Education and welfare services

Shanty homes in front of Sheraton Hotel, Dhaka, Bangladesh (click for a larger image) (c) Zed Nelson/Panos Pictures

The access to education has long been known as one of the ways to better social development. Whilst there may be greater opportunities in urban rather than in rural areas, there is still too little provision for the increasing number of children. Many remain illiterate, the families' priority often being that of using the children to help the family survive. Any children that do receive schooling will be encouraged to leave early for the same reason. Girls will be married off as soon as possible to reduce the strain on income. Greater emphasis is slowly being put on education, especially for girls, but resources are still scarce and parents need to be persuaded of the benefits of keeping children at school.

The increased number of people puts an enormous strain on the already overworked health services. While it has been shown that good health care can reduce population growth and ultimately enhance the living conditions, further education is needed to bring about a change. Many people find the cost of health care expensive, far away and they are too busy to use it. There is little money for good food, and diets are poor. The globalisation of fast-food chains has discouraged many people from even attempting to grow their own crops where there is land available. The resulting poorly balanced diet leaves children prone to illnesses, and infant mortality rates are high. Life expectancy overall is low. The impact of HIV/AIDS has left many children orphaned, living on the streets with no one to care for them.

Tin and drum sellers, Nairobi, Kenya (click for a larger image) (c) David Constantine/Panos Pictures

Infrastructure
Only one third of urban dwellers in Africa have access to running water, with less than one tenth having mains sewage. The problems for the city authorities are massive. Shantytowns, or 'barrios' (Argentina) or 'bustees' (India), have grown up with no respect for town planners, and no provision for necessary services. Some cities have begun programmes to improve the availability of essential services. Progress is slow, and often hampered by inadequate involvement of the local communities. For example, this results in toilet blocks being vandalised as no thought was made as to whom would oversee them. Road access is poor, dirt tracks that become mud slides in rain or potholed in the dry weather. Public transport to any available work in the factories is often too expensive and always overcrowded.

Employment
New factories have sprung up in response to the large number of people living in the cities. These are usually far from the shantytowns. Wages will be poor, and the days long and hard. As many people are unskilled, they will join the informal economy, selling food, clothes, telephone cards, or even falling into the drug selling culture. Even tourism has its dangers for people employed in it. Some city dwellers may find work in the kitchens for exploitative wages, whilst others become enmeshed in the 'tourist industry' as prostitutes. The number of people living below the poverty line makes up one third of all urban dwellers in the developing world.

Donnholme, suburb (click for a larger image) (c) Sean Sprague/Panos Pictures

The future
Despite the overwhelming lack of resources, life in the shantytowns and slum areas is not all despair. Celebrations, feast days, and saints days bring life and colour and a sense of community. Projects involving the local inhabitants in schemes to improve the environment are having an effect. Governments working with NGOs and other voluntary agencies has started to achieve noticeable declines in death rates, illiteracy and population growth. More is to be done, but such schemes are part of the way forward in reducing the number of people living in poverty at the beginning of the twenty-first century.