Abstract
Rural poverty is a major socio-economic issue of many of the developing countries including Pakistan. Different strategies are being used to combat with rural poverty including disbursement of micro-credit by different state or non-state institutions in the country. In order to find out the impact of micro-credit on livelihoods of rural poor in the Punjab province of Pakistan, the present study was designed. Survey research design using mix method approach to data collection was used. Both probability (simple random) and non-probability sampling procedure was adopted for the selection of study objects. The total sample size of study was 150 (both male and female recipients of micro-credit). Descriptive (Frequency, %, mean, SD) and inferential statistics (multiple regression) was used for the interpretation of data through SPSS. It was concluded from the results that majority of the recipients of micro-credit was belong to young age category (mean age 36 Years) with low educational status. The educational level of rural women is very low compared to men. A large majority (78.0%) of the micro-credit recipients were female having low monthly income (119USD). Disbursement of micro-credit was one of the major strategies to cope with the issues of rural poverty. The average loan size as received by respondents was continuously increasing every year. In the research area illiteracy was on the top among other reasons of poverty with highest mean value (4.49/5.00). Majority of the respondents reported that micro-credit had significant impact in uplifting their livelihoods. It was suggested that micro-credit disbursement to the poor is not a sustainable solution to reduce poverty. The state should start other income generation activities in rural areas.
Highlights
Poverty is a sate having many dimensions which may be income based or non-income based
Socio-Economic Profile (Age) The data regarding age of the respondents as given in Table 1 showed that average age was found to be 36 years, which shows that majority of the respondents who used to get micro-credit were mostly belong to Maximum Age 66 Years
During Focus Group Discussion meetings, the question was raised to find out the age group who mostly involve in lending micro-credit? Majority of people responded that due to minimum availability of other income generation activities as well as employment opportunities for generation in the country, young people used to start small business or micro-enterprises to earn income for their livelihoods
Summary
Poverty is a sate having many dimensions which may be income based or non-income based. In more simple words it is the state of deficiency in the overall comfort of an individual with minimum monitory resources [2]. Such individuals have no capacity to support themselves as well as their families for healthy living. The other dimension of poverty is non-income based. Poor participation by sections of society on equality basis is termed as non-income based dimension of poverty [3]. All the individuals who are in state of income and non-income poverty are the deprived and marginalized masses of any society. Because both income and non-income nature of poverty has adverse impacts on their livelihoods [4]
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