Machar Colony

Machar Colony
مر کالونی
মাছাব় কলোনি
Unplanned settlement
Map
DistrictKarachi West
CityKarachi
CountryPakistan
Population
 • Total700,000
Time zoneUTC+5 (PST)

Machar Colony (Urdu: مچھر کالونی) ( মাছাব় কলোনি) or Machiara Colony/Mohammadi Colony (Urdu: /محمد ی کالونی مچھیرا کالونی) is an unplanned settlement in Karachi, Pakistan, located near the Port of Karachi and Harbour Kemari. The settlement is spread over an area of almost 4 square kilometers,[1] and is home to about 700,000 people.[2] It is considered to be one of the most dilapidated slums in Karachi.[3] . Many people are undocumented because there are not gave citizenship by the government of Pakistan, therefore many people are jobless.

Most people in the neighborhood are involved in the fishing industry and consequently the area is also known as Fisherman's Colony, with the word Machar derived from the Sindhi word for fisherman machera.[4] Residents of Machar Colony are employed by the fishing industry as shrimp peelers, fishermen, fish cleaners, or labourers in the ship breaking industry.[5] Some of their homes are built on stilts over the water.[6] The few flourishing businessmen that the colony has produced are in the fishing business, which is almost exclusively dominated by the Bengalis. A large majority of residents are Pakistani Bengalis,[3] although there are minorities of Afghans, Kutchis, Pashtuns, Punjabis, Rohingya,[7] and Sindhis.[4]

  1. ^ "Kolachi, NOS, The News International". jang.com.pk. Retrieved 2020-04-19.
  2. ^ "Stateless and helpless: The plight of ethnic Bengalis in Pakistan | ALJ". Al-Jazeera International. Retrieved 2021-09-29. Machar Colony, one of Karachi's largest slums that is home to an estimated 700,000 people.
  3. ^ a b Guardian Staff (2007-10-10). "Teaching Pakistan's impoverished". the Guardian. Retrieved 2020-04-19. One of the poorest and most dilapidated slums in the metropolis of Karachi, Machar Colony is home for hundreds and thousands of families associated with the profession of cleaning shrimp for the nearby port fisheries, with a large majority of Bengali immigrants.
  4. ^ a b "Inside Machar Colony". labs1.tribune.com.pk. Retrieved 2020-04-19.
  5. ^ Too many mouths to feed in Karachi’s slum fishermen’s colony
  6. ^ "Inside Machar Colony: Water homes". labs1.tribune.com.pk. Retrieved 2020-04-19.
  7. ^ "Snubbed by all, Machar Colony's disappointed residents evaluating LG options". www.thenews.com.pk. Retrieved 2020-04-19.