"It used to take at least an hour for me to reach work at the port from my home at Sohrab Goth" recalls Muhammad Husain, a citizen of Karachi. He adds, "Now thanks to the Lyari Expressway, my travel time has been halved".
While this 16.5 kilometer expressway has improved the lives of many; the lives of thousands of others have been affected permanently, as they were forced to relocate from their residences to Baldia Town, Taiser Town and Hawks Bay.
Razia, a single mother of four daughters suffered immeasurably as she juggled the responsibilities of working as a domestic servant to support her family and supervising the construction of her new home in Taiser Town.
Karachi, the biggest metropolitan centre of the country has witnessed mushrooming growth over the past few decades as more and more countrymen have headed to the port city in search of employment, or more recently due to military operations and floods in other parts of the country.
Urban development, a process that allows cities to grow in response to changing demands of citizens, has been an unenviable task in this sprawling metropolis. Given the sporadic and unplanned growth of shanty towns and urban slums throughout the city, implementing large-scale developmental projects becomes even more arduous when it entails the relocation and resettlement of entire communities that literally lie in the path to development.
The Lyari Expressway project in Karachi is a classic example of the complications that emerge in urban development and the sacrifices forced upon communities that are displaced as a consequence of such initiatives. The Gender Research Programme of the Social Policy and Development Centre (SPDC) has, in a recent research, identified the gender dimensions of development induced displacement and resettlement, using the Lyari Expressway as a case study.
The research has found that gender dimensions were not considered during the planning and implementation of resettlement, adding to the hardships of the affected households, especially those headed by females.
None of the households surveyed by the SPDC had zero income at the time of displacement. But the lack of planning and coordination between government agencies forced a huge cost on these families as 42.7 percent of them remained without any income after the relocation. The period after relocation extended anywhere from six months to two years; which is a drastically long time for any family to persevere without any household income.
The impact of relocation was more pronounced on women who suffered temporary or permanent job loss and lack of skill development and business opportunities, more so than male counterparts. Households headed by women were also found to be worse off after relocation compared to homes headed by males.
There were some positive outcomes of the relocation of those displaced by the Lyari Expressway project; for instance girls eventually received better opportunities for education. However the overall impact on well being has been found to be harsher for women than men.
SPDC has recommended that in future, special clauses should be included in compensation policies for women, disabled and elderly persons, home-based industry should be promoted for those relocated, while microfinance should be made available to encourage entrepreneurial efforts; along with setting up mother and child health centres.
The Centre has also proposed that in future, all development projects that entail relocation and resettlement of communities must consult all stakeholders during the planning phase to ensure equitable and smooth implementation that does not jeopardize the overall well being of affected communities.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.