THE INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS OF LAHORE: UNDERSTANDING THE ROLE OF INFORMAL KATCHI ABADI IN THE CONTEXT OFAFFORDABLE HOUSING

The city of Lahore is expanding at great pace in terms of its urban sprawl and demographics. The consequence of rural to urban migrations, as of arbitrary physical and social development in the city has triggered the process of urbanization at a rate which was never recorded before. Urban housing in this context is the most complex, in demand and unattended phenomena. The lack of efforts in bridging the gap between the demand and supply chain of urban housing in Lahore is promoting a culture of social and spatial inequity, and has produced a form of urban housing for the economically marginalized communities i.e. the Katchi Abadis. In order to explore the above mentioned issues, a research project was initiated with the aim to understand the complexities of Katchi Abadis in Lahore, through the study of their existing realities, by employing tools of community based participatory methodology. Based on the project conducted, the objective of the research paper was to explore Katchi Abadis as a form of affordable urban housing developed by the marginalized communities with limited resources and without financial or legal assistant of concerned authorities. The paper analyses the internal social and spatial politics of Katchi Abadis and their impact on the context and vice versa. The paper is aimed at highlighting the phenomenon of Katchi Abadis as an existing urban phenomena (neglected and segregated) which should be understood, in order to effectively cater to the growing housing demand in the city of Lahore. Keywords: Katchi Abadi, informal settlement, urban housing, marginalized community, urbanization, affordable housing, and community based participatory approach, Lahore.