Characteristics of Growing Up in a Slum

Bearing in mind that environment has a lot to do with personality, discuss very briefly three characteristics that can be associated with growing up in a slum.

According to the United Nations agency dealing with human habitat, UN-HABITAT, a slum is a run-down area of a city whose characteristics include poor housing standards, poor medical facilities, poor drainage and that lacks security of tenure. It is mostly inhabited by poor people who cannot afford to pay for good housing facilities. Slums characteristics vary from one place to another. A person who grows up in will exhibit some characteristics based on the environment he grows.

To start with people growing in slums will have a tendency to engagement in crime. Some of the key characteristics of slums are poverty and unemployment. By growing up in a slum, one is subjected to an environment of poverty. When they grow up, they encounter the challenge of unemployment. From research studies carried out on increased crime rates, poverty and unemployment are among the key leading contributors to crime increment. Growing in a slum exposes one to these two factors and the chance of being introduced to crime are high. Owing to idleness, one sis lured to alcoholism, alcoholism. The fact that one has to earn a living despite the poverty may also lead one to steal (unhabitat.org).

It is quite difficult to prevent a person living in the slums not to engage in crime. This is because the poverty levels are high and crime provides a way out of the poverty. Governments ought to come up with measures aimed at reducing the poverty levels of those living in slum areas.

Ignorance is another characteristic that may be associated with growing up in a slum. Owing to poverty, most people who grow up in slums lack good and quality education. In the world today, quality education has become quite expensive. People in slums are faced with immense poverty to the extent that they lack the basic human...