The Hindu Business Line : UN-Habitat report — Enhancing urban security and peoples’ safety

Many evictions are carried out in the name of urban re-development, with little regard for consequences among the poor, who are left without alternative shelter provisions.

G. Srinivasan

Issues relating to eviction of people either from their small farm-holding or squatter settlement particularly when they live on the margins of existence putting up with abject conditions, always evoke legitimate reaction not only from the people who suffer but also from non-governmental organisations and the watchdog media.

In the wake of resistance from farmers in the country to their land being forcibly bought by developers of the special economic zones through intermediation of the government on relatively easy terms, the question of removing human habitation or traditional occupation for big projects or industrial development has stirred up a hornets’ nest, forcing authorities to backtrack from their position of ‘development at all cost’ to one of providing alternative sites or fair machinery of compensation, so that justice and fair-play are not jettisoned.

No doubt, issues of safety and security of tenure for landless and indigent people, including tribals, have come to the fore in India in the wake of the proliferation of SEZs, prompting the authorities to study rehabilitation programmes for project-affected people.

On a broader level, the United Nations (UN) through its Human Settlement Programme (UN-Habitat), headquartered in Nairobi (Kenya), has been championing economically productive, socially inclusive and environmentally liveable cities, towns and rural settlements as well as adequate shelter for all.

Its report Global Report on Human Settlements 2007 — Enhancing Urban Safety and Security, released on October 1, highlights that the incidence of forced eviction is often linked to bulldozing of slums and informal enterprises in developing countries, as well to processes of gentrification, public infrastructure development and urban re-development and beautification projects.

It says forced evictions are most common in areas with the worst housing conditions; that women, children and other vulnerable and disadvantaged groups are most negatively affected by eviction.

In a foreword to the report, the UN Secretary-General, Mr Ban Ki-moon, laments that a large number of people in cities the world over, including most of the one billion currently living in slums, have scant security of tenure, while at least two million people are forcibly evicted every year.

He recounts that “forced evictions predominantly affect those living in the worst housing conditions, especially vulnerable and disadvantaged groups, including women and children.

Many such evictions are carried out in the name of urban re-development, with little regard for consequences among the poor, who are left without alternative shelter provisions. The resulting social exclusion swells the army of the poor and the angry”.

Urban population in slums

The report rightly sheds light on the deteriorating security of tenure to countless people. “As land values within cities continue to rise, as affordable land becomes increasingly scarce and as housing solutions are increasingly left to market forces, millions of urban dwellers experience increasing tenure insecurity”.

It said cities in developing countries are hosts to massive slum populations with the proportion of urban populations living in slums being highest in sub-Saharan Africa, where more than 90 per cent of the urban population is slum dwellers.

Deprecating the continuing practice of forced evictions, the report said such evictions are usually accompanied by the use of excessive force by those carrying out the evictions such as arbitrary arrests, beatings, rape, torture and even killings.

In a selection of forced evictions in only seven countries — Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe — between 1995 and 2005, the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHERE) found that over 10 million people were affected.

Ironically, in some countries, cultural or religious taboos about occupying cemeteries are at risk of being overridden as people search for somewhere to live. A particularly dramatic instance is the estimated five lakh people living in the City of the Dead in Cairo, Egypt.

Millennium Goals

Stating that an estimated 35 million people, roughly the population of Kenya, are becoming slum dwellers every year, the report said unless one of the Millennium Development Goals — improving the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020 — is achieved, the number of slum-dwellers is projected to surge to 1,392 million by that year.

Focussing on three major threats to the safety and security of cities, the report said these include urban crime and violence; insecurity of tenure and forced evictions; and natural and human-made disasters. It said over the period 1980-2000, total recorded crime rates in the world escalated by about 30 per cent, from 2300 to over 3000 crimes per one lakh people.

Over the past five years, 60 per cent of all urban residents in developing countries have been victims of crime. While the incidence of terrorist-related violence is considerably less than other types, it has markedly worsened the impact of violence on cities in recent years.

The effects encompass, among others, heightened fear among urban residents, falling income resulting from the destruction or flight of business from affected areas, growth of the private security industry and of urban gated communities and diversion of development resources towards investment in public and private security.

This year’s report provides a menu including urban planning, policy, design and governance which could help make cities safe and secure. It has deftly explored successful avenues of dealing with crime and violence, insecurity of tenure and forced eviction and natural and human-made disasters.

It is time that, instead of pushing the unpalatable facts under the carpet, most of the developing countries including India, try to take a suggestion or two out of this report. This would help them in the long run to usher in a society free from forcible eviction for developmental purposes and work for the very people who are meant to be developed and nurtured.

More Stories on : Economy | Urban Development

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Feeling the heat

Is the farmer-consumer conflict an illusion?

UN-Habitat report — Enhancing urban security and peoples’ safety

Need for calm, cool reflection

The changing Indian woman

Indian capital goes abroad

Business confidence rising in India