By Sheikh Shakeel Ur Rehman
A squalid and overcrowded urban street or district inhabited by very poor people is known as a slum. Poverty is an issue which is faced by every country all over the world, including Pakistan. It attracts the attention of researchers and the attention of policy makers because it affects the economics and the social function of the society. Researchers of the world tried to discourse on poverty issues with different theories and studies. The root cause of slums in Pakistan is poverty. Other causes which create slums in different parts of the world are demographic, social, rural-urban migration, urbanization, poor house planning, informal economy and politics. Excess of population, polluted water and other critical issues will ultimately determine the condition of slums.
A slum has been defined in a score of ways, ranging from a simple check-list of easily recognizable physical features to a whole complex of psychological, social and environmental factors. Somewhere in every definition is mentioned the idea of physical conditions, which breach human respect, which burden the human strength with the feelings of repulsion, annoyance and hopelessness.
In the 21st century slums are the major challenge for economic development. According to research, slums are increasing very rapidly all over the world. New policies must be made for the removal of slums from the society and from all over the world. Now the question rises, what should be the policies? If government spends our taxes in the right way, then a lot of problems can be solved very easily. The population of Lahore was around ten million in 2010 and almost half of this population lives in slums.
A slum has been defined as spend time in lower social level with lack of basic necessities of life. Somewhere in every definition the idea of physical conditions are mentioned, which breach human respect, which burden the human strength with the feelings of repulsion, annoyance and hopelessness. Mostly when people migrate from one place to another then they face a life of slums; as they have no place to live so they moved towards the slum areas. Every year there is a huge increase in slums and that is just because of poor governance. The people of slums also face a lot of other problems like they have no facility of clean water, fresh food, and proper medication and so on. The major feature of the slums is, they look like a rural nucleus in an urban environment.
Those people who live in slums, have to face a lot of problems due to an unhealthy environment. Not only adults but children also suffer from the inconvenient lifestyle. Luxuries and comforts don’t even count, the people of slums cry for basic needs and the right to live. The effects of overpopulation, grime, ooze and other aspects of slum housing are well known. About 90 percent of the world’s low-birth-weight infants are born in bloom countries, and the cause of low birth weight is unhealthy food. Due to lack of proper nutrition, people faced many diseases especially from the chronic diseases. Some of the chronic diseases include heart disease, diabetes, stroke and so on. Currently these diseases are the major causes of death. Lifetime of the people of slums is very short. Moreover, marriages are also the one of the main problems faced by the people of slums.
Those children who live in slums have lot of tensions regarding their parents and their own lives. They face poverty and sometimes they are forced to do beg on the roads just because of the need for food. Living in slums has also a great impact on the minds of children of slums. Children of slums are unable to discover their inner talents which also affects a lot the country they live in. Children of slums also suffer from a lot of diseases due to lack clean water and unhygienic food. Mostly those children who live in the slums, they have thrust to get success in their life.
People of the society must help out all the people of slums, instead of discriminate the have to solve their problems. So they might live the life like us. We must facilitate them with the basic necessities of the life. Especially government has to take special steps to resolve this issue permanently. Funding agencies like World Bank have been stand up on heiress involvement in decision making and implementation of programmers, funded by World Bank and they are linked to improve the quality of life of the people of slums (Sharma and Bhide, 2005).
To resolve this problem, first of all we have to define the problem properly. We have to identify the situation so our main focus is on the problem of the slums, not just on the signs. Then we have to generate alternative solutions. Then at last we have to implement that alternative and follow up that solution (Beecroft, Duffy and Moran, 2003). In order to resolve this issue government have to take special steps and make some new policies, not just for their benefit but for the poor people and for the betterness of country.
In 21st century slums are the major challenge for the economic development. According to the research slums is increasing very rapidly in all over the world. New policies must be made for the removal of slums from the society and from all over the world. Now the question rises, what should be the policies? Here I would like to share one of the best ways to resolve the problem of slum from all over the world and especially from Pakistan. If the government spend the taxes in a right way to poor people and if the government spend the foreign aid properly to poor people then the problem of slums can be resolve. The government needs to expand plans for health for the rapid expand in urban population (Kundu and Kanitakar, 2002)