‘Unequal provision of civic amenities breeds violence’

With limited data available in the country with respect to effects of violence on all genders, a study focusing on a comparative analysis of Pakistan three urban cities - Karachi, Rawalpindi and Islamabad - was released on Thursday.

Titled ‘Gender and Violence in Urban Pakistan’, the research is a part of the Safe and Inclusive Cities (SAIC) project – mainly exploring the theme of violence in urban cities in the Global South. Co-authored by educationists and researchers Dr Nausheen H Anwer, Dr Danish Mustafa and Dr Amiera Sawas, the research was discussed at the Centre for Excellence in Journalism, IBA.

The study discusses in detail four themes namely: vulnerability, mobility, access to services and violence. The themes have been explored in the light of the various forms and effects of violence that exist in urban centres.

A total of 12 areas were chosen for the surveying and sampling, out of which seven were in Karachi. The areas chosen from the metropolis included Ghaziabad, Ali Akbar Shah Goth, Christian Colony, Gulshan-e-Bihar, Raes Amrohvi Society, Mansoor Nagar and Lines Area - located in Orangi Town, Bin Qasim Town, Jamshed Town and Malir.

Sharing the report’s details, Dr Nausheen observed that the study also looks at infrastructure as a material force, and pointed out that many residents in Ali Akbar Goth did not even know that domestic violence comes under brutality. “It is so prevalent that women did not even recognise the behaviour as violence, rather they considered it a routine,” she said.

Regardless, 67 percent of the people who were part of the survey did say that they had witnessed external violence. However, following the paramilitary operation in the city, the condition of the city was found by the people to have changed. But on the other hand, people in other areas felt threatened by the Rangers.

The study revealed an important point with respect to perception of violence held by people surveyed in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Whilst Karachi has been the epicentre of both ethnic and sectarian violence, the two cities had not faced this kind of violence to the extent the former has.

However, the former had 88 percent respondents who confirmed that they have faced violence at the hand of strangers, while the latter had 35 percent who reported the same instance. It was also interesting to see how unequal provision of civic amenities exposes one to violence. This means that if provided equally, violence can be mitigated.

Sharing her experience, Dr Amiera said that gender roles often define what form these disputes would take. Consider for example the job of fetching water for the house in an area where water supply is scarce, she explained. Men are often expected to get water while the burden of distribution lies on women.

“Dubbed as ‘water mafia’, it is important to understand that these people do not have access to water which is why they resort to illegal practices,” she said.

Dr Amiera added that such instances lead to external conflicts between two parties and its consequences are later witnessed inside the home where the patriarch of the house lets loose a stream of abuse on the woman of the house. 

She also referred to a case where a man lost his two children who suffered from water-borne diseases because he couldn’t afford their medicine. “Living amidst solid waste causes many diseases, and this man now faces severe psychological trauma because he feels guilty for his children’s deaths when it clearly wasn’t his fault,” she said.

Speaking about sprawling cities, Dr Danish Mustafa said it seemed as if towns were being developed to accommodate cars instead of humans.

“Extending the width of a road will not help anyone rather it would only create schisms between communities living on either sides,” he said. Urban planner Dr Noman Ahmad commented that violence was a tool by which the powerful gain control over the powerless.

“The most recent example can be of the uncountable illegal cattle markets set up on road sides and every nook and corner of the city.”  He added that difficulties in getting justice also paves way for violence because people are pressurised into backing down which adds to their psychological trauma.

Discussing the plight of working women, Dr Nausheen said the violence faced by them is still to be reduced because they not only fight harassment and their own anxieties simultaneously, rather it’s a different ball-game when they return home.

Pointing at the stability that Karachi has been blessed with following the operation, the report also questions the state’s role, in the sense that it took law enforcers only two years to restore almost 80 to 90 percent of peace in a city that raged with violence for decades.