Rajendra P Sharma
 
Nepal’s urban population growth rate exceeds the rural growth of population and the overall national population growth. At present, Kathmandu Valley alone shares half of the urban population of Nepal. The annual growth rate of population in Kathmandu Valley is over 25 per cent and it continues unabated due to many reasons. The rapid growth of population in the valley has created tremendous pressure both in demand and service delivery side by side. Over the past decade, there has been a sharp increase of slum and squatter settlements, which are mostly located in city core areas, particularly on the banks of famous religious and cultural rivers Bagmati and Bishnumati. These populations are often reported to be living in poor conditions with meagre basic services.

On the other hand, Nepal’s focus till now is on strengthening the rural services. The provisions of credible and functional service delivery in urban areas, especially for the marginalised and urban disadvantaged people, are in a critical challenge. Moreover, there is paucity of evidence and the practices of the urban poor, particularly the poor living in the slum areas. In this context, the majority of the poor families belong to marginalized group followed by relatively advantaged group. On an average, a poor family has six members while the non-poor family has five members. These families live in overcrowded, inadequate and insecure housing. The poor families live in abject living conditions as compared to the average urban dwellers. They live in overcrowded rooms, 3.2 persons per room as compared to 2.5 persons in case of non-poor families.

Poverty and urban life
In many slum and squatter settlements in the urban areas of Nepal, many of the poor families live on land without having any land certificate and are engaged in labour work. In today’s’ changing demographic conditions a huge number of mobile families are in search of cheaper accommodation and livelihood in the urban centres. The poor people’s access to basic services clearly reflects relative deprivation and urban social divide. On the whole, many families - either rental or the non-rental - do not have toilet facilities. Even those who have toilets discard the wastes directly in the rivers. Many of the urban dwellers are relying on kerosene followed by LP gas for cooking. Owing to vulnerable living conditions, the urban population, especially the Kathmanduites, are unsafe in terms of their health. Overall, under five year, one in twenty children is suffering from significant illness.

There are so many unmet needs relating to basic provisions. Similarly, the HIV and AIDS are now coming up as a major health and social problem in the urban centres. There are a number of barriers in accessing and utilizing the services by the poor. The key barriers include economic indebtedness of the poor families, lack of organized social networks, negative attitudes of the service providers at the service outlets, low level of awareness in regard to the free treatment schemes and procedures while applying for free or subsidized treatment at the government hospitals and the subsequent hassles in receiving these services, and gaps in services delivery. Financial vulnerability is linked with poor access to the services. The average health spending by the poor family per year is higher than the per capita family income per year. It again indicates the relative vulnerability of the poor families living in the urban areas. In many families, the lack of financial resources has often resulted in a significant proportion of the poor families taking loans or borrowing money from unorganized sectors particularly from the personal and family networks.

Challenges
Despite the policy of extending services, the service providers’ negative attitude and behaviour towards the clients are frequently reported by the media. In this context, the new government of Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal should have a clear vision, mission and plan with an inclusive and participatory approach, so that people of urban centres will feel the changes. Dealing with urban poverty, reaching out to hard-to-reach or really poor and excluded group of people is challenging. But it is possible, if taken care of by mapping out the multiple-faced poverty including its impacts. The review of on-going government policies and schemes is equally important. And the government needs to ensure functional coordination, implementation and monitoring mechanisms, with inclusive and participatory approach in development interventions that guarantees local participation.

Further, to design and implement the interventions with a clear focus on poverty and inclusion, it is essential to initiate immediate and long term measures for people friendly services at all levels. The monetary approach alone may not be sufficient in measuring the impacts of urban poverty and dealing with it. Therefore, a comprehensive review and redefinition of urban poverty is necessary. In the same line, incorporation of urban poverty as cross cutting issue in all development interventions at all level is also important to make programme cycle as well as development intervention pro-poor and achieve equitable impacts.

source: Sharma, Rajendra(2011),"Dealing With Urban Poverty Reaching Out To Hard-To-Reach", RisingNepal, 10 October 2011