Urban Poor, Poverty, and Populism

The question of the urban poor has been a hot topic discussed in the world over. It is no secret that especially the South (e.g., Latin America, Africa, and Asia) is plagued by urban poverty, although politicians, high-ranking elites, and well-paid officials put in charge of administrations addressing the case of urban poverty have yet to deliver a concise solution to it. Even the fact of addressing the issue itself unfortunately gets confined to star-class venues of high-class choice, spending huge sums of money which clearly bestows no visible aid upon the poor. The lack of genuine interest or ability to stand shoulders apart from the downtrodden and look into the matter from a hands-on perspective, coupled with political charged separation of people, contributes to only prolong the urban poor issue. Based on the twenty-first-century literature and experiences, my focus in this short entry is to address the areas of identifying and defining the issues faced by the urban poor, and examine the intervention of responsible parties to it while attempting to understand our own role as responsible citizens in alleviating this issue.