health care services at the doorstep for rural and
slum urban areas.

9. Let’s watch with a documentary
■ We will then discuss and try to find out the key issues
and main reasons behind these issues in rural areas of
Pakistan.
Documentary is developed for an EnglishTV Channel
and existing situation of Education and Health in one of
the provinces is explained.

10. Pakistan’s official Multidimensional
Poverty Index (MPI) 2015 – 2016
■ Nearly 39 percent of Pakistanis live in multidimensional
poverty, with the highest rates of poverty in FATA and
Baluchistan.
■ National poverty rates falling from 55% to 39% from 2004 to
2015.
■ Poverty in urban areas is 9.3 percent as compared to 54.6
percent in rural areas. (due to enhanced access to social
services and safety nets)

12. Rural Poverty

13. Land Ownership Distribution, 2000: Sindh,
Punjab and KPK
SINDH PUNJAB KPP
ALL
THREE
Proportion of Rural Households (%)
LANDLESS 66.1 47.7 45.0 50.8
UNDER 1.0 acre 0.5 6.4 14.8 6.9
1.0TO UNDER 2.5 acres 6.8 14.1 19.0 13.6
2.5TO UNDER 5.0 acres 7.1 11.5 9.8 10.3
5.0TO UNDER 7.5 acres 5.5 7.4 4.7 6.5
7.5TO UNDER 12.5 acres 6.0 6.2 3.4 5.6
12.5TO UNDER 25.0 acres 4.0 4.1 1.6 3.6
25.0TO UNDER 50.0 acres 1.8 1.8 1.0 1.6
50.0TO UNDER 100.0 acres 1.0 0.5 0.4 0.6
100.0TO UNDER 150.0 acres 0.2 0.1 0.1 0.1
150.0ANDABOVE acres 0.2 0.1 0.1 0.1

14. Overview of our economy – An example
Pakistan Economic Survey 2014
– 2015

15. Pakistan Economic Survey 2014 – 2015

18. What is the share of rural areas in national
economy?
■ Pakistan is effectively a 50-50 economy, with half of the economy in the rural
areas and the other half in the urban areas.
■ Both rural and urban economies have shown the same annual growth rate of
just above 4.5 percent during last decade.
■ The agricultural sector does not dominate the rural economy at the aggregate
national level.
■ The share of rural areas in industrial activity is 42 percent, with mining and
extracting (64 percent), construction (65 percent) and small-scale
manufacturing (48 percent).
■ Nonfarm incomes contributed between 40 and 57 percent to total rural
household income.

19. What is the share of rural areas in national
economy?
■ The share of rural industry is the highest in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa at
74 percent, with Baluchistan at 50 percent, Punjab at 47 percent and
Sindh at 23 percent.
■ Textile, for example, accounted for about 30 percent of the total
industrial GDP in 2013/2014, is highly dependent on domestic cotton
production.
■ The rural per capita income is 1.9 times less of the urban
equivalent.
■ Remittances play a significant role in raising rural incomes,
especially in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
■ Low pay, poor-quality jobs, inadequate social protection.

20. Rural Employment
■ Agriculture employs 42% of the labour force - more
people depending o agriculture
■ Unpaid family helpers constitute over 10 percent of
the total labour force in rural areas.
■ Rural labour markets largely comprise of unskilled
labour with little formal education or training. In
agriculture, labour is seasonal .
■ In the non-agriculture sector, people largely work in
the informal sector and are usually less educated.

21. Social Safety Nets in RuralAreas
■ Only 1.2 percent households are receiving social
assistance from public and private sources.
■ No social security schemes for agriculture and
informal sector of the economy.What about 42% of
labour forces and the retirees?

23. Water and Food Insecurity
■ Water insecurity — from about 5,000 cubic metres per capita in 1951 to about
1,100 cubic metres at present. Who will effect the more?
■ Land degradation - Salinity, water logging
■ Rural household were more food insecure (60.6%) as compared to urban
households (52.4%).
■ Agriculture productivity per unit of water, land, and other inputs is well below
global and regional standards.
■ Ground water depletion - intensive pumping
■ Rainfed / Barani areas

24. Rural – urban links
■ Towns and cities provide markets for rural products and jobs
to absorb surplus rural labor.
■ Weak university-industry-professional nexus in Pakistan,
the rural youth is not able to acquire the skills sought by
employers.
■ The actors advocating tolerance have traditionally been
rural-based, and those promoting conservatism have been
urban based.
■ Untreated sewage and industrial wastes in urban region is
diverted to rivers and lakes – contamination of surface water
and ground water
■ Deforestation

25. Faisalabad Case Study (2006 – 2015)
■ Majority of the farmers (48.9%) owned up to 5 acres in
2006 while majority of farmers (53.9%) own less than 2
acres of land in 2015.
■ This change was mainly due to sale of land for housing
schemes (56.9%) and division of land due to inheritance
(17.8%).
■ Crop farming continues to be significant source of
subsistence (88.30%).
■ Majority of farmers were pushed to adopt non-farm
sources of income (67.70-%) as well.

26. Faisalabad Research (2006 – 2015)
■ Land owners decreased in number from 96.7% to 80.6%.
■ Landless people increased from 1.1% to 6.1%.
■ Patterns of crop selection remained almost same.
■ Crop production was decreased mainly due to shortage of canal
water (35.60-%) and reduction in landholding size (28.90%).
■ Farmers are restricted to subsistence farming only (91.60%).

27. Green Revolution
■ A package of technology, chemicals and water
■ Ruling elite had defined development as “industrialization”
■ Focus onWheat and Rice
■ TubeWells: 91% in 03 divisions of Punjab, 70% Installed by landowners
with and over 25 acres
■ Half of the irrigated area was cultivated with the improved seeds,
fertilizers consumption increased by 235%
■ Main beneficiaries: Punjab (3 Districts Faisalabad, Sahiwal and Multan)
and farmers who owned 50-100 acres of land, PPP, Exporters

28. Land Reforms
■ Talks started since 1945 around the nature of tenancy and landholdings
■ Muslim League central council had very large landlords in 1947
■ At independence, CM of Punjab, Sindh and NWFP / KPK were big
landlords
■ Creation of Pakistan increased the power of landlords, little scope for
land reforms at the time of independence
■ Landlords won 80% seat in Punjab and 90% in Sindh during 1951
elections

29. 1959 Land Reforms
■ First Land Reforms by Ayub Khan, mainly to put ceiling on
landholding
■ 0.1 % owners owned 15.4% of total land
■ Out of 6000 owners, only 763 were affected by ceiling due to
provisions made in law
■ 57% of acquired land was barren
■ Owner were compensated @ Rs. 1-5/PIU and land was sold
@ Rs. 8/PIU to landless
29

30. 1972 land Reforms
■ Reforms followed a philosophy of reducing income disparities, employment, agri
taxation and mutual benefits
■ No compensation to landlords and free distribution
30

31. OverView of Land Reforms (Hectares)
Reforms Area
Resumed
Area
Disposed of
Balance Persons
benefitting
1959 1,022,927 955,656 67,271 186,555
1972 481,244 295,937 185,307 71,501
31