UN report flays forced evictions

According to a UN Habitat World Urban Forum report, more than 6.7 million people in 60 countries have been evicted between 2000 and 2002.

Calling this a sharply rising incidence of evictions in the last few years, the report, titled "The State of the World's Cities, 2006/7", frowns deeply on forced evictions terming them the worst consequence of insecure tenure in urban areas.

The report, released on June 18 on the sidelines of the third session of the WUF (WUF III) here, makes a strong case for structuring a global monitoring strategy on secure tenure.

It comes at a significant time, when the world is entering a historic transition: Next year, for the first time in history, the world's urban population will exceed the rural population.

In 2007, one out of every two people will be living in cities. The report presents a sharp picture of rapid urban growth that is leading to a deepening urban distress. Every third person in urban areas lives in slums.

At the report's launch, Anna Tibaijuka, UN-HABITAT's executive director pointed out that it had been known for long that the "shining and prosperous" cities did not quite reflect the true picture. "...There are two cities within one city," she said. The report has attempted to marshal facts and generate figures to support this.

According to the report, the fastest growth in urban landscape is in poor and developing countries. Sub-Saharan Africa, growing at the rate of 4.58 per cent, has the highest urban growth rate.

Nigeria's Lagos is the fastest growing megacity in the world, expanding by 5 per cent a year, while Asia today accounts for more than half the urban population. Over 60 per cent of Asia's slum dwellers live in India.

While slums and slum redevelopment is being seen in the policy arena quite often, some of the facts and figures for India, in comparison to the rest of the world, are quite startling.

Asia has the highest incidence of overcrowding. This high population density makes the provision of basic services a Herculean task. India, however, has made rapid progress in the provision of drinking water in urban areas with a coverage of 94.3 per cent.

The report provides data that show that the world's one billion slum dwellers are more likely to die earlier, experience more hunger and disease, attain less education and have fewer chances of employment than those urban residents that do not reside in slums.

It also debunks several myths about the "urban advantage", showing how people who move from villages to cities are worse off than before. Inequalities, of income class and gender, are highly prevalent in today's cities.

However, the report becomes vague on what can be done to change this dismal picture of the future of cities. Undoubtedly, preventing the rise of slums is an important policy initiative.

But it does not explain how this is to be brought about and what sort of rural, employment and urban policies should be created. Most importantly, it does not say how the money for the redesigning of our cities is to be generated.

It makes emphatic recommendations to donor agencies to support urban programmes and to sharpen the focus of aid. These are not entirely new suggestions; but why has it not been possible to implement them? The report is silent on this.