URBAN POVERTY IN NEPAL: SOME BACKGROUND DISCUSSIONS

Padma Sunder Joshi Poverty perhaps is the most discussed agenda in the recent development endeavour of human beings. As this has its roots deep into the societies- sharing their resources among themselves, the definition of poverty is most of the time guided by their interests. Therefore from age of slavery to industrialization 'poverty' has walked through different path of development. The recent 'Aap movement' in India perhaps is another episode of the outcry of poverty of our times similar of which can be seen in Latin American Countries and South Africa, more driven by urbanism and question of equity. Defining poverty is one of the most debated discussions at global level. Prudhon in 1800 tried to define poverty in 2 his book "Philosophy of Poverty" which was countered by Karl Marx in his article "Poverty of Philosophy" . Since then many definitions were tried to define poverty. The most used ones are related to economic poverty. Poverty is a state or condition in which a person or community lacks the financial resources and essentials to enjoy a 3 minimum standard of life and well-being that's considered acceptable in society . Therefore perhaps most of the measure of poverty is done through earning. These proxies however could not answer the issue of poverty and therefore programmes attempting to reduce poverty in last several decades ended with little gains. In the late nineties Amartya Sen came up with 'capability' concept which has turned poverty not limiting to gaining basic requirements but manifested as a denial of choices and opportunities for living a tolerable life. This capability notion postulates that poverty results from a lack of capability to function or to achieve well-being, where wellbeing is defined as the ends and capability as the means to achieve it the state or condition of having little or 4 no money, goods, or means of support; condition of being poor . In UN promoted Human Development Index (HDI) has attempted to capture this concept of well-being to measure poverty. While attempting to reduce poverty in general urban poverty has emerged as even prominent in the discourse of development. While recognizing cities as engine of growth, it does not come without price. The fast pace of urbanization in developing countries has posed a big question on sharing the resources that is earned on the capacity of cheap labor. Unable to do so the slum challenges or street vending or several safety and security issues are emerging in cities, the roots are prolonged to the existence of poverty in these urban areas. Therefore, while accepting the common definition of poverty urban poverty demands few more qualifiers to understand the poverty in the given urban context. There is a fundamental difference between rural and urban poor: o o o Urban poor are based on none agriculture economy Rural poor rely more on natural resources while urban poor rely on man-made ecosystem Standing on monitory-based economy urban poor not only earns but have compelling reasons to spend, 'provoked' to spend for their basic needs and 'luxuries'. This is one other reason that urban poverty cannot be measured by income only.
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Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (15 January, 1809 19 January, 1865) was a French economist and socialist philosopher. http://marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/poverty-philosophy/index.htm 3 http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/poverty.asp 4 Overcoming Human Poverty: United Nations Development Programme Poverty Report 2000, United Nations Development Programme, New York.

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Therefore urban poor normally are a) living in unhealthy environment; b) live in more risky environment from health and life aspect; c) large majority of them are in informal economy as they have less access to formal economy; and d) they have less approach to basic infrastructures and services. From the management perspective it is equally important to understand level of poverty within the urban poor because among the urban poor people relatively better off are more vulnerable than those trickled to the bottom. Physically handicapped, elderly, street children, and alike without any social support are the ones they suffer from rampant poverty. They are most of the time beyond the reach of the government support and are relying on begging or similar sources. Most of the urban population in Nepal may be grouped in five categories, particularly in Kathmandu Valley. They are a) poor living in informal settlements; b) dalits and deprived castes and classes; c) rental poor; d) indigenous poor left out in the course of development; e) poor from peri-urban areas. Although poverty is their common denominator- they behave differently in the developmental process. Therefore support programmes targeting to these poor need to consider these interest groups differently. Poverty trend in urban Nepal (% of population) Poverty Gap Index Poverty (Head Count) 1995/96 2003/04 2011/12 2011/12 41.8 30.9 25.16 5.43 43.3 34.6 27.43 3.19 21.60 9.60 15.46 5.96 11.47 2.77 22.04 4.31 8.72 1.75

Squared Poverty Gap Index

Region Nepal Rural Urban (national) Urban (Kathmandu) Urban (Terai) Urban (hills excluding Kathmandu Valley)

2011/12 1.81 1.01 2.00 1.00 1.29 0.54

Based on Nepal Living Standard III

Among the five groups informal settlers are the most appealing to many. They are relatively more united, defend their presence collectively, and are occupying central locations in many cases. In the periphery of right to shelter several programmes and activities are designed to address the need of this group. Informal settlements are prominent in larger cities and towns. Apart from Kathmandu and Pokhara, because of the migration from rural hills to cities and Terai, the largest number of such population may be found in cities in Chure Range- viz. Butwal, Bharatpur, Ratna Nagar, Hetauda, Dharan, etc. It is worthwhile to note that most of these settlers are from ethnic minorities. The ethnic composition of slum dwellers shows that more than 50 % informal settlers in Kathmandu Valley are indigenous ethnic groups, where Tamang being the largest number. In Dharan 73% slum settlers are 5 ethnic minorities while that in Bharatpur is 34%. In Pokhara this number is 60% with Gurung alone are 32% . In most of the Terai towns dalits live in slum settlements. Historically out casted by feudal societies, dalits are pushed to the outer circle of traditional settlements. Butchers and sweepers are primarily living in these neighborhoods which have degraded and slum environment. In the course of expansion of cities these settlements have gained importance, yet suffering from inadequate infrastructures and services, thus turning into urban slums. 40.22% of the urban population in Nepal and 58.65% in Kathmandu District are residing in rental rooms. Renters, particularly renter poor are rather fluid in nature and moving frequently from place to place. In the absence of provision to safeguard rights of renters they either compromise with inadequate services rendered by the landlord or move to new place. Apart from other reasons,
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Joshi, PS (2011), Situation Analysis: Urban Slum Dwellers and Squatters in Nepal. Unpublished report

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the growing remittance-based economy is bringing more families to these renting rooms to meet education and other services while the 'men' are in the overseas employment. The forth category of poor are the indigenous population left in the course of development. Fragmentation of hereditary property, loss of traditional employment and not being able to coup with changing urban setting, many families in urban city cores are left out in the pace of development. They live in dilapidated houses; some floors rented to urban poor or shared with the poor brothers and enjoy very little municipal services. Similar is the case of poor from peri-urban areas. They lost their livelihood, particularly agriculture land in the course of urbanization but could not adjust to changing situation. These well to do families of the past are pushed to poverty, many of them are left with daily wage earning. Nepal is observing unprecedented urbanization. As the state machinery is yet to be prepared to coup with this pressure on infrastructures and services, there is an increase in urban poverty. While the rural poverty is decreasing, in irony the urban centers are facing sharp increase in poverty. The CBS data shows that there is 19% decrease in rural poor in the last decade while in urban area this has increased by 61% compared to poverty in 2001. Therefore there is a great challenge to the country in timely addressing the poverty issue in the cities and towns for the overall development of the country. Recent national planning documents have targeted poverty reduction as the major goal. However most of these initiatives are targeting rural poor. Poverty Alleviation Fund, the World Bank supported initiative has very recently started to consider to work in urban areas. Most of other agencies are yet to be attracted to this need. This has left a vacuum in addressing poverty issues in urban areas. At policy level Ministry of Urban development and Ministry of Federal Affairs are the major players. Recently Ministry of Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation is also exploring possibilities to address the poverty issues in urban areas. At implementation level municipalities are the outlets to deliver the services. Even the non-governmental organizations are very limited catering urban poor. The Urban Policy of Nepal (2007) has highlighted the issue of urban poverty in its background discussions. 6 Although the policy paper has its first objective to achieve was considered as poverty alleviation , the paper lacks policy directives and strategies to directly address this important issue. In the revised National Shelter Policy (2012) h there is a clear provision for shelter support to urban poor particularly to the informal settlers. UN-Habitat has supported the government in preparing Operational Guidelines to address the shelter needs of urban poor 7 particularly those living in informal settlements without formal tenure . Construction of Ichangu Housing for urban poor, ongoing shelter support study for Dharan Municipality, and promulgation of standard operating procedures to address the shelter needs of urban poor are some of the follow ups guided by the shelter policy. This has created adequate framework for addressing the housing needs of urban poor particularly the informal settlers. Very recently UN-Habitat and the MoUD have made a study to explore the possibilities of cooperative financing for the shelter of urban poor. Apart from these, there is absence of poor targeted programmes from the government side. In periodic plans of municipalities, urban poverty is not getting adequate attention as most of the programmes are generic and has not considered the urban poor separately. There are few targeted activities launched by NGOs mostly in partnership with municipalities. These activities include shelter support, improvement, income generation activities, building the capacities of urban poor, and advocacy activities. Very few NGOs are involved in this sector. Therefore there is a tremendous demand to support the urban poor and bring them to the mainstream of urban development.
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National Urban Policy (2007), Department of Urban Development and Building Construction, Ministry of Physical Planning and Works, Government of Nepal. 7 Operational Guidelines: to Address the Shelter Needs of Urban Poor, Vol I, II, III (2013); United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat).

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The increasing urban poverty along with the urbanization in the country demands focused programmes to address urban poverty in the country. With the given policy framework and the activities designed there is a clear need to recognize urban poor as separate but important stakeholder of urban system, their contribution to the society, their needs and requirements, and their participation in city building. Therefore, inclusive decision making at local and national level with the participation of the poor is significant. This will help to redistribute the resources also benefitting the urban poor. Creating opportunities for urban poor through cooperatives, capacity building programmes and facilitating to smoothen the bottlenecks to come out of the poverty pit is equally significant. As bigger chuck of the income of the poor are spent directly and indirectly in shelter and related services, facilitating to achieve affordable housing would be one basic support to the poor to bring them out of the poverty net.

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