KARACHI, Nov 18: Twenty District Management Group probationers paid a three-day visit to Karachi and stayed in Khuda ki Basti to study how the acute problem of housing for the low-income people can be resolved.
The Civil Services Academy Lahore has started a programme to send DMG probationary officers to live with the community in order to understand basic problems like housing, sanitation and water supply etc. Their stay at Khuda ki Basti helped in familiarising them with issues relating to housing for the poor and its possible solutions.
Incremental housing development popularly known as Khuda ki Basti was first tested in Hyderabad in 1986 and has been accepted as a successful model to solve the shelter problem of the urban poor. It has been replicated in seven places. Currently, the HBFC is studying it to make it the basis of a social housing company with a seed capital of Rs120 million.
Housing facilities for low-income group in urban areas, particularly in the cosmopolitan city, are next to nil while thousands of acres of state land are being occupied by land grabbers to plunder the poor on count of low-cost housing schemes. These views were expressed by former director-general Sindh Kutchi Abadis Authority and Hyderabad Development Authority, Tasneem M. Siddiqui, while talking to the probationary officers on the last day of their visit on Saturday. The probationary officers of District Management Group, accompanied by Additional Director DMG Omar Rasul, stayed at Khuda Ki Basti, located in Taiser Town Scheme-45, during their three-day study tour.
Addressing the young officers, Tasneem Siddiqui, said Khuda Ki Basti was established for poor families with a monthly earning up to Rs5,000 seven years ago in Karachi. He said the low-cost housing scheme was developed by Saiban -- an NGO of which he is the chief -- on 100 acres acquired from Malir Development Authority.
He said the scheme unlike other housing societies was aimed at empowering the poor by providing land ownership rights to them without delay. He pointed out that a number of low-cost housing schemes on illegal land were designed to loot the poor as the buyers were not permitted to occupy their plots before completion of infrastructure. In such cases, he said, the infrastructure is never completed
Explaining the sequence of development, he said poor allottees were given land at the price they could afford on minimal monthly instalments and civic facilities developed after their accommodation. The land ownership rights instils confidence in them to start developing their own locality. On the other hand, communities residing in illegal housing societies do not develop a sense of ownership and development on self-help basis does not materialise.
He said NGOs had given a role model to the government. This was howthe government had initiated a low-cost housing project Sasti Basti on the pattern of Khuda ki Basti. This basti had schools, a mobile dispensary, basic health unit, hospital, ambulance service, 11 private clinics, two maternity homes, a library, community centre, vocational training centre for women, eight parks, mosques, a church and an imambargah.
Mr Siddiqui told the group that as a government servant, they would find ample opportunity to develop an understanding about real issues. “Your visit will benefit you to understand district management issues,” he added.
The DMG probationary officers which included six women were divided into three groups to give them an opportunity to share their observations about the settlement. They said that their visit helped them understand the issues of poor people at the grassroots level. Talking about the health and education facilities, one of the probationers, said educational institutions in the settlement were at par with others in the city as far as education standards were concerned. He visited 11 home schools, 10 primary schools, three secondary schools and found all of them well-maintained. He said unlike other areas of the country, government schools in Khuda Ki Basti were functioning properly, which showed that not only a check and balance system existed but residents of the locality also had a sense of ownership.
However, he pointed out that the condition of government health units were the same as other slum areas of the city. He said during their visit to the basic health unit and dispensary, no doctor was found on duty. Private clinics and other health centres on public-private partnership, however, were functioning properly. He proposed collaboration with Aga Khan University Hospital and NGOs to help improve health care facilities.
Another group said their visit helped them understand the benefits of public-private partnership. They said that they surveyed 22 families during their visit and found people were keen to work for development of the area.
After a vote of thanks, the probationers left for Lahore.
