Women Work Participation, Empowerment and Poverty Alleviation in Pakistan Empirical Evidence from Southern Punjab

The study is aimed at investigating the nexus of women work participation, women empowerment and poverty in Southern Punjab. For that purpose, primary data is collected from three Divisions of Southern Punjab i.e. Multan, Bahawalpur and Dera Ghazi Khan in 2015. A sample of 600 women respondents is assembled from Southern Punjab in which data collected from 200 women respondents in each Division using simple random and stratified random sampling. Analysis is made at three stages i.e. preliminary analysis, descriptive analysis, correlation analysis, and Multivariate analysis. Preliminary analysis includes frequency distribution of respondents with respect to various characteristics. In descriptive analysis, Mean and standard deviation of each variable are calculated. The study uses ordinary least square method and logistic regression analysis for econometric results. Ordinary least square method is applied on the model in which dependent variable is quantitative while logistic regression method is utilized for the model in which dependent variable is qualitative or dummy. Analyzing poverty level in three divisions of Southern Punjab (Multan, Bahawalpur and DG Khan), it is evaluated that in DG Khan Division 30 % of respondents live below poverty line and DG Khan Division is the most poorest among three districts on the basis of national poverty line (Note: National Poverty line: Rs. 3030.32 in 2013 and inflated for 2015 as estimated @ Rs. 3320.88 per month). If poverty level is compared on the basis of international poverty line (Note: International Poverty line: $1.90 or less a day in 2015 and estimated @ $1 = Rs. 102.1516 gives equal to Rs. 194.088 per day and Rs. 5822.64 per month in Pakistan) in three districts, it is evaluated that in Bahawalpur Division 53% of respondents live below poverty line and Bahawalpur Division is the most poorest among three divisions (Multan, Bahawalpur and DG Khan) on the basis of international poverty line. The results of descriptive statistics summarize that average per capita income in Southern Punjab is Rs. 10983.590 per month, 40 percent households live below the poverty line on the average, average age of women is 35.987 years, average education of women is 9.263 years, 79 percent women are married, 83.2 households are provided good sanitation facility, the distance of workplace from home is 3.168 km, average household size is 5.655 persons, father’s of 37.7 percent women are employed, on the average 1.932 persons in each house are working, 39.7 percent households are participating in economic activities, 49.7 percent women are living in joint system, 59 percent women are participating in economic activities, the average economic empowerment of women is 0.543 points, average familial/ interpersonal empowerment of women is 0.558 points, average social empowerment of women is 0.619 points and 48.2 percent women are living in urban areas. The results of correlation matrix portrays that values of correlation coefficient in women’s work participation, married women’s work participation and women empowerment models are significantly lower than 0.80 which concludes that these models are free from this problem. The results of econometric analysis concludes age of respondent, square of age, decision to work, marital status, distance of health unit, workplace distance, father’s job, participation ratio, residence and family setup as the significant factors affecting women’s work participation in Southern Punjab. Among these factors, age of respondent, decision to work, workplace distance, father’s job, participation ratio and family setup are increasing women’s work participation and square of age, marital status, distance of health unit and residence are reducing women’s work participation in economic activities. Married women’s work participation are affected by age of respondent, square of age, education of respondent, decision to work, distance of health unit, distance of workplace, residence, family setup and husband’s job. In these factors age of respondent, education of respondent, decision to work, distance of workplace and family setup are concluded as motivating factors for married women’s work participation while square of age, distance of health unit, residence and husband’s job are confirmed as de-motivating factors for married women’s work participation in economic activities. In women empowerment model, marital status, household decision making, self employed, salaried employed, father’s education, safe drinking water, control over personal income spending, having own bank account, access to media/ internet, permission for shopping or to visit park and decision about own health care are significantly increasing women empowerment while fear of violence from husband/ father is reducing women empowerment in Southern Punjab. In women economic empowerment model, married marital status, self employed, salaried employed, sanitation facility, control over personal income spending and having own bank account are significantly rising women economic empowerment. In women social empowerment model, square of age, education of respondent, household decision making, salaried employed, father’s education, access to media/ internet and permission for shopping or to visit park are significantly raising women social empowerment while age of respondent is decreasing women social empowerment. In women familial/ interpersonal empowerment model, married marital status, household decision making, self employed, salaried employed and decision about own health care are positively associated with women familial/ interpersonal empowerment while household size and fear of violence from husband/ father are negatively correlated with women familial/ interpersonal empowerment in Southern Punjab. The econometric results demonstrate that square of age, education of respondent, married marital status, women work participation, sanitation facility, father’s job, no. of earners, participation ratio and urban residence of women are significantly increasing per capita income while joint family setup, dependency ratio, household size and age of respondent is significantly reducing per capita income of households in Southern Punjab. On the other side, age of respondent and household size appear to be significant causes of increasing poverty in Southern Punjab. Moreover, square of age, education of respondent, married marital status, women work participation, good sanitation facility, no. of earners, urban residence, women economic empowerment, women social empowerment and women familial/ interpersonal empowerment are significantly turned out to reduce poverty from Southern Punjab. In the end, the efforts should be made through the grass root planning to empower women and to participate more in the labor market and to reduce poverty by offering employment opportunities. This can be done through job creation, micro and small scale entrepreneurship and increased provision of educational and health facilities and variety of related social and welfare services.