The main reason of increase in urban poverty is the increase in migration of the rural poor to urban areas
KARACHI: Urban scholars, development professionals, academics and researchers are labelling increasing urban poverty as the ‘urbanisation of poverty’. This new term has been used in different international conferences held at different world locations about the growing incidence of urban poverty. In several Asian countries, the numbers of the urban poor have risen over the 1990–2014 period.
The main reason of increase in urban poverty is the increase in migration of the rural poor to urban areas. According to one survey of urban migration, slum areas have been increasing manifold in Mumbai, Kolkata, Karachi, Lahore, Dhaka, Manila, Bangkok and many other cities of the world. Unlike rural poverty, the definition of urban poverty is complex and multidimensional. It extends beyond the deficiency of income or consumption and relates to the vulnerability of the poor on account of their inadequate access to land and housing, physical infrastructure and services, economic and livelihood sources, health and education facilities, social security networks, and voice and empowerment. According to UN-HABITAT, Asia has 60 per cent of the world’s total slum population and many more live in slum-like conditions in areas that are officially designated as non-slums. Working poverty is high in Asian cities and towns. In most of developing Asia, urbanisation has been accompanied by slums and shelter deprivation, worsening of living conditions, and increasing risks due to climate change. Recent years have witnessed almost universally increasing urban inequality and stagnating consumption shares of low-income households.
Asian countries must prepare themselves for the challenges of urbanisation and try to resolve issues of rural people and facilitate them at their doorstep, to stop the influx of rural people into urban areas. Recent examples of migration to European Union (EU) countries and the deaths of immigrants in open seas off Europe are not good omens. This must be stopped otherwise the world will face more poverty, corruption, terrorism and the failure of public service delivery systems.
Aijaz Ali Khuwaja
Published in The Express Tribune, May 8th, 2015.
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