shanty towns are a mixed blessing, discuss?

In developing countries such as: India, Brazil and Kenya, shantytowns are hugely common and are a very controversial topic. These shantytowns provide affordable houses for thousands of poor, destitute and desperate people who without these ‘illegal’ communities would be homeless. However, despite this, the government has not approved these communities and the land they take is not theirs to live on. This has led to an interesting debate on whether the government can make the settlers in the shanty towns pack up and move when they are desperate and are in need of somewhere to live. Additionally, the land these slums take up is usually in prime locations for city expansion and so can sometime restrain city growth, which begs the question on whether their existence is an economic hindrance to major cities. These are all points of consideration when looking at the role of slums.

It has been argued that shantytowns restrict the growth of the city- this can be seen in Dharavi, a slum in Mumbai, as the shantytown has taken land away from the already densely populated city. This is a problem, as Mumbai is the economic heart of India and is one of the richest and thriving cities in the world but is being held back by, Dharavi taking away land that could be used to expand Mumbai’s business centre. However, on the other side it can be argued that Dharavi is actually providing more for Mumbai than it is restricting in development. This is because, Dharavi provides $40million Gross Domestic Product to the economy through an informal business sector. Additionally, areas such as Dharavi can be praised, as the settlers are very self-dependent and thus are driven to set up businesses, or use their skills to find work to survive- that helps to ensure a lower unemployment rate within these cities. Finally, the workers in these shanty towns, can do jobs that the richer more successful people within the central city would object to, such as children go to landfill sites are sift