The consequences of ignoring the slums dawns on governments of different countries, even as the challenge of the urban millennium facing the world is to improve the living environment of the poor. For long, the government’s noncommittal attitude has alienated the sum dweller from the legal economy, tax system and with the flimsiest rights to the land on which they live.
By 2030, an estimated 5 billion of the world's 8.1 billion people will live in cities out of which 2 billion of them will live in slums, primarily in Africa and Asia, with no access to clean drinking water and working toilet. Though mega-cities, across Asia are on the rise, planning and housing has failed to keep pace.
The hard hitting reality
Slums are highly congested urban areas marked by deteriorated, unsanitary buildings, poverty, and social disorganization. As per the United Nation's definition of a slum household, residents are missing at least some of the following: durable walls, a secure lease or title, adequate living space, and access to safe drinking water and toilets.
These slum dwellers also include squatters, who lack leases or legal title to their homes, and settle on land, especially public or unoccupied land. Incidentally, it is slums that spawn influential groups that fight for squatters' rights, and also criminal gangs or a militant movement also.
The Maharashtra government’s diffident stance:
The slum growth rate in Mumbai is actually greater than the general urban growth rate. The government of Maharashtra has been figuring out ways to mitigate poverty and has announced an ambitious plan to transform one of Asia's largest slums. The neighborhood, Dharavi, is home to about 600,000 people squeezed into one square mile in the heart of Mumbai.
The government had proposed a $2.3 billion scheme, which would rehouse the slum dwellers for free, but it drew flak from local activists for favoring the rich and driving out Dharavi's small businesses. in 1976, the Government had passed the Urban Land Act to enlarge the area for middle and lower class housing. Instead more upper class housing took place that proved elitist whims held sway, which has taken its toll on the slum problem.
In 1985, the government passed the Slum Up gradation Project which secured long-term legal plot tenure for slum households, the criteria being that they would invest in their housing. Unfortunately, the limited outreach of 10-12% of the slum population that too to those looking to upgrade their homes led to disappointing results.
Turkey has two beneficial laws that gives squatters legal and political rights, and encourages them to invest in their homes and neighborhoods. And from the viewpoint of legal reform, it is truly inspiring.
Developing world slum communities:
The developing-world slums manifest a distinct pattern of functioning complete with social hierarchies, commerce and a degree of home-grown government. Slums and squatter settlements offer trade-offs between poor living quality and close proximity to jobs and markets, between no access to infrastructure and casual supply of urban services like water, sanitation and electricity routed to their neighborhoods.
The perils of slum life:
In some cases, as in Pakistan and Kenya, the land is ostensibly public, but local police forces or corrupt politicians demand ‘rent’. It is the hope for a better life in the city that is making these slums persist. To some, it offers a degree of upward mobility.
According to a United Nations Report, slum children in sub-Saharan Africa are more susceptible to water-borne and respiratory illnesses than rural children, while women living in slums have increased chances of contracting HIV than their country cousins. There is the least chance that slum children in countries including Egypt, Bangladesh and Guatemala, will be enrolled in primary school like their urban counterparts.
Glaring disparities in health, education, skills are easily visible in slums and squatter settlements of most urban areas in developing countries. It is not difficult to identify that slums have resulted from lopsided and vested urban policies covering land ownership, infrastructure provision and maintenance, and other socio-economic issues.