An informal life

There is some good news for Sindh’s poorest residents after Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah’s announcement that 100 informal settlements, or katchi abadis, would be upgraded to the level of urban towns. In principle, this would mean that the infrastructure provided to these settlements would be improved and brought in line with the infrastructure provided for recognised settlements. While it is unclear how exactly the government is planning to take on the endeavour or even what the budget or timescale of the infrastructure upgrade would be, this is in principle a positive step which recognises the rights of some of the city’s poorest residents who are forced to live in undignified living conditions due to the apathy of the state sector. Despite the fact that at least 948 of the 1,409 katchi abadis in Sindh are recognised and notified, they remain stuck in a cycle where they remain low-priority areas in terms of state service provision. The katchi abadi legislations in each province, despite offering ways to recognise informal settlements, almost condemn them to always be considered katchi abadis. Being recognised as something different from a regular township begins to define their life.

In the context of Karachi, one major example is Orangi Town which has been long ignored for the simple reason that it was considered an informal settlement by city authorities. The area houses around 2.4 million people who have continued to suffer from government apathy. The same fate is suffered by the almost 60 percent of Karachi’s population which lives in katchi abadis. Orangi’s residents, working with the Orangi Pilot Project, however, decided to help themselves. While the model is celebrated throughout the world, the provincial and city governments have had no part to play in it. How can over half the population of a city simply be ignored for the failure of city developers? In principle, it seems that the new Sindh chief minister has recognised this and is looking to implement a way to move forward. The shake up in the Sindh government earlier this year could be said to have brought fresh eyes to address the issue. For now, however, the commitment to improving the conditions of katchi abadis is just a promise. We will have to access it again to see whether it has been met.