Problems of The Slums in Our Country

 

I think everyone knows what a slum is nowadays. But for those who don’t know, a slum is an urban residential area that is densely populated with densely packed housing units of low or weak quality. 

The infrastructure of these slums is usually degrading, deteriorating and incomplete. These living standards can make it very difficult for people living in these slums to live a proper life with a lack of opportunities and an unsafe/unhealthy lifestyle.

These slums are usually overcrowded homes that are built very close to each other and are almost piling on to the next one. There is a lack or no access to the necessities to the people, like clean water, adequately maintained toilets, proper regulation of electricity or convenient transportation. 

These houses are often built with unstable infrastructure and thus can be very unsafe in situations of natural calamities such as earthquakes and storms. And since these slums are overpopulated, there is a high likelihood of several casualties in these areas.

Since slums are built on lands where people decided to settle, they often do not have a tenure that secures their homes. As in, they do not have a legal right to be living on that land, since they cannot secure tenure for making it a place to call it home legally.

Reason for slums:

With the increasing urbanisation in cities, there is also a need for more and more housing which is expensive to keep up with urbanisation. 

People working daily wage jobs cannot afford these houses and are being pushed into the borders and outskirts of the cities where they develop these slums to have shelter over their heads without having to pay huge amounts of money to have a home.

Land reforms are the most important task at hand and should be dealt with as a priority as they can help people who have to live in slums for housing instead of living in a place that can be safer, legal and can provide necessities.

Risks of slums:

A big risk in slums often boils down to the safety of the people staying in them. Violence is usually high in these places as they do not have proper regulations and law enforcement cant get in as most slums have a difficult navigation path and tightly woven streets.

High rates of illnesses in a slum can cause a huge decline in productivity. This can cause children not being able to attend schools, people not being able to work for their living. 

With workers from slums often being marginalized in the economy due to a lack of proper housing situation, or a formal address, it becomes an obstacle for them to get a proper job.

This way it creates a cycle of poverty that continues to great lengths and needs to be stopped. 

As we all know housing and shelter is the basic needs for living. People evicted or migrating often require immediate housing for themselves to shelter in. And this is where the low-income dwellers end up making these communities of slums in areas that are cheap due to increased vulnerability to diseases, and other types of environmental degradations. 

These areas as mentioned before are also unsafe when it comes to natural calamities because they are poorly constructed without proper consideration to the infrastructure and can therefore cause casualties for the people living there.

Slums today are a big problem in third world countries such as India, the Philippines etc. These areas suffer from poor living standards and overpopulation.

These slums are increasing with the urgent need or urbanisation in the city which makes the people earning less money, not being able to afford proper housing or necessities in the city and hence result in the creation of these slums. 

Slums are the epicentre for poverty and diseases. They can cause unproductivity in people which may increase the spiral of poverty in the public living in the slums. 

Desperate housing reforms are needed to help these people attain proper housing situations which offer them necessities and not fall to prey deadly diseases and lack of opportunities due to marginalisation in the economy.

Written by - Mohammad Arbaz Jalees