The latest Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (2012-13) (PDHS) is a data treasure. On February 11, this column highlighted survey findings that are of crucial import to female empowerment. Now it touches upon those fragmented insights from the same survey which readers will find informative; some amusing and some disturbing. (PDHS data was collected between October 2012 & March 2013)
First up, inequality is more prevalent in rural areas. About half of urban households lie in the highest wealth quintile while over half of rural households lie in the two lowest quintiles. In terms of Gini coefficient (a measure of inequality: 0=total equality; 1=total inequality), rural Sindh has the most inequality (Gini 0.4), followed by Gilgit-Baltistan (0.31). Islamabad “the beautiful” is the least inequality-ridden (0.16), as nearly 70 percent of its households live in the highest wealth quintile. The survey confirms Pakistan’s overwhelmingly young population, as 39 percent fall below age 15. Nearly 40 percent of the population is in the prime working age of 15-39 years.
The mean household size was reported at 6.8 members. About 46 percent of the households have more than 6 members. Large Pakistani households are explained by the cultural prevalence and economic benefits of joint-family systems.
It seems that Pakistani women marry younger than men do, and to older men. About 64 percent of women and 51 percent of men in the 15-49 age brackets are counted as married. So, there are a higher number of men than women, who are single and ready to mingle. In the age group above 30 years, 27 percent of men and nearly 14 percent of women never married!
Society does still not comprehend the perils of cousin marriages. About 75 percent of women are reported to be married within their close relations. First cousin marriage constituted 49 percent of all Pakistani marriages, though it declined from 52 percent in 2006-07. The cousin marriage phenomenon is higher in rural areas, especially in Sindh, but decreases with improvement in education and wealth levels.
The PDHS shows that 86.5 percent of urban households have TV compared to just 46.7 percent of rural households. Lower rural penetration could be due to conservativeness and the fact that rural men bond around one TV in large settings over ‘chai’ or ‘hukkah’.
Rural folks must have a great way around “keeping time”, for only 56 percent of rural households had clocks, compared to 89 percent in urban households.
TV is the best female pastime; newspapers, not so much. Seventy-one percent of urban women and 35 percent of rural women watch television at least once a week. However, only 8 percent of urban women and 2 percent of rural women read a newspaper once a week. Meanwhile, 17 percent of men read a newspaper at least once a week.
Experts may go on about how a large population remains off-the-grid, but the survey shows that 94 percent of Pakistani households have access to electricity. Natural gas!? No, not so much as 62 percent of households use solid fuel for cooking. About 93 percent of households have access to improved source of drinking water and 59 percent have an improved, separate toilet facility.
Despite its zeal, lots of work is still cut out for NADRA, as 17 percent of adults aged 18 and above do not have a CNIC number and 68 percent of children under age 5 have no birth certificate. These folks may prove to be difficult to reach out to, as the last mile is usually tough and testy.
About 27 percent of Pakistani ever-married (married at least once) men smoke cigarettes and another 22 percent consume tobacco in other forms. Balochistan beats other provinces in this regard and can aptly be called the “smoke screen” of Pakistan. About 35 percent of Baloch men are smokers-–and heavy smokers at that, for 76 percent of the smokers there consume more than 10 cigarettes a day.
One may not see women smoking much, but the survey shows that nearly 1 percent of urban and 1.6 percent of rural ever-married women smoke cigarettes. If we include cigarettes, pipe, biri/beedi and other tobacco products, 4.2 percent of urban women and 7.6 percent of rural women classify as tobacco users.
These are some of the interesting insights dug up from the PDHS. Data junkies are encouraged to look for more such information in there.

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