Fundamentally, poverty is a denial of choices and opportunities, a violation of human dignity. It means lack of basic capacity to participate effectively in society. It means not having enough to feed and clothe a family, not having schooling or medical care.

And poverty is concentrated in the agricultural belt of the country where the majority of the people have no land on which to grow food or a job to earn a living, or access to credit. It means insecurity, powerlessness and exclusion of individuals, households and communities. It means susceptibility to violence, and it often implies living in marginal or fragile environments, without access to clean water or sanitation.

We all know these facts, but rarely do our planners seek to conduct surveys to know the depth of the problem. Pakistan's economy has been growing at a slow pace (around 3 per cent per year) during the last 5 years. Savings and investments as per cent of GDP have been declining and the overall deficit has been growing. Prices of essential items rose manifold during the last five years. Slow production activity resulted in an increasing number of unemployed people. High and persistently increasing inflation resulted in declining real wages of skilled and unskilled workers and real household consumption expenditure remained stagnant. This is evident from the increasing share of food expenditure in total household expenditure since 2007.

Different measures of poverty show considerably high levels of deprivation. The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) indicates that about 49.4 per cent of the population suffered multiple deprivations in 2007, while an additional 11.0 per cent were vulnerable to multiple deprivations. Income poverty measured by the percentage of the population living below PPP US$1.25 per day was 22.6 per cent. This indicates that income poverty only tells part of the story. The multidimensional poverty headcount was 26.8 percentage points higher than income poverty. This implies that individuals living above the income poverty line may still suffer deprivations in education, health and other living conditions. Slow economic growth of the past five years has compounded the problem.Peoples' perception about the economic condition of their household and the community is not very encouraging. The nationally representative household survey, the Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey (PSLM), asks respondents to provide their perception about the economic situation of their household and community. In addition, subjective information on the effectiveness of public services and facilities available to them is also asked. But this survey is conducted rarely and its findings are withheld for a long time.

The most recent survey was conducted in 2010-11. Nearly 43 per cent respondents of this survey expressed either a worsening economic situation of their household or no change compared to the previous year. Only 16 per cent households reported a better or much better economic condition. Similar responses were received when these questions were asked about their community. In this survey, households were also asked about their level of satisfaction with the facilities and services provided by the government. In response to this question, 31 per cent reported satisfaction with health facilities, 12 per cent were satisfied with the Family Planning services, 61 per cent with school services, 15 per cent with Agriculture Extension Services, and 10 per cent with the police.

In Pakistan, there are 114 districts in the Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), Balochistan and Islamabad. According to the Mouza Census of 2008, there are 52,376 mouzas in the four provinces. Mouza, a revenue village, is a unit of land organization defined by the government. It consists of one or more villages. There are 27,059 mouzas in the Punjab, 5,983 in Sindh, 11,854 in KPK and 7,480 in Balochistan.

The survey revealed the way that people of rural areas live in Pakistan. They do not enjoy even half the facilities available to the poorest in big cities. This disparity will have to go in order to put Pakistan on a sustained growth path. The structure of internal roads in most of the villages was mud. This pattern holds across provinces. Other common structures were soling in the Punjab, asphalt in KPK and concrete and asphalt in Sindh. The structure of most of the external roads in the villages of the Punjab and Sindh was asphalt, whereas gravel roads were common in KPK. Some external roads in Sindh were mud and in KPK were mud and concrete. A majority of the selected villages were connected with the nearest city through a main road.

Motorcycle, three-wheeler, four wheeler (e.g., suzuki van), and bus were found to be the most common modes of transport to go to the nearest city. Motorcycle, three-wheeler, and bus were common in the Punjab whereas four wheelers, such as Suzuki vans were commonly used in KPK. Mechanical transport has become more popular in recent years. The use of bullock carts was not found as a means of transport in 2012 whereas 5 villages (2 in Punjab and 3 in Sindh) reported bullock cart a mode of transport to go to the nearest city in 2007. Motorcycle appeared to be the most common mode of transport in recent years

Out of 76 villages, basic health units (BHU) were available in only 11 per cent of the villages, rural health clinics (RHC) in 9 per cent villages, and clinics or dispensaries in 29 per cent villages. Hospitals were found in only 1 per cent of the selected villages. However, nearly half of the villages had the services of a mid-wife and lady health worker (LHW). Hakeems and quack doctors were available in nearly half of the villages.

Although, some formal health facilities, such as, Basic Health Units, Rural Health Centers, and hospitals were available in very few villages, most of these services are available within a radius of 10 kilometers from these villages. Average distance to health facilities is relatively longer in KPK as compared to the Punjab and Sindh.

The average distance to most of the credit services located outside the village was 15 kilometers. A majority of input suppliers and money lenders were located within an average distance of ten kilometers from these villages. However, formal institutions, such as, ZTBL, commercial banks, cooperatives, NGOs, are more than 15 kilometers away from these villages. These distances are relatively longer in KPK as compared to the Punjab and Sindh

The availability of basic services and amenities indicates the level of development in a community. The key informants were asked about the presence of basic facilities in their communities. The data indicate that the mobile phone service was available in almost all the selected 76 villages. Nearly 93 per cent of the villages were electrified. However, very few villages had access to natural gas. About 60 per cent of the villages used cylinder gas. This proportion is 87 per cent in KPK and 25 per cent in Sindh. Immunization services were available in most of the villages. Very few villages had a sewerage system. Garbage collection system was available in only one village. Less than half of the villages had a health awareness program.

The distance from a village to important locations is crucial in determining the access of people to such facilities and amenities that do not exist in the village. The selected villages were located at an average distance of 22 kilometers from tehsil headquarters and 44 kilometers from the district headquarters. The selected villages of the Punjab were located at an average distance of 52 kilometers from the district headquarters. This distance was 27 kilometers in Sindh and 37 kilometers in KPK. However, these villages were not very far from the city. The average distance to the nearest city was 13 kilometers. These villages were at an average distance of less than 20 kilometers from the commercial center, mandi (main market), weekly market, and commercial bank. The railway station was far away from these villages. These distances were considerably high in KPK.

In most of the villages there was no need for any permit or license to start a new business. However, several constraints, were identified. Nearly 80 per cent of the villages identified access to good quality of electricity as the major constraint for the growth of non-farm business. Among other constraints, lack of access to formal credit, poor quality roads, corruption, tedious loan procedures, lack of access to market and market information, a dysfunctional legal system, and crimes were identified as major constraints.
The data collected on the physical infrastructure of schools indicate that most of the schools had boundary walls. Almost all schools used chalk-boards for teaching. However, the infrastructure that is crucial for the quality of education was missing in these schools. For example, less than half of the schools had a playground. Libraries were available in only 15 per cent of the schools, and scientific laboratories were available in only 6 percent schools.

Most of the schools had a drinking water facility. However, the common sources were hand or motor pumps.

Toilet facilities were also available in most of the schools. However, in most of the co-education schools, separate toilets for girls and boys were not available.

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