|
|
|
|
Home
Management
|
JANUARY 2011
ISSUES:
THE year 2010 will go down in history as the year of the great deluge when the fury of the Indus devastated large tracts of land, sending 1,600 people to a watery grave.
Unlike the earthquake of 2005 the worst wasn’t over after the floods peaked in September. Problems lingered on as greater misery followed.
How did Pakistan cope with this crisis? We got partial feedback on the question at the eleventh Akhter Hameed Khan Forum held recently in Karachi to honour the memory of the great social activist whose legacy lives on. It is heartening that four institutions — the Orangi Pilot Project-Research and Training Institute, the Orangi Charitable Trust, the Karachi Health and Social Development Association, and the Rural Development Trust — continue to spread the message of their founder.
These institutions help to provide service to the people on the basis of self-reliance and the principle of work with dignity. The forum focused on the experiences of OPP’s partners — more than 150 community-based and non-government organisations — in flood relief and rehabilitation operations.
The participants had many stories to tell; stories that inspire and also stories that sadden. What gives hope for the future are the accounts of the resilience of flood survivors. They incurred huge losses but continue to fight back. They still have to be rehabilitated fully while life has not been normalised since many of the survivors lost their source of livelihood. Many lessons emerge from this calamity, not just in disaster management but also about human nature.
When disaster strikes, people have learned not to wait for the government agencies to come to their rescue. The victims draw on their own reserves of energy and initiative to tide over the crisis. The immediate relief and assistance they have received has been from fellow citizens and not the slow-moving official agencies that have bureaucratic red tape to cross before they reach the people on the ground. Then there are middlemen diverting a chunk of the funds, which only makes the operation resource-starved.
The fact is that people have learnt to manage in these dire times. But the government is still needed because there are not enough resources on the ground and the bigger projects that cater collectively to the needs of a community require massive funding that individuals do not possess. It has been seen that when the community displays self-reliance and tries to help itself, private donors have stepped forward to extend a helping hand. In fact this holds true for any development project undertaken with integrity and which is feasible. One would, however, prefer it if an honest government that cares were to be the saviour.
It also emerged from the speeches at the forum that relief and rescue work at the grassroots can be undertaken if a community service infrastructure is already in position when disaster strikes. Volunteers simply expand their operations to undertake more duties. This exercise enhances their confidence and helps them test their potential. But it is simply not possible for anyone to create a structure out of nothingness to provide assistance at short notice.
That is why in any area where the administration barely exists or is ineffective not much can be achieved. This also shows why the local government is so important for a country as expansive as Pakistan. A good local government provides the structures at the grassroots.
The most worrying message to emerge from this exercise was that there is a disconnect between the community and the state. The latter is simply not responding to the needs of the people and is not in a state of preparedness to meet the needs of the population.
Why is this a seminal issue that requires Pakistan to seriously rethink its approach to public governance? By leaving people in isolation with no links to the state we have yielded public space to extremist, orthodox elements that are playing havoc with the nation. They are attempting to fill the vacuum by providing services such as healthcare, education, shelter, etc. By interacting continuously with the people their charities have penetrated a large section of the population to win hearts and minds.
The liberals — they are not insignificant in number — have responded overwhelmingly to the state’s failure not by providing alternative options to the people but by adopting an advocacy role that seeks to push the state into reforming itself, which it does not have the capacity or the will to do. This creates space for the fanatics who gain ground by default.
The OPP, however, also has something to teach us. By engaging with the people on the popular level with dignity and providing them support in their developmental efforts, organisations can show them the path of enlightenment. When I asked the OPP-RTI director Parveen Rehman about the reaction of her community workers to the horrendous killing of the Punjab governor last week and the vociferous debate on the blasphemy law that has ensued, she told me that there was not a single one of the CBOs who she worked with that approved of this fanatical act. The consensus among the stakeholders is that everyone has the right to hold his own opinion on any issue and no one has the right to kill another person.
All partners who work with the OPP-RTI may not see eye to eye with one another on every issue, but extremism of any kind is totally unacceptable to them. Busy as they are rebuilding the lives of people drowned in poverty in this world, they have learnt the values of compassion and humanism that leaves them no time to enter into arguments on questions that seem so irrelevant to their day-to-day problems. Moreover, someone who is investing his energies in sustaining life would not want to destroy it. (By Zubeida Mustafa, Dawn-7, 12/01/2011)
Affordable housing for low income groups
WITH the highest urbanisation rate in South Asia and an expanding middle-class in cities, access to affordable housing has become a key issue for Pakistan’s lower and middle classes.
However, in recent conferences, the Planning Commission has presented several urban reforms plan in its ‘New Development Approach’. The objective is to create affordable housing which reduces the creation of informal settlements on prime real estate in urban areas.
Globally, housing is defined as affordable if a basic housing unit that provides minimum amount of personal space and amenities, is accessible at 20 to 40 per cent of gross monthly household income for either rent or mortgage. Minimum space can be from anywhere from 250 to 500 square feet, depending on a country’s definition.
An estimated 50 per cent of urban population is currently living in squatter settlements commonly known as Katchi Abadis. Often these settlements lack basic infrastructure and unable to meet public health and safety standards.
The issue of Katchi Abadis is twofold: first is the economic opportunity and the cost of development of squatter settlements on state owned land. These settlements hinder the development of vital infrastructure for cities. Lyari Expressway in Karachi is a prime example of the difficulty faced by municipal authorities in building infrastructure where Katchi Abadis are located. This land can alternatively be sold to the private sector and provide revenue for the government.
The second issue is the social concern for squatter settlements in urban areas as they lack basic infrastructure and amenities. The lack of sewerage systems is the biggest problem in Katchi Abadis. The only mechanism of mitigating the growth of Katchi Abadis is to predict the demand for low-income housing and engineer supply to meet this demand.
The United Kingdom produces 50 to 80 per cent of its affordable housing through planning mandates which require that all new housing developments of more than 25 units must build a pre-agreed number of affordable units. The UK has also transferred control of local government rental stock to ‘not-for-profit’ housing associations. These associations have brought management expertise, capital through philanthropy and have executed large scale affordable housing schemes.
China has moved from state production of housing to creating incentives for the private sector to produce affordable housing at 50 to 75 per cent below market prices. The state allocates land free of cost, provides basic infrastructure and tax exceptions to private developers.
The incremental development of squatter settlements in developing countries has been described by the Peruvian economist, Hernando De Soto. These settlements have illegal tenure with the consequence of residents living under the constant fear of eviction. This deters them from investing into their dwelling or settlement which could enhance their quality of life.
Moreover, the illegal nature of their assets means that they are unable to collateralise their dwellings to raise capital and build a business. Their inability to raise finance is why the likes of De Soto have passionately argued for the legalisation of squatter settlements so that newly acquired legal tenure can become a gateway towards enhancing entrepreneurship.
The Khuda Ki Basti model, developed by a Karachi-based NGO, Saiban, aims to develop low-income settlements by facilitating legal entitlement of the land. The government provided land at below the market prices.
The applicants pay a 20 per cent down payment and the rest on monthly installments spread over eight years after which legal title is transferred to them. The only other condition to this agreement is that the household must start construction immediately after possession is handed over to them and make the property their primary residence. This is to make the scheme unattractive for speculators.
Just like the informal developer, houses are made in stages while the NGO builds up infrastructure incrementally as installments are collected over eight years. Once installments are paid, the title of ownership is transferred to the individual. Acquiring ownership creates an opportunity for low-income households to gain access to formal credit institutions.
A multi-faceted policy aimed at deregulating the housing sector is required to meet the enormous demand from low-income groups. The government should make land available for low cost housing. Additionally, fiscal incentives need to be provided to private developers to develop affordable housing like in China.
Mandates can also be used as they are being used in the UK to ensure mixed income housing developments. Such policy reforms should enable a significant growth in the production of affordable housing, reduce the growth of illegal settlements and promote collateralisation of housing units to spur entrepreneurship.
There are many experts on housing working in NGOs, the private sector and the government. A lot can be achieved if these institutions can collaborate to reach their common objective of making housing affordable for all income groups.
(By Mustafa Omar Asghar Khan, Dawn-13, 24/01/2011)
130-year-old wells still supplying water to city
(By Imtiaz Ali The News-13, 08/01/2011)
Nearly 475,000 vehicles registered in 16 months, PA told
A total of 474,930 vehicles were registered from June 1, 2009 to October 30, 2010 in Sindh, 274,383 in Karachi alone.
This was stated by Sindh Minister for Excise & Taxation Mukesh Kumar Chawla in his written reply to a question asked by member of the provincial assembly Heer Ismail Sohu during the question hour on Wednesday.
Ms Sohu had sought details of the number and classification of the vehicles registered in the province during the period.
The details provided by the minister showed that Karachi topped the list with 274,383 vehicles registered during the period. Of them, 62,132 were private and 28,722 commercial vehicles. The figure included 183,529 two-wheelers.
Karachi was followed by Hyderabad where a total of 84,311 vehicles — 11,458 private, 2,130 commercial and 70, 7,723 motorcycles —were registered.
In Larkana, a total of 12,853 vehicles were registered and 604 of them were private, 39 commercial and 12,210 motorcycles. A total of 83,565 vehicles were registered in Sukkur and they comprised 2,292 private and 105 commercial vehicles besides 81,168 motorcycles.
The number of vehicles registered in Mirpurkhas was 19,818 of which 1,117 were private vehicles and 1,870 motorcycles. The minister also briefed members about the schedule of category-wise registration fee.
Ms Sohu also wanted to know the target fixed for the collection of tax during 2009-10 and the amount of tax collected up to Oct 2010. In his written reply, the minister stated that Rs5.851billion had been collected till October 2010 under the heads of various taxes while Rs20.138 billion had been fixed as the target for the current fiscal.
He said the target for the year 2009-10 was Rs15.837 billion against which a collection of Rs17.139 billion was made.
Responding to a question by MPA Arif Mustafa Jatoi, Mr Chawla said that the government had not imposed any new taxes on the tractors provided to farmersby the agriculture department at subsidised rates. He also welcomed the member’s suggestion to waive off the registration fee for the recipients of such tractors who were affected by the recent floods in Sindh. The minister assured the member that the suggestion would be sent to the authorities concerned for due consideration. In response to another question asked by Mr Jatoi, the minister provided a list of district-wise monthly collection of the provincial excise duty during the period from July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010. The statement showed a total collection of Rs2,538.748 million collection from various districts (Karachi Rs1,569.766 million, Hyderabad Rs325.045 million, Sukkur Rs229.488 million, Larkana Rs154.856 million and Mirpurkhas Rs259.593million).
Ms Sohu also wanted to know how many officials from other department were working in the excise department. The minister replied that there were six such officers and assured the house that they would be soon be transferred to their parent departments.
Nusrat Sehar Abbasi asked the minister for the district-wise figures of persons who died after drinking raw alcohol during the period from January 2008 to August 2010. The minister said the matter was sent to the department concerned but there had been no response so far although two reminders were also sent later. He assured the house that the requested information would be submitted to the house as soon as it was received by his department.In his reply to Ms Abbasi’s other question about reports of an increasing sale and consumption of drugs in the Khairpur district, Mr Chawla said the matter was sent to the authorities concerned and the factual position would be brought to the knowledge of the house as and when the report was furnished to his department. The MPA also sought details about the E&T officials working out of the district on detailment and deputation during the period from April 2008 to August 2010. (By Latif Baloch, Dawn-13, 13/01/2001)
Role of Afghan scavengers in recycling industry
Young, vulnerable and impoverished, teenage Afghan scavengers continue to play an important role in the recycling industry while earning a meager living for themselves that hardly sustains their existence.
Their existence in the metropolis keeps the streets free of discarded pieces of paper, wrappers, plastic bottles, small iron pieces and a lot of other things which citizens throw carelessly all around. The same garbage, when collected by these young scavengers, is used in the recycling industry. Generally torn papers pieces are used for producing paper cartons which are used for packing numerous items. There are a large number of industries in the Korangi Industrial Area which recycle the collected garbage into useable products. Meanwhile, the iron scrap collected by these young Afghanis is shifted to godowns of the junk dealers of Shershah for recycling purposes.
This young generation was landless in their native country Afghanistan and is homeless in Pakistan as refugees. They are often considered the first suspects in any incident of crime because of their vulnerability. After being picked up by the police for whatever reasons, they need to pay large sums of money to get themselves released. A majority of these scavengers are also vulnerable to a lot of deadly diseases as well. Poverty keeps them away from hospitals and doctors. Picking of used syringes and needles exposes them to the threat of becoming victims of deadly diseases like hepatitis and HIV AIDS. However, there are few institutions that spread awareness about the risks to them or provide treatment if they are ill.
Hundreds of scavengers live on the banks of the sewerage drain of Manzoor Colony which ultimately spews its sewerage into the Mehmoodabad drain. Most of them use the carpeted ceiling of the drain as their dwelling places and the rest have managed to acquire different open plots of 60 square yards where they have constructed shabby huts for themselves. One such hut may cater to 15 to 20 scavengers. These makeshifts dwellings are also used as temporarily godowns for collected garbage. When approached, all the garbage pickers were scared and reluctant to be interviewed due to fear of a police crackdown. A teenager, Saeed Muhammad, who lives alongside the bank of the drain, earns a living as a scavenger. He is 16 years old and he has been earning a livelihood from garbage collection for the last ten years. He speaks Urdu well and tells you about his profession with confidence. He says his ancestors had belonged to Starchi, Kunduz in Afghanistan.
Most scavengers prefer to work in groups, and Saeed Muhammad is part of a five-member group which collects garbage from the congested main road of Azam Basti which is commonly known as 100 Foot Road. Saeed Muhammad’s parents live in Sohrab Goth, and generally he gives his parents Rs5, 000 per month after spending a small amount for his own basic necessities. According to him, he is paid Rs200 for each 40 kilograms of garbage of all kinds. He says he can manage to earn Rs200 to Rs250 in a day. Collected iron scrap is more precious for these scavengers than anything else. They are paid Rs20 for each kilogram of the material collected.
Generally, all the scavengers follow certain rules for picking garbage which have developed after years of experience in the field. A group may operate only at one place and is not allowed to work in the vicinity of another group. The working routine of Said Muhammad is very similar to other scavengers. All of them get up early in the morning, pick up their bags and start roaming their respective streets in search of garbage. Around noon, they return to their dwellings where the collected garbage is stored. They then have lunch and take a short nap. After that, they usually start their work again and continue collecting garbage until sunset.
Their shabby huts are without any basic facilities like electricity or gas. Dry wood is used for keeping their huts warm during the winter season and for cooking. When asked what his father does to earn a living, he says that he has become too old to do anything. Similarly, eight-year-old Misbahuddin and his five-year-old cousin Rehmatullah responded with the same answer over the same query. The milk teeth of Rehmatullah have not yet fallen but he has no other choice but to work as a scavenger along with his cousin. When asked about the profession of his father, he replies, "Woh budha ho gaya hai (he has become old)."
Their difficult life experience has taught them a lot and made them street wise. They have learnt what to do and what not to do. Even asking them a polite question puts them on alert and they try to wriggle out by saying they must go home as they have some urgent work to attend to.
The police plays a crucial, and negative role in their lives. When interviewed, a majority of scavengers say that the police will take Rs30 from each of them as extortion when they patrol the streets in their mobile vans. Whereas, police personnel on motorcycles demand Rs20 from each scavenger on visit to their locality. There is no set time for the police to descend on their dwellings. It may occur daily or can be delayed for a day. A few have acquired identity cards issued by National Aliens Registration Authority (NARA) which identify them as refugees but such cards are of no use to them in most circumstances.
A few of the more fortunate scavengers have bicycles and such teenagers prefer to go to the more affluent parts of the city for the collection of garbage. Many of the scavengers eat at places where food is served free of cost. Those who have bikes and live either in Azam Basti or Akhar Colony visit the offices of the Saylani Welfare Trust to eat their meals without paying a penny.
Most scavengers are either Persian, Dari speaking or Pushto speaking but their language has no bearing on their living conditions. Their relatives in Afghanistan are generally known as Kotchies. They do not own any land but are traditionally nomadic and travel from place to place like gypsies in search of a livelihood.
Afghans: registered and unregistered - -In 2005, a census for Afghan citizens was conducted by the Population Census Organization, Government of Pakistan, funded by UNHCR. As many as 135,000 Afghans were counted in Sindh. - The National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) issued the Proof of Registration (PoR) card only to those who were counted in the 2005 census. A total of 92,000 PoR cards were issued in 2006. - Since then, every year, the Voluntary Repatriation Centre (VRC) updates a record of the Afghans who have been repatriated to Afghanistan since 2002. - According to the VRC, the statistics of repatriated Afghans are as follows:
Year No. of repatriated Afghans
- As many as 23,686 out of 92,000 registered Afghans have been repatriated since the issuance of PoR cards in 2006. - Currently, some 67,000 Afghans are living in Sindh of whom 95 per cent are living in Karachi. - Gadap, SITE, Ladhi and Korangi are the towns in Karachi which show Afghan presence. Gadap Town is home to 70 per cent of the Afghan population. - When issued in 2006, the PoR card was valid till 2009. However, the Ministry of States and Frontier Regions, Government of Pakistan, has extended the validity till 2012. - Thus, the process of renewal of PoR card and its conversion into Secure Cards for Afghan Citizens (SCAC) has started on September 20, 2010 and will continue till February 2011. - The process of registering unregistered members of registered Afghan families has also started under an Unregistered Member of Registered Family (UMRF) programme. - The procedure involves the verification of documents by a panel of three institutions: Commissionerate for Afghan Refugees (CAR)/ Afghan Refugees Repatriation Cell (ARRC), UNHCR and Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation, Government of Afghanistan (MoRR). (By Qadeer Tanoli The News-39, 09/01/2011)
THERE are two ways to make the point that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will not be met in Pakistan. One can offer analytical reasons in support or place a large bet on the outcome. Given that Pakistanis are currently swayed more by spot bets than appeals to reason, I am willing to wager Rs10 lakh on the MDGs remaining unmet by their designated end date of 2015. I hope there are some who will wonder why I am willing to risk my money on this bet. To them I will present some very obvious and some not so obvious reasons for my pessimism as a Pakistani and optimism as a bettor.
The very obvious reason is easy to get out of the way. I doubt if there is anyone who believes that our governors are serious about MDGs or have time to spare for them. As usual, they have signed on to international commitments and welcome the accompanying perks knowing full well that there is to be no accountability at the end of the day. A miracle may yet transpire but I am not betting on it.
The slightly less obvious reason is that the international community is not too serious either. Those paying attention might remember that the 1980s were designated the International Decade for Water and Sanitation with similar targets and the 1990s were to culminate in Health for All by the Year 2000. Whatever happened to those goals? Instead of a post-mortem to fathom the reasons for failure, the international community simply reset the clock to 2015, conjured up another fancy title, and continued the merry globetrotting. Why would it be any different in 2015? Then there is the fact that governments unable to solve small problems cannot be expected to solve big ones. Many years ago I heard my 10-year old son chuckling while reading the newspaper headline ‘Benazir vows to make Karachi weapon-free’. Being an activist, he wrote the prime minister a polite letter requesting she make Karachi garbage-free first. Needless to stay, Karachi was freed of neither. It doesn’t take much to figure all this out but I wish to focus on another, less obvious and more important dimension. Take a taxi from the Secretariat complex in Islamabad and ask the driver if he knows what MDGs are about. Elaborate that you mean the Millennium Development Goals and see if anything registers.
I assure you nothing will unless you happen to run into the one taxi driver whose cousin works in the Planning Commission. He might pass on the information that something containing MDGs regularly receives extensive polishing in the office before being dispatched to New York and therefore must contain something of great importance. This is the state of affairs right outside the halls of the Secretariat. Travel a few kilometres out of town and the incomprehension deepens into bewilderment. By the time one gets to Lehtrar, people declare you a deluded pir to be returned promptly to the confines of the Secretariat. I know we are not an English-speaking nation so I offer the official translation to my interlocutors — Hazarsala Tarraqiati Ahdaf. The perplexed get even more perplexed. Who in the world speaks like this? Why hazarsala? What’s tarraqiati about these things? Who has ever heard of the term ‘ahdaf’?
The point is this: how can a country achieve national goals when the nation doesn’t have a clue what the goals are about? Can our English-oriented elite find no way to communicate intelligently with its own citizenry? Why is it so much more attuned to the international community than to its own people? There is virtually no development dialogue in the country with mass participation — just a succession of Five Year Plans, Country Assistance Strategies, Poverty Alleviation Papers and Millennium Development Goals, in which the well-off talk to the well-off while jointly lamenting the fate of the poor. The only nod to the latter is gibberish like Hazarsala Tarraqiati Ahdaf. I would argue that an inclusive dialogue is not an unrealistic expectation and there is an example from Pakistan itself that can be cited as evidence.
The social programme centred on roti, kapra aur makan elicited mass mobilisation and participation like nothing before or since. The fact that the programme did not deliver on its promise does not negate the argument that popular participation is possible and necessary for social transformation.
China, ironically, is one country where communicating national goals to citizens as a means to achieving them is a norm shown to be possible and effective. Almost every policy objective or target is captured in a slogan that is easily comprehensible to the population. ‘Away with All Pests’ as part of a health campaign comes readily to mind.
Other, more complex policy objectives have been similarly communicated. In the 1970s, China’s urban policy favoured small towns and discouraged migration to large cities. This was communicated via the slogan: ‘Grow small towns aggressively, promote medium cities selectively, and stop the growth of big cities.’ In the 1980s, the industrialisation policy focused on fostering non-farm employment in Town and Village Enterprises. This was communicated as follows: ‘Leave the farm but not the village; enter the factory but not the city.’ One might agree or not with the policies; that is not the issue. The argument is that it is possible to communicate complex national objectives to citizens in order to include them in the policy dialogue, to orient their expectations for the future and to secure their participation in the efforts. Without such participation even a benevolent elite cannot hope to achieve meaningful results.
We lack an inclusive development dialogue in Pakistan. Perhaps this is exacerbated by the fact that we are a divided nation in which the governors and the governed do not share a unifying worldview. Our ruling elites are oriented outwards and lack the vocabulary to communicate with their fellow citizens. The best they can do is to borrow Millennium Development Goals or render them into Hazarsala Tarraqiati Ahdaf. Sadly, I remain confident I will win my bet. (By Anjum Altaf, Dawn-13, 24/12/2010)
|
