IMPACT OF SOCIAL MOBILIZATION EFFORTS ON COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT FOR REHABILITATION OF SALT AFFECTED AND WATERLOGGED LANDS IN TEHSIL SAHIWAL, DISTRICT SARGODHA.

A number of projects are being undertaken to reduce rural poverty in saline and waterlogged areas of Pakistan. The studied project (Bio Salne-II) is operating at three districts in the Punjab namely; Hafizabad, Sargodha and Jhang. The present study was conducted during 2008 to see impact of social mobilization services provided under the project, Punjab Community Development Project for Rehabilitation of Salt Affected and Water Logged (Bio-Saline-II) in the rural areas of Tehsil Sahiwal, district Sargodha. Out of 47 project villages, 12 villages were selected randomly and 25 respondents who were members of Salt Land User Group (SLUG) were chosen at random from each village making total number of 300 respondents. The data were collected through an interview schedule. The results revealed that majority (67%) of respondents reported that social mobilization procedure and strategies were satisfactory while remaining respondents (33%) rated social mobilization services as un-satisfactory. Further, the results depicted that vast majority (89%) of respondents was not involved in project activities (identification of problems, solution, monitoring evaluation, suggestions and recommendations). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]