Tuesday Nov 5, 2024
Tuesday Nov 5, 2024

Inequality rampant amongst Nepal’s growing urban population

With the majority of countries' population now living in urban areas, disparity is in a rise as well


Nepalnews
2022 Apr 22, 5:51, Kathmandu
Photo : urban area/pixabay

According to the World Bank, 49.30% of Nepal’s city population lives in slums as of 2018. They are deprived of necessary health care, sanitation, living space, transportation and social inclusion.

Many people are migrating from rural areas of the country to cities in pursuit of better living standards. However, the increasing migration trend has created the ‘urban poor‘.

According to the Nepalese government Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), there is a 10.18% per cent increase in the population of Nepal as of January 2022, since the last census was taken in the year 2011.

With 66 percent of the country's population now residing in urban areas as compared to only 17.07 percent just 10 years ago, the countries’ urban demographic has drastically changed. Although the federalization of the country contributes greatly to the preceding numbers, migration is a key contributor.

Internal migrants are most attracted to the southern region of the country, which constitutes the plain region of Terai, suitable for both agricultural and industrial activities.

Photo : Kathmandu city/ switchback travel
Photo : Kathmandu city/ switchback travel

As per the data collected by the United Nations Statistic Division (UNSD), the slum population of Nepal living in urban areas, increased from 1.2million in 1990 to as high as 3.1million in 2009, and has decreased slightly to 2.8million in 2014.

The ministry of Urban development also reports an increase in slum settlements, in the fast-growing cities of Nepal: Kathmandu and Pokhara, as well as in other popular migrant destinations such as Dharan, Birganj, Bharatpur and Mechinagar.

Millions of people living in favelas of the countries’ large cities, with no sufficient living space are vulnerable to transmissible and non-transmissible diseases.

The national census also highlights this disparity. The census of 2011, shows that only 77 per cent of children belonging from poor families got immunized in the urban areas of the country, while the aggregate percentage of children getting immunized exceeds 90 per cent.

Similarly, more than 90 percent of children were immunized in the urban area but the portion of children from poor families who got immunized was limited to 77 percent.

This disparity remains in pregnant women living in the urban areas as well. Only 38 percent of women belonging to poor families received proper antenatal care through visiting health facilities, whereas in aggregate the percentage of women receiving antenatal care in the urban areas is more than 70 percent.

Photo : Hospital/flickr
Photo : Hospital/flickr

Non communicable diseases account for 66 percent of the total deaths in Nepal, the cost of diagnosing and treating non communicable diseases is relatively very high, making it unaffordable for the city’s poor population.

“A quality health system focuses on mental, physical, social and emotional wellbeing of the people. Quality health systems are fundamental to quality of life” says Doctor Sushil Chandra Baral, an expert in developing health systems and the managing director of Herd International, a leading research agency in Nepal dedicated to generating robust evidence.

“The urban health system of Kathmandu is weak, it needs to be better planned considering the needs of the urban population, especially the poor and marginalized who always struggle to secure their better health.” he concludes.


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Urban poor migration census report poverty slum population inequality
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