The Divided City? Squatters’ Struggle for Urban Space in Kathmandu

Abstract

Squatter settlements and slums have become widespread in many Third World cities. The number of urban dwellers living in slums and squatter settlements is swelling every year in the rapidly urbanising cities of low-income countries (UN-Habitat 2003) and Kathmandu is no exception. Squatter or unauthorised settlements account for up to 2 per cent of the city’s population. Although this figure is low compared to some of the megacities in Asia, it is on the rise owing to growing housing affordability problems, shortage of land fuelled by investor-led land buying activities, coupled with a general rise in urban poverty. In particular, since the Maoist movement began in 1996, the influx of migrants has been significant, leading to the emergence of new and the consolidation and expansion of some of the established squatter settlements. Recent studies on their growth and proliferation also consider factors such as the politicisation of rural-urban migration and growing socioeconomic disparity aggravated by steady growth of middle class (Sengupta and Sharma 2006). There is an acknowledgement that the city’s growth in early years has occurred without effective planning, causing severe infrastructural pressure and the proliferation of squatters (His Majesty’s Government of Nepal 1969), and this trend has continued. The city had 63 squatter settlements in 2003, comprising a population between 15,000 and 20,000 (Pradhan 2003). Studies documenting their origin, organisation and struggle for land are however limited (Karki 2003; Moffat and Finnis 2005; Sengupta and Sharma 2006, 2009; Tanaka 1997, 2009).