Page No. 85-97
Amna Saeed and Shehla A. Yasin
Lahore College for Women University, Lahore, Pakistan
The present study explored the reasons behind the resilience of slum dwellers that
enables them to face adverse life circumstances and helps them to fight back. Moreover, it
was an attempt to have an insight on how meaningful they perceive their life to be. Gender
differences were also observed. This study was qualitative in nature and Interpretative
Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was employed to gain insights into the various factors
as perceived and reported by the slum dwellers from their own experiences. A sample
of eight slum dwellers, four men and four women, aged between 16-50 years was
selected purposefully from different slum areas of Lahore. Semi structured interviews
were conducted with the slum dwellers; the interviews were recorded and transcribed
for further analysis. Seven major themes; tendency towards religion, social support and
help seeking behavior, belief in self, adaptation, life skills, determination and positive
emotions emerged as a result of analysis. The subthemes to emerge under first theme
were reliance on God, religious teachings, Day of Judgment, belief in fate and prayers;
the subthemes under the second theme were family and community support; whereas
the subthemes extracted under the third theme were self control and internal locus
of control; and the subthemes extracted under the fourth theme were acceptance
and agreeable demeanor towards lack of resources; the subthemes extracted under
the fifth theme were equanimity/mindfulness, patience and tolerance; in contrast, the
subthemes extracted under the sixth theme were strong determination, mental and
physical strength, while the subthemes extracted under the seventh theme were hope/
optimism, good faith and gratitude.