Project Area
Southern Punjab consists of three Divisions and eleven Districts. Bahawalpur Division has three Districts namely Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar and Rahimyar Khan. DG Khan Division has four districts which are DG Khan, Layyah, Muzaffargarh and Rajanpur. While Multan Division also comprises four Districts i.e. Multan, khanewal, Lodhran and Vehari. Total geographical area of the four project districts i.e.Bahawalpur, Bahawanagar, Muzaffargarh and Rajanpur is 54275 Sq. kilometers (26.4 % of total area of Punjab). Bahawalpur is the largest district (12.1% of Punjab) followed by Rajanpur, Bahawalnagar and Muzaffargarh. Total population of the four projects districts is estimated as 10540 thousand which comprises 11.5 % of the Punjab’s population with Bahawalpur having maximum number of people while Rajanpur contains minimum. On the other hand population density is highest for Muzaffargarh i.e. 320 persons per Sq. meter while lowest for Rajanpur where value is 90 persons per Sq. meter. Population density for Bahawalpur and Bawalnagar are 98 & 232 persons per Sq. meter respectively. As far as physical infrastructure is concerned, data shows that the project districts of southern Punjab are lagging behind the other regions of the province in most of the facilities like education, health and law enforcing etc. Literacy rates of the concerned districts are low as compared to Punjab average. Population density is lowest in Rajanpur and exceptionally low for rural women i.e. 11.3%. Lack of appropriate education facilities is also a major reason of poverty in the region. More detailed view regarding population, land utilization, livestock population, crop yield differentials, number of Schools & literacy rate is evident from the table given below:
