Unemployment in rural areas is the most daunting challenge being faced by the new Sindh government. The rural areas are fast losing their agriculture-based employment potential due to persistent shortage of water and land degradation. Almost 14 million people in rural Sindh directly depend on agriculture as their major source of livelihood.

However, this source of livelihood and employment is under severe pressure due to variety of reasons. Drought, faulty water distribution mechanism, poor management of water resources, land degradation, lack of research and inept market policies are the few among the long list of reasons taking toll of agriculture economy.

The situation can be gauged from the following table showing the the decline in area under cultivation. The table shows the decline in area sown under important crops from 1995-96 to 2004-05

Declining produce has a direct bearing on rural poverty and employment. A World Bank report, “Securing Sindh’s Future-The Prospects and Challenges Ahead” paints a very grim picture of unemployment in Sindh. It reveals that due to growing population, rise in literacy and migration, nearly 600,000 additional people would be entering in job market each year in Sindh. This is in contrast with the long-term annual job creation rate of 350,000 in the province.

Over the recent decade, Sindh has been frequently denied its due share in water distribution. Growers have been complaining that water shortage in canals and distributaries of Sindh has become a perennial problem. The new government would have to tackle this issue through effective representation in IRSA and Wapda . Only judicious share and efficient use of water can improve agriculture-related employment in rural Sindh.

However, climate change effect is likely to increase in the coming years and availability of water in river system would continue to be a question mark. To manage this risk, there is a need to diversify employment opportunities both in rural as well as urban areas of the province. The Sindh government needs to explore non-conventional avenues to create employment opportunities apart from revitalising its agriculture sector.

Agro-based industry could provide some relief but incentives are required to attract investment in rural areas. Poor law and order conditions and weak infrastructure have also been a barrier to growth of agro-based industry. The industry in Sindh is mainly concentrated in Karachi except handful of units in Hyderabad, Kotri and Sukkur. Presently, about 11,500 small and large industrial units are located in four major industrial areas of Karachi, providing employment to over 2.5 million people.

Since rural Sindh has predominantly agriculture based economy, human resource required for industrial sector has not been developed there. No significant investment was made in infrastructure required for promoting rural industry. Due to lack of demand and poor administration, institutes of vocational training and job skills are also in bad shape in rural areas.

Presently, 45 polytechnic and mono-technical institutes are operating in Sindh having about 18,000 registered students. However only 8,000 of them studied in institutions located outside Karachi. Likewise, the Directorate of Manpower and Training is operating about 33 training centres including technical, apprenticeship and youth vocational training centres. Most of such centres in rural areas are dysfunctional due to various reasons. Proper training through revamped institutions could open doors of urban- based employment for rural youth.

Quality education institutes in the rural areas also deserve attention for creating human resource with advanced degrees. Public sector universities in rural Sindh are victims of lack of resources, quality faculty and infrastructure. Graduates from these universities cannot compete with graduates from urban-based private sector institutions. This is resulting in frustration among qualified rural youth.

Quality education institutions are mostly centred in Karachi, which are too expensive for lower and middle class families of rural areas. Presently, there are 25 HEC recognised degree awarding private sector institutes in Sindh; 23 of them are located in Karachi and remaining two in Hyderabad. From 2001/02 to 2005/06 these institutions produced over 36,000 graduates, all from Karachi except 900 from Hyderabad.

Information technology is a promising sector offering wide spectrum of jobs nationally and internationally. However, rural areas are deprived from any significant benefit from this sector. According to a research report of Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB), this sector is providing jobs to about 138,000 employees and the number of job opportunities is expected to be around 235,000 in 2009-10. Rural areas are far from the scene. PESB website shows 1,161 registered IT companies in the country. This includes 412 in Karachi, 331 in Islamabad, 418 in Lahore and remaining in other cities/towns.

In Sindh, some 25 institutions offer degree courses in IT sector; 23 of which are in Karachi alone and one each in Hyderabad and Tando Allahyar. Due to such gap of access to IT education, rural youth have very limited opportunities to benefit from this fast growing job market. It is time that quality education centres in IT should be established in all district headquarters to create more job opportunities for educated youth from rural areas.

The Sindh government should devise a comprehensive strategy to tackle the challenge of unemployment specially in rural areas. It would be advisable set up a ‘human resource development and employment authority’ to execute long-term strategies for creating job opportunities for rural and urban youth to reach out to national and international job markets.

To create a socio-economic balance in urban and urban areas, there is a dire need to provide basic educational training facilities and employment opportunities across the province.