Rahul Basharat

Islamabad’s F-7 sector is affluent: large residential bungalows line the streets, and commercial centres cater to well-to-do shoppers. But directly adjacent to this plush city quarter lies France Colony, a katchi abadi, or informal settlement, whose residents lack many basic necessities, including a clean living environment. Most of the people of France Colony work in the city’s sanitation department, or take up small jobs in the homes and offices of their wealthy neighbours.

It was the middle of a late May afternoon and the temperature in Karachi, a coastal city in southern Pakistan, was already tipping 35 degrees Celsius. Summer was coming, and the sun would soon grow hotter over the city’s 18 million inhabitants. Despite the sweltering weather, Muhammad Basit was hard at work.

It's immunisation day at the Tehsil Headquarter Hospital of Gujar Khan, about 60 kilometres southwest of Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, and the government facility is crowded with parents and infants. Among them is Shazia Bibi, who has brought her six-week-old son Shakeel Ahmed to the government facility from their small subsistence farm on the rural belt surrounding the town.