Homeless Karachi
THERE is a whole world of activities in Karachi that are performed on the streets because there is no place for them otherwise. These activities also take over space such as streets and the floodplains of Karachi’s rivers and streams. For instance, an increasing number of families and individuals have made their homes along the edge of the Lyari river. They are both individuals and families. Besides the Lyari river, people have also found shelter under bridges, especially the street hawkers and kids who paint themselves with gold and silver spray, and perform at weddings and similar events.
Many innovative designs for homes have emerged that protect from theft and keep belongings safe. One of the most common is the semi-circular ventilated steel cage, about four feet (1.2 metres) high and four feet wide, which can be locked. The steel sections used in this design are about half an inch thick. When people leave for work, they either lock their belongings inside these structures or hire someone nearby to keep an eye. At night, they sleep inside these locked cages so that their belongings are safe and they are not forced to move suddenly by the authorities.
Settlements are provided with tea and roti for breakfast at a very reasonable price by hawkers. Small snacks are also managed within the community itself. The main meal is dinner, because by then people have earned some wages and can afford a proper meal.
There are also other homes which are made of bamboo supports and chatai. These settlements are growing, and most residents are from lower-income communities from rural Sindh and the Seraiki belt. Much of the Lyari bed has also become a sorting ground for garbage. Tricycles collect waste from different parts of the city and bring it to the riverbanks, where it is sorted into useful and non-useful categories. The useful material is kept aside, while the rest is sold to informal recycling industries. This process generates billions of rupees per year. But where does this money go, and why is it not used to improve the working conditions of the people involved? Non-useful or organic waste is dumped along Karachi roads, rivers and low-lying areas, or for the reclamation of land, creating environmental problems.
When the government removes the homeless, where do they go?
These homes are the katchi abadis of the future. As people occupy the edges of spaces, they gradually expand into clusters of homes. Once they become somewhat stable, the authorities demolish them, and people have no option but to sleep on the streets. When the government removes these people, where do they go?
These settlements not only provide homes but also jobs. When formal systems fail to provide space and opportunity, people create their own systems to meet their needs. The streets offer more than just survival — they become spaces of work, shelter and community. People arrange food for each other, share resources and create small support systems to get through daily life.
There is constant migration to Karachi from the rest of Sindh and the Seraiki belt because feudal systems there are breaking down, giving people more freedom to move. At the same time, survival now depends on cash, which is easier to earn in cities. Migration also creates competition for jobs between new migrants and existing urban communities, and is responsible to a great extent for Karachi’s ethnically based settlements.
New forms of work have also emerged. For example, women now gather at certain spots where employers come to hire them for short-term domestic work. Unlike traditional hiring through connections, these arrangements are more flexible and cheaper. Women can work for a few hours or a single day, which gives them some independence and allows them to manage both work and home responsibilities. But these conditions also raise questions: how will this system shape the women’s job market, and what impact will it have on urban households and lower-middle-class families?
The homeless must carry out many daily activities on the streets or along rivers and creeks. Communities have built makeshift toilets using bamboo poles and cloth for privacy, but these often drain directly into the water bodies of the city, causing pollution and health problems. Early in the morning, one may even see small informal services appear — like a man with a stool offering basic grooming for men, such as a haircut or beard trimming, only to disappear later in the day.
The big question the city faces is what it can do for this growing population. If this goes unanswered, we will create a much larger housing and environmental crisis, especially related to waste disposal and associated issues. Research on who does what, how, where and why becomes necessary if we are to have a workable compromise among all the actors.
The writer is an architect.
Published in Dawn, April 25th, 2026