Squatters As Builders : Building Half The City : Part 1
Guest columnist : Paul Simpson

Arriving at the bus station, full of anticipation, I was surprised to see people camping on the sides of tree lined boulevards. I was visiting a friend, Madhu Sarin, with whom I had worked in London before she returned to her home city. Later that first day, we went to see a large settlement of squatters. How could there be squatters in a newly planned city? Why weren’t there dwellings for the lowest paid workers and the unemployed? I was to learn that other planning objectives were also not working out in practice. Roads and paths were designed for a car-owning society, yet there were very few cars. Distances were great and there were few buses, so people traveled by foot, bicycle, cycle rickshaw or auto rickshaw. On my second day, we visited another squatter settlement. On arrival we were immediately informed by the inhabitants that the settlement was to be cleared by the authorities the next week. By chance Madhu already had an appointment to see the Chief Planner that afternoon. I was invited to join her. The conversation soon got onto the squatter evictions and a heated argument developed: "Why do you destroy the homes of people that have built the city and still work in the city, but cannot afford even the cheapest government housing?" The Chief Planner’s reply was that the settlement was not in Le Corbusier's master plan and housing could not be built affordably for them, so they must go - "the city as envisioned by the master must be kept intact!"

25 years later, I returned to Chandigarh in April, 1999, to find dramatic changes. The city had grown to nearly twice its planned size with a population approaching one million. Nevertheless there were still large areas undeveloped in the sectors planned for housing. Some of these were taken over by squatters and were now housing settlements and thriving small businesses, but still lacking the basic utilities. Some have been allowed to stay and communal lavatories are provided, together with some water stand pipes. But clearing of other settlements still goes on. These are officially resettled outside the planned city in 'sites and services' areas. Here sites are laid out with drainage, water and electricity connections. The inhabitants can then build their own dwellings observing some degree of planning control over building lines and heights. Not all the access roads are built and the inhabitants have even longer distances to travel for work either in the city or to the industrial areas outside the main city. However, these people, who apparently had nothing before relocation, now have rights to be on the land. This is a security that enables and encourages them to invest in the built fabric of their houses and communal facilities. These areas have now become sought-after residential colonies with good real estate value. At many levels Chandigarh is a great success. It has become a desirable place for people to retire to. The landscape has matured in the 50 years of its existence to make it a lush, green, open, safe and healthy place. There are golf clubs, parks, rose gardens, sports grounds, spacious schools - a true garden city. Nevertheless, as in all the cities in India and other 'developing' countries, the poorest people have become an integral and essential part of the city's economy and structure. They provide cheap labour as the housemaids, guards, builders and drivers, they do all the waste collection and recycling, and they provide the 'micro' services of laundering, merchandising and mending. But many of them still live in shanty settlements and are not given the same rights or the same subsidies as other citizens.

In 1997, I had started my own research in Colombia and Mexico to examine how squatters actually make their dwellings. I focused on the methods of self-building and the settlement and community organizations that have evolved. My research began in Bogota, a city of eight million people of which nearly half live in areas that were originally 'invasions' on unused and marginal lands. The invaders have established ownership of the land and as a consequence have planned and built whole townships. These communities become political pawns in local elections with candidates promising water, drainage, schools and everything that they are without. After many years these communities are “ consolidated” and adopted as part of the city plan.

This essay continues as
Squatters As Builders : Building Half The City : Part 2

January 2004