Canada and the World
Current Events with a Canadian Perspective
Last update
01 February 2012
Migrants End up Living in Slums
All over the world people moving from villages to
cities find the only available housing is in
hovels in dangerous neighbourhoods
Ever since the Industrial Revolution people have flocked to cities in the hope of leaving behind rural poverty.
Unfortunately, the result has frequently been to exchange one awful living arrangement for another just as bad.
Glasgow’s Gorbals: Overcrowded and Squalid
Two hundred years ago migrants from the Scottish highlands and Ireland flocked to Glasgow for work in shipyards and factories.
Between 1800 and 1860, the population of the city exploded from less than 100,000 to 420,000.
Many of these newcomers were forced to live in the Gorbals slum (left).
On the south bank of the River Clyde, the area was packed with fetid tenements.
Entire families lived in a single room of what had once been middle class homes;
they were called “made-
In addition to being a breeding ground for typhus and cholera, the Gorbals also developed
a well-
As early as 1866, the city tore down some buildings in an attempt to get rid of the scar on the scene.
But, the Gorbals defied the best efforts of social reformers, architects, and planners and continued to be a warren of neglect and disease.
India’s Rural Migrants Mostly Remain Poor
The Gorbals experience, much magnified, has been repeated in India.
A 2009 report by Core Centre, an Indian government-
But, for many of these migrants the good life hasn’t materialized. The Core Centre report notes that “the ratio of urban poverty in some of the larger states is higher than that of rural poverty leading to the phenomenon of ‘Urbanization of Poverty.’ ”
Kavaiyan
Slum Dwellings in Chennai India.
While India has been enjoying an economic boom for several years not much of the prosperity is getting into the hands of poor people.
According to the South Asia Analysis Group (April 2006) “25 percent of Indians live on less than a dollar a day and 70 percent live on less than two dollars a day.”
India’s Slums Accommodate Millions
Big cities such as Mumbai (Bombay), Delhi, Kolkata (Calcutta), and Hyderabad are having great difficulty absorbing the inrush of people.
A February 2007 article in the German magazine Der Spiegel reports that “Mumbai…holds the dubious distinction of being home to Asia’s largest slums where, according to government statistics, 60 percent of all city residents live.
“In 2003 there were 17 public toilets for every million people.” In addition, a third of the city’s residents don’t have access to clean water.
Across the country, there are 62 million people living in slums.
Writing about these shantytowns for The Times of India (May 2010) Mahendra Kumar Singh says that “around 49,000 slums continue to blight the urban landscape forcing [hundreds of thousands] of people to live in pathetic conditions.”
The ramshackle communities are usually on public land and it’s rarely good quality real estate. Typically, slums in India are beside garbage dumps, railway tracks, or drains. Most get waterlogged during the monsoon season.
Brazil’s Favelas Dangerous Living Space
According to the U.S. Library of Congress, 20 million people moved from rural to urban areas in Brazil during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Many of these migrants have settled in informal communities often built in unsafe locations.
Called favelas, these impoverished neighbourhoods are susceptible to landslides (right). Heavy rains in January.
2011 caused the deaths of at least 257 people near Rio de Janeiro. Tom Phillips of The Guardian (January 2011) writes “The latest mudslides to hit Rio follow similar disasters last April, when several inner city favelas were destroyed by the rains.”
But, for the people who live in the favelas, India’s slums, or The Gorbals before them there are few options.
Moving out requires money and that’s a commodity in very short supply in such communities.
Sources
“India: Urban Poverty Report 2009.” Core Centre.
“Poverty and Slums in India.” South Asia Analysis Group, April 17, 2006.
“Slums, Stocks, Stars, and the New India.” Erich Follath, Der Spiegel, February 28, 2007.
“Nearly 49,000 Slums in India.” Mahendra Kumar Singh, The Times of India, May 27, 2010.
“Brazil Landslides Leave Hundreds of People Dead.” Tom Phillips, The Guardian, January 13, 2011.
© Canada and the World, February 2012
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While India has been enjoying an economic boom for several years not much of the prosperity is getting into the hands of poor people.
According to the South Asia Analysis Group (April 2006) “25 percent of Indians live on less than a dollar a day and 70 percent live on less than two dollars a day.”
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Charles Leadbetter at TED
“Unprecedented urban growth in the face of increasing poverty and social inequality, and a predicted increase in the number of people living in slums (to about two billion by 2030), mean that the United Nations Millennium Development goal to improve the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020 should be considered the absolute bare
minimum that the international community should aim for...”