Daily Times

Poverty is the state, where basic human rights are denied. From which Sindh generally, and rural areas particularly have been longing to get rid of since decades, but live in grinding poverty. Sindh’s rural deprived conditions are highly embedded in incessant bad governance, institutional decay, and concentration shift from agriculture to service sector. In addition, there is a stronghold of feudal system, and improper infrastructure to access nearby markets, market monopoly, widespread corruption in relevant departments at grassroot level, politicized irrigation department, increasing urbanization and rural resources exploitation.

Sindh population-wise is the second largest province of Pakistan. According to the 2017, census Sindh’s population is 47.9 million, of that 52.02 percent lives in urban and 48.98 percent lives in rural areas. Sindh contributes 30 to 32.7 percent of Pakistan’s GDP. Its share in the service sector has ranged from 21 to 27.8 percent and in the agriculture sector from 21.4 to 27.7 percent. Performance wise, its the best sector in manufacturing, where its share ranges from 36.7 to 46.5 percent. Sindh produces about 70 percent of natural oil and gas production.

According to some studies over 70 percent of the rural population of Sindh is afflicted by abject poverty and 50 percent live below the poverty line. In a news bulletin by the State Bank of Pakistan a few months back, declared that Sindh is the second most poverty-stricken province, after Balochistan. Thousands of acres of agricultural land is left infertile due to water shortage, recent 13 districts of Sindh are declared severe drought-hit areas.

UNDP’s human development index 2017 mentions that HDI of Sindh is 0.640. Sindh undergoes massive inequality in terms of district HDI among the provinces. Southern Sindh — apart from Karachi and Hyderabad which fall in the categories of high and high medium HDI, respectively — is home to the bottom three districts of Sindh namely, Tharparkar, Umerkot, and Sujawal. Among these bottom districts, Tharparkar is suffering severe deprivation; the relative difference between Tharparkar and even the other worst performing districts of Sindh is substantial. Rural districts of Sindh has experienced the greatest stagnation in terms of HDI scores, as 6 of the 10 worst performing districts belong to Sindh.

Majority of the rural population depend on farm economy such as crop growing, livestock and fisheries. The major agricultural crops of Sindh are: sugarcane, rice, wheat, bananas, dates, mangoes, cotton etc. Of these crops, this time owing to water scarcity, there is going to be a decline in average yield and produces per acre. The point to ponder is due to less crop production, extreme hunger and starvation among the rural inhabitants will increase.

Malnutrition among pregnant, lactating women and children is on the rise

The economy of rural Sindh is very disappointing, mainly governing leaders belong from rural Sindh. They have been ruling since decades. Though, they undoubtedly know the real situation that agriculture and livestock is the main source of bread and butter for rural Sindh. However, they could not have paid appropriate heed towards advancement of this very sector. They seem quite indifferent about the people who give votes. Instead the corrupt supremacy of Sindh is based on vested interests of the ruling elites, business communities and corporates. They are not worried about the common man’s concerns.

After Punjab, Sindh is the province which has agricultural land and has the potential but owing to the bad governance structure, its condition has deteriorated. In this modern technological age, many parts of Sindh are still using outdated conventional farming practices, which results in less yields and production. It seems Sindh’s rural agriculture is far-off from new and contemporary technology. Moreover, water shortage, water consumption and water governance at grassroots level are the significant challenges, which have forced small landholders to live their life in devastating poverty.

The consequences of dismal poverty in Sindh is horrible. The bulk of rural population is unable to send their children for schooling. About 8.7 million children in Sindh are found out-of-school either work on farms or garages. Malnutrition among pregnant, lactating women and children is on the rise.

No personal land to construct houses. Moreover, wretched public health institutes and basic health centres in rural areas do not even provide basic services. The residents of rural areas are not socially protected. Besides, multidimensional poverty in rural Sindh is increasing.

Strong rural agriculture base is one of the definite sources, which can lead to sustainable rural economy; this further positively results in tackling rural poverty. Moreover, there is also need to improve water governance, aligning of canals to save water and irrigate more lands, strong linkages between urbanization and industrialization. Also, induction of agro-based industries, access to non-farm sector for small farmers for their livelihood, introduce new technology for more agricultural outcomes, small and large enterprise initiatives for women and unemployed youth, and lastly, land reforms at a broader level to curb abject rural poverty for good.

The author is a socio-economic development professional and possesses eight years’ experience in development and the humanitarian sector

Published in Daily Times, November 16^th 2018.