IN Karachi, only three katchi abadis (squatter settlements) have been regularised in the recent past. On Oct 13, 2016, the Sindh chief minister directed the concerned department to transform 100 katchi abadis in the city into model settlements of urban living. There is no evidence of any such work in the more than 700 squatter settlements in Karachi.

Not long ago, the Awami Workers Party had filed a petition in the Supreme Court related to evictions in Islamabad’s I-11 sector. The court directed concerned government departments to prepare policies and guidelines for upgrading the status of katchi abadis as per constitutional provisions. Again, nothing much happened.

The bigger question that needs to be addressed is, are katchi abadis the only choice of housing for the urban poor and lower income groups?

Are ‘katchi abadis’ the only housing option for the poor?

After food and clothing, shelter and housing is the third most essential human need. With urban population on the rise, the need for housing increases at an exponential rate due to several reasons: joint family living is dwindling, thus increasing the number of households; high rate of in-migration from rural to urban areas and from smaller to larger cities also adds to accommodation needs.

However, the need remains unmet. Private developers build housing options smaller in number than the demand and unaffordable for the actual needy. On average, a 1,200 square-foot apartment comes with a minimum price tag of Rs12 million or more in a planned neighbourhood of Karachi. Instalment payment plans usually extend no more than three years. Even a well-paid professional would find it impossible to meet the conditions.

No affordable housing option for the underprivileged in urban areas has been offered since the past three decades. Karachi’s total annual housing need is over 80,000 units. With the exception of a few self-built houses and apartments delivered by builders, the remaining need is either filled through adding more rooms in the existing housing stock (legally or illegally), or surviving in congested, sub-human conditions. Surveys by housing experts have found 12 to 15 occupants to a room in some inner city settlements.

Against this backdrop, katchi abadis continue to increase on available public or private lands in our large cities. Cities that take care of only the rich are bound to fail. Healthy cities are those where the poor have decent access to basic amenities of life.

Regrettably, the ruling elite has not given enough importance to this very significant issue. The Junejo government had announced March 23, 1985, as the cut-off date for regularisation of katchi abadis. The idea was to survey the katchi abadis to determine the merit of their existence and grant legal ownership, services and amenities to settlers. It was also assumed that creation of new katchi abadis would be prevented by absorbing people in the newly announced five-marla and three-marla housing programmes.

However, delayed delivery of plots did not allow the bulk of the poor to benefit from these and later approaches to land distribution. The cut-off date was later extended to June 30, 1997, that is still valid.

Open access to booking of plots enabled the rich to buy land actually allocated for the poor. Hindered occupancy, locational disadvantages, cumbersome paperwork, high prices, and uncertain distribution of land were some of the reasons that led to the failure of public housing schemes in cities.

More than half of Karachi’s population resides in katchi abadis and more than 150,000 vacant residential plots. It is often claimed that poor people need subsidised housing which the state can no longer provide. This is not true.

The poor pay for every service in the context of where they live, though to the informal sector. Housing is acquired through payments to illegal entrepreneurs, building material providers and contractors. Security is accessed by doling out ransoms to various musclemen. Water is acquired at higher rates from vendors. In most cases, the poor end up paying more than the middle- or upper-income groups.

To begin with, a housing needs assessment survey must be carried out to gauge the scale and type of housing requirements, especially for low-income groups. Concurrently, a land management study must be done to examine the availability of land for housing low- and middle-income groups. Modified delivery mechanisms, such as incremental housing development, may be adopted to ensure targeted delivery of housing to the needy only. This approach was devised by housing expert Tasneem Ahmed Siddiqui in the 1980s. Demonstrated successfully in Gulshan-i-Shahbaz (near Hyderabad), Karachi, Gharo, Lahore, Peshawar and other cities, the concept has the potential to be adopted as an option for our cities.

The writer is a professor and dean, Faculty of Architecture and Management Sciences, NED University, Karachi.

Published in Dawn, March 4th, 2018