The socio-economic factors of poverty: Empirical evidence from district Lasbela, Balochistan

Abstract

Poverty is defined as a lack of basic necessities for survival. The current study examines the socio-economic factors that contribute to poverty in five of the district of Lasbela's nine tehsils, namely (Bela, Dureji, Hub, Sonmiani, and Uthal. Lasbela is Balochistan's tenth most deprived district, located near Karachi. The data for this study is cross-sectional and contributed from the project's 2014 Base Line Survey (BLS, 2014). The Logit model was used to evaluate the variables under study in order to achieve the study goal. According to our empirical findings, the average daily income in this district was less than $1.50. The marginal effects of all five tehsils are comparatively the same for all the variables used in the model. Furthermore, the empirical findings show that socioeconomic factors such as household head education, dependency ratio, and household size have a strong and significant impact on poverty across tehsils, whereas economic factors such as personal expenses and financial aid have a significant impact on poverty reduction in district Lasbela. Furthermore, the study's overall conclusion shows that multidimensional poverty exists in the district, with tehsil Dureji being the most impoverished, followed by Bela, Uthal, Sonmiani, and Hub. Some lucrative measures are suggested in connection to poverty reduction: First, access to free and accessible education in rural areas through a mobile education service. Secondly, the construction of roads and small dams is necessary to be established. Third, the implementation of a public-private partnership (PPP) programme for ventures, for promoting technological, digital, vocational, and modern education training in the first phase, and easy access to soft loans through microfinance banks in the second phase for small/startup businesses.