MAHEEN ISHAQ
ARTICLE (November 07 2008): An environment, which is marked with insecurity and charged with tension, an environment which does not provide a proper urbanised life style and security, does not help in attracting foreign investors. The industrial production, exports and diminishing revenue collection would have done much better, if the atmosphere in the urban areas had been orderly and friendly.
Pakistan, the fourth most populated country in Asia and the most urbanised in South Asia, presently suffers from tensions in its largest city of its worst kind. The urban areas account for one third of Pakistan's population; one fifth of the urban population is considered poor; they may be more, maybe up to one tenth of the total population of Pakistan.
Urban poverty is of a far more threatening and explosive nature and it has a potential to hurt the economy much more than rural poverty. The urban poor is likely to react more strongly in an unfavourable situation than the rural poor, because of the fact that the people are well aware of different things and living standards as compared to the rural poor who are immune to unfavourable conditions.
The level of awareness in the cities is much more than in the rural areas, due inter-alia to a higher literacy rate and there are lots of means to educate them either through media or by interaction with others. The urban facilities include good health, education, social welfare, and access to economic resources, which influence on decision-making that affects one's life.
Poverty has often been seen as a purely rural problem. In the coming years, urban poverty will become a major challenge for policymakers. Economical requirements force people to migrate from rural areas to cities that are already over populated. This leads to growth in urban population of the region and also increases the urban poverty.
Pakistan experienced one of the highest growth rates of population world-wide; it quadrupled in only 50 years to (1996) over 130 million. The urban population growth accelerated from 4.3 percent per annum in the last three decades (1960-1992) to 4.6 percent at present (1992-2000). 34 percent of Pakistan's population presently live in towns; with around 45 million urban population Pakistan ranks 5th in Asia (after China, India, Japan and Indonesia).
With some ten million inhabitants, Karachi is one of the largest cities in Asia; in South Asia it ranks only behind Bombay, Calcutta and New Delhi. According to the World Bank, Karachi is one of the fastest growing mega cities of the world and is expected to rank 7th by the year 2015. The urban population is presently estimated at slightly less than 50 million, at 32 percent of the country's total population.
Taking urban poverty at 22-23 percent, the number of urban poor would work out approximately to 10-11 million. About 30 percent of the urban population is concentrated only in two cities namely Karachi and Lahore, where the number of the urban poor should be around three million.
The total population density of Pakistan is 166.3 sq.km and 32.5 out of the total population is located in the urban areas of Pakistan. According to official statistics, poverty in Pakistan stood at 31.8 per cent in 2003. Of this, rural poverty stood at 38.65 percent, while urban poverty was estimated at 22.39 percent, during the year.
The increasing gulf between the rich and poor is far more prominent in the urban areas as compared to the rural areas. A simple example of comparison between the luxurious life style of an elite living in the posh area like defence and a poor of the slums in the same area surely gives in a clear picture and answers to many questions.
The urban population has seen a serious blow with a problem of ever increasing prices of civic commodities and taxes. Unemployment and under employment has added fuel to the fire. A large number of people are working for extra hours and side jobs to collect some money to make both ends meet.
Even after doing two to three jobs people in the urban areas are still under a constant fear and threat of hunger and poverty. It appears that all the happiness and comfort of the people, especially the youth, has been wiped off. The government policies have also worsened the situation. According to the records of All Pakistan Federation of Labour the minimum wage level of an unskilled labour is Rs 4000 to 6000 per month.
Educational expenses and the recent price hike have increased the problems of the working class manifold and they are living from hand to mouth. A lay person is not even able to feed his family properly. Government hospitals are merely just an adapted name because there are no real significant positives aspects of them. The thought of it being a government institution is well thought of being affordable but even the common man cannot afford getting sick because of the high cost of medicine.
Unemployment, gulf between the rich and the poor, economic imbalance, unwise distribution of resources, and lack of facilities have all brought social instability and injustice in our society. Now a culture has been developed where society is in the hands of armed gangs, underworld mafia, with highest crime rate. Our youth is being exploited by these social evil forces and thus bringing our nation into a state of chaos and anarchy.
The life can never be the same as it used to be in the 60s and 70s, thanks to the inappropriate policies of the government. Such an environment, which is marked with insecurity and charged with tension, does not help in attracting foreign investors. Rather it leads to a flight of foreign capital.
In spite of all this, the city district government has tried its level best to improve the situation. Development work, such as water supply schemes and construction of roads, have been started to improve the living standards of the people in urban areas. However, the government needs to do more to cope with the growing problem of unemployment. One of the major ways to combat the growing problems of urban poverty is through education.
Supporting the non-governmental organisations and introducing low priced literacy campaign can definitely bring in better results. Moreover vocational training can also play a vital role in making our youth self sufficient and can bring in a revolution. In order to fight against the growing and explosive nature of urban poverty the government needs to improve labour laws and the rights of labour class should be protected.
The government needs to make sure that the government's land allotment schemes and private housing projects are not being misused by speculators and invisible investors owing to which the prices of land and houses do not get inflated and out of the reach of the poor, for whom the government claims to be making policies and announcing these schemes. Zakat, usher and other religious funds should be used to alleviate the urban poverty by making various schemes in the slums of the cities.
The government focuses most its attentions to the rural poverty ignoring the urban poverty threat completely. Urban poverty is a fast growing problem and there are no proper statistics which can count the actual number of people living below the poverty line in the urban areas of Pakistan. Rural to urban migration has aggravated the situation. This rural to urban migration have also created economic imbalance in the country. Now there is acute shortage of farm workers in the rural areas.
The dire need is that the government provide rural population vocational and technical education at their places, so that they can establish their business in the villages only. This may reduce the poor from rural areas to the urban cities and may improve the situation as a whole.
The different dimensions of poverty and their causal factors underscore the need for policy and institutional reforms at the national as well as the city level, in order to achieve sustainable and replicable improvements in the conditions facing the poor. Policy actions need to be structured to make the poor people enhance their capacity to manage their assets.
Policy and institutional areas include all the aspects starting from land, housing and urban services to Financial markets to labour markets and employment and social protection and social services (health, nutrition, education and security) environment. City stakeholders, whether in industrial, transition, or developing countries, should take proactive roles in defining a shared vision of their city's future and improving residents' quality of life, particularly for the urban poor.
A city development strategy (CDS) is a process devised and owned by local stakeholders to formulate a holistic vision for their city. The process involves analysis of the city's prospects for economic and social development, identification of priorities for investment and development assistance, and implementation through partnership-based actions.
The urban poor are not given rights and responsibilities that go with being citizens. They are often assumed to be passive consumers rather than active participants with something to contribute. Even being asked to express needs and demands, without accepting responsibilities that go with being citizens, does not really empower people. In various countries, slum residents express their needs for infrastructure and urban services in particular, and they may get what they want in return for their votes.
Such populist policies, however, often do not require them to pay the costs of such services or land that they occupy even at a subsidised level. Public authorities in such cases retain the political advantage of being the sole decision-makers in allocating resources.
ARTICLE (November 07 2008): An environment, which is marked with insecurity and charged with tension, an environment which does not provide a proper urbanised life style and security, does not help in attracting foreign investors. The industrial production, exports and diminishing revenue collection would have done much better, if the atmosphere in the urban areas had been orderly and friendly.
Pakistan, the fourth most populated country in Asia and the most urbanised in South Asia, presently suffers from tensions in its largest city of its worst kind. The urban areas account for one third of Pakistan's population; one fifth of the urban population is considered poor; they may be more, maybe up to one tenth of the total population of Pakistan.
Urban poverty is of a far more threatening and explosive nature and it has a potential to hurt the economy much more than rural poverty. The urban poor is likely to react more strongly in an unfavourable situation than the rural poor, because of the fact that the people are well aware of different things and living standards as compared to the rural poor who are immune to unfavourable conditions.
The level of awareness in the cities is much more than in the rural areas, due inter-alia to a higher literacy rate and there are lots of means to educate them either through media or by interaction with others. The urban facilities include good health, education, social welfare, and access to economic resources, which influence on decision-making that affects one's life.
Poverty has often been seen as a purely rural problem. In the coming years, urban poverty will become a major challenge for policymakers. Economical requirements force people to migrate from rural areas to cities that are already over populated. This leads to growth in urban population of the region and also increases the urban poverty.
Pakistan experienced one of the highest growth rates of population world-wide; it quadrupled in only 50 years to (1996) over 130 million. The urban population growth accelerated from 4.3 percent per annum in the last three decades (1960-1992) to 4.6 percent at present (1992-2000). 34 percent of Pakistan's population presently live in towns; with around 45 million urban population Pakistan ranks 5th in Asia (after China, India, Japan and Indonesia).
With some ten million inhabitants, Karachi is one of the largest cities in Asia; in South Asia it ranks only behind Bombay, Calcutta and New Delhi. According to the World Bank, Karachi is one of the fastest growing mega cities of the world and is expected to rank 7th by the year 2015. The urban population is presently estimated at slightly less than 50 million, at 32 percent of the country's total population.
Taking urban poverty at 22-23 percent, the number of urban poor would work out approximately to 10-11 million. About 30 percent of the urban population is concentrated only in two cities namely Karachi and Lahore, where the number of the urban poor should be around three million.
The total population density of Pakistan is 166.3 sq.km and 32.5 out of the total population is located in the urban areas of Pakistan. According to official statistics, poverty in Pakistan stood at 31.8 per cent in 2003. Of this, rural poverty stood at 38.65 percent, while urban poverty was estimated at 22.39 percent, during the year.
The increasing gulf between the rich and poor is far more prominent in the urban areas as compared to the rural areas. A simple example of comparison between the luxurious life style of an elite living in the posh area like defence and a poor of the slums in the same area surely gives in a clear picture and answers to many questions.
The urban population has seen a serious blow with a problem of ever increasing prices of civic commodities and taxes. Unemployment and under employment has added fuel to the fire. A large number of people are working for extra hours and side jobs to collect some money to make both ends meet.
Even after doing two to three jobs people in the urban areas are still under a constant fear and threat of hunger and poverty. It appears that all the happiness and comfort of the people, especially the youth, has been wiped off. The government policies have also worsened the situation. According to the records of All Pakistan Federation of Labour the minimum wage level of an unskilled labour is Rs 4000 to 6000 per month.
Educational expenses and the recent price hike have increased the problems of the working class manifold and they are living from hand to mouth. A lay person is not even able to feed his family properly. Government hospitals are merely just an adapted name because there are no real significant positives aspects of them. The thought of it being a government institution is well thought of being affordable but even the common man cannot afford getting sick because of the high cost of medicine.
Unemployment, gulf between the rich and the poor, economic imbalance, unwise distribution of resources, and lack of facilities have all brought social instability and injustice in our society. Now a culture has been developed where society is in the hands of armed gangs, underworld mafia, with highest crime rate. Our youth is being exploited by these social evil forces and thus bringing our nation into a state of chaos and anarchy.
The life can never be the same as it used to be in the 60s and 70s, thanks to the inappropriate policies of the government. Such an environment, which is marked with insecurity and charged with tension, does not help in attracting foreign investors. Rather it leads to a flight of foreign capital.
In spite of all this, the city district government has tried its level best to improve the situation. Development work, such as water supply schemes and construction of roads, have been started to improve the living standards of the people in urban areas. However, the government needs to do more to cope with the growing problem of unemployment. One of the major ways to combat the growing problems of urban poverty is through education.
Supporting the non-governmental organisations and introducing low priced literacy campaign can definitely bring in better results. Moreover vocational training can also play a vital role in making our youth self sufficient and can bring in a revolution. In order to fight against the growing and explosive nature of urban poverty the government needs to improve labour laws and the rights of labour class should be protected.
The government needs to make sure that the government's land allotment schemes and private housing projects are not being misused by speculators and invisible investors owing to which the prices of land and houses do not get inflated and out of the reach of the poor, for whom the government claims to be making policies and announcing these schemes. Zakat, usher and other religious funds should be used to alleviate the urban poverty by making various schemes in the slums of the cities.
The government focuses most its attentions to the rural poverty ignoring the urban poverty threat completely. Urban poverty is a fast growing problem and there are no proper statistics which can count the actual number of people living below the poverty line in the urban areas of Pakistan. Rural to urban migration has aggravated the situation. This rural to urban migration have also created economic imbalance in the country. Now there is acute shortage of farm workers in the rural areas.
The dire need is that the government provide rural population vocational and technical education at their places, so that they can establish their business in the villages only. This may reduce the poor from rural areas to the urban cities and may improve the situation as a whole.
The different dimensions of poverty and their causal factors underscore the need for policy and institutional reforms at the national as well as the city level, in order to achieve sustainable and replicable improvements in the conditions facing the poor. Policy actions need to be structured to make the poor people enhance their capacity to manage their assets.
Policy and institutional areas include all the aspects starting from land, housing and urban services to Financial markets to labour markets and employment and social protection and social services (health, nutrition, education and security) environment. City stakeholders, whether in industrial, transition, or developing countries, should take proactive roles in defining a shared vision of their city's future and improving residents' quality of life, particularly for the urban poor.
A city development strategy (CDS) is a process devised and owned by local stakeholders to formulate a holistic vision for their city. The process involves analysis of the city's prospects for economic and social development, identification of priorities for investment and development assistance, and implementation through partnership-based actions.
The urban poor are not given rights and responsibilities that go with being citizens. They are often assumed to be passive consumers rather than active participants with something to contribute. Even being asked to express needs and demands, without accepting responsibilities that go with being citizens, does not really empower people. In various countries, slum residents express their needs for infrastructure and urban services in particular, and they may get what they want in return for their votes.
Such populist policies, however, often do not require them to pay the costs of such services or land that they occupy even at a subsidised level. Public authorities in such cases retain the political advantage of being the sole decision-makers in allocating resources.
