|
There are few livelihood
opportunities available to the people. The local economy is chiefly pastoral,
with agriculture practised in a few fertile valleys. Most households are engaged
in primary-level activities such as subsistence agriculture and livestock
rearing, or small-scale business conducted locally. Others are involved in trade
within the tribal belt or with down-country markets. Women take active part in
agricultural activities, collect fuel wood and fetch water, besides attending to
household work and family duties.
With few industries and only
limited unorganised mining in some areas, many seek employment as short-term
unskilled labourers or enlist in local security and paramilitary forces. Those
who are able to travel find work in cities across Pakistan as well as in the
Middle East, using their earnings to support families at home. The more highly
qualified among them have in many cases migrated permanently along with their
families to urban centres outside the tribal areas, including Bannu, Dera Ismail
Khan and Peshawar. They and their children are reluctant to return to FATA,
leading among other things to an acute shortage of doctors, teachers and skilled
workers generally, and in particular to a dearth of qualified female teachers
and doctors.
|
