Social Capital and Poverty Alleviation: Some Qualitative Evidences from Lahore District

The present study focuses on the newly emerged concept of social capital and its relationship with poverty alleviation in some slum areas of the Lahore city. The basic assumption of the study was that social capital empowers an individual through connecting ones with various social groups, institutions and structural networks. The resultant factor is that the individual, through his/her strong social ties, exposes to new options and resources in a variety of ways, and at the same time learns various ways (both legitimate and illegitimate) to get benefit from these resources. The universe of the present study consisted of those married people (both male and female) whose monthly income was equal to 2500 rupees. A total of 15 respondents were selected purely on the basis of purposive sampling and case study method was used as method of data collection. An interview guide was used as a tool for data collection. The qualitative analysis of all the case studies was made. The case studies demonstrated that family, friends, relatives and neighbours were the major sources of social capital and role of social capital was decisive in the improvement of their living standard specially by exposing them to various options and resources, which enabled them to improve their living standard. At the end, the researcher concluded that social capital facilitates different resources which are crucial in reducing poverty.