Slums Within Asia

The definition of a slum varies from one form to another depending on the background or country from which an individual comes from. Someone from a rich country may define slums as old run down buildings, whereas someone from a poor country will define slums as un-serviced haphazard constructions . The universal definition of a slum as found in the dictionary is said to be a heavily populated urban area characterized by substandard housing and filth . Slums are seen as a purely physical phenomenon. Slums are populated by two groups of people, the poor and the strangers .

Since in slums there is a lack of cleanliness, serious diseases can spread easily and quickly. Slum inhabitants go through many problems, a few being they lack of public transit, constant migration, lack of water, no sewage or solid waste facilities, pollution, and shelter shortages . They also face poor ventilation, due to a lack of windows and electricity. They also tend to establish homes on unused land that is usually privately owned or government owned land. Therefore a concise definition for a slum would be a crowded urban area, marked by poverty, where living conditions are very bad and in poor condition .

There are many reasons for the origination of

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Slum conditions may be horrible, but the poor have a better chance of getting labour work in the city, and have a much better life. A major policy change by SEWA is to allow banks to extend its activities to rural areas.

SEWA was born in 1971, and was born in the labour movement with the idea that the self-employed, like salaried employees, have a right to their wages, decent working conditions and protective labor laws. In the second phase in 1976, the SEWA bank started advancing loans to its depositors from its own funds, and withdrew the credit from nationalized banks.

Therefore by providing slum dwellers with training and teaching them how to manage their accounts, their participation increases, and thus the organization such as SEWA succeed. SEWA also lobbied the government in order to get cheap credit, and thus they helped to reduce the interest rates for the poor. SEWA lends money to its members if it is for working capital, for work tools, and for housing . Most associations try to eradicate slums, rather then trying to develop them, which would lead to a decrease in poverty. The SEWA bank provides all financed linked supportive services to its member, and with this aim they have started a work security insurance scheme and a housing program . Due to the large increase of population, there ends up being less housing, food, and water available. Another reason, besides over population is that when a city grows, land is taken over that was traditionally used for other purposes. SEWA stands for self-employed women’s association . Slums are usually located and grow around mills or other large employment centers.

2) Fifty years of independence, India still has the largest number of poor people of any country in the world. Phase one from 1974 to1977, it concentrated on mobilizing self-employed women to bank with them, and acted as an intermediary for its depositors to get loans from nationalized banks.

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