Urban poor soar to 15 percent: Survey

KATHMANDU, AUG 05

Nepal’s urban poor are expected to have swollen to 15 percent of the urban population as of the last fiscal year. Sluggish development of urban infrastructure, poor urban environment and slow improvement in non-farm employment have been blamed for the growing number of poor people in the cities, says Economic Survey 2014-15.

The number of urban poor has been on a continuous rise through the past decade. As per the survey, they made up 10 percent of the urban population in fiscal 2003-04. “The number of urban poor has continued to grow and is expected to rise further,” said the survey.

Obstructions to maintaining a balanced supply system along with growing urbanisation has been identified as the major reason for the soaring number of urban poor. The development of urban infrastructure has not been able to keep up with the country’s fast growing cities. In addition, failure to effectively implement the approved codes and standards has also led to poor urban infrastructure.

Similarly, the survey has identified poor environmental conditions as a reason behind urban poverty. With the rapid exhaustion of agricultural lands in urban areas, almost all the poor have to rely on the non-agriculture sector for their livelihood. However, jobs in the non-agriculture sector have been growing slowly.

The survey has also blamed the government’s weak institutional capacity to implement urban planning management and related programmes. “There has been a wide gap between investment requirement, financial availability and implementation capabilities,” states the survey.  Biju Shrestha, under-secretary at the Ministry of Cooperative and Poverty Alleviation, attributed the increase in urban poverty to the growing number of municipalities. “In the absence of proper infrastructure, the announcement converting villages into municipalities has also increased the number of urban poor,” said Shrestha, adding that the absence of employment opportunities and frequent Nepal bandas called by the political parties helped to further worsen the condition of the poor.  

According to him, the Co-op Ministry has started drafting a policy to address the growing number of urban poor. “The preliminary draft prepared two months ago is being discussed at the ministry,” he said. Economist Keshab Acharya blamed government disinterest in timely addressing the issue for the increasing number of urban poor. “Even at present, the government has been only focusing on the poor people living in rural areas,” he said.

Acharya added that the increased number of urban poor was also due to the increased migration to cities from rural areas. “In addition, the high cost of living in the cities and a mismatch between the skills the migrants bring and the requirements of urban businesses have also led to an increase in the number of urban poor,” he said.

Among the urban poor too there is a high disparity in their distribution in the cities. In Pokhara, just 1.3 percent of the urban population has been identified as being poor. The high inflow of remittance has resulted in a smaller population of urban poor in one of the country’s popular tourist destinations.

Source: The Kathmandu Post