Problems faced by Slum Dwellers

7/18/2019 Problems faced by Slum Dwellers

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INTRODUCTION

SLUMS AND PROBLEMS FACED BY THEIR DWELLERS

UN-Habitat defines “A slum is a contiguous settlement where the inhabitants are characterized as

having inadequate housing and basic services. A slum is often not recognized and addressed by the

public authorities as an integral or equal part of the city.”

Problems faced: People residing in slums face many problems like improper sanitation, unhygienic

environmental conditions, social, economic, health, educational and cultural problems and many more.

A vicious cycle caused by inadequate food intake/ diseases which causes health problems

Why do slums exist? However slums are defined, the question remains “why do they exist?” Slums

come about because of, and are perpetuated by, a number of forces. Among these are rapid rural-to-

urban migration, increasing urban poverty and inequality, insecure tenure, and globalisation – all

contribute to the creation and continuation of slums.

Rapid rural-urban migration – Since 1950, the proportion of people working in developing country

agriculture has declined by 20 to 30 per cent. The immigrant urban poor have largely moved from the

countryside to the cities voluntarily, in order to exploit actual or perceived economic opportunities.

Opportunities manifest in part, due to the growing urban informal sector, which is most spectacularly

visible in the many growing and large-sale informal and squatter settlements in urban centres. In many

cities the informal sector accounts for as much as 60 per cent of employment of the urban population

and may well serve the needs of an equally high proportion of citizens through the provision of goods

and services.

The explosive growth in the informal sector in many developing countries has been accompanied by

poverty and the rapid growth of slums.



Political conflict also drives urban migration, not only within countries, but across borders as well. In

Angola and Mozambique, urbanization has been driven largely by civil conflict which forced many rural

residents to flee to relatively safe urban areas.

The rapidity and enormous volume of this rural-to-urban migration intensifies slum formation. City

planning and management systems are unable to adequately cope with the massive population influx.

Insecure tenure – The lack of secure tenure is a primary reason why slums persist. Without secure

tenure, slum dwellers have few ways and little incentive to improve their surroundings. Secure tenureis often a precondition for access to other economic and social opportunities, including credit, public

services, and livelihood opportunities.

Study after study confirms that, in slums where residents enjoy secure tenure to land and housing –

whether formal or informal – community-led slum improvement initiatives are much more likely to be

undertaken and, in fact, succeed.

Globalisation – Slum formation is closely linked to economic cycles, trends in national income

distribution, and in more recent years, to national economic development policies. The Report finds

that the cyclical nature of capitalism, increased demand for skilled versus unskilled labour, and the

negative effects of globalisation – in particular, global economic booms and busts that ratchet up

inequality and distribute new wealth unevenly –contribute to the enormous growth of slums.

It is generally presumed that there is currently less poverty in urban areas than in rural areas. However,

the rate of growth of the world’s urban population living in poverty is now considerably higher than

that in rural areas. Urban poverty has been increasing in most developing countries subjected to

structural adjustment programmes – programmes that often have had a negative impact on urban

economic growth and formal employment opportunities. The absolute number of poor and

undernourished in urban areas is increasing, as is the share of urban areas in overall poverty and

malnutrition. In general, the locus of poverty is moving to cities, a process now recognised as the

“urbanization of poverty”.



ENGINEERS AND SLUMS

An engineer may have a significant role to play in poverty alleviation and development. Engineering

could address the huge lack of infrastructure and basic services that exacerbate global poverty and

hold back sustainable development. Globally, many nations lack the basic requirements to survive and

develop; safe drinking water, basic sanitation, shelter and infrastructure, aggravated by an increasingpopulation putting even more strain on the earth’s resources. Engineering has the potential to deliver

solutions to these problems. A major historical engineering contribution to development was Joseph

Bazalgette’s design and implementation of an efficient sewerage system in 19th

century London.

STATISTICS ON SLUMS:

Population living in Urban Area



The proportion of the world’s urban population living in slums has fallen from nearly 40% a decade ago

to less than a third today. China and India have together lifted 125m people out of slum conditions in

recent years. North Africa’s slum population has shrunk by a fifth.

At the same time, the absolute number of slum dwellers around the world is still rising.



IMPROVING SANITARY CONDITIONS

“ Hygienic means of prevention can be by using engineering solutions, simple technologies”

Sanitation is the hygienic means of promoting health through prevention of human contact with the

hazards of wastes as well as the treatment and proper disposal of sewage wastewater. Hazards can be

physical, microbiological, biological or chemical agents of disease. Wastes that can cause health

problems include human and animal feces, solid wastes, domestic wastewater (sewage, sullage andgreywater), industrial wastes and agricultural wastes. Hygienic means of prevention can be by using

engineering solutions (e.g. sewerage and wastewater treatment), simple technologies (e.g. septic

tanks), or even by personal hygiene practices (e.g. simple hand washing with soap).

Sanitation refers to the safe disposal of human excreta. This entails the hygienic disposal and

treatment of human waste to avoid affecting the health of people. Sanitation is an essential part of the

Millennium Development Goals. The most affected countries are in the developing world (Zawahiri,

Sowers, and Weinthal). Population increase in the developing world has posed challenges in the

improvement of sanitation (Konteh). According to Zawari, Sowers, and Weinthal, lack of provisions ofbasic sanitation is estimated to have contributed to the deaths of approximately 3.5 million people

annually from water borne diseases.

In the modern era, the Industrial Revolution brought engineering’s influence to every niche of life, as

machines supplemented and replaced human labour for countless tasks, improved systems for

sanitation enhanced health, and the steam engine facilitated mining, powered trains and ships, and

provided energy for factories.

One goal of biomedical engineering today is fulfilling the promise of personalized medicine. Doctors

have long recognized that individuals differ in their susceptibility to disease and their response to

treatments, but medical technologies have generally been offered as "one size fits all." Recent

cataloging of the human genetic endowment, and deeper understanding of the body’s complement of

proteins and their biochemical interactions, offer the prospect of identifying the specific factors that

determine sickness and wellness in any individual.

An important way of exploiting such information would be the development of methods that allow

doctors to forecast the benefits and side effects of potential treatments or cures. “Reverse-

engineering” the brain, to determine how it performs its magic, should offer the dual benefits of



helping treat diseases while providing clues for new approaches to computerized artificial intelligence.

Advanced computer intelligence, in turn, should enable automated diagnosis and prescriptions for

treatment. And computerized catalogs of health information should enhance the medical system’s

ability to track the spread of disease and analyze the comparative effectiveness of different

approaches to prevention and therapy.

Public understanding of engineering and its underlying science will be important to support the calls

for funding, as well as to enhance the prospect for successful adoption of new technologies. The

ultimate users of engineering’s products are people with individual and personal concerns, and in

many cases, resistance to new ways of doing things will have to be overcome. Teachers must revamp

their curricula and teaching styles to benefit from electronic methods of personalized learning. Doctors

and hospital personnel will have to alter their methods to make use of health informatics systems andimplement personalized medicine. New systems for drug regulation and approval will be needed when

medicines are designed for small numbers of individuals rather than patient populations as a whole.

Sanitation within the food industry means the adequate treatment of food-contact surfaces by a

process that is effective in destroying vegetative cells of microorganisms of public health significance,

and in substantially reducing numbers of other undesirable microorganisms, but without adversely

affecting the food or its safety for the consumer (U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Code of Federal

Regulations, USA). Sanitation Standard Operating Procedures are mandatory for food industries in

United States, which are regulated by 9 CFR parts 416 in conjunction with 21 CFR parts 178.1010.

Similarly, in Japan, food hygiene has to be achieved through compliance with food sanitation law.



IMPROVING THE HEALTH AND LIVES OF PEOPLE LIVING IN SLUMS

“Health and improving the lives of people living in slums is at the top of international

development agenda”

Urban poverty, ill health, and living in slums are intrinsically interwoven. Poverty is multidimensional

and there is no agreement on a universal definition. UN-HABITAT has introduced an operational

definition of slums that is restricted to legal aspects and excludes the more difficult social dimens ions.The World Health Organization definition is more comprehensive and uses a health and social

determinants approach that is strongly based on the social conditions in which people live and work.

Health and improving the lives of people living in slums is at the top of international development

agenda. Proactive strategies to contain new urban populations and slum upgrading are the two key

approaches. Regarding the latter, participatory upgrading that most often involves the provision of

basic infrastructure is currently the most acceptable intervention in developing countries. In

urbanization of poverty, participatory slum upgrading is a necessary but not sufficient condition to

reduce poverty and improve the lives of slum dwellers. Empowering interventions that target capacity

development and skill transfer of both individuals and community groups—as well as meaningfulnegotiations with institutions, such as municipal governments, which can affect slum dwellers’ lives—

appear to be the most promising strategies to improve the slum dwellers’ asset bases and health. Non-

governmental organizations, training institutions, and international development partners are best

placed to facilitate horizontal relationships between individuals, community groups, and vertical

relationships with more powerful institutions that affect the slum dwellers’ lives. The main challenge

appears to be lack of commitment from the key stakeholders to upgrade interventions citywide.

Empowerment: A Promising Strategy to Improve Health in Slums

Defining and Contextualizing Empowerment is a widely debated concept. Over time it has acquired a

variety of meanings and definitions depending on different socioeconomic contexts.

The World Bank provides two related but important definitions. According to them empowerment is

the “expansion of assets and capabilities of poor people to participate in, negotiate with, influence,

control, and hold accountable institutions that affect their lives.” The World Bank defines

empowerment as “the process of increasing capacity of individuals or groups to make choices and to

transform those choices into desired actions and outcomes” to build “individual and collective assets,

and to improve the efficiency and fairness of the organizational and institutional context whi ch govern

the use of these assets.”

Evidence to show that empowerment improves health:

• Increased community participation in water supply projects is correlated with improved child health

strategies.

• Organized youth-to-youth activities and linking them to institutions improves, among other things,

mental health and academic performance.

• Empowering HIV/AIDS strategies that are targeted at gender inequities increase condom use andhence reduce HIV infection.

• Improved education for women and empowerment has been associated with improved child health.



ENGINEERS EMPOWERING EDUCATION

“To every child in India, we carry this message. Aim for the sky and beyond. There is nothing

holding you back”

Human beings are resourceful. Adapting to different situations is the essential human quality, enabled

by self-conscious intelligence. Other animals live only within a relatively narrow, biologically

determined range of conditions, but humans can modify either the conditions or themselves to such anextent that they can live at the extremes; extreme heat, extreme cold, and extreme poverty. People

adapt and use their ingenuity and inventiveness to survive, but also to find meaning and purpose, and

whatever degree of pleasure, even happiness, that humans may know. Living in the slums, which

means living without many beneficial, even necessary, things, but also with so many threatening, even

dangerous, things, is a great test of human ingenuity, and of the human spirit, which means nothing

less than finding, or creating, a degree of satisfaction in being human.

In the slums, people’s ability to modify the living conditions is minimal, because they do not have the

resources to do so. A few pieces of tin, scrap lumber, cardboard make a house. Clothing and food arescavenged from the refuse of others with more. Health care is homeopathic, and life expectancy is

short. Education is in the home, but more often in the dirt paths that pass for streets in the slums.

Childhood is truncated; children have to do something useful for the family’s survival, as soon as they

are able, or—orphaned at any early age, or cast out because they are too expensive to keep —fend

entirely for themselves.

Education is one sector which can revolutionize slum life for the better. Primary schooling, through

corporation schools, is a free educational system provided by the Government of India. But still, large

proportions of slum children do not get adequate education. Engineers, using their technical

knowledge can provide innovative and effective solutions to this dragon headed hurdle in the growth

of slum life.

From university classes via YouTube and startups like Udacity to the One Laptop per Child (OLPC)

project, there are more ways than ever for children to educate themselves, even in remote villages and

slum areas. Despite the inevitable criticisms such efforts get both from within the education system

and outside it, it is part of a powerful and growing phenomenon.

One example: At a recent conference on emerging technology at MIT, Nicholas Negroponte — the

former head of the MIT Media Lab and founder of the OLPC project - talked about what his group

noticed about the villages in Ethiopia, where some devices were dropped off. The Motorola Xoom

tablets, which were distributed along with a solar-charging system, were delivered in boxes to two

isolated rural villages about 50 miles from the capital of Addis Ababa, where Negroponte said the

children had never before seen printed English words — not even packaging or road signs with printed

letters.

Although the OLPC founder says the group expected most of the children to spend their time “playing

with the boxes,” in a matter of minutes they had powered up the devices and, within days, they were

using a number of apps included with the system. Even more remarkably, within weeks, they had

figured out how to “hack” their way around restrictions built into the software to change the laptop’s

display background. Thanks to the tablets, they were singing ABC songs and even spelling words in

English.



Young engineers of India too launched Aakash, a 35 $ tablet computer for rural poor in 2011. It would

deliver modern technology to the poor section of our society to help them lift out of poverty. It is the

latest in a series of "world's cheapest" innovations in India that include a $2,040 compact Nano car, a

$15 water purifier and $2,000 open-heart surgery. Developer Datawind is selling the tablets to the

government for about $45 each, and subsidies will reduce that to $35 for students and teachers.

Despite a burgeoning tech industry and decades of robust economic growth, there are still hundreds of

thousands of Indians with no electricity, let alone access to computers and information that will helpfarmers enhance yields, business startups reach clients, or students qualify for university.

"A person learns quite fast when they have a computer at home," said Shashank Kumar, 21, a

computer engineering student from Jodhpur, Bihar, who was one of five people selected in his

northern state to travel to villages and demonstrate the device." In just a few years people can even

become hackers." We believe engineers with more such innovations can eradicate the problem of

illiteracy and education among the poor around the globe. Computer and internet can quicken the

pace of growth by raising the standard and transforming the way education is delivered for the better.

Electronics and Computer engineers have a huge task ahead of them, but they can & will transform thelife of poor and get them out of this deep & dark hole.

The Aakash has a colour screen and provides word processing, Web browsing and video conferencing.

The Android 2.2-based device has two USB ports and 256 megabytes of RAM. Despite hopes for a

solar-powered version — important for India's energy-starved hinterlands — no such option is

currently available.



ENGINEERS ERADICATING UNEMPLOYMENT

“Social entrepreneurship is the process of bringing about social change on a major scale”

Unemployment is one of the main causes of poverty. Poor are poor because they don’t h ave money,

they don’t have money because they are unemployed.

How we can eradicate it economically?

We cannot eradicate this by just giving money to poor for nothing. This is just another way of taking

their self-respect. One solution to it can be Social Entrepreneurship.

What is Social Entrepreneurship?

Social entrepreneurship is the process of bringing about social change on a major scale. Social

entrepreneurs function as the agents of change, questioning the status quo, grabbing the new yet

overlooked opportunities, and changing the world for the better. Today, they are making up for the

shortcomings of the bureaucracies and government.

What a Social Entrepreneur do?

While business entrepreneurs aim to generate profits, social entrepreneurs aim to improve social

values. But they differ from non-governmental organizations in that they aim to make broad-based,

long-term changes, instead of few immediate small-time results. They recognize when a section of the

society is stuck and offer innovative ways to break out of its stagnant state.

Is this concept realistic or is it an optimistic dream for India?

This concept is realistic for India with an optimism of eradicating the poverty.

Examples-

SKS Microfinance Limited- Microfinance is usually understood to entail the provision of financial

services to micro-entrepreneurs and small businesses, which lack access to banking and related

services due to the high transaction costs associated with serving these client categories.

SKS was founded in 1997 by Vikram Akula, the McKinsey alumnus. According to a CRISIL Report on Top

50 Indian Microfinance Institutions (MFIs), SKS Microfinance is the largest MFI in India with more

borrowers, more branches and more loans as of 30 September 2008. SKS was founded in 1997

by Vikram Akula.

SKS charges an annual effective interest rate between 26.7% and 31.4% for core loan products. At the

end of financial year 2010 on 31 March 2011, the company listed a gross loan portfolio of

US$925,844,433 with 6,242,266 female active borrowers.

SEWA (Self Employed Women’s Association) - It is a trade union for poor, self-employed women

workers in India. SEWA was founded in 1972 by the noted Gandhian and civil rights leader Dr Ela Bhatt.

SEWA's main office is located in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, and it works in several states of India. SEWA

members are women who earn a living through their own labor or small business. They do not obtain

regular salaried employment with welfare benefits like workers in the organized sector. They are the

unprotected labor force of India. Constituting 93% of the labor force, these are workers of the

unorganized sector. Of the female labor force in India, more than 94% are in the unorganized sector.



However their work is not counted and hence remains invisible. SEWA is strongly supported by

the World Bank which holds it out as a model to be replicated elsewhere

How can we as engineer think of Social Entrepreneurship?

This difficult question can be answered in two words – Vocation Education. We as engineers of our

respective field can teach those engineering disciplines to the slum dwellers that can help them earn

some money with dignity.

Realism of the concept-

Let’s take an example of a computer engineer. He/she with a bit of finance can teach How to design to

slum dwellers. They need not know any language for it; it’s just a matter of mouse and one’s

imagination. If taught properly one can actually setup a startup in designing with a noble cause, with a

work force of marginalized but dedicated and needy people.

Is it only about money?

No, except earning money what a person from slum learns is modern way of living and moreimportantly modern way of thinking. It is just not the monetary development is what we are looking

for, but the overall personality of a slum dweller so that he can not only survive but can live in this

modern world.

It is different than charity but definitely better than it. We are not obliging them with money but

instead offering them job by letting them learn whatever minimal is require to live with the help of

easy to use and apply technology today.



ENGINEERS WITHOUT BORDERS

“Serve the needs of disad vantaged communities and people all over the world through

engineering solutions”

The term Engineers Without Borders (EWB) is used by a number of non-governmental organizations in

various countries to describe their activity based on engineering and oriented to international

development work. All of these groups work to serve the needs of disadvantaged communities andpeople all over the world through engineering solutions.

EWB-INDIA

EWB-India has been established as a non-profit Society, under the Society's Act, to involve engineers,

and other professionals with special or general skills, in a movement of constructive change. It is

inspired by an urgent concern for accelerating sustainable rural development, assisting in capacity

building in backward rural and urban communities of India, protecting the country's natural resource

base and working across national boundaries for social and economic justice and responsible use of

technology.

Projects On-Going/Completed:

The Briquettes Project : An Alternative cooking fuel for the poor. Cooking fuel is a basic need. Poor

availability and inability to pay for the same has compelled the poor to use wood, crop wastes in

inefficient ways or fossil fuels which are heavily subsidized by the government and cause serious

environmental problems.

EWB-INDIA provides an environment friendly alternative to traditional cooking fuels in rural India. This

fuel is also cheaper than the conventional fuels and makes for an ideal fuel for the poor. EWB-India is

promoting the use of Cooking Fuel Briquettes made from agricultural, industrial and domestic wastes.

It is a cleaner fuel with low emissions.

Solar Lantern Project : It is very important to provide simple, durable, cheap and eco-friendly lighting

solutions to villagers. Solar lighting is a possible solution. In Indian market there are so many solar

lighting solutions available, the best feasible option being solar lanterns. These lanterns are very costly

due to technology and marketing. EWB-India targets to provide cheapest solar lantern to villagers.

Solar lantern is used for illumination purpose in village. It is charged by sunlight and can run for 10 to

12 hours. In rural areas, the high cost of kerosene consumes much of a family's income. One lamp

consumes 0.023 liters per hour. With daily usage of around four hours, it amounts to around 3 liters

per month. Even with government subsidies, a family spends INR 45 per month on average for

kerosene.

Specifications of this lantern are as follows:

Solar Module- 4.5 volts, 0.9 watts.

Power Led Bulbs- 0.25 watts One LED.

Battery- 3.6 V (3 cells each of 1.2 V), 700m Ah. (Needs to be replaced every 3 years and will cost

approx. INR 150)

Emergency Use- 8 to 10 hours

Daily Use- 6 hours charging in sunshine months. In cloudy days, 10 to 12 hours.



Feature- a) As a table lamp use.

b) 300 degree Lighting.

c) Comfortable and cool light.

d) Can be charging by hand dynamo.

e) Portable and light. (Weight 600gm)

Protections- Keep away from water, & charge according to climatic conditions.

Individual cost of this solar lantern was INR 800-900, but this price can be significantly reduced on a

mass scale production. EWB-India believes that their product will be the cheapest available solar

lantern in India.

Solar Powered Pumping System: The climate of India is decisive influenced by the monsoon. The

monsoon has far-reaching consequences on the rain and the temperature. The southwest monsoon

starts in most parts of India in June and brings economical precipitation until September or October. In

those months is 80 to 90 percent of the annual rainfall. Between October and June the trade wind

rules the climate. India is an agrarian state and agriculture in India is largely dependent on monsoons.

If the monsoon is late, consequences are fatal for the farming community. Starvation, dead cattle andperiods of drought as in 1987 are mostly consequences of the late or premature monsoon India has

high solar isolation. With about 301 clear sunny days in a year, India's theoretical solar power

reception, just on its land area, is about 5 Ph. /year (i.e. = 5000 trillion kWh/year ~ 600 TW). The daily

average solar energy incident over India varies from 4 to 7 kWh/m2 with about 2,300 –3,200 sunshine.

These facts make Solar Powered Pumping System, even more interesting and important.



BIBLIOGAPHY

The research sources and educational bases used for the purpose of

understanding on the topic are listed herewith:

Online References:

www.economist.com

www.unhabitat.org

www.imf.org

www.sewa.org

www.wikipidea.org

www.filipspagnoli.wordpress.com

www.ewb-india.org

www.thebetterindia.com

www.halfmantr.com

www.ubislate.com

Offline References:

Report of the Committee on slum statistics/census

Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation

Government of India

Problems faced by Slum Dwellers

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