About 26.6 million people, almost 50 percent of Pakistan’s urban population, live in slums, or katchi abadis, which are widely viewed as malignancies encroaching on the city. The slums typically have no government offices, no public schools and no medical facilities. Fifteen to 20 people cram into each of the crude huts, which typically consist of bleak concrete walls covered by patchy tin roofs. The denizens inhale asbestos and bathe and drink from stagnant water riddled with malaria-laden mosquitoes, dengue fever and sewage. In a country where about 1 out of 3 people live below the international poverty line, and make less than $2 per day, the street children of Karachi, kanglas, are 118,000 strong, according to the Azad Foundation.
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