Vol. 22 No.1, April, 2015 ISSN.

1023-2001

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL
OF RURAL STUPIES (IJRS)
CONTENTS

Editorial Mukat & Jyoti Si

Access to Productive Resources and Decision Making

by Farm Women is Eastern India
Usha Rani Ahuja et all.

Rural Community Development: Innovation in Process

Sonal Singh and Bhaskar Bhowmle 6

Microbusiness Strategies and Resource Conservation

Technology for Vegetable Based Cropping System
A.K. Sharma andSucheta Sin 17

Political Inclusion and Participation of Tribal Women

in Panchayati Institutions, A Study of a block in Odisha
Dr.Jayanta Parida 21

Socioeconomic Conditions ofSindh, Pakistan:

Case of Kamber Shahdadkot District Inayatullah Magsi eta . 27

Analysis of Environmental and Socio-economic

Impacts: The Case of Left Bank Outfall Drain (LBOD)
Project, Badin District of Sindh Province, Pakistan
AzizAhmede . 31
 SocioeconomiC Condi' ns of Sindh, Pakistan:
Case of Kamber 5 ahdadkot District
Inayatullah Magsi 1 , Abdul Wahid Memon - Habibullah Magsi 2' , Zaheeruddin Mirani 2

1 Sukkur IBA, Communi - lege Khairpur, Pakistan

2 Sindh Agriculture Uni:- Tandojam, Pakistan
* Corresponding au - magsi@sau.edu.pk

Abstract s a result, the less developed countries like Pakistan

In order to explore living standards of local
communities at Kamber-Shahdadkot district of Sindh,
Pakistan, the present study has been carried out on 60
randomly selected respondents from two talukas
(sub-districts) i.e. Shahdadkot and Mirokhan. Results
revealed that majority of the respondents lived in rural
areas with small and simple houses, because of their
limited resources. It was also recognised that majority
of the respondents' source of income were agriculture
followed by daily wage labour and government jobs,
remain por ( due to domestic obstacles of low
socioeconomic condition of local population. These
bstacles act and react upon one another in such a
Nay that they form a vicious circle, which keep the
country in a perpetual low level of development. The
consequences of lower development are: keeping
cal population far from basic amenities like
education, health, clean drinking water and proper
sanitation (Magsi and Torre, 2013). In fact the same
5' uation is prevailing in the rural upper Sindh,

where major portion of their income were spent on Pakistan but there is no proper literature/baseline
food, clothing and education. The respondents in the survey available in order to see the magnitude of
study area were worried about the availability of basic evelopment options and opportunities to local
amenities, where poor infrastructure and draining pulation as well as for governing organisations.
system is found to be serious issue for them. Based on nus Kamber Shahdadkot district is selected for this
the findings it is recommended that besides other research, which is lying in northwest of the province,
infrastructure, the health facilities and agricultural and split from Larkana district in 2004. The study
extensions services may be executed on immediate volves the following specific objectives are: (i) to
bases in the district. examine the sources of income and employment of
Keywords: Kamber-Shahdadkot; socioeconomics; • e people of Kamber-Shahdadkot area; (ii) to gather
Sindh; Pakistan formation on population characteristics, including
total number, race, and median age,' education,
1. Introduction
ousinq characteristics, including number of units,
Socio-economic analyses expose that how a
acancy and tenure, median contract rent, and
proposed action influences on economic activities of
edian home value; and (iii) to study household
the local population in a territory, which further
aracteristics including number of households,
answers that of how people, are living in terms of their
average size and income. It is also aimed that present
possessions, activities and choices. The basics of
esearch might help policy makers to develop
socioeconomic concepts may be acquired from
suategies to further improve the living standard and
population characteristics, housing system as well as
o er socio-economic conditions of local people.
from infrastructural conditions and surrounded
markets. The socioeconomic conditions of people in
2. Methodology
South Asia including Pakistan are mainly associated In order to come-up with socioeconomic descriptions
with the agriculture and agro-based industries (Khan, of district Kamber-Shahdadkot, Sindh, Pakistan, we
2004; Shujat, 2004; Rahman, 2003; Saxton and ave conducted a multistage random sampling. At
Morrision, 2003). Thus, socio-economic rst stage the District Kamber-Shahdadkot has been
characteristics of a region or nation may be used as selected for this research because of retarded
tools to examine their development potentials socioeconomic development in this district; the district
(Memon et al. 2015; Mulyanto and Magsi, 2014; is comprised over seven sub-districts (talukas). At
Magsi, 2012; Feinerrnan and Finkelshtain, 2003). second stage two talukas were selected, i.e.
Shadadkot and Mirokhan. At final stage two villages

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RURAL STUDIES {IJRS} Vol. 22 No.1, April 2015 Page 27
from each taluka were randomly selected and from increase in overall enrolment. This is also observed
each village 15 respondents were personally that almost half (45 percent) of the family members
interviewed during August to October 2014. were non-working age group (bellow 16 years).
For primary data collection we had designed a Details on the household characteristics can be seen
detailed questionnaire in order to have maximum through table 1.
information on their demographic characteristics,
literacy, economic activities, communication." Description Statistics
transportation, input support, land use patterns,
Family size: number 8.9
income and expenditure. On the other hand
Age: years 30
secondary data for this study have been collected
from various literature published by public and private Age: bellow 16 years 45
organizations as well as from unpublished records of Age: above 16 years 55
the union council and district council offices. In orderto Literacy rate: percent 60
have more insights we have also collected useful Pacca houses: percent 67
information from daily regional press published in local
Kacha houses: percent 20
languages , i.e. Urdu and Sind hi. Once the data
Semi-pacca houses: percent 13
collected, were tabulated and ana lysed with the help
. of statistical package for social sciences (SPSS), in Land holding per family: acre 9.67
order to have desired descriptive statics, are given
precedent section of the article.
3.2. Occupations, income sources and expenditure
As results, people of this area were mainly associated
3. Results and discussion
with agriculture followed by daily wage labourers.
Mainly the results of this study are comprised over
Those labours were engaged in harvesting or
demographic characteristics of the respondents, their
cultiva ·ng season crops, rice mills, hotels, shops, as
livelihood sources and available basic amenities at
well as were working as brick makers, masons.
their door steps.
Besides that more than ten percent respondents were
3. 1. Household characters serving in various government jobs including
The av eraqe household size in the study area was educa ion, health, agriculture, forest, SSGC and
investigated about 9 persons per family, where on WAPDA. Moreover, respondents were also engaged
average each family was composed of 5 male, 4 in various activities, like private school teachers,
female, including seven children. The observed security guards, stitching, laundry, embroidery and
statistics are quite different from national and shop keeping and small ruminants (see figure 1). The
provincial family size, i.e. 6.5 and 6.9 persons per results further reveals that even the respondents were
family respectively (GOP, 2014). Results revealed that largely engaged in agriculture, where most of them
the average aqc of the respondents was 30 years, ,!,ere peasants, followed by tenants and landlords.
which indicates majority of them were professionally They used to cultivate vegetables and fodder during
experienced and lived in pacca, kacha and semi- Rabi season while in Kahrifseason rice was only crop
pacca houses. Furthermore the literacy level is in the study area, where on average the area holding
considered as one of the parameters to human and per family was about 9.37 acres (min 2 and max 85
regional development (Sen, 1992). The literacy rate in acres).
the study area was about 60 percent which seems to Even though majority of them were engaged in
be low but it is higher than the national average that is agriculture but the income (per month) earned from
58 percent (GOP, 2014). This higher percentage is government jobs is higher than other economic
due to the concrete steps taken by local NGOs and activities (see figure 2), which is may be due to lack of
community based organizations (CBOs) (Durr-e- agricultural extension services in rural areas of the
Nayab. 2006). During field surveys it is observed that country (Mengal et at. 2014). It is also observed that on
district government along with other CBOs had been average about 1.9 male and about 1.4 female
tCli,oring new techniques to boost the status of household members' were involved in revenue
education, which were appreciable efforts towards earnings. This is the only reason that in rural areas

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RURAL STUDIES (IJRS) Vol. 27 No.1, April 2015 Page 28
figlfre 1. Sources of income and land ownership
-------------------- ,-----------------,
70
Agriculture farming 147%
60
Daily wage
labourer 121% so
Govt. employee [i2% I 40

30
I 9% I
I_~ __
-
0,\"11 business
20

Private ernplyee
G 10

0
Tailoring D% Peasants Tenants Owners

• Percent 60 25 15
Others D%

people want to search government jobs in order to because no progress can be imagined without
secure their livelihood (SRSO, 2012),which is also maintaining general health, literacy level and
personally observed among the youth of Mirokhan infrastructural development (Memon et al. 2015;
taluka. Magsi and Torre, 2013). The respondents in the study
Above figure shows the average consumption pattern area were asked about accessibility and availability of
of each household and the items on which they usually basic amenities, where their responses show that
spend their earnings. Briefly, they spend more than 75 majority of them were satisfied for communication
percent of their income on food, education and health system, sewerage, electricity and schools, while they
followed by other necessities. It was also observed found unsatisfied for rest of the other available
that mode of expenditure was quite different among

Fig~ Monthly income and expenditure of the respondents (Pak-Rupees)

25,000

20,000

15,000

10,000

5,000

o
Agricultur
Govt. Job Business Other
e
Rs./month I 20,000 15,000 10,000 6000

different income classes according to their needs and facilities (see table 2). In fact, poor infrastructure and
preferences. Majority of the respondents indicated draining system is found to be serious issue in other
that sometimes they borrow money from friends and developing countries ~ike Pakistan (Mulyanto and
neighbours in order to meet social and religious Magsi, 2014; Osinubi, 2005; Sangwan and Chauhan
ceremonies, as there is increase in rural poverty in the 2002).
country since last decade (Afzal, 2006). 4. Conclusion and suggestions
3.3. Basic amenities and infrastructure From present study it is concluded that majority of the
In the developing countries like Pakistan planning for respondents lived in rural areas with low income, but
public health is an important function of a state, more education and children as compared to the

INTERNATlo.NAL JOURNAL OF RURAL STUDIES (IJRS) Vol. 22 No.1, April 2015 Page 29
national statistics. In the peripheries of Kamber
Shahdadkot district the big houses were really found
while local population lived in small and simple
houses, because of their limited income. During
survey we had interaction with lot of NGOs and eBOs
working in the study area especially focusing on
awareness companies for health, education and
agriculture development. Being a rice-wheat zone,
mostly people were engaged in conventional
agriculture due to lack of agricultural extension
services were not found, that is why they were
experiencing low income. Besides low agricultural
productivity and higher expenditures on food, clothing
and education have encouraged local population
(especially youth) to switch for other jobs than
traditional agriculture. The respondents in the study
area were worried about the availability of basic
amenities. In fact, poor infrastructure and draining
system is found to be serious issue for them. Thus,
besides other infrastructural "development projects,
health facilities and agricultural extensions services
need to be executed at villages level on immediate
bases. Finally it is also recommended that a study
should be conducted on the role of NGOs and CBOs in
Kamber Shadadkot district.
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