Radio Waves of Change

According to projections, by 2015 most of the world's largest cities will be in developing countries, many numbering more than 5 million inhabitants. Many people will be poor. And many will probably live in squatting communities.

Looking at life of Rio de Janeiro's favelas (squatting communities) gives insight into this growing problem of urban poverty.

Barely 20 years old in 1963, Janice Perlman spent three months in remote fishing and farming villages in Brazil. As an undergraduate anthropologist, she set to find out how local young people formed their world view, aspirations and values for life.

But ideas about life in these isolated villages with no electricity or road access were on the cusp of change. A few months before Janice's visit, the transistor radio had arrived.

"This was the first time that the people had heard about life beyond the parameters of their village," recalls Janice, now a World Bank consultant and professor at Columbia University's Department of Urban Planning.

Big City, Big Dreams

Janice returned in 1969 to study urban migration for her doctoral dissertation, later publishing the findings in The Myth of Marginality: Urban Poverty and Politics in Rio de Janeiro.

"I wanted to see what happened to people who came to Rio."

Janice spent almost two years living in three squatter communities—called favelas—for six months each. In each settlement she interviewed 200 men and women between 16 and 65.

Favelas are illegitimate, unplanned and unrecognized communities that have built up around Rio as people came to the city in search of work.

The squatters eagerly shared their stories. "This was the first time that any person had given value to their life experience, had actually sat with them and written down what they said," Janice said.

Other people in Rio were afraid of the squatters. "Even the taxi drivers wouldn't leave me near the entrance to these communities," Janice says. But the favelas were safe. "Most people didn't even have to lock their doors."

Finding their Place in the City

Favela residents aspired to belong to the city, but instead they were economically exploited, politically manipulated, and culturally and socially excluded and stigmatized.

The squatters had wanted to remain in Rio and were eager to upgrade their communities. Since they were the very same people who were building up Rio (workers, carpenters, construction workers), they had the know-how of building infrastructure.

Instead, between 1970-1973 Brazil undertook a massive squatter removal program. More than 100,000 people had their lives torn apart and were sent into housing projects far from the city.

Living on the Edge

Janice returned 30 years later to find out what happened with the people she had interviewed.

It took almost two years to locate them. She found almost half of the people. A third still lived in the same place, a third were in housing projects where they had been removed to, and a third succeeded in moving into working-class neighborhoods.

She then interviewed three more generations: Their children (who were the same age their parents had been 30 years earlier), grandchildren and great-grandchildren to find out how their lives evolved.

Unequal Progress

Overall progress has been uneven. While the quality of life has improved, opportunities still don't abound and the squatters continue to be stigmatized.

Illiteracy has been wiped out. Many children have finished high school, but unemployment is high. Partially it's because job qualifications have gone up and partially because of stigma.

"In an interview when it comes to the part where they ask for the address, usually the interview ends there. They either have to lie or loose the job," Janice says.

Over the last 20 years, drug trade has infiltrated the favelas and has eroded safety. Now people live in fear of being caught in the cross fire between gangs or between the police and the gangs.

But people continue to be optimistic. "You can see the hope in people's eyes. At least a half of the people say they've done better than they thought they would do."

Inside Favelas—Then and Now

Thirty years ago there were no urban services in these communities. Electricity was pirated off the main electric city lines.

"It went through a little cabin where someone ran that and charged them by the plug. If you had four different plugs in your little shack, you would pay a flat fee for each plug that was higher than the middle and the higher class paid for their electric bill," she said.

A pipe at the bottom of the hill was their water supply. Instead of a sewerage system, sewage collected in open valleys washing down the hill.

Today, with brick houses with indoor plumbing and electricity, the favelas are much more "upgraded." Electricity is provided by a private electrical company that realized that some 12 million favela residents, accounting for almost a third of Rio, constitute a large market.

Consumer goods abound. Many households have a television, air conditioning, washers and dryers and other domestic gadgets, some even have computers and cars.

"Since they really don't have enough money to buy a house or an apartment in the city, or even to rent, I think they overspend on these things."

While a generation ago the favelas were a stop on the way to a better life destination, today they have become the destination itself.

Lessons for Development

"We must be much more creative in how to engender income for semi-skilled people through work cooperatives, job training, microcredit, public works projects, something that puts thousands of people into the workforce that does something good for society."

Another challenge is to create jobs for the youth who are completing school and make sure they don't get caught up in drug and gang activities.

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