Review Of Slums In Karacvhi - Re: Indian Authorities Fail to uplift the largest slum in Asia in Mumbai
nkdat...@bigmailbox.net
wrote:
> No city in India is without its own slum. Bigger the city, greater are
> the chances of having a big slum. No wonder therefore, if Asia's
> largest slum is located, near Bombay. So far
> attempts to clean it and rehabilitate people have not met any success
> as the following link informs.
>
> http://www.dawn.com/2008/04/17/int13.htm
>
> JavedIqbalKaleem
http://realtravel.com/karachi-reviews-a5241058.html
[Karachi is Pakistan's biggest city and greatest hope, with
aspirations of becoming the next Shanghai. But in the way of its rapid
progress stands Asia's largest slum]
Review of Slums of Karachi
SLUMS IN THE WAY OF KARACHI PROGRESS
Karachi is Pakistan's biggest city and greatest hope, with aspirations
of becoming the next Shanghai. But in the way of its rapid progress
stands Asia's largest slum.
Slums sits in the heart of the financial capital, but plans to
transform it are being met with fierce opposition.
Every inch of the slum is occupied. Rows of corrugated iron shacks are
packed with the belongings of the hundreds of families who live here.
Young children play with stray dogs among the filth and rubbish. There
is little sign of clean drinking water and the sanitation facilities
are appalling - up to 80 people are forced to share one toilet.
Slums of Karachi like Layri, Akhter Colony, Korangi & others bears all
the hallmarks of Pakistan's most crippling problems. Sixty-year-old
Razman has been living in the slum for 10 years. He invites our group
members into his tiny home. There is a small stove in one corner and a
tired old fan, if we stretch our arms out we could touch both walls of
the room that is home to the five members of his family, including two
small children.
"We want change and for conditions to improve for the people who live
here. There is nowhere for my grandchildren to play but I cannot
afford to move from here," he says.
"My vision would be that it would be transformed into one of the
better suburbs of Karachi - it will be forgotten as any kind of slum -
there will be state of the art modern amenities and a lot of happy
people living”, Karachi Government
But many of the residents have other ideas. They refuse to be
transformed by international companies who have little or no idea of
their community and what it needs.
Their neighborhood may be plagued by a crippling infrastructure but at
the heart of Karachi is a bustling business district that generates up
to $39m a year.
The tiny alleys that lead through the maze that is Asia's biggest slum
are packed with small workshops. Here tanners thrash the hide of
freshly cut leather and paint the square strips to be sewn into
handbags. It's the kind of business that keeps half of the residents
like Aslam Khan in employment.
"I would not be able to afford the cost of hiring a room outside
Layri. If the plans of demolishing Layri of Expressway project goes
ahead, we will lose so much business," he says.
Many are suspicious that the motivation to demolish Layri is purely
about money. The slum is a prime location for the financial capital,
which makes the land its worth to be weighted in gold.
Syed Ali grew up in Karachi's slums and now represents the slum
dwellers in their fight against the government's plans.
"Selling this land to the global market and giving it over for
commercial use - how will that improve our lives? Ninety per cent of
the people here want a stake in their future and a say in how it is
transformed. It has to work from the bottom up - not top down. They
have tried to tackle Layri before and never been successful," he says.
Visitors to the slum are struck by the uniqueness of Layri - most
describe it as being like a city in itself, with a community of people
living and working together which many wish to preserve. In return for
building tenement houses to shelter the former residents, the chosen
developer will win the right to build on the rest of the land. The
plans could be used as a blueprint to tackle poverty in the rest of
Pakistan's slums. But the planners and the government face a fierce
battle. Close to where the slum sits is the main railway track
bringing trains from across Pakistan to its wealthiest city - and the
slum dwellers threaten to bring it to a grinding halt
Syed Ali says if the plans are given the go-ahead "all we have to do
is simply step out of our homes".
He explains: "We will completely block the railways. A hundred
thousand of us will squat there and bring the whole city and the whole
of Pakistan to a stop."
ADULT MORTALITY IN SLUMS OF KARACHI
OBJECTIVE: Cause-specific death rates are rarely available to guide
health interventions for adults in South Asia. We report mortality
patterns among Karachi's urban poor.
METHODS: We conducted verbal autopsies for adult deaths under active
surveillance during 1990-1993 in five urban slums of Karachi. Two
physicians (Dr. M. Amin Panawala & Dr. Irshad Ali) assigned underlying
cause of death by consensus. Analysis included cause- and category-
specific rates , 45Q15s and comparison with 1991 Japanese national
statistics.
RESULTS:
* All 345 adult deaths (15-59 years) in the 5 slums (total
population 415,389) were included.
* Male mortality exceeded female (4.4 vs 3.3/1000, p = .02).
* Noncommunicable diseases claimed 59% of deaths, communicable and
reproductive 27% and injuries, 15%.
* The leading identified death rates (/100,000) among women were:
circulatory disorders (66), maternal causes (33), tuberculosis (30),
and burns (23).
* Among men they were: circulatory disorders (124) tuberculosis
(30) and road traffic accidents (30).
* Overall Karachi adult mortality was 3.7 times Japanese rate.
Compared to Japan, adults in Karachi had one to two orders of
magnitude excess mortality due to maternal causes, tuberculosis and
burns.
* Circulatory disorders and tuberculosis accounted for 47% of
excess male mortality; these plus maternal causes and burns accounted
for 55% of excess female mortality.
CONCLUSION: These mortality levels and patterns compel interventions
and research for poor urban adults beyond maternal health. Women's
health would equally benefit from tuberculosis control or burn
prevention. Men need safer travel. Both need improved cardiovascular
health.
DETERMINANTS OF CHILD MORTALITY IN SLUMS OF KARACHI
Pakistan has an infant mortality rate (IMR) of 90.5/1000 live births,
and the country's child mortality level of 117.5 is worse than in
other South Asian countries. Rapid population growth combined with
rural-to-urban migration has led to the creation of urban slums in
which morbidity levels are usually higher than in rural populations. A
study was conducted in January 1993 in 6 slums of Karachi where the
Aga Khan University has operated primary health care programs since
1985. Researchers recorded the deaths of 347 children under age 5
years old due to diarrhea and acute respiratory infections (ARI)
during 1989-93. 235 mothers of these children were interviewed.
The following are discussed as risk factors for under-5 child
mortality:
* the use of traditional healers
* poor nutritional status
* incomplete or no immunization
* the quick change of healers
* inappropriate child care arrangements, and mother’s literacy
* short birth interval, bottle feeding, and nuclear family
structure
Maternal autonomy, appropriate health-seeking behavior, and child-
rearing processes identified in the study point to the need for
intervention strategies which go beyond the usual primary health care
initiatives and involve communities in developing social support
systems for mothers.
The role of family health-seeking behavior in under-five-year child
mortality was explored through the combined approach of examining
health-seeking behavior regarding treatment generally, and in specific
in relation to illness before death. A population-based case control
study was carried out during the period 1993–1994 using 222 deaths
from diarrhea and acute respiratory illness (ARI) in children under
five years of age in six slums of Karachi as cases, and 419 controls
matched on age, disease (diarrhea and ARI) and slum. Factors
significantly associated (p<0·05) with child mortality in the
multivariate analysis were: mothers changing healers quickly, using a
traditional healer or an unqualified doctor and mothers to whom
doctors did not explain the treatment, even when maternal education
was controlled for. Seeking effective medical services is highly
influential on whether the child survives or succumbs to ARI or
diarrhea. As mothers are the first providers of care, an attempt
should be made to try and improve their skills through health
education so that they can use simple and effective treatments for
minor illnesses. They should also be taught to recognize potentially
life-threatening conditions, to seek care early and to persist with
treatment.
Javed Iqbal Kaleem
The post about Karachi is old and things have improved a lot. Lyari
and Orangi have been provided with drinking water in the residential
homes. But slums in Mumbai,
lye unattended, as the post above clearly shows. So the propaganda
about shining India is false and a deception.
Javed Iqbal Kaleem
nkdat...@bigmailbox.net
wrote:
The review of Karachi slums article is dated last year (2007). Javed
Iqbal Kaleem is clearly lying through his teeth if he claims that
barely a year after the review, Karachi slums have changed
drastically. The 2007 article very clearly identifies the Karachi
slums as Asia's largest.
http://realtravel.com/karachi-reviews-a5241058.html
koolfi...@gmail.com
wrote:
This is very nice view of karachi.