Socio-Economic Factors of Differences in Public Health-Related Variables among Women: A Cross-Sectional Study

This study examines the association of living areas (slum and non-slum) with the selected public health-related variables in the presence of socioeconomic variables among married women and also having a child. A total of 150 women aged 18 to 49 are selected of which 50 women from slums and 100 women are from non-slum areas of Multan by applying the cluster and random sampling techniques. The cross-tabulation method is used to find the results. The dependent variable is Body Mass Index (BMI) and it is analyzed with the socio-economic variables such as mass media index, household characteristics and education. The findings exhibit that the BMI of the women living in the slum areas is low due to a low level of education, lack of mass media access, bad household structures, and poor or ignorant area. The women of the slum area have fewer mass media access, poor status of household characteristics and less education as compared to the women living in the non-slum areas. BMI is significantly affected by area, women's education and household characteristics except for physical work, job status, mass media access and husband education. The findings of this study suggest that to provide health facilities or to reduce the gap in public health, education, mass media access and households characteristics might be considered while making any decision related to the slum and non-slum areas.

Strategies for Displaced People in Development Projects: A Case Study of Thar Coal Field Area in Sindh

Resettlement is one of the core issues of mega development projects, especially in developing countries. Previous experiences have shown that in Pakistan resettlement has remained one of the highest ranked problems. In this regard, the present study was conducted in the Coal area of district Tharparkar. Using the descriptive survey method, a sample of 290 respondents were personally interviewed. Qualitative as well as quantitative data was analyzed and reported. During the survey of the area and study of secondary sources of information revealed that Thar coal field is spread over 9100 square kilometers. However, the major Thar coal area is limited to 1109 square kilometers, which possesses about 30 billion tons of the coal reserves. Efforts have been made to depict the qualitative and quantitative information of this area with especial reference to human, social, physical, natural and financial capital. The Major conclusion of this study revealed that like other parts of Tharparkar district, Thar coal field area is less densely populated. Rain fed agriculture with livestock is a major source of income, contributing 64% of the total household income. The overwhelming majority (89%) of the households reported goats while 55% possessed the cattle. For transportation and digging water, the donkey was major source, as reported by 93% of the household. Poverty, illiteracy, unemployment is basic issues of the dwellers. Hence, it is one of the assumption that due consideration is invited for developing a resettlement plan of the Thor Coal field area. Despite less income opportunities, local dwellers prefer to stay in their ancestral lands due to natural sceneries of Tharparkar and more peaceful area. Relatively higher growth rate of population (3.13 %) in Tharparkar as compared to growth rate (2.8%) of whole Sindh. Population of Non-Muslims, especially Hindus are relatively higher in Thar coal field areas like Tharparkar district in comparison to other parts of the country where the proportion of Non-Muslims is around 3%. After partition (1947) majority of the Non-Muslims population migrated to other countries especially to India.