Dear friends, Its been long since I last posted my article in the forum. I could not share the articles due to my engagement in a research for the completion of my Bachelors degree. finally I have completed my research and presented my results. I would like to share the abstract of my study. there are more discussion and interpretation of the findings that I have got from the field, which I will share later. I hope the abstract of my research will give you brief idea of the study I had carried out along giving you a picture of the settlement dynamics of a very old squatter settlement.

Slums and squatters are generally taken as eye sore of the city from urban development perspective however people living in these settlements keep the engine of city running and contribute in the development of any city. These people are generally engaged in the informal job that an average city dweller normally won?t. Like every settlement, slums and squatters also have their dynamism in their settlement with the influx of population. Meanwhile their accessibility to city service is questionable and there lies number of issues in upgrading these squatters which is an important issue to be addressed for the development of city.

The study done at one of the squatters-Bansighat found that almost 50 % of the people settle as squatters due to no possession of land. Employment opportunity is the second most influencing factors to settle as squatter while family conflict and social customs like marriage are also other reasons compelling people to live as squatter. However none of these factors in isolation drive people to settle as squatters.

Only 5% of the people in the settlement rate the accessibility to city service as bad. 51% people rate the accessibility to city service good as the settlement is reachable within the time span of 15 minutes to some of the big hospitals, police station, business centre, vegetable market and transportation station giving squatters accessibility to all the basic city services they need. Also 82%, of the people have adequate drinking water, 67% of the people visit the nearby hospital for major disease, while 100% people visit the health service run every Tuesday for the minor diseases, 89.5 % people have their own toilet, meanwhile though 10.5% people do not have their own toilet, they use toilets of their relatives. Also 100% houses have electricity supply in their house. All the children aged 5-16 go to school, while the settlement has also managed to arrange tuitions and day care for the children above 2 years old.

The settlement has changed drastically over the years and the number of houses has increased by almost 67% within 12 years and the area coverage has doubled in merely 5 years.

People perceive economic strengthening is the key to upgrade their livelihood and they suggest instead of relocating the squatters at different area, it would be cost effective and more sustainable if the government provide them the affordable housing in the existing place.

In the mean time people are willing to be relocated or upgrade their settlement if the government provides them affordable housing and ensure job opportunities.