Discrimination against the slums of Lahore.

Byline: 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.

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