Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Plate 29.1
The McDonald's
Farm squatter camp in
Soweto, South Africa
(photograph: David
Drakakis-Smith).
Box 29.1
The Chheetpur squatter settlement
in Allahabad, India
Allahabad is one of the five major cities in the Indian state
of Uttar Pradesh. In-migration has played a significant
role in the growth of the city's population, which
increased by 500 per cent between 1981-91. The
economic base of the city is weak, and the informal
sector accounts for over 40 per cent of the total
workforce. Urban infrastructure is unable to cope with the
increasing population, and a quarter of the inhabitants
live in slums and squatter settlements.
The squatter settlement of Chheetpur occupies a
hectare of flood-prone land along a railway line in the
south of the city. The majority of residents are members
of the lowest castes. Living conditions are inhuman. One-
or two-room mud houses shelter families of five-seven
members, including adult males, females and children,
with each room measuring not more than 12 m
2
. None of
the houses has a separate kitchen or lavatory, and
defecation occurs outside along the railway track or other
open spaces or in open drainage lines at the side of the
street. Animals and humans live together, and the low
level of sanitation spreads diseases, which find ready
victims in the malnourished Chheetpurians. Despite the
location of the settlement adjacent to several schools and
colleges, two-thirds of the squatters are illiterate and the
struggle for daily survival means that investment in the
future receives a low priority. Despite the general poverty
of the environment, even within the area socio-spatial
divisions are evident between higher-caste poor and the
poorest of the poor. In this and other squatter settlements
throughout the third world, the problems stemming from
absolute and relative poverty and deprivation are
endemic.
Source:
H.Misra1994.
(Donnison and Middleton 1987; Convery 1997).
Within such regions, the shift from heavy industrial
employment to service-oriented activities, and the
consequent demand for a different kind of labour
force, has served to undermine long-standing social
structures built around full-time male employment
and has contributed to social stress within families.
Dependence upon social welfare, where available,
and lack of disposable income lowers self-esteem and
can lead to clinical depression.
Poverty also restricts diet and accentuates poor
health. Malnutrition is a major factor underlying
the high infant mortality rates in the deprived
environments occupied by the majority of
population in the South. Even in the developed
world, however, infant mortality rates are often
significantly higher in poor areas (Benzeval
et al
.
1995). Children brought up in such environments
are more likely to be exposed to criminal
subcultures and to suffer educational disadvantage
(Pacione 1997a). The physical environment in
deprived areas is typically bleak. The ghettos of
American cities and parts of deprived local
authority estates in the UK exhibit extensive areas
