GENDERED DIFFERENCES IN ACCESS TO FINANCIAL AND SOCIAL ASSETS IN SEMI-ARID REGION OF THE PUNJAB, PAKISTAN

Abstract

This study was conducted to identify and analyze livelihood assets and livelihood strategies of farming households in the study areas in context of gender disparities. The main causes of people being vulnerable to climate change include poverty, gender inequality, unstable land rights, a strong reliance on agriculture, and limited access to information and education. The limited asset base, social exclusion, lack of mobility, and exclusion from catastrophe response decision-making processes further compound the risk. This paper investigates the access to the semi-arid areas of the Punjab, Pakistan from a gender perspective. A cross-sectional survey of the male and female respondents was conducted from 24 villages of semi-arid areas of the Punjab, Pakistan. Multistage random sampling technique was used to select a size of 360 households. Both male and female members of the households were interviewed to have a gender perspective. A total of 720 respondents (30 from each selected village: 15 Males and 15 Females) were taken as the study sample. To determine whether the two groups of data were correlated, chi-squared test was used. The male respondents were having significantly better access to government subsidy as compared to female respondents, because most of government programs approach to male for provision of any subsidy .Overall analysis indicate that male farmers had significantly better access to financial assets as compared to female. For “Any kind of emergency help (Non-cash) from relatives/ friends”, χ2 value (14.935) reveal a highly significant difference indicates that both male, and female respondents have different the access to any kind of emergency help (Non-cash) from relatives/ friends and to cope with the climate change related challenges at household level. It is clear from the analysis that, male respondents were having significantly better access to opportunities to receive cash help from government institution as compared to female respondents.