The Future Of Slums: On The Line Between Hope & Despair

According to the slum target of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is to significantly improve the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers around the world by 2020. A total of 227 million people in the world have moved out of slum conditions since 2000. However, in terms of absolute numbers, slum dwellers have actually increased from 776.7 million in 2000 to some 827.6 million in 2010.

The future of slums can be projected in two entirely different variants: slums of hope, and slums of despair. Based on the prevalent trends, despite some successes which could be termed as ‘best practices’ in formulating slum policies, slums have continued growing in the urban regions of the developing world.
Slum policies and programs so far have not served the urban poor as the main beneficiaries; instead people from higher income groups have taken over the improved dwellings designed for the target population.

RELATED: Why Slums Could Be The Key To Sustainable Urban Energy System Transformation

The result we observe is in fact the reverse – fractional, undirected or unrealistic policies that either impractical or benefits only those in power. Therefore, failure in tackling the slum problem so far indicate that fractional slum policies and programs, which aim to address one or only a few aspects of slum proliferation could even worsen the existence and expansion of slums.

The need of the hour is to focus on a more comprehensive approach that will integrate factors of emergence and growth of slums and at the same time cooperate with different stakeholders responsible for addressing slum problem. The most striking outcome of past and existing slum policies and strategies are their short sightedness with respect to housing needs in urban regions.

Most of the time urban authorities do not understand the social and spatial scope of slums and hence end up with solutions that do not address the slum problem. No matter how depressing slums look; living in slums has made slum dwellers life better off. Almost all slum residents live there by choice which means they themselves think they are better off. City provides them better economic prospects. The benefits they get can be several times higher than income from rain fed agriculture.

This urban transformation is so profound that cities are unable to keep up with the population growth. Even when cities provide economic opportunities, life in slums is extremely unsafe.
Slum children in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are more prone to die from water borne and respiratory diseases than their rural children. Women living in slums in SSA have more chances to contract HIV than women from their rural counterparts. Slum children’s are less likely to be enrolled for primary education than their urban counterparts.

The world’s megacities are on rise but planning and building is not keeping with pace. Slums are primarily being ignored by many governments on their own peril which could lead to the state of ‘slums
of despair’ in future; a future that we should avoid by all means. Irrespective of these dismal figures, the lure of cities as provider of better life persists. The world population is estimated to grow at an annual rate of 1.78% until 2030, at the same time rural population reduces in size.

Author Stewart Brand (2010) calls squatter cities as ‘unexpectedly green’, and suggests that we need to seize the opportunity that is offered by urbanization by further greening the growing cities. Slums contain maximum density – roughly a million people per square mile live in the slums of Mumbai, India, and they have minimal energy and material use than their city counterparts.

Providing the same energy and material use to all the people in cities would require vast infrastructural stresses to energy and food supply. Huge number of people will be climbing the energy ladder from use of biomass to electricity and diesel use.

Therefore it is in humanity’s biggest interest to provide low energy affordable housing to the urban poor while improving quality of life as they transition to the income and energy ladder by not causing much harm to the environment. Providing adequate and decent housing for all is not something that cannot be achieved.
Governments need a paradigm shift in attitude by looking at the poor settlements not as part of the problem but as part of the solution and look at the poor not as beneficiaries but primary actors of their own development, key tenets of slum upgrading and enabling approaches.