Women and Slums
As of 2007, the worlds’ population is 6.5 billion people and one-half of those people are living in urban areas (facts.com). As the tides of humanity move into cities, it becomes ever more important that this migration serve to the best interest of society. Unfortunately, the migration of people into cities is leaving the new inhabitants in unsafe and unhealthy conditions. The economies of all countries are merging through a trend in the globalization of business, government, services and even property. As a result, people in developing countries who are looking to improve their financial status or family standing are forced to live in shanty towns and slums under inhumane conditions, so they can live near the booming industries and job opportunities. According to the UN Habitat report, The Challenge of Slums, these 1 billion slum dwelling people are a majority are women who are taking the brunt of the suffering (5). It is women who historically take on greater suffering to preserve their families’ health, and brave the great discrimination and injustices that are so common to women, especially in poorer populations. These women must be helped in finding ways to better their lives in order for them to leave the slums and create a world without poverty.
Using the term “slum” to refer to a certain type of community is as complex as referring to the specific type of person. To understand the meaning of either, context is essential; what ethnicity are they, what country are they from, how old are they, and how much money they make, are also questions that are important to ask about communities and their cultures. The Gale Environmental Encyclopedia defines slums as, “generally legal but otherwise inadequate multifamily tenements or rooming houses, either custom built for rent to poor people or converted from some other use” (1284). This definition is best used in reference to developed countries because of the lack in description of what type of housing or other conditions. Another definition from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary is “a densely populated urban area marked by crowding, dirty run-down housing, poverty, and social disorganization” is well suited to a more global perspective. It makes a better approach to discussing slums, in that it covers housing, population, income and the local societal structure. A third definition comes from the book The Challenge of Slums which comes in context:
The operational definition of a slum that has been recently recommended (by a United Nations Expert Group Meeting (EGM) held in Nairobi from 28 to 30 October 2002) for future international usage defines a slum as an area that combines, to various extents, the following characteristics (restricted to the physical and legal characteristics of the settlement, and excluding the more difficult social dimensions): inadequate access to safe water, inadequate access to sanitation and other infrastructure, poor structural quality of housing, overcrowding, insecure residential status. (12)
While covering all angles of slum characteristics, it also makes a point to say that the word slum is relative to the country or location and can vary from one area to another. For instance, in the United States, a slum could be seen as upscale compared to in Ethiopian where 99% of the population lives in slums (Davis 24).
Poverty is also a challenging term to define because it has many perspectives and meanings, depending on where and who are the subjects. For instance, one would assume that all people who live in slums are also living in poverty, but that is incorrect. Some people who live in the slums are unidentifiable in a crowd of middle class people. They may even make more money than those people who live in formal housing; housing with a legal address and the possibility of legal ownership. Then what is poverty? The book World Poverty cites the United Nations definition of the 1997 Human Development Report as being: “the denial of choices and opportunities most basic to human development – to lead a long, healthy, creative life and enjoy a decent standard of living, freedom, self-esteem, and the respect of others” (1). To elaborate on the extent to which this can be applied on a financial level the book also defines poverty using a money system: “Generally speaking, earning a dollar per day or less means that a person in any country is living in ‘extreme poverty,’ which means that that person cannot afford to buy even the most basic human necessities” (4). Founded on definitions of the World Bank, 1.2 billion people live in extreme poverty and 3 billion live on less than US $2 a day (Challenge xxvi). An estimate on the numbers of women living in poverty on a global scale is 75% of the global population living on less than US$2 a day (Bixler F1). Since the majority of impoverished people are women, change in global poverty levels must start with women.
While being some of the most impoverished places on earth, slum cities maintain very basic housing in the most crowded and densely populated regions. Generally slums are found in or around large cities. Author, professor and political activist Mike Davis describes these exponentially growing regions in his book Planet of Slums:
Thus, the cities of the future, rather than being made out of glass and steel as envisioned by earlier generations of urbanists, are instead largely constructed out of crude brick, straw, recycled plastic, cement blocks, and scrap wood… surrounded by pollution, excrement, and decay. (19)
The basic shelters house hordes of people in small spaces and most often do not have any basic amenities. Journalist Sophie Elmhirst writes in an article titled “Sex and the Metacities” about Shivaji Nagar, a slum just outside Mumbai, India: “It’s built on the city’s biggest dump and crawls with flies and goats. The huts seem to grow out of the filth and trash, flapping with loose plastic and Vodafone adverts torn from walls to make roofs (par 4). When referring to a slum in Bangladesh, Elmhirst writes: “the Dhaka slums rises out of water, not rubbish. Shacks are built on bamboo stilts, and black streams froth with pollution beneath” (par.7). Dhaka and Mumbai are growing exponentially in number and the population of both cites will soon reach individual sizes of 20 million people, while over half the population of Mumbai alone live in slums (Elmhirst par. 3). It is little wonder that the poor are more prone to disease and infection. Many of the citizens of such areas choose to inhabit them because the benefits outweigh the challenges. The alternative is often for them, or their family members, to die of starvation or be killed in conflict. Natural disasters also lead people into the cities.
Some of the best and the worst ideas arise when initiating programs to fix the high concentrations of slums communities in the drive to remove them. Many governments, trying to appease the capitalist interests in the cities, are moving the slums out of the cities into poorly designed tenements, hoping that out-of-sight out-of-mind will fix the problems. The Dharavi slum, directly in the middle of downtown Mumbai, India, is often up for discussion. A documentary news video by CBC News Canada titled “Slum Cities: A Shifting World”, reports that Dharavi has 1 million people living on prime real estate covering only 2 square km. The Indian government has plans to demolish Dharavi and replace it with housing and community projects such as a golf driving range and a cricket sports museum. In an interview with lead developer of the project Mukesh Mehta, narrator Avril Benoit asks Mukesh how he thinks his plans to build over the slums will affect the residents. His reply is: “I think there is a lot of talent in slums, and just because they are poor, does not mean they lack the capabilities… I don’t see why the slum dwellers could not be playing golf or shooting a few balls” (Slums). This type of disregard is common among those not living in slums and drives many choices on how slum dwellers are treated by official government policy.
In a 2001 United Nations report it was found that 60% of the world’s slums are found in Asia. It is no surprise as it is the same area with the world’s highest population densities. Africa comes up second with 20% of the world’s slums, but it also has the highest populations per capita of people living in slums. Latin America follows up with 14% and Europe and other developed nations come in last with only 6% of the remaining slums (Challenge 3). The high fluctuation between developed and developing nation’s slum populations is cause for concern and suspicion. According to journalist Padraic Kenna, it is no coincidence that these underdeveloped nations are the same that were previously colonized by those nations leading in global housing conditions, with the remainder of only 6% of slums. In regards to the result of globalization, he writes: “It now appears that globalization is forcing onto an unwilling world the conditions of early European capitalism, ignoring the international human rights law that now prohibits those conditions “(398). The common use of third world labor to supply resources and services to developed first world nations is a large contributing factor to globalization and its success, but it is coming at the cost of the health and happiness of impoverished people on every continent.
A general definition of Globalization is “a generic term used to describe a range of economic, industrial social, military, and cultural changes that have created high levels of interdependence, interaction, and integration among different parts of the world, between people, and between producers and consumers” (Kenna 397). To summarize, it is the effect capitalism is having on developing countries. Increased trade and commerce is reaching countries large and small. Many smaller countries are selling their clothing, furniture, ideas, etc to the U.S. and Europe and many in those countries are reaping huge profits. Many global companies are established in third world countries and are finding themselves to be received with welcome by the major cities. Commerce and trade between governments and countries is creating jobs and money for those who can work within the vicinity of the large urban super cities. Part of the enigma of the growing size of slums is that the cities are growing in numbers that surpass the number of jobs created and average income levels (Davis 14). Much of the migration to cities is done by farmers who sell their farms when they can’t pay the rent, people escaping the warlords or fighting of civil war, or often it is the hope of a better life and more secure future which attract the most people. Mike Davis writes “’Overurbanization,’ in other words, is driven by the reproduction of poverty, not by the supply of jobs” (16). The growing global economy cannot employ all the people moving into the city. This leads to the slum dwellers creating jobs for themselves with money generated in the informal economy, which will be discussed later in this paper.
South Asia has the highest numbers of slum dwellers and some of the fastest growing slum populations. Davis writes as an example, “Of the 500,000 people who migrate to Delhi each year, it is estimated that fully 400,000 end up in slums; by 2015 India’s capital will have a slum population of more than 10 million” (18). Many immigrants gather together when they arrive in the cities and form groups based on status, sex, religion or ethnicity, because of the likelihood of better treatment from their peers who are more willing to show them the ropes without suspicions (Challenge 27). The region of South Asia is also an area where women’s rights are impeded and much more restricted than men’s. In the book Banker to the Poor, author and Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus writes about the issues of women in Bangladesh:
In Bangladesh, hunger and poverty are more women’s issues than men’s. Women experience hunger and poverty more intensely than men. If one of the family members has to starve, it is an unwritten law that it will be the mother. The mother will also suffer the traumatic experience of not being able to breast-feed her infant during the times of famine and scarcity. Poor women in Bangladesh have the most insecure social standing. A husband can throw his wife out any time he wishes. (72)
As women make up the majority of slum residents, it is also their suffering that makes up the highest suffering per capita. Work for women is challenging to get and single mothers are looked down upon, on top of being excluded from the formal economy because of their religious beliefs or lack of secure assets.
The formal economy is where most people in the western world, including the United States, live and work. It includes jobs that are government supported, jobs that pay taxes, or are sanctioned by the state. The informal sector of the economy is the place where the rest of the world lives and works; in certain self-employed circumstances, illegal trades or black market services, make up much of the sectors work, while the rest of the informal economy works in honest small trades which are not monitored by society. The book World Poverty claims: “More than 60% of women in developing countries perform non-agricultural paid informal labor; the figure rises when informal paid agricultural work is factored in” (81). Linking the effects of globalization on the informal economy, the author elaborates on how women are effected:
According to the UNIFEM report: Women, Work and Poverty 2005: Increasingly, rather than informal work becoming formalized as economies grow, work is moving from the formal to informal, from regulated to unregulated, and workers lose job security as well as medical and other benefits. What we are seeing is that growth does not automatically ‘trickle down’ to the poor. It can in fact widen the gap between rich and poor. As globalization intensifies, the likelihood of obtaining formal employment is decreasing in many places, with ‘footloose’ companies shifting production from one unregulated zone to an even less regulated one elsewhere. (81)
While the informal economy does have legitimate jobs, it has a growing population of prostitutes and criminals. The women in these professions are often sold into sex slavery by their husbands or family to pay debts, but many are brought up in these professions from birth. It is a tradition passed down from mother to daughter.
In the movie Born into Brothels, the topic of children being literally born in brothels, and brought up in prostitution, is documented and explored on the streets of Calcutta, India. Although the film focuses on the photography of the children, it also documents the challenges faced by being children born to workers in the informal economy. Film maker and narrator Zana Briski states in the film: “One of the girls was already married at age 11. Another one was forced into prostitution at age 14. They have absolutely no opportunity without education. It is hard to find a good school who will take children of prostitutes” (Born). The answer to stopping the perpetuation of sex work in the family is going to school and working in the formal economy. It was made clear in the film that children with HIV/AIDS are not permitted in many schools. Also, without a valid address - addresses in slums and the red light district where prostitutes work are not valid - it is near impossible for a child to be educated in any school, let alone receive government services generally allotted to both average and poor citizens. The girl Kochi in the film said: “I keep thinking if I could go someplace else and get education, I wonder what I could become”. Another child, Toposi, a young boy said “One has to accept life as being sad and painful… that’s all”. The life of these children is “sad and painful” and children like them will be brought up in prostitution every day unless the women and children are given assistance in making empowered choices in their lives (Born).
One of the greatest challenges facing women in slums and poverty are health, and especially maternal health. Statistics on women’s health are written in the book World Poverty:
According to an estimate by the Alan Guttmacher Institue, women’s reproductive health issues result in the loss of as much as 250 million years worth of productive time each year and a 20% reduction of women’ overall productivity. The UNFPA reported in 2005 that complications of pregnancy and childbirth kill one woman every minute and injure twenty others – 99% of them in developing countries … of the 136 million births every year, 529,000 result in the death of the mother. (84-85)
During pregnancy, women are more sensitive to their environmental circumstances and get sick or have complications in pregnancy more often than women with access to clean water. The women residents of slums are in exponentially worse conditions because of the lack of clean and sanitary water. Without good water and sanitation, maternal and baby mortality rates rise and diseases thrive. The lack of hospitals and funding for proper hospital staff and supplies is a contributing factor. Recent efforts by the Indian government are meant to address the issue of health by providing health insurance for urban slum dwellers. Without a complete health infrastructure overhaul there is little hope of dramatic health improvements. According to an article in the News India – Times newspaper, the new plan is to provide 55 million slum dwellers, whom live in 489 cities and towns, health insurance. The US$2 billion plan will begin to take effect in 2007 and cover the 55 million beneficiaries with $967 to $ 1,209 worth of coverage each (Now, Health 22). Though helpful, this plan does not get to the root of the women’s health problem; poverty.
International government aid to fight global poverty is often the only financial assistance that slum dwellers receive. Although there are many Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) which receive private funding which goes to help the poor, the poorer counties cannot afford to initiate programs to focus on the basic issues of health and community services. An article in the New York Times, titled “Failing the World’s Poor” writes: “Aid from the world's developed countries fell by almost 13 percent between 2005 and 2007 -- to under $104 billion, after inflation. The aggregate aid budget of the most developed nation’s amounts to 0.28 percent of their gross national income, woefully below the target of 0.7 percent agreed to by world leaders in 2002” (A26). This failing is a sign that the international governmental community does not currently have the willingness to fix the problems posed to them by the poorer developing nations. The best improvements being seen in poverty reductions are now coming from NGO’s and activist organizations making large strides in innovative ways.
Author of Banker to the Poor, Muhammad Yunus, began loaning money to poor women in Bangladesh out of a gesture of patriotism, and a deep interest in helping the poor. Yunus founded a micro lending bank in 1976 and has loaned billions to poor people around the world. He has this to say about foreign contributions: “Most foreign aid goes to building roads, bridges, and so forth, which are supposed to help the poor ‘in the long run’. The only people really benefiting from most of this aid, however, are those who are already wealthy. Foreign aid becomes a kind of charity for the powerful while the poor get poorer” (Yunus 146). Loans by the Grameen bank are in amounts of up to $300, in most cases, women make up 95% of their borrowers, and their loans are repaid 99% of the time (Yunus 70). By focusing on women, Grameen has been able to exponentially decrease poverty faster than by giving loans to men. Women tend to use their money to invest in the house and family. One of the most important aspects of the Grameen business plan is giving loans, not donations. Loans place responsibility and accountability onto the borrower and are empowering women in their society. The bank requires women to get together in groups of five in order to borrow. They are trained and provided with money management skills, but it is the group which holds each borrower accountable. If one woman fails, the rest of the women are responsible. Here is an example of how the women respond and are affected by these loans:
The morning she is to receive her loan, she almost quits. Twenty-five dollars is simply too much responsibility for her. How will she ever be able to repay it? No woman in her extended family has ever had so much money. Her friends come around to treasure her, saying, ‘Look, we all have to go through it. We will support you. We are here for just that. Don’t be scared. We will all be with you.’ …. When she finally receives the twenty-five dollars, she is trembling. The money burns her fingers. Tears roll down her face. She has never seen so much money in her life. She never imagined it in her hands. (Yunus 64-65)
The Grameen bank continues to loan money to people no regular bank would ever consider loaning to, and is leading the global microcredit movement. They are decreasing the suffering in slums by providing award winning home improvement loans and housing plans honored by leading architects and the Aga Khan International organization (Yunus 130).
Many NGO’s are leading the path toward a poverty and slum free world. The Self Employed Women Association or SEWA, are another leading lending bank to the poor, while they also initiate government changes, and training of women in new trades. Journalist, social activist and lead proponent of SEWA, Bipasha Baruah sees few differences to the benefits of these kind of organization, and sees these long-term goals in common among Grameen, SEWA and similar organizations:
Increasing income and assets; providing or generating demand for work security and social security services such as health, childcare, housing, and access to developmental services such as training, communications and banking; building solidarity and support networks; strengthening democracy and democratic processes; mainstreaming self-employed women into the national economy and encouraging and enabling them to become partners and facilitators in the process of economic development. (Baruah 615)
NGO’s lead at the cutting edge because they remain close to their constituents, and continue to grow with the changing tide of global charity interests. While governments fade and even NGO’s fail, there will always be the heart of humanity backing up an effort to help those with less.
As a result of the growth of capitalist global values and the expanding markets, human migration into the urban centers of culture is an inevitable occurrence. It has been this way since the Mesopotamians and will likely continue into the future. The possibility of overcrowding in cities of every major developing nation is a very real threat, and with foresight comes the responsibility of choosing the best outcome. Removing people from poverty and stopping the misappropriation of foreign aid are very real and effective steps. The future of aid must be focused on the community centered groups with firsthand experience in helping those in need directly; preferably women’s groups. While women are making progress toward equal rights, joining the labor force, and improving women’s health, men can help support healthy working relationships with ventures supporting and connected to women’s groups. Men can do this knowing it will have a large benefit for the children of the current generation, and generations beyond, due to women’s family values and maternal instincts. Proper housing and the eradication of slums also creates healthier people who will flourish in health and the lack of sewage and proper nutrition. Women advancement in slums is a very serious issue that if used wisely may create a turn of events, for the better, in the future of slums and the overall health of human kind.
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Slums and Women by Andre Pate is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
