Poverty in Karachi, Pakistan.

 Poverty in Karachi, the largest city in Pakistan with an estimated population of 5.4 million. Karachi, Pakistan

Karachi is the largest city in Pakistan, with an estimated 1981 population of 5.4 million and an intercessor (1972-81) average annual growth rate of 5 percent. It accounts for 6 percent of the national population, 22 percent of the urban population of the country, and 63 percent of the urban population of Sindh province (1981 Census figures). Karachi has grown at a very rapid rate, first because of the influx of refugees following the partition of the subcontinent, and since then because of in-migration in search of work. It is the principal industrial, commercial, and financial center of the country and contributes about one-fifth of national GDP. In recent years, the urban infrastructure has become overburdened and the city has been subjected to considerable urban strife.The paper examines the incidence and spatial distribution of poverty in Karachi, Pakistan. Based on a survey of 6000 households, it locates the clusters of poverty and presents a profile of the poor in the city. Just over one-third of the households in Karachi can be classified as poor, based on an absolute poverty line derived from standard consumption norms. Poverty is concentrated in six geographical clusters, which account for 60 percent of the sample households but 90 percent of the very poor households. Analysis of residential movement is used to derive some indirect evidence of socioeconomic mobility. This suggests that, historically, the incidence of upward mobility amongst the poor in Karachi, based partly on the acquisition of skills and education, has been quite high. Poverty in Karachi has not been endemic as a continuous influx of migrants at the bottom replaced those who moved up the economic ladder. The little evidence of downward mobility also identifies it as a more recent occurrence as compared to upward mobility.The recent 2010 Pakistan floods have accentuated differences between the wealthy and poor in Pakistan, Pakistan's diplomat to the United Nations, has alleged that wealthy feudal warlords and landowners in Pakistan have been diverting funds and resources away from the poor and into their own private relief efforts. There are evidences that landowners had allowed embankments to burst, leading to water flowing away from their land. There are also allegations that local authorities colluded with the warlords to divert funds. The floods have accentuated the sharp divisions in Pakistan between the wealthy and the poor. The wealthy, with better access to transportation and other facilities, have suffered far less than the poor of Pakistan.