The Divided City?: Squatters' Struggles for Urban Space in Kathmandu

Urban Forum, 2013

Rapid urbanisation, low socioeconomic growth, inadequate capacity to cope with housing needs and poor governance has caused increase of urban poverty and slums and squatter settlements in the Kathmandu valley. The poverty alleviation strategy, National Shelter Policy 1996 and the land and housing development trend has ignored the urban housing of poor. Detail analysis of the four cases of slum and squatter settlements of the valley reveals that such part of the cities are not recognised administratively but legitimatised socially through provision of amenities by public, non-government organisation and donor agencies. Within informal land tenure, there have been activities of selling and renting houses and lands in these illegal occupations. Households in larger and old neighbourhoods with strong community organisations such as Shankamul Squatter Settlement (SSS) and Ramhiti Improved Squatter Settlement (RISS) have higher perception of social acceptance and hence their shelters and neighbourhoods are comparative better than the newly formed Paurakhi Basti Squatter Settlement (PBSS) and Slum at Dhaukhel (SDK). However, lack of land right and tenure security has constrained for better life. To reverse this situation, integration of both 'top-down' strategy and 'bottom-up' approach is essential. Different forms of land tenure-community trust, long term lease, rent to purchase-should be granted to squatter after classifying them based on their characteristics, which will assist them for construction of safer and affordable housing and easy access to financial market. Fake squatter settlements should be removed by giving inhabitants temporary occupation certificate whereas genuine settlements should be relocated on safer sites. Policy interventions at national level for linking poverty alleviation strategy to urbanisation and urban housing, decentralisation of business activities from the valley, incorporation of land and housing units in the land pooling and private housing schemes including supply of affordable housing are also required to complement the management of slum and squatter settlements. Coordination and cooperation among local municipalities, squatter communities and third party (NGOs, CBOs, and donor agencies) is also suggested for collaboration of funds and programs and their effective implementation.

The paper is the outcome of a systematic effort to study and analyze the experiences of the Kirtipur Housing Project (KHP), the first ever grassroots-led squatter resettlement project in Kathmandu. It is widely hailed as a success story as it has been able to provide a legal, affordable and good quality housing solution to the Sukumbasis through grassroots mobilization. The paper analyses the dynamics of this mobilization and the roles of different actors to show how community empowerment, civil actions and local government interests have converged to create a constructive partnership in line with wider enabling principles. Apart from meeting the narrowly defined objective to rehouse 44 households, the project reflects capacity of the community, quite apart from lobbying and protest, in areas of project planning and management. While no grassroots mobilisation can be expected to replicate in a dynamic environment, the paper draws some policy insights that indicate the ability of the grassroots mobilization in Kathmandu to continue and grow. Conversely, the lessons learned from the project also point to limitations in terms lack of prerequisite critical mass or economic benefits to influence the government to prepare a policy framework under which it can foster in a more structured way.

Bombay and Mumbai: The City in Transition Eds S …, 2003

The Shiv Sena -BJP Government in Maharashtra came into power in March 1995. One of the promises given in the `WachanNama' or Charter of Commitments of the Shiv Sena -BJP alliance in Maharashtra was the promise of providing free houses to 40 lakh slum-dwellers in Greater Mumbai. This was the greatest bluff ever perpetrated on the city's poor. While a small section of the slum-dwellers, mostly the slum-lords, (a) large number of elected representatives and the highly opportunistic self-styled leaders were excited by the offer, the majority realized from the very beginning that this was merely a political gimmick. In many interviews and discussions both in the press and otherwise, Mr.Bal Thackeray, founder and leader of the Shiv Sena who was also the architect of this scheme of free houses to the slum-dwellers, could not elaborate or how this target would be achieved, nor did he have any definite program to do so.

2010

In Nepal, poverty has been urbanized over the last few years, physically manifesting in squatters settlements. With the objectives to explore the causes of squatting and current socioeconomic condition of squatter community, a descriptive study has been carried out at Shankhamul squatter settlement, one of the oldest settlement in Kathmandu. The study is based on the direct field observation method accompanied by interviews and group discussions. The present study reveals that Shankhamul squatter settlement comprises 104 households, totaling a population of 533, with an average household size of 5.13. Majority of households has started to squat in hope of improving the quality of their lives through better jobs and income, landslide, flood and famine at their birth place. More than fifty per cent of the houses are made-up from non-durable materials like wooden flakes, bamboo, straw, mud, unbaked bricks. However, every house has electricity and toilet. They primarily depend on water supplied in tanker by Water Corporation for drinking water. Of the 533, there are more males than females, with an average sex ratio of 109. More than fifty per cent of the population lies in the productive age group, 15-45 years. Onefourth of the people are under 15 while only about 5 per cent are above 60 years of age. Surprisingly, 0.56 per cent of them still continue to survive even after 75 years of age. Highest number of female lies in the age group 20-24 years whereas the age group 15-19 years accounted for the highest number of male. More than one-fourth of the population is still illiterate. More males have achieved higher level of education than their female counterparts. Although 34.52 per cent have completed primary education only 20 per cent have passed SLC and 17.8 per cent have completed their high school. Likewise, only7.83 per cent has passed bachelor's level and above. Most people are engaged in physical labor works like construction workers, some are drivers, job holders, some has small shops in their own house and 36 youths have left the gulf countries. About 16 per cent of the households are surviving with a monthly income below 2,000/-NRs. while more than one-fourth have monthly income of NRs. 10,000/or above. They expense more on food followed by education, medicine, clothing and others. About 30 per cent of the households used to take loans to support the basic needs of family members whereas some save money mostly below 100 RS. per month. Majority of them ranked as 'very poor' by themselves. Such a growing complexity reflects the need of a separate and concrete squatter policy. It should be recognized by various international and national organizations who are working towards the goal of poverty alleviation, in addition to the governmental sector. Moreover, Nepal's national policy still seems to be rural poverty bias, so its time to give national policy priority to urban poverty issues.

AUC 2019, 2020

Dhaka Metropolitan Area accommodates about ten million people of whom at least four million live in about 3500 slums and squatter settlements of the city. About 80% of these settlements are owned by private owners who rent out their slum houses to the poor. Most of the slum dwellers are renters and pay very high house rent as there is no institutional mechanism to control rent hike. Various studies show that the slum dwellers pay comparatively a higher amount as house rent per unit area than the middle-income people. Even they pay more for the utility services than those are paid by the middle-income households. This is a paradox that the poor spend more than the middle and even the high-income people for housing, while their affordability is low. The paper examines this paradox taking example of poor workers' housing provision in the slum areas of Dhaka. The poor workers experience severe housing crisis, as their affordability is low. At present they spend about Taka 4,000 to 5,000 for about one hundred square feet of floor space in slum areas, which is equivalent to 20-40% of their total household income. Although they pay so high for housing, cannot afford to own even a small unit due to high land price and lack of credit facilities. The housing market is totally controlled by the private sector, where the government or institutional arrangements for making provisions for housing the poor are conspicuously absent. In such situation, the poor face increasingly tougher challenges to own accommodation and survive in Dhaka Metropolitan Area.

Choice Reviews Online, 2004

This revised chapter has not been edited by the United Nations. The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area, or of its authorities, or concerning delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries, or regarding its economic system or degree of development. The analysis, conclusions and recommendations of the report do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, the Governing Council of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme or its Member States.

South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 2019

This article focuses on conditions of prolonged uncertainty for people residing in a squatter settlement, a sukumbasi basti, in Kathmandu and the role assigned to the state in this. Inspired by theoretical debates on urban governmentality and based on longitudinal ethnographic fieldwork, the article shows how the threat of eviction has resulted in a permanent state of uncertainty, but also a pragmatic acceptance of the state of affairs which, over the years, has contributed to fostering a strong sense of belonging to the area.

2012

Supraghat 1 is one of two low-income settlements studied in Khulna City of Bangladesh as part of the ESRC-DFID funded project on 'Community and Institutional Responses to the Challenges Facing Poor Urban People in Bangladesh in an Era of Global Warming'. It is the biggest low-income settlement in Khulna by population size and the fifth largest by area covered. A squatter settlement by definition, it has evolved over the past 40 years on land partly owned by the government and partly by a Christian Mission. This study applies a range of data collection methods, involving some quantitative (e.g. a short survey) but mainly qualitative techniques (life history interviews, key informant interviews, case studies, participatory appraisals and a dialogue). Of the 145 case study households living in the selected section of the settlement, 121 are Muslim and 24 Christian-all but 11 (who are tenants) are resident owners (informal). As is the norm for squatter settlements, eviction threat remains the number one problem and commonly underpins all forms of vulnerabilities. However, there are also advantages to having informal claims of ownership of land and/or dwellings-no matter how insecure this may be. The processes by which the residents have established and maintained these claims have helped them become fully integrated within the informal economic, social and political life of the city. This has created space and opportunity for a range of adaptation practices. But, given persistent insecurity of tenure, the residents are unable to realise their full potential.

The Contemporary Urban Conundrum. New Delhi: Routledge., 2019