Estimating Social Exclusion in Rural Pakistan: A Contribution to Social Development Policies

Abstract

There are various aspects of social exclusion. Social exclusion refers to individuals or groups being deprived of participation in social development processes such as health, education, living standard, social and political activities, etc. There is a vast body of international literature that defines these processes, but very little detailed empirical analysis available on rural Pakistan. This paper presents a situational analysis of social exclusion in rural Pakistan, using the Pakistan Rural Household Panel Survey (Round 2) data set to compute the flexible multidimensional social exclusion index. A simple ‘sum-score’ technique is used to estimate the depth of social exclusion at the household level. These social exclusion indicators are then aggregated to measure exclusion at the ethnic, regional and provincial levels. The results show that 52% households in rural Pakistan are deprived in wealth, income, agriculture resources, health, education, social and political participation and financial hardship. Households in rural Sindh are more deprived than households in rural Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The ethnic groups Punjabi, Sindhi, Saraiki, Balochi and Pakhtun are all deprived at certain levels in their respective provinces. However, Saraiki households are more deprived than Punjabi households in rural Punjab and Sindhi households in rural Sindh. These decentralized results can be used to formulate policies to help marginalized societies/ communities at the local and regional levels.