Poverty, Gap and Severity Estimates for Disaster Prone Rural Areas of Pakistan

Poverty has become the fate of the rural areas since they have become the victims of Climate change and ever-increasing catastrophic events. The disaster-prone rural areas, in particular, have been observed to be the sufferers of the said phenomenon. The situation becomes direr since Pakistan is a developing country with a lack of equality and balance between the development in rural areas and urban areas. The province of Sindh has the second highest estimated poverty headcounts of over 75 percent amongst all provinces except for Balochistan province in 2014–15. The current study is first-ever attempt to estimate poverty, the gap and the severity in the disaster-prone rural areas of Sindh province, Pakistan. The results are primary data-driven, from 1,259 households spread across 61 communities of 4 disaster-prone districts. The poverty incidence stood considerably higher than other rural parts in the province and country. One of the reasons is attributed to high destruction due to frequent disasters from the period 2007–2015. This also entails a need to assess the poverty lines and thresholds for the disaster-prone districts, separately, besides rural–urban demarcations. The study will assist in understanding the different factors that contribute to the poverty in the disaster-prone rural areas to make reparations and take precautions accordingly.