Page 1 of 10
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/index.php/JSMaP
e-ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 01 Issue 10
November 2015
Available online: http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/ P a g e | 501
Slums and Squatter Development. A Case Study.
Kavita Bhandari
ABSTRACT
The slum is not only a manifestation of
mismanaged urban planning in the countries
of the South. The existence of slums
worldwide is also a sign that the slum is a
crucial element of contemporary
urbanisation. This article will attempt to
define this phenomenon and understand its
causes. Adequate policy responses are then
suggested. Without finding appropriate
solutions to the housing problems of a
majority of urban dwellers, public and
private decision makers will not be able to
meet the challenges of sustainable
development.
The primary causes of slum development are
urbanisation, migration of the population
from rural to urban areas, lack of proper
affordable residences in the urban areas,
unhygienic living conditions of the people in
these slums. The slums are mostly built in low
lying areas next to water bodies and
drainages. These also pose as a health
hazard for its occupants. The lack of
sanitation facilities like proper toilets and
bathrooms leads to unhealthy habits like
open defecation, washing of clothes in the
polluted river water, breathing in the stale,
unclean air.
The secondary factors like education
facilities, basic government services like
policing, security etc are non-prevalent in the
slum areas. As the slums are an illegal
settlement on government land, the people
have no life security and may be asked to
evacuate at any time. Even the houses they
live in are small compact and tightly packed.
The settlement is very rudimentary and
haphazard without any proper planning.
These being situated in low lying areas are
the first to be affected during natural
disasters like floods and rains. The
government has taken several measures to
uplift the pitiful living conditions of the slum
dwellers.
The report also contains case studies, both
Indian and foreign, for further explanation
on the life in squatter settlements. The case
study in India is based on Dharavi, Asia’s
biggest slum. The financial capital of India
known as Mumbai is home to estimated 6.5
million slum people.
Nearly half of Mumbai's Population lives in
small shacks surrounded by open sewers.
Nearly 55% of Mumbai's population lives in
Slum areas. Despite of Government efforts to
build new houses and other basic
infrastructure, most of the people living in
slum areas do not have electricity, water
supply and cooking gas.
The second case study is on Sao Paulo, in
Brazil. A home to one of the biggest slums in
the world called Favelas. Slums world‐ over
share some common characteristics
including a higher incidence of violent crime
due to lack of attention from local law
enforcement, a higher incidence of disease
due to poor sanitation and access to
healthcare facilities, the dominance of the
informal economy and political bosses, and a
higher incidence of child labour, prostitution,
and substance abuse. Clearly, the culture of
a nation or region plays a large role in
determining the degree to which these factors
shape the slum. The development of slums
appears to be an entirely organic
Page 2 of 10
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/index.php/JSMaP
e-ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 01 Issue 10
November 2015
Available online: http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/ P a g e | 502
phenomenon which occurs when poorer
countries that have under‐developed
urban management, governance structures
and poor infrastructure undergo rapid
industrialisation and urbanisation and fail to
minimise the disparity of prosperity between
the urban and rural population.
Introduction
One of India’s biggest challenges today is
coping with the wave of urbanization
unleashed by economic liberalization. An
estimated 160 million people have moved to
the cities in the last two decades, and another
230 million are projected to move there
within the next 20 years.
Unfortunately, as any visitor to India can see
for themselves, its major metros and tier‐II
cities are clearly finding it difficult to cope
with the inflow of people. It is no surprise that
India’s famously poor infrastructure is
critically over‐strained. In response, the ill‐
equipped urban systems and the informal
housing that are the slums have expanded
exponentially in the last few decades without
proper access to basic services such as
sanitation, healthcare, education, and law and
order. While they are often teeming with
entrepreneurial activity, they are nevertheless
an inefficient use of the city’s human
resources and land. In order to truly unleash
the productive potential of this dynamic
urban population, India will need to build
scalable urban systems capable of housing,
caring for, employing and integrating large
and increasing numbers of new inhabitants.
India is not alone in this challenge of course;
Mexico, Brazil and Africa have some of the
largest slums in the world. It is unclear that
there are simple solutions to the problem of
slums given their extraordinary organic
growth rates– 70% of the world’s population
is expected to live in urban centers by 2050 –
and solving slums requires a rethink of the
design of cities and their borders as well as of
the role of rural areas. The challenge is
incorporating all of these factors and still
being able to provide safe and sounds
residences to the abundant inflow of people,
with proper planning and without the
compromise on the use of the resources of the
state.
In this article we will be running through the
problems faced by the government due to
slum and squatter settlements. The appalling
living conditions of these illegal settlements,
the health problems caused, the issues faced
by the people living there and ways of
rectifying this situation in the best possible
manner.
What Are Slums?
“Slums are litmus tests for innate cultural
strengths and weaknesses. Those peoples
whose cultures can harbor extensive slum
life without decomposing will be, relatively
speaking, the future’s winners. Those
whose cultures cannot will be the future’s
victims.” - Robert D. Kaplan, The Coming
Anarchy, 1994
A slum is a heavily populated informal urban
settlement characterized by substandard
housing and squalor. While slums differ in
size and other characteristics from country to
country, most lack reliable sanitation
services, supply of clean water, reliable
electricity, timely law enforcement and other
basic services. Slum residences very from
shanty houses to professionally built
dwellings that because of poor quality design
or construction have deteriorated into slums.
Page 3 of 10
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/index.php/JSMaP
e-ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 01 Issue 10
November 2015
Available online: http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/ P a g e | 503
Slums form and grow in many different parts
of the world for many different reasons.
Some causes include rapid rural-to-urban
migration, economic stagnation and
depression, high unemployment, poverty,
informal economy, poor planning, politics,
natural disasters, and social conflicts.
Most of the people who live in slums are
extremely poor, and many are treated as
second class citizens by their society. Health
problems tend to be very high, as a result of
improper sanitation and lack of access to
basic health care. Malnutrition is another
serious problem in many places, as is crime,
which can make them very dangerous for
their inhabitants.
Many people view slums as the ultimate
symbol of inequality, and in some regions,
such areas have formed in some very
unexpected locations, sometimes
neighboring the homes of the wealthy.
Organizations that campaign against them
argue that no human being should be forced
to live in such poor conditions, and that as a
basic act of humanity, cities need to provide
livable low cost housing and regulate
construction.
Unfortunately, the solution is seldom this
simple. The world's population is rapidly
growing, putting immense pressure on
available resources, and as developing
countries become more developed, this
pressure is likely to grow. Although it is
somewhat disheartening to think about, gross
inequality seems to go hand in hand with
growing societies.
How Do Slums Develop?
Democracy provides free mobility to its
people. Part of the freedom of India’s
democratic population is the apparent liberty
to pursue their dreams anywhere in the
country and India’s aspiring population is
dynamic and determined to do so. The great
slums of India are predominantly created
when large numbers of individuals or
families move to the urban centres of their
dreams, usually in search of better economic
prospects. Mumbai has been the number one
choice of generations of Indians for decades.
These urban centres are not geared to, nor
governed in a manner that can accommodate
(or reject) such an influx of people. As a
result, the incoming migrants find
accommodation in unorganised dwellings.
India’s slums have received global attention
not just from the global NGOs but also in
popular culture through movies like Slumdog
Millionaire,which portray them as centres of
unmitigated squalor and despair. However
poor this quality of life may seem from the
outside, from a migrant slum‐dweller’s
perspective, living there is an entirely rational
decision based on three basic factors:
1. A Higher and More Stable Income. The
productive employment opportunity in the
urban centre will likely generate a higher and
more consistent personal disposable income
than in the place of origin – likely a rural,
farming centre (e.g. being a chauffeur in
Mumbai is a more lucrative and sustainable
job proposition than being a labourer at a
farm, typically a small plot in an un‐
electrified village with erratic water
availability.
2. Social Mobility for the Next Generation.
Raising children in an urban environment
creates a higher “option value” for the next
generation. Typically, cities offers a wider
choice of education and employment
opportunities, and while no parent wishes
their child to grow up in a slum, the chances
that the child could rise to a middle class life
provides a strong incentive to migrate to one
