DP-Index-Habitat-Sep07
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A section of
DOCPOST which is an
extract, executive
summary, index
rolled into one.
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SLUMS,
POOR HOUSING
Housing
the poor
In
2008, for the first time in history, more people will begin to live in
cities than in villages. If the current trend continues, the
number of urban dwellers will reach almost 5 billion by 2030.
In
India the urban population is expected to become 576 million in 2030
from the current 328 million.. In India alone, about 100 million
persons live in slums and slum-like conditions without
adequate
basic facilities such as piped water, sanitation, schools, health, and
so on. These numbers are expected to touch 200 million by 2020.
According to a Planning Commission Report, the urban housing
shortages in March 2007 was around 24.71 million and it will
increase to 26.5 million by 2012. Ninety-nine per cent of this
shortfall in housing is with regard to economically weaker sections
(EWS) and low-income groups (LIG) which contributes to squatting and
slum formation.
Siddharth Agarwal, The Business
Standard, Bombay, 18 Sep 2007
.
Park wall status not clear,
squatters to be back in focus
The
Bombay Environmental Action Group (BEAG) has filed a fresh plea by
environmentalists, seeking compliance by state and forest authorities
of a 2003 court direction to evict all encroachers in the
Sanjay
Gandhi National Park. The forest department, in March 2007, informed
the court that of 61,000 unauthorised structures in the park, 49,000
had been removed. The remaining 11,658 were eligible for a
rehabilitation plan as per a scheme formulated for their re-location
provided the squatters paid Rs 7,000 per family. However, the
authorities estimate that around 17,000 illegal encroachers are still
inside.
Swati
Deshpande, The Times of India, Bombay, 24 Sep 2007
.
London
surges ahead as always
.
Brick Lane
is an old place that is always
being made and remade a new - by
migrants.
Situated
right next to the capital's
currently booming financial district,
it has become a temporary inter zone
characterised by the
proximity of rich and poor, young and
old, brown and black and white.
The
soul of this area is waning. Brick Lane,
like much of contemporary London,
increasingly lacks old people.
They feel excluded from the
streets full of techno bars and
expensive coffee shops, are scared of
the gangs of bored local kids who
roam the streets, and find that
their hard-earned pensions are too
meagre to allow them to
live well here.
They
see London's hosting of the 2012
Olympic Games as risky
speculation that will profit property
moguls more than local citizens
whose hard-earned sense of
community will count for nothing, as huge
chunks of land are sold off
and developed.
'Flushers'
are underground sewer
workers, who wade through
London's subterranean pipes and
tunnels that are full of condoms,
diapers, hairballs and thousands
of rats.
Their
main enemy is fat, millions of litres
of which - from halfeaten break-fast
dishes, chipladen frying pans
or fast-food joints -
are dumped into sinks each day.
Twenty
years ago there were over 300
flushers; now there are only 39.
Their profession has been
privatised, and contractors, many of
them from Eastern Europe, perform
many of the functions they used
to.
Sukhde V
Sandh,
The Hindu, Madras, 02 Sep 2007
.
Study says
slum
residents live in sub-human
conditions
.
A study of
900 people living in Chennai's
slums and pavement has found
that 86 per cent survive on one meal
a day. Around 44 per cent
of the women are anaemic and
9 per cent of the respondents above 40
years are borderline
diabetic cases. While 97.4 per
cent were immunised, most did
not have access to quality drinking
water, drainage and electricity.
R
Sujatha, The Hindu,
Madras,
03 Sep 2007
.
