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Urban Poverty in South Asia – What do we know? What do we need to know?

Acc. No: 3186

Class No: 362.5 GUN-SL

Category: Books & Reports

Subjects: Social Problems and Services

This article is a comparative study of poverty in countries of South Asia, such as Nepal, Sri Lanka, India, and Pakistan. Certain variables of urban poverty are stated in this paper. Variables include housing and shelter, service provision/infrastructure, health, economic growth and poverty, effects of adjustment, formal and informal labour, markets and linkages, gender, child labour, migration, and violence and crime. Housing and shelter along with food is an important variable that is a basic need of a human being. The deprivation of these things will make a person go down the absolute poverty line. Labour and market linkages are also important variables, as sometimes the market forces of demand and supply in products and services may become an active part in the demand and supply of labour and, hence, can lead to growth of unemployment and in turn urban poverty. Gender, child labour, violence and crime are also some reasons or effects of the growing poverty.