Description of the Study Area

The current study was conducted in six villages of District Peshawar Northwest Pakistan (see Table 4 for a description of study villages). The following sections explain the socio-economic conditions prevailing in these rural areas. The discussion starts with the villages in the imme-diate vicinity of provincial capital Peshawar followed by the Gulbela and Kochian. The last section addresses the tribal villages of Mushtarzai and Yousafkhel.

4.4.1 Extension Villages

Kukar: Kukar is the largest⁷⁵ village, owing to its location on the urban fringe which is proxi-mate to both Peshawar city and the main industrial areas in the region. The village lies about 5 km north of Peshawar and is connected by the busy Peshawar-Charsadda Highway. One needs roughly 15 minutes of travel time to reach the provincial capital. Because of its location near a major highway, several new commercial and mercantile activities established themselves in the region. Nevertheless, the village is complex in its arrangement and the failure of the state to provide satisfactory schooling has led to the increasing emergence of privately run educational institutions. Although a state run canal serves the irrigation needs of the village agriculture, it has suffered from pollution problems in recent years.

Dalazak: Dalazak is located nearly 8 km east of Peshawar and is accessible by a narrow strip of recently built road. Although the village classified in 1967/68 as an 'owner-operator/tenant/businessman'-village, the development in recent years fails to justify this defini-tion. The state canal has become increasingly polluted in recent years because of the ever-expanding provincial capital Peshawar. Besides, the newly erected Peshawar-Hayatabad ‘Ring Road’ close to the village has opened direct links between Dalazak and other regions of Pesha-war and hastened the growth of trade and service based employment in the village.

4.4.2 Landlord, Tenant, and Labourer Villages

Gulbela: In the 1967/68 survey, this village along with Kochian were categorized as a 'land-lord/tenant/labourer'-villages due to the predominance of landlords⁷⁶ who leased out land (ALBRECHT, 1976). Gulbela is located about 17 km northeast of Peshawar, close to the river Kabul (for the socio-economic conditions⁷⁷ in the study villages, see Table 4). The Arbab family dominates the local landownership, owning almost all of the agricultural land in Gulbela. Never-theless, the rapid subdivision of agricultural land has increased the economic differentiation

75 In 2005, Kukar’s population was 6,003, of which all were Muslims except for 21 people belonging to other religions.

76 The present survey shows a declining role of these landlords in the village economy as more and more people are switching towards non-agricultural employment.

77 According to the 1998 district census, like the rest of villages about 99.4 percent of the village population is Muslims, and there are only 19 people belonging to other religions.

even within ‘Arabs’. The landlords have their own communal irrigation system at their disposal;

nevertheless, there are problems with the water supply.

Table 4. Socio-economic Characteristics across the Six Villages in Northwest Pakistan

Characteristics Villages Note: 1) Population density is village population over village area in acres.

2) The sex ratio, an indicator of gender inequality in a society, mirrors gender differentials in mortality. A high sex ratio indicates premature death of females, the source of which could include poor female access to health inputs or social factors resulting in sheer neglect. Pakistan’s sex ratio of 108 males per 100 females (GOVERNMENT OF

PAKISTAN, 2000) means almost 8 million missing women which even surpasses South Asia’s already high ratio of 106. Even compared to other low-income countries, Pakistan’s sex ratio is high. SEN, 1990 brought attention to this simple but powerful sex ratio statistic to calculate the phenomenon he called “missing women.” In a world with no excessive female mortality, the sex ratio would be 95 to 98 males per 100 females. The difference between this benchmark and the actual ratio translates to the number of missing women – i.e., women who could have lived but did not because of premature death (WORLD BANK, 2005).

3) Hhs refers to “households” in the study area.

Source: Basic survey carried out in six villages of Northwest Pakistan, 2004-05; KHAN, 2007; GOVERNMENT OF

PAKISTAN, 2000.

Gulbela hosts a ‘high-school' (classes 6-10) and two 'primary-schools' (classes 1 to 5) for girls and boys. There are also two private schools initiated in the last few years which charge competi-tive fees for schooling. The public infrastructure was less visible in the area as there was no post office or bank and the health facilities was not more than a ‘basic health unit’, staffed by a doctor, a dispenser, a few lady health visitors and a gatekeeper. The research team conducted a compre-hensive interview with the head of the school as well the staff at the BHU. Some of the landlord households have established commercial markets alongside the Charsadda⁷⁸ highway which borders the village. Most of these are grocery shops, electronic goods sellers, and barbers.

Kochian: The village lies directly across from Gulbela on the Charsadda highway. There are two 'middle schools' in the village - one for girls and the other for boys. Due to its location directly next to the main road with intensive bus traffic, a few businesses and teahouses opened in recent years near the bus stop.

4.4.3 Tribal Villages

Mushtarzai: Mushtarzai lies 16 km south of Peshawar and became part of Peshawar Town 4 under the recent administration setup. Although the research team noted some construction work on the road passing through the village, most of the village suffers from a lack of satisfactory public infrastructure. Administration-wise, four local council members represent the village – two general councilers, one farm/labor member, and one Naib Nazim (Deputy Mayor). With property distribution, Mushtarzai is divided into five distinct regions (Khandey) – Niazey, Manzey, Sultankhel, Usmankhel, and Karamkhel. Niazey is the biggest Khandey, hosting around 170 households. A public tube-well supplies drinking water through a mutually arranged for-mula: 1.5 hours for every ‘Khandey.’ There are two middle and two primary schools in the village. Nevertheless, a couple of private schools serve the educational needs of the village within the village and in the nearby village of Mashookhel.

Traditionally, the villagers in Mushtarzai made a living from agriculture; later agriculture was combined with non-farm employment, and occasionally labourers migrate to the Gulf countries.

78 The large town of Charsadda is located about 7 km from both Gulbela and Kochian. In the last decade the construction of Charsadda highway not only opened a number of new economic opportunities but also considerably accessible the neighbouring villages. Charsadda has an important market where villagers sell most of the grain, vegetables and gur (a brown sugar) not needed for family use.

The close vicinity to the 'tribal area' leads to direct competition for the rare water with the inhabitants of the tribal land since the river flows through their land. The two villages, Mushtar-zai and Yousafkhel, were categorized in previous surveys as 'owner-operator-villages’

(ALBRECHT, 1976) because of predominance of owner-operator farm households.

Yousafkhel: Yousafkhel, the only rainfed village, where ecological conditions are dominated by low and unreliable rainfall. It lies 23 km south of Peshawar and is the poorest concerning infrastructure provision among the villages (Table 4). The village also suffers from security problems as the village setup is tribal and it is only accessible by a trodden dirt road. The road to the main Peshawar-Kohat highway was paved except for about 2 kilometers. The usually crowded bus made a single round trip daily, usually taking about an hour between Yousafkhel and the Peshawar Kohat bus station.

Water scarcity is a particular constraint as the water table has dropped to such a depth that it is no longer possible to irrigate the fields with tube-wells which were common a decade ago. The few functioning ancient Roman wells (qanat) observed in the 1986-87 survey, completely disap-peared in the area. The unpredictable precipitation only allows one annual crop of cereals in the winter. Nevertheless, some farmers still cultivate their fields in summer in hope of rainfall. Many fields were levelled and surrounded by a small earth dam in order to take advantage of all the rain for farming purposes. This way, the precipitation can no longer flow off the surface. The drinking water is supplied by private wells or river water, although there are two state-owned tube-wells.⁷⁹ One of the facilities was part of a bilateral rural development project.

There is limited economic activity in Yousafkhel besides a handful of grocery shops, a private dispensary, and a family-run small traditional flourmill. There is no Basic Health Unit (BHU) in the village, and the people have to travel to nearby villages such as Mathanai or, if the patient is seriously ill, to the provincial capital Peshawar. In recent years, the public sector set up a few educational institutions in Yousafkhel. There are three schools in the village- two-government schools for boys (primary and middle level) and a primary school for women. One of the primary school operates privately.

79 As far as the two tube-wells are concerns, one has gone dry in recent years, and the other is still under construction.

The villagers informed the research team that the construction started almost two years ago, but the facility is still not operational.