The Development of Household Empowerment Index among Rural Household of Pakistan

The key objective of this study is to develop a household Empowerment Index for a quick description of household empowerment. Household empowerment was gauged through the first-hand data gathered through face-to-face interview of household head form the rural households of Pakistan. In the process of data collection, multi-stage cluster sampling method was employed which involved twenty-four villages of southern Punjab and 600 heads of the household who were interviewed. With a view to assigning a weight of indicator variables, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was applied. The findings indicate that there are three pillars of the household empowerment: economic empowerment, social empowerment and above all political empowerment. The said three pillars are based upon the ten sub-pillars which further contain 42 indicators that contribute significantly to household empowerment.