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The
population of Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, was 450,000 in 1947. Today
it is over 11 million, and about 500,000 people are added to it every year.
The state and formal sector agencies have failed to cater to the employment,
housing and related physical and social infrastructure requirements of the
poorer sections of this increase, who constitute over 60 percent of the
city's population. As a result, they have no option but to organize and
struggle to acquire tenure rights, build infrastructure, protect open spaces
and fight to create a better living environment.
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This book is the story of four Karachi
low income communities, all ver different from each other, who have
struggled to improve their social and physical environment. In this struggle
they have had to deal with self serving politicians and bureaucrats; touts
of profit making contractors and engineer; incompetent and often corrupt
local bodies and police agencies; ruthless informal sector entrepreneurs;
and their own flamboyant and sometimes ill-intentioned leaders. The four
case studies have been put together by well known Karachi development
activists. Sarah Siddiqui works for the Karachi Administration Women Welfare
Society (KAWWS) and is also a member of the Citizens Police Liaison
Committee (CPLC); Engineer Rashid Khattri and Architect Salim Aleemuddin
work for the Orangi Pillot Project - Research and Training Institute (OPP-RTI);
Anwar Rashid is the Joint Director of the OPP; and Architect Parween Rahman
is the Director of the OPP-RTI. The book has been edited by Architect Arif
Hasan who has contributed an introduction regarding the Karachi context, and
was also involved as an advisor for the preparation of these case studies.
The four case studies have been
prepared as part of the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC) funded action
research programme which the International Institute for Environment and
Development (IIED) has initiated in collaboration with NGOs in Asia and
Latin America.
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