1. Squatter settlements are informal residential areas that develop without legal rights to the land or permission from authorities, resulting in inadequate infrastructure and services. They often begin as squatted settlements by migrants.
2. Squatter settlements are characterized by overcrowding, lack of basic amenities like water, electricity, and sanitation. Housing is made from found materials and living conditions are unhygienic and disease-prone.
3. Approaches to improving squatter settlements include slum upgrading through sites and services programs, legalizing settlements, or relocating residents with community participation or government intervention. Upgrading aims to provide tenure security and access to basic services.
2. Squatters Settlements
◦ Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building,
usually residential, that the squatterdoes not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to
use.
◦ shanty towns often begin as squatted settlements.
◦ A problem of rapid rural to urban migration is the development of squatter settlements
◦ A "squatter" (in The Concise Oxford Dictionary) is a person who settles on new especially public
land without title; a person who takes unauthorized possession of unoccupied premises.
Therefore, a residential area occupied by squatters becomes a squatter settlement.
3. Definition
◦ Squatter settlement is defined as a low residential area, which has developed without legal right
to the land or permission from the concerned authorities to build, and as a result, of their illegal
status, infrastructure and services are usually inadequate (UN-Habitat 2003).
4. History of Squatter settlement
◦ Squatter settlements have been in existence from a long time, in the sense that an individual
other than the land owner has built houses with or without the consent of the land owner. But
they were not illegal "squatter" settlements as we define and categorize them today.
◦ The term "squatter settlement" is infact a more recent western-initiated development, which
came about by the writings of Charles Abrams and John Turner and particularly during and
immediately after the Habitat Conference of 1976 in Vancouver, Canada.
◦ This delineation of such informal or spontaneous settlements as "squatter" settlements
represented a growing change in attitude from outright hostility to that of support and protection
5. Difference between Slum & Squatter,
◦ The UN-Habitat (2003) defined slum as contiguous settlements where inhabitants are characterized
by (i) insecure residential status, (ii) inadequate access to safe water, (iii) inadequate access to
sanitation and other basic infrastructure, (iv) poor structural quality of housing, and (v) overcrowding.
Slums are areas with high social exclusion and poverty
◦ squatter settlement is defined as a low residential area, which has developed without legal right to
the land or permission from the concerned authorities to build; as a result of their illegal status,
infrastructure and services are usually inadequate (UN-Habitat 2003).
◦ It means slums are areas where people with land ownership live in poor environmental and
socioeconomic conditions and are different from squatter settlements, which are the settlements where
people build houses without any legal title to land (UN-Habitat 2003).
6. Various other names for Squatters
◦ Some of the local/colloquial names for squatter settlements (often also used for
slum settlements)
◦ Ranchos = Venezuela
Callampas, Campamentos = Chile
Favelas = Brazil
Barriadas = Peru
Villas Misarias = Argentina
Colonias Letarias = Mexico
Barong-Barong = Philippines
Kevettits = Burma
Gecekondu = Turkey
Bastee, Juggi-johmpri = India
7. Characterstics of Squatters settlement
◦ The squatter settlement is unplanned and
has the following characteristics:
◦ overcrowded, noisy and smelly
◦ houses are made from cardboard, wood,
corrugated iron, plastic sheeting and metal
from oil drums
◦ lack of sanitation, clean drinking water and
open sewers
◦ pollution and disease are common
◦ thousands of workshops and people
employed in the informal job sector
◦ houses built from dried mud as the walls and
corrugated iron for the roof.
◦ no toilets ,
◦ no electricity between phone lines.
◦ no running water,
◦ sewage or electricity in homes.
◦ no paved roads or sewers.
◦ little space between houses.no infrastructure.
◦ extremely high density's.
8. 1. Inadequate Infrastructure: A squatter settlement, due to its inherent "non-legal" status, has
services and infrastructure below the "adequate" or minimum levels.
2. Poor Basic Services: Such services are both network and social infrastructure, like water
supply, sanitation, electricity, roads and drainage; schools, health centres, market places etc
3. Poor water supply: Water supply, for example, to individual households may be absent, or a
few public or community stand pipes may have been provided, using either the city networks,
or a hand pump itself. Informal networks for the supply of water may also be in place.
4. Poor electricity supply:Similar arrangements may be made for electricity, drainage, toilet
facilities etc. with little dependence on public authorities or formal channels.
Physical Characteristics:
9. Social Characteristics
1. Daily Wage labors: Most squatter settlement households belong to the lower income group,
either working as wage labour or in various informal sector enterprises
2. Squatters are predominantly migrants, either rural-urban or urban-urban. But many are also
second or third generation squatters.
10. Legal Characteristics:
1. Lack of Land Rights:The key characteristic that delineates a squatter settlement is its lack of
ownership of the land parcel on which they have built their house
2. These could be vacant government or public land, or marginal land parcels like railway
setbacks or "undesirable" marshy land.
3. when the land is not under "productive" use by the owner, it is appropriated by a squatter for
building a house
4. It has to be noted here that in many parts of Asia, a land owner may "rent" out his land for a
nominal fee to a family or families, with an informal or quasi-legal arrangement, which is not
however valid under law.
11. Biggest Squatter settlement in the World
◦ In Mumbai the squatter settlement
of Dharavi is now home to over 1 million
people. Dharavi lies between two railway
lines and is one of the biggest squatter
settlements in the world
12. 5 distinct types of “squatting” such as:
1. Deprivation-based squatting – involves
poor homeless people who are distressed
for their housing need.
2. Alternative housing strategy – people
organize squatting to meet their housing
needs.
3. Entrepreneurial squatting – offers
opportunities any kind of establishment
without much resources.
4. Conservational squatting – a tactic used in
the preservation of a cityscape or landscape
against efficiency-driven planned
transformation.
5. Political squatting – a field of action for
those who are engaged in anti-systemic
politics.
13. 2 approaches to slums -Eckstein 1990
Slum of Despair
◦ Slum of despair describes the unbearable
conditions people are forced to live in, the
problem for people living in slums, and the
problems the areas generate in society
Slum of hope
◦ slum as providing housing solutions on a
large scale to persons with low income and
to the immigrants. They are places of
dwelling for labor forces in the cities and
sometimes places for formal and informal
entrepreneurs
Slum areas are also known as multicultural places with a
rich artistic and cultural life (ibid.). They are significant
economic forces. A large proportion of population in
squatter settlements is in the informal sector employment,
contributing to goods and services.
14. Problems of Squatters
◦ Environmental. Poor Sanitation. No Electricity. Dark and dank. Unhygienic. Open Sewers. Living on Pavements. No
Toilets. Cramped Conditions. Disease. ...
◦ Economic. Informal Jobs. Basic Infrastructure. Crime. Poverty. Large families to feed. Poorly Paid Work.
◦ Social. Lack of Privacy. No Formal Education. Insecurity. Crime.
◦ Behavioral problems – drug addiction, indulge in criminal activities
16. Squatter Settlements and Slum
Upgrading
◦ Slum upgrading, improvement, or regularization is an integrated component of urban
upgrading. Slum upgrading is a “process through which informal areas are gradually improved,
formalised and incorporated into the city itself, through extending land, services and citizenship
to slum dwellers” (Cities Alliance 2016).
◦ Slum upgrading aims to improve the areas and give dwellers what they lack in basic services,
economic resources, and social support, and many projects work with legalization of informal
households (Cities Alliance 2016)
◦ There was a marked shift in emphasis from policies that sought to eradicate squatter
settlements or to relocate them to urban peripheries to urban upgrading strategies and
providing services on site
17. ◦ Various urban development strategies have been adopted for squatter settlements that range
from denial, tolerance, formalization, demolition, eviction, and displacement. It has been
argued that poverty and inequality cannot be simply eradicated through demolition or eviction.
There was an increasing focus on providing basic urban services, secure tenure, and the needs
of the dwellers and the communities (UN-Habitat 2003).
18. Two broad approaches - Upgrading
Slums -Amao
Community participation approach Government intervention approach
◦ the approaches used by the public
authorities have been settlement
upgrading and “sites and services”
participation approach is that the
communities know their needs better
and should be consulted and carried
along in the decision-making process
The participation of the community in
improving the quality of their
settlement is also an important
resource that has to be mobilized for
improvement.
19. ◦ Self-help housing
◦ John Turner advocated slum
improvements free of government
intervention to allow their residents to
change their living conditions by
themselves
◦ In situ slum upgrading:
it is an affordable, flexible, and viable
option. in situ or on-site upgrading is of two
types: conventional in situ upgrading and
nonconventional in situ upgrading.
◦ Relocations
◦ Relocations may affect only a portion of the
settlement or the entire settlement and
may be temporary or permanent. The
relocation of entire settlements to worse
located land relative to livelihood
opportunities and other amenities should
be undertaken as a last resort
20. Challenges
◦ The “squatter citizens” face numerous challenges in their struggle for survival in cities (Hardoy
and Satterthwaite 1989).
◦ There is no legal rights for them
◦ Job insecurity
◦ Lack of security & safety
◦ Health related issues
◦ Addiction and indulging in Criminal activities
◦ Lack of access to schools and higher education
◦ Overcoming Discrimination and Stigma
21. Street children – Concept &
Definition
◦ Street children are one of the most vulnerable groups of urban poor. They face difficulties while
living in the streets, and they also develop their own ways to overcome such difficulties. They
have some common characteristics with the urban poor in general, but they still have their own
different characteristics that distinguish them from other urban poor groups.
◦ Any girl or boy … for whom the street (in the widest sense of the word, including unoccupied
dwellings, wasteland, etc.) has become his or her habitual abode and/or source of livelihood;
and who is inadequately protected, supervised, or directed by responsible adults
22. Two groups of Street Children
◦ There are two groups of street children.
◦ The first group is ‘Children of the street’,
which refers to children who are homeless,
and streets in urban areas are their source
of livelihood, where they sleep and live.
◦ The second group is ‘Children on the
street’, who work and live on the streets in
the daytime but return back home at night
where they sleep, although some of them
sleep occasionally on the streets (UNCHS,
2000)
23. ◦ Mark W. Lusk, a prominent researcher of street children, developed four categories of children
on the street from his research:
◦ children who work on the street but return to their families at night,
◦ children who work on the street but whose family ties are dwindling,
◦ children who live and work with their families on the street,
◦ and children who work and live on their own on the street( Run away children or orphaned)
◦ (The majority of street children in India are boys with little or no education)
◦ Regarding their health conditions, street children are subject to sexually transmitted diseases
like HIV due to unprotected sexual behaviours among them and also because of casual sexual
relationships. Girls who offer sex in exchange for security and shelter cannot oppose any
unsafe sexual behaviour because of their weak position (Lugalla and Mbwambo, 1999).
24. Push and Pull Factors – Causes of
Street Children
◦ The first is the economic stress and poor
conditions that families face due to
industrialization and urbanization.
◦ The second cause is changes in the
traditional family structure, especially when
women became the main contributor to
households’ economies
◦ Strict parents and lack of interest in
education
◦ If they did some mistake or got failed in
exams
◦ Run away from due to city attraction
◦ Cinema attarction
◦ To see friends
25. How to Help a Street Children
◦ Build positive relationships with children on the street, they need our care , concern and
protection
◦ Gently encourage such children to return home or to go to the Homestead Intake Shelter
◦ Do not ignore them, report such children to your nearest police station or call to Childline 1098
◦ (As for culture, morals and traditions, street children usually are not concerned about culture
and morals, owing to being away from their family since childhood)
◦ Many indulge in Crime activities and others involve in child labour
