Food Security and Exclusion among Urban Elderly in Manila Slums

• In Event: Surviving the Global City: Dispossession and Urban Resistance in the Philippines

Abstract

Drawn from ethnographic work in an urban poor community in Manila (2012-2015), this paper argues that the issue of food security among urban-based elderly is predicated by the urban-centric developments in the country. Baseco Compound is the biggest slum community in the country with over 50,000 informal settlers who chiefly migrated from rural areas of the country in search of employment opportunities in the city. The first migrants to the area in the early 70s have already transitioned to elderly status which has posed several issues: 1) lack of employment opportunities as most have no formal education 2) food insecurity 3) vulnerability to diseases. I argue in this paper that the economic exclusion of elders in urban centers exacerbates their experiences of food insecurity which directly translates to compromised health resulting from the inability to purchase nutritious food and medicine. This is compounded by the financial demands of supporting their grandchildren resulting from a missing second generation due to socio-economic factors. Elderlies who have to take on the role of household heads are catapulted back into various forms of informal or contracted labor. As nearly 85% of their income is allocated on food, their capacity to access health services is hampered which, in turn, heightens their vulnerability to old-age related diseases.
Using the narratives of 132 elderly informants, it was discovered that food insecurity was locally defined as not having sufficient supply of rice and is often experienced in relation to the fear of not having anything to feed their grandchildren. The majority of the elders are food insecure but not hungry as they consume less nutritious and socially unacceptable food. To counter their socio-economic marginalization and to secure their household’s food supply, the elders have participated in coping strategies that include: 1) food recycling 2) personal loans which are paid in forms of services 3) membership in support groups. This work primarily contributes to the dialogue on exclusive growth that has been transpiring in late developing countries which widens the socio-economic cleavage between the rural and the urban, and consequently, between structurally-competent urban inhabitants and the structurally-constrained urban migrants.

Author

• Maria Carrines A. Gonzalez, University of Santo Tomas