Housing is recognized as one of the universal fundamental rights of citizens. This was used as a popular political slogan in 1970s Pakistan when food, clothing and shelter was turned into an ubiquitous image of equity and fairness for all. Incidentally, no government had the capacity to attain this ideal despite the slogan’s continual use in the politico-electoral landscape.
An important part of housing in Pakistan, especially in developed urban areas, is “Katchi Abadis”, roughly translating to “Temporary/Rudimentary Settlements”. These are basically slums in urban, suburban and rustic ranges. In major cities these are colonies of slums and shanty towns that co-exist at the peripheries of affluent neighborhoods with their posh concrete houses. This humbling contrast presents a stark and glaring image of our class divisions.
Rani Bibi, mother of 7 who has been hawking goods for the last 25 years
The living conditions in these Katchi Abadis speak appalling stories of deprivation. Not conforming to even the most basic requirements for a healthy human existence, people residing in slums experience a highly unhygienic habitat and are susceptible to terrible sufferings during extreme weather conditions. Living on the margins of our society, residents of slums are people deprived of sufficient means, often with no resources to maintain their own health as well as that of their children.
Female slum-dwelling labourers in Rawalpindi, where several families have come to settle over the past few decades, explain that once this place was a densely populated shanty town, however in recent years, many families have left because it gradually became difficult for them to make ends meet. An account by one such woman, Rani Bibi, provides disturbing and moving insights into their woes.
Rani Bibi (42) says, “I work as a hawker, vending utensils around villages, bartering them for raw material such as rubber and metallic goods. It is very rare when someone buys it for cash. I make One to Two Hundred Rupees a day and sometimes nothing after a whole day of vending under difficult conditions”.
According to UN-HABITAT Rani Bibi, is one of the 863 million people living in slums globally, making up 33% of the urban population in the developing world in 2012.
Taking into account various appraisals, it can be securely concluded that approximately 23 to 32 million people in Pakistan are slum dwellers. This constitutes a small but significant share of the one billion slum dweller across the globe. The influx of Afghans during the 1980s added to the number of katch abadi inhabitants.
Children gather at dusk as their mothers arrive from work
Article 38-D of the Constitution of Pakistan states, “The state shall provide basic necessities of life, such as food, clothing, housing, education and medical relief for all such citizens, irrespective of sex, caste, creed or race, as are permanently or temporarily unable to earn their livelihood on account of infirmity, sickness or unemployment.”
This problem is not limited to Pakistan alone. According to Martin Ravallion, from World Bank, currently a quarter or 25% of the world’s poor dwell in urban areas, and this percentage is going to be 50% by the year 2035. The slums and shanty settlements are often situated in the least-habitable parts of the city, situated on steep hillsides, in low-lying grounds adjacent to rivers prone to flooding, or in places along the downstream course of industrial waste residue, leaving inhabitants highly exposed to pollution-borne diseases and natural disasters. And adding to these woes are the mafia operating in the slums, who virtually run the settlements as landlords, extracting the little which the tenants make, who have no option for legal recourse. Whenever an industrial unit is established, requiring unskilled to semi-skilled labour, its surrounding patch of land serves as an opportunity for land owners to set up a slum colony, where the number of dwellers grows so fast that it is almost impossible to track its growth.
The World Bank and UN-HABITAT estimate that, given no significant economic reforms are being undertaken, urban slum dwellers will continue to face gruesome economic and health issues.
Given the absence of any medium to low-value skills and also little to no education, unemployment rates are very high for slum dwellers, particularly women. This, in addition to the lack of competitive job markets, force many slum dwellers to find work in the informal economy within the slums or in developed urban areas in proximity to the slums. Such employment can either be a part of the legal informal economy or illegal informal economy with no contract or social security cover.
Jobs in the latter include street vending, household enterprises, product assembly and packaging, garland-making, embroideries and crafts, domestic work, shoe polishing or repair. Often, people sort and recycle trash of different kinds (from household garbage to electronics) for a living, selling either the odd usable goods or stripping broken goods for parts or raw materials. Such employment invariably requires the poor worker to pay bribes to the police and other government staff in order to be ignored.
Adults and children in slums do not have adequate clothing for harsh climate extremes, frequently exposing them to many illnesses and diseases. Slum dwellers enjoy no fundamental rights like education, healthcare, and recreation. As such, the children are exposed from an early age to nefarious designs of criminals, allowing abuse of these children and often forcing them into a life of crime.
Jameela Bibi, 35, another hawker from the slums says, “The weather is always quite a challenge, when there are heavy rains our shack is filled with water, making it difficult to live in, and we have noweher else to go. Another distress because of this is that we have to try very hard to dry our beds so that we may have something to sleep on.”
Rape is another serious issue related to crime in slums. Absence of state’s formal recognition results in little to no formal policing and there is no access to public justice institutions for slum dwellers.
Chronic paucity of resources in the household contributes to increasing marital stress, leading to domestic violence. Children seldom get early vaccination, increasing the incidence of polio, pneumonia, whooping and chronic cough and other respiratory diseases, given their proximity to industrial establishments and closeness to where the toxic waste is usually dumped. Thousands die annually due to these unhygienic and diseased dwelling conditions.
Speaking of her children’s health Jameela Bibi lamented the unhygienic conditions of her dwelling, “Living with a large family it is really dificult to make ends meet. Some of my chidren are malnourished as I am unable to give them proper time due to my day-long work”.
Nutritional deficiencies for slum dwellers include protein-energy malnutrition (PEM), vitamin A deficiency (VAD), iron deficiency anemia (IDA) and iodine deficiency disorders (IDD).Malnutrition is often fatal, especially for children. Because they are out through the day for vending, mothers are left with no time take care of children, resulting in malnutrition due to neglect.
To alleviate this, the government and the private sector must come together. However the concern is that the private sector has largely ignored slum dwellers while promoting low-cost housing. Given the dreadful trends and numbers, which are progressively despairing, the government cannot handle the issue on its own, especially when its own survival is at stake amid a number of political crises. In order to bring the private sector on board the administration must propose suitable incentives. Though housing is a major challenge, it can be tackled with a sound and planned response through a strong public-private partnership. The government must demonstrate the will to take the first steps in approaching the private sector with an open mind and the determination to change things for the better.
Haroon Janjua is a freelance journalist. He tweets @JanjuaHaroon and can be reached at janjuaharoon01@gmail.com
