Research and analysis: Infrastructure blamed for violence in city
According to a report, violence is using force - physical or structural in establishing social and political norms
On violence: 1,800 people in Karachi from nearly 1,755 households in seven neighbourhoods from three towns - Jamshed, Orangi and Bin Qasim were interviewed for this research. STOCK IMAGE
KARACHI:
When asked if they had experience any sort of violence, most women, according to researchers from Institute of Business Administration (IBA) and Kings College London, said their answer was silence.
This was one of the main questions of their ongoing research and report on 'Urbanisation, Gender and Violence in Millennial Karachi.' As a part of their two-year research, they interviewed around 1,800 people in Karachi from nearly 1,755 households in seven neighbourhoods from three towns - Jamshed, Orangi and Bin Qasim.
According to the report authored by Dr Nausheen H Anwar from IBA and other researchers, violence is using force - physical or structural in establishing social and political norms.
While deconstructing the women and their silence, researched claimed that violence was not something restricted to women.
"If a tailor in Orangi Town has two sewing machines, he will hide one and just leave one out," said Arsam Salim, a research assistant while sharing qualitative data on the impact of violence on people and their neighbourhoods. "Sometimes people put on a certain persona to protect themselves."
Some of the common trends of violence in these areas included, petty crime, target killings, religious violence and extortion.
The problem, according to the report, is the bad infrastructure of the city as many of the neighbourhood where research was conducted had no access to water supplies and other necessities. The report also claimed that strangers were also a source of violence to the common public.
"When a man goes home after standing in the bus all the way from work or walks on a broken road, his frustration translates into violence," said a researcher. "This can come out on his wife who will in return take her frustration and anger out on their child and so the cycle of violence goes on."
While talking about the perception of violence, which in a neighbourhood means threats perceived by residents - firing, theft, mobile snatching, extortion, murder, drugs, political killings, among other things.
According to the report, the Raees Amrohi neighbourhood of Karachi has experience the most political and state induced violence out of the seven neighbourhoods visited by the researchers. Civil Lines ranked in second with mobile snatching and pick-pocketing very common in the neighbourhood.
When comparing Karachi and Islamabad — it was learnt that Karachi experienced more state incited violence while Islamabad and its twin city, Rawalpindi, experience more psychological violence.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 6th, 2014.
When asked if they had experience any sort of violence, most women, according to researchers from Institute of Business Administration (IBA) and Kings College London, said their answer was silence.
This was one of the main questions of their ongoing research and report on 'Urbanisation, Gender and Violence in Millennial Karachi.' As a part of their two-year research, they interviewed around 1,800 people in Karachi from nearly 1,755 households in seven neighbourhoods from three towns - Jamshed, Orangi and Bin Qasim.
According to the report authored by Dr Nausheen H Anwar from IBA and other researchers, violence is using force - physical or structural in establishing social and political norms.
While deconstructing the women and their silence, researched claimed that violence was not something restricted to women.
"If a tailor in Orangi Town has two sewing machines, he will hide one and just leave one out," said Arsam Salim, a research assistant while sharing qualitative data on the impact of violence on people and their neighbourhoods. "Sometimes people put on a certain persona to protect themselves."
Some of the common trends of violence in these areas included, petty crime, target killings, religious violence and extortion.
The problem, according to the report, is the bad infrastructure of the city as many of the neighbourhood where research was conducted had no access to water supplies and other necessities. The report also claimed that strangers were also a source of violence to the common public.
"When a man goes home after standing in the bus all the way from work or walks on a broken road, his frustration translates into violence," said a researcher. "This can come out on his wife who will in return take her frustration and anger out on their child and so the cycle of violence goes on."
While talking about the perception of violence, which in a neighbourhood means threats perceived by residents - firing, theft, mobile snatching, extortion, murder, drugs, political killings, among other things.
According to the report, the Raees Amrohi neighbourhood of Karachi has experience the most political and state induced violence out of the seven neighbourhoods visited by the researchers. Civil Lines ranked in second with mobile snatching and pick-pocketing very common in the neighbourhood.
When comparing Karachi and Islamabad — it was learnt that Karachi experienced more state incited violence while Islamabad and its twin city, Rawalpindi, experience more psychological violence.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 6th, 2014.