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The Complications of Redeveloping an Urban Slum
What ways in particular should the state government act to ensure the public-
private partnership in Dharavi is properly balanced?
Danny Harris 08107816
Carl O'Coill
ARC3001M: Research Proposal
University of Lincoln School of Architecture
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Contents List of Illustrations 3
Introduction 4
Private-Public Urban Regeneration 10
The Slum of Dharavi 18
Conclusion 27
Bibliography 30
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List of Illustrations
Figure 1. Sharma, K., 2000. People's Map by the National Slum Dwellers' Federation. [picture] (NSDF)
Figure 2. Mehta, M., 2007. Dharavi: Dharavi Redevelopment Project. The Urban Age India Conference. London 2-3 November 2007. London: School of
Economics
Figure 3. Arnstein, S., 1969. A Ladder of Citizen Participation. Journal of the American Institure of Planners [e-journal] 35: 4. Available through: Informa
World [Accessed 4 December 2010]
Figure 4. Anon., 2009. Compound 13 [online] Dharavi.organic Available
at: <http://dharavi.org/index.php?title=C.Communities_%26_Nagars_of_
Dharavi/13_Compound> [Accessed 20 October 2010]
Figure 5. Davis, M., 2007. Planet of Slums. p. 30. London: Verso
Figure 6. Mehta, M., 2007. Dharavi: Dharavi Redevelopment Project. The Urban Age India Conference. London 2-3 November 2007. London: School of
Economics
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1. Introduction
The Context of Slums
Today's urban population is around 3.2 billion. The rural population has
reached a peak and will start to decline after 2020. Therefore, mega-cities will
account for nearly all future population up until 2050. It is estimated that by
then, the world will have a total population of 10 billion (Davis, 2007, p. 2). In
most least-developed countries (LDCs), migration rates from rural to urban
areas have increased because the lack of jobs in rural spaces has been
counter-acted by industrialisation in cities (Lynch, 2005, p. 1). The jobs
created by middle and upper-class citizens in the metropolis include
"construction workers, domestic servants, rag pickers, fruit and grocery
sellers" (Roy and Roy, 2008, p. 47). These are mainly unskilled jobs that are
easy for the migrants to fulfil. However, most of them fail to take into
consideration the cost of urban living and end up living illegally in settlements
that gradually become squalid environments.
Over the past 30 years, governments have looked at regenerating these
areas rather than their previous method of demolishing them completely.
"Over urbanisation is driven by the reproduction of poverty, not by the supply
of jobs" (Davis, 2007, p. 16). This explains how the implication of clearing
slums just creates more slums in other areas, a reason to justify the new
approach of upgrading the areas to benefit slum-dwellers.
The city of Mumbai is a prime example of why slum regeneration needs to be
addressed. High density is the key issue in this exploding metropolis, where
large concentrations of people inhabit small spaces.
Historic Bombay, now Mumbai, was described in Gazetteer of Bombay City and Island (1909) to be six islands formed around the Mahim Creek. One of
these islands was Dharavi. When rural-urban migration first became a
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phenomenon around the early 1930s, the migrants arriving into Mumbai
gradually got pushed towards the Dharavi region. The original inhabitants of
Dharavi were the Kolis and their trade was fishing. Since then, boundary walls
and territories have been formed by communities of people who originate from
the same rural villages and people who share the same religious views.
(Sharma, 2000, pp. xxi-xix)
Two main suburban railway lines now surround the area. The Mithi River is
situated to the North and a recently developed business district called the
'Bandra-Complex' is to the West (see fig. 1). With economy and development
increasing simultaneously, higher-classed societies have voiced their
frustrations about the eye-sore that is in their city, Dharavi being the prime
example (Thompson, 2009).
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Figure 1. People's Map by the National Slum Dwellers' Federation
Aim and response
The aim of the essay is to debate how a balanced partnership can be formed
between slum-dwellers and developers in Dharavi from the perspective of the
Maharashtra state government. The state government play a role of the
'middle-man' in this debate. They have passed their share of the land to
developers to enhance the lives of the slum-dwellers. All negotiations
between public and private sectors have to be regulated by the government in
order to progress efficiently. However, efficiency is not a word that is heard
very regularly when the subject of upgrading slum areas arises. By collating
published research on urban studies about how to succeed in projects of
regenerating urban poor areas and comparing these theories to the on-going
situation in Dharavi, key issues can be highlighted, that may not be apparent
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in other publications. All of the subjects introduced in the text are intended to
be from a neutral perspective.
The first chapter will look at how and why the public-private partnership
method of urban development was introduced. It is recognised that there are
other methods of upgrading slums that have been used in the past. Two
examples include the implementation of services, called site-and-service, and
complete demolition which is rarely heard of in the modern day society.
Recent phenomenons of slum upgrading are satellite cities and desokotas,
which are both fitting for highly-dense areas in China. Charles Correa, head
Architect for the 1985 Prime Minister's Grant Project (PMGP) in Dharavi,
decided to choose a complex solution of using site-and-service, with the offer
of a loan on a new tenement, repaid by a higher rent strategy (Sharma, 2000,
p. 164). Mukesh Mehta is the head architect for the current Dharavi
Redevelopment Project (DRP). He has considered the idea of using 'satellite
cities' (Sheth, 2008, p. 26) in the on-going regeneration but instead, favoured
an approach that uses a public-private partnership (PPP). Therefore the focus
of this text is on the public-private scheme. This chapter will also look at how
the past neo-liberal approach towards slums has had a damaging affect on
how societies view their governments.
The second chapter will look at how a PPP will be beneficial or detrimental to
slum-dwellers lives. The architect Mukesh Mehta will be referenced
throughout because he has a vital role in ensuring the future of Dharavi is
successful. Explanations will be given as to why his proposals for the DRP
have affected relationships between the various groups involved in the
development. The conclusion will collate all of the overlapping evidence from
sources that have been used as research, so that the major issues can be
emphasised. This will lead to a formulated consensus of what the appropriate
and effective methods of progression may be for the DRP.
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Methodology and Literature Review
The methods used in this essay include the present polemics of how the PPP
is working in Dharavi, through the medium of newspaper articles and journals.
This also includes the proposals published by the architect Mukesh Mehta for
the DRP. His ambitions he says, are to help the urban poor squatter
population of Dharavi. "I am nobody. I need to connect with the residents. We
want to stay morally correct" (Weinstein, 2009, p. 399). Research about
historical polemics in Dharavi will be collected in an attempt to connect and
relate to the slum-dwellers. Both primary and secondary research will be
carried out through the use of books and sources on the internet from
organisation websites and the official DRP website. Historical and cultural
research will be of the past 80 years in Dharavi, the intention is to discover the
slum-dwellers identities and origins, how they live in Dharavi and how they
interact with each other.
The two main texts referred to are Planet of Slums by Mike Davis and
Rediscovering Dharavi by Kalpana Sharma. Planet of Slums presents various
surveys from Intergovernmental Organisations such as UN-HABITAT. These
organisations are in place primarily for human welfare, but specifically in this
case to aid poverty in LDCs. Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) also
feature in the texts because they play a big part in ensuring the slum-dwellers
do not get treated unfairly. In most areas, too many NGOs are founded as a
result of the large amount of government funding they receive, this can
confuse the situation rather than solve it. All of these surveys present a reality
of slums that is ignored in the Western World, Davis explains the extent of
how quickly the problem is growing. Rediscovering Dharavi shows a more
personal viewpoint from inhabitants of Dharavi itself. The stories told by
different generations of people in the slum document a place that is portrayed
by Sharma not to be one slum, but a variety of communities that have united
to fight for survival in the same area.
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The majority of research has been collected from academic journals, mainly
because the development in Dharavi only started three years ago and many
debates that have arisen since then remain unresolved. Jockin Arputham and
Sheila Patel who are both representatives of NGOs for the slum-dwellers
welfare have presented some of these unresolved issues in Environment and
Urbanisation journals. Other forms of less accredited media that has been
used as research, include the documentary series Slumming It by Kevin
McCloud. McCloud lived in Dharavi for two weeks with local families from the
various communities, to discover the 'finer grain' of the life and citizens in the
slum.
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2. Public-Private Urban Regeneration
Historic Methods and the 'PPP' Phenomenon
A public-private partnership offers a solution to urbanisation that the neo-
liberal approach of the 1980s did not, a "voice for the people" (Coaffee,
Healey, 2003, p. 1980) of the area under development. Previous to this, state
governments were solely focused on the economy of the country, which led to
society resenting them and revolting when schemes of slum demolition took
place. Harris explains how three interrelated processes of gentrification have
changed the way society view the State (2008, p. 2409). Now, state
governments tend to choose this option because it is a morally-correct exterior
they are presenting, even if they do have underhand motives. Weinstein's
recording of a meeting between Mehta and the slum-dwellers. This dialogue
shows how Mehta represents himself to be have moral motives on behalf of
the State and private sector in the current development in Dharavi (2009, p.
399). The partnership involves a lot of negotiating from various groups of
people to ensure a profitable solution can be given to all involved. In order to
gain a balance in this partnership, a very detailed site analysis needs to be
undertaken by developers. Because these urban poor areas are densely
populated, the surveys are harder to conduct (Patel et al., 2009, p. 247).
Incoming and outgoing traffic is uncontrollable and the number of residents
per household varies in each dwelling. These settlements usually have their
own cultural heritage and identity with communities of migrants arriving from
diverse backgrounds and locations. Lifestyle, including food and trade
specialities differ with each community, and with all this in mind, surveyed site
analyses are extremely hard to complete in large scale settlements. The
'voice' of the people is harder to hear when the settlements are large because
each community is segregated. Giving a presentation at the London School of
Economics, Mehta described these fragmented communities and a key
agenda to be fixed during the development of the area (2007).
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Once the area has been surveyed, a viable plan is proposed by an appointed
head architect. This architect will then delegate certain areas for developers to
work on, depending on the scale of the project. The government will ensure
that this plan is workable for all 'actors' before moving forward. The head
architect tries to build a personal relationship with members of the society
within the slum throughout this process. These small interactions mean the
slum-dwellers put their trust in him/her and the work he/she wants to complete
in their area. However, the NGOs are required to voice the opinion of the
entire slum-base at meetings with the government. Whilst the planners and
architects might have built relations with various inhabitants, upsets always
arise from some people who want to remain unmoved and stubborn. This
stubbornness is shown later in various examples from the current project in
Dharavi.
The Viewpoints of the 'Actors'
The term 'actor' relates to all of the individual groups or parties involved in a
PPP. The slum-dwellers, the developers, the state and NGOs are all groups
that are referred to as actors.
One method the slum-dwellers use to unsettle matters in the slum, include
protest marches and a stubbornness to relocate when asked to. Recently, the
most effective form of distressing the state is to cause problems to the
economy. This has been demonstrated by blocking key traffic routes to and
from the metropolis during rush hours (Arputham and Patel, 2007, p. 505).
The slum-dwellers have a fully justified reason for acting the way they do in
this partnership. Their method of unsettling matters buys them more time to
figure out the best route out of their situation, which is to face eviction in many
cases. The only problem with this is that other slum-dwellers who are entitled
to a new dwelling have to wait longer before they can achieve this. These
people generally share the opinion of the architect because they have the
prospect of getting a dwelling in the newly developed area. The issue of
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compromising certain things is a bitter pill to take as a slum-dweller but if they
revolt in unnecessary circumstances they might face a more severe set of
policies after preceding meetings.
Representatives in the NGO groups attend at various stages of the
development with state officials and developers. The arguments they present
are based around the adverse effects the development might have on the
complex society within the slum. NGOs choose this debate with careful
thought and attention because the public sector (the government) have the
power to stop the private sector (the developers) from developing the land, a
power which the NGOs (voluntary sector) have not got. Proposed plans are
critiqued to highlight the deficiencies they contain; these could either be loss
of communal space or social interaction. After each meeting, the people of the
slum are consulted before the next action is taken and correspondence is
given from the NGO representatives to the developers. This entails in a long
drawn-out process.
The developers seem to be the most frustrated actor in the partnership. Whilst
the slum-dweller incurs the most detrimental affect at the end. The developers
own the land that is a potential 'gold mine' for them. The opportunity of a
massive pay-out in Dharavi has been reognised by some of the worlds
leading development companies, these include Emaar from Dubai and
Hutchison Whampoa from Hong Kong (Robinson, 2008). The pace of the
development is very slow, so it feels like their investment will not ever pay the
dividends they first anticipated. The developers feel anxiety because of the
element of risk it carries. This has been shown in the past in Mumbai, when
developers built on a housing market that had fallen into decline. The total
expense was US$ 2.9 billion after the original estimation was US$ 1.8 billion.
(Patel et al., 2009, p. 250) The thought of another decline heightens the
anxiety throughout today's current climate, even if Mumbai does seem to be
defying a recession that has affected the western world.
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The developers also have to deal with construction matters carefully or face a
potential revolt from the slum-dwellers. This has happened repeatedly in the
past, with the slum-dwellers attacking the things that will affect the economy
because they know this will lead to a quick reaction from governing bodies in
the state. The process again seems to stop and the developer's plans are put
on hold until the slum-dwellers are happy to back down. One example is to
block transport routes into the metropolis (Arputham and Patel, 2007, p. 505).
Commuter routes are blocked because they know this will put a strain on the
workforce in the city for the time period they act upon. Dharavi is situated in a
convenient location to do this, the slum-dwellers constantly use this method
as a threat to the private sector and state government.
Whilst they try to avoid these circumstances as much as possible. The
cunning plan the developers have is to eventually evict all of the slum-
dwellers and create "a middle class neighbourhood who will benefit from all of
the basic and luxury services close to home" (Fernando, 2009). The use of
politics is a powerful tool in this situation because the land is not officially
owned by anyone, even if the original potters and fishermen claim they have
rights to their communities. Mehta's presentation in 2007 indicates that the
State do not recognise the slum-dwellers as legal inhabitants (see fig. 2). The
in-depth surveying of the area is used as an aid to the government so that
they can set policies that will evict a sufficient amount of slum-dwellers in
order to complete a lucrative development that is less dense, and at the same
time, not look inhumane in their approach to doing this. All of this information
is 'purposefully obfuscated' as described by Erhard Berner in Defending a Place in the City (1997, pp. 21, 25, 26). Less dense developments are viewed
to be of a better quality. High-rise buildings offer two contrasting realities: the
huge amount of real-estate that is accumulated by them and the past
problems that led to a decline in modernism through social discrepancies.
(UN-HABITAT, 2003, p. 100b) The real estate price for a slum in a metropolis
like Mumbai is worth hundreds of millions to developers.
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Figure 2. Land Ownership in Dharavi
The government's role in these projects remains controversial enough to
serve as substance for various different research studies. They are the actor
of the three, including the slum-dwellers and developers that offer the most
polemics in this debate. No mistake can be made that the government want to
develop these areas for the benefit of the economy but they insist it is purely
for the welfare of the slum-dwellers. The reason they offer this land to
developers is because they know that developers will be ruthless towards
slum-dwellers in order to gain maximum profits. They do not gain any
immediate profits from the sale of the real-estate. However, the economy of
the country increases by the real-estate that was previously on land with no
value whatsoever (Satterthwaite, 2009, p. 300).
Architects that have been in-charge of urban-poor regeneration have always
seemed to share the elitist views of the people in the city that have benefited
from the rising economies. Mehta describes Dharavi as a "black hole.
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Something we should be ashamed of" (Dhariwal, 2007). Wealthy city-dwellers
have the radical opinion that these areas are in vital need of development so
that they meet the needs of future generations. The blunt opinions they give
are downgrading to the slum-dwellers. They claim that these 'eyesores' affect
the first impressions of visitors to their cities when they travel either by
aeroplane, train or vehicle. Sharma explains this past phenomenon in Dharavi
and surrounding Mumbai, to be "pull-down syndrome" (2000, p. 193).
All of the arguments seem to cancel one-another out. The government's
reasons to develop are as valid as any other 'actor' opposing the
development. However, if the regeneration is not done in a successful
manner, the problem that currently sits in one slum will only arise in another
one somewhere else, at a later date. The policies the government use seem
unfair to the slum-dwellers because one could argue that their actions will
eventually clear all slum-dwellers out. If they do not qualify for a new dwelling,
then they will have to find a new slum to occupy. Similarly, if they do,
circumstances can be just as bad in the long run because high-rental prices
will drive them out of the area anyway. In Unconventional Urbanism, the
example of this process is given in a mirrored slum-community in Rio de
Janeiro (Endicott, Gonzalez and Polhemus, 2009, p. 3). The result will be
another middle-class neighbourhood in the metropolis. But this argument
cannot be used against the government until all of this is proved, by which
time it will be too late for the slum-dweller. The only option is to trust that the
government are going to be truthful when they say they want to help the slum-
dwellers first and foremost.
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Theories about the Effects of a 'PPP'
Figure 3. Arnstein's Ladder of Citizen Participation
A range of theories have been written about political power and morality in
social sciences regarding private-public partnerships. One theory presented
by Susan Arnstein is called "laddered participation" (see fig. 3). Arnstein
explains the range of participation involved in different projects and how it can
be unstable if one 'actor' does not have as much input as their counterpart. At
one end of the scale is ultimate participation from the slum-dweller
communities. Developers offer the help of a labour force but leave all of the
decision-making to the slum-dwellers. The other end of this scale is
manipulation from the developers. This is used through the political power and
can also be called "revanchist urbanism" as described in The Changing State
of Gentrification (Hackworth and Smith, 2001). Political power is used to gain
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the territory lost by squatters. In the 1980s, 'collective consumption' was a
method used in a more developed form from when it had been presented in
the 1960s and 1970s. The rise of NGOs meant that "decentralisation" broke
down government power, leading them to revise the tactics they used when
regenerating the urban poor areas (Das and Takahashi, 2009. p. 213). This
example is taken from a slum with a lot of similarities to Dharavi, in the city of
Ahmedabad, India. The methods that the stakeholders in government then
take relate back to the theories of Arnstein. All of these issues have taken
place in Dharavi through the course of history. Most importantly, the motives
of the government in the current development need to be discovered before
another slum upgrading project fails.
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3. The Slum of Dharavi
A Vibrant Culture and Booming Economy
A PPP is extremely hard to manage in a slum that is as complex as Dharavi.
When you ask the inhabitants of the slum where they are from, many replies
are assertive in telling you that it is not Dharavi, but their own diverse
communities. "What is this Dharavi you are talking about?... This is Matunga
Labour Camp, not Dharavi" (Sharma, 2000, p. 4) This is because
communities have migrated from rural areas all over India and settled into
individual settlements. These communities stay strong in times of disruption
because their families have built up trusting relationships over generations of
time through their shared migration experiences. Many trades are passed
down through families and friends and therefore, they end up working with
one-another. Kotkin records Mukesh Mehta explaining the reasons why
people stay in Dharavi. "Many slum-dwellers earn middle class incomes…
they stay for practical reasons. They stay because the real estate is too
expensive in Mumbai" (2010, p. 40). The companies they set-up don't pay tax
and remain illegal. The government are fully aware of these businesses but
choose not to shut them down. The reason the government keep the areas
regulated in business is because they act as an aid to jobs in Mumbai that are
not wanted by the rich citizens of the area, as stated in the introduction. All-in-
all, these small, unwanted jobs, are estimated to account for an annual
turnover of between US$650 million and US$1 billion, reported by the World
Socialist Web Site (Thompson, 2009).
Money is not the most important thing to the people of Dharavi however.
Engaging in their environment and surroundings is more important to them.
Architecturally, the chawl of dwellings being so dense, the integrated
communal spaces and the working relationships give people a sense of
respect for each other. This has been lost through the typology of our own
communities in Britain and the Western World. In Britain, "our measure of
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beauty is from technology, housing, gardens and place,' in comparison to
Dharavi where 'they measure beauty through humanity, looking nice and
through social aspects" (McCloud, 2010). Dharavi people do not live like other
slum-dwellers around the world. You cannot compare them to the people of
the favelas in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, nor can you compare them to the
refugees in camps in Lagos, Nigeria. They have a better standard of life
because they do not have to go about their day scavenging for food and
committing crime to achieve this. The hostility isn't apparent as much and
much of this is down to the economy being in a stable condition.
With all this in mind, one could argue that the PPP or indeed any method of
upgrading Dharavi is completely unnecessary. It causes disruption to the
array of trades and business that operate around the clock and is harmful to
the workers that contribute to this booming economy. It is alarming that if this
partnership is not dealt with properly then social interactions will be lost (UN-
HABITAT, 2003, p. 106b). The plans show a forecast that could be a
reflection of how the decline of modernism became apparent in Britain in the
1960s. The high-rise structures mean that families will be "sectioned into
boxes" (McCloud, 2010) and communal spaces will no longer be used. This is
the most drastic response to answering how the plans could fail. Dharavi is
painted to be a beautiful picture of culture on one side of the debate, but there
is also a horrific side: the cleanliness of this squalid area.
Downfalls in Hygiene and Morality of Lifestyle
Ethical concerns are the biggest threat to humanity in Dharavi every year.
"The most common illnesses were found to be respiritory diseases, gastro-
intestinal disorders, skin diseases, fever, worms, ear, nose and throat
diseases, tuberculosis and veneral diseases" (Desai, 1988, p. 72). This is
down to the lack of treatment and re-exposure to the same illnesses. This
reason alone gives the State a good point of argument for why the DRP
should be imposed on the slum-dwellers. The slum-dwellers have to urinate
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and excrete into the same rivers that they use to hand-wash their clothes in
because the site-and-service project of 1985 failed to leave the slum with an
adequate amount of sewer systems to accommodate the rapidly increasing
population {Sinha, 2006). These actions are performed with very little privacy
or self-respect. And to observe such actions dampens the joyous spirits that
are experienced when you see how people interact.
Figure 4. Compound 13, The Waste Landfill Site.
Compound 13 brings more terrifying accounts of how morally-unacceptable
the society is (see fig. 4). This is the waste landfill site for most of Mumbai's
hotels and offices that is situated on the corner of 60-feet road. Newly-formed
plastic recycling businesses have meant that Dharavi recycles over 80% of
plastics (Mehta, 2007), compared to an appalling 22% in Britain (Davis, 2010).
Therefore, around five-thousand slum-dwellers scurry through the heaps of
rubbish, filling three-thousand bags of assorted items. (Sharma, 2000, p. 107)
Needles and other used medical equipment make this job both dangerous
and inhumane. Long hours of minimum pay mean that the women working on
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these sites have just enough money to live and to build a small fund in order
to send their children to school. This is the aspiration of most parents in
Dharavi.
In contradiction to accounts stating that there is virtually no crime in Dharavi,
many reports explain how the frustrated life in slum environments can mean
"young boys are carriers of illicit distillation of liquor and young girls practice
prostitution openly" (Desai, 1988, pp. 72). It has to be noted that this source
was over 20 years ago and improvements have been made since then.
However, these forms of activity haven't been completely eradicated. Sharma
explains how 'ghettoisation in communities' has become more apparent since
the riots of 1992. These riots happened because of destruction of the Babri
Masjid mosque in Uttah Pradesh. They affected the people of Dharavi
because they were migrants from Uttah Pradesh. This had been "pre-fought in
1962-63 over the fight for land between Hindu and Muslim groups" (2000. p.
151). The religious disharmony is much more relaxed now, but because
history has shown repeat disruptive attacks, it leaves the suspicion that
repercussions will occur again one day in the near future (Das and Takahashi,
2009, p. 215a). Whether this will happen whilst this current redevelopment is
on-going is still unanswered. But this is yet another reason why public-private
relations have to be dealt with so cautiously.
The government uses poor health, inadequate work conditions and tension in
societies as justifications for the need for infrastructure in the area. Many
slum-dwellers agree that the conditions they live in need to improve, but they
wouldn't be dissatisfied with their lives at present, if the development didn't
happen. Many sources state that the government's reasons to regenerate the
area are cover-ups for a more unethical reason, the economy. Policies put in
place at the start of such a large-scale project can have a detrimental affect
on slum-dwellers, depending on where they sit within the hierarchy of the
slum. "Project-affected persons" (Arputham and Patel, 2007, p. 502) have to
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face the reality of their livelihoods being taken from them when the
construction starts on their patch.
Hierarchy in Dharavi
Figure 5. Slum Typologies, taken from Davis' Planet of Slums
The hierarchy typology in Dharavi is similar to Davis' example of a metro-core
slum hierarchy rather than one of a periphery (see fig. 5). The policies
requirements set out by Mukesh Mehta to acquire a new dwelling in the
current regeneration, include either a 'photopass' identity, which is in-effect a
passport, or a place on the electoral roll that was surveyed in 1995. (Anon,
2007) This process becomes corrupt because the 'photopass' identification is
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often given to landlords so that rent can be secured on tenements. The
landlords take bribes from the poorer people because they are in a higher
position of power. Sharma has taken specific consideration to the fraudulent
system in slums, focusing one chapter on the subject in Rediscovering Dharavi. The police have been known to take bribes and side with the
criminals. This has led to a loss of faith in the policing system in the area.
(2000, pp. 127-154). Other large groups facing eviction with no compensation
are the sidewalk-dwellers. The reason most of them are living on sidewalks is
because the 1985 redevelopment project relocated the leather tanning trade
to Deonar, on the outskirts of Mumbai (Desai, 1988, p. 71). These slum-
dwellers either slept on the factory floors of the tanneries or used their wages
to pay rent. In the end, they lost their livelihoods altogether. Their fight for
survival meant moving to sidewalks and looking for other jobs or relocating to
Deonar. The repercussions of this are being felt 25-years on. These people
are going to have to face losing their small patch on the sidewalks as well.
The only way the PPP will benefit these people is if it was dealt with on a
more personal level, so that the developers could discover people's
backgrounds. The people who were innocently evicted in 1985 and have
managed to survive in Dharavi ever since, should be more deserving of a new
tenement than people who have attained a 'photopass' illegally.
Mehta's plans of 2004
Mukesh Mehta, has been working in Dharavi since 2004. The plans he
unveiled in 2007 caused a rift between the private and public sectors from the
very first day (Endicott, Gonzalez and Polhemus, 2009, p. 2). The policies he
has enforced indicate that recreation of poverty in another location is
inevitable because not all of the slum-dwellers in Dharavi qualify for housing
in the new development. Furthermore, the lack of consultation with the slum
communities came under scrutiny when a letter was addressed to him from
Jockin Arputham (2007, p. 504). The letter explained how the slum-dwellers
planned to block the central and western train lines if they did not get some
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feedback on the events that were proposed to take place. Not only did the
lack of communication affect the slum-dwellers in 2007, but the quality of the
proposed housing also left a lot to be desired.
Figure 6. Distribution of Dharavi to Developers
Firstly, Mehta had proposed that the areas under development were going to
be split into 5 sections (see fig. 6) with different developers taking control of
each one. This is not very fitting for a place like Dharavi because of the small
communities and religious groups that occupy different sectors so close to
one another. Instead, other ideas of developing Dharavi could be to look at all
of the 85 neighbourhoods individually. But this is something Mehta didn't
seem to do. Whether it was because he is ignorant about the culture of the
place or because he is trying to remain efficient in the plan, the result didn't
give a good impression of him throughout the slum. Secondly, the idea of a
'vertical' slum wasn't, and still isn't, appealing to a citizen of Dharavi who has
spent his/her whole life living no higher than one floor above ground height.
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Simple daily tasks like carry water up several floors to flush the toilet are
issues that are going to be the chores of new life in the area. Trade systems
and fully operational businesses will be affected by loss of labour force and
insufficient work environments.
Liza Weinstein records a meeting between Mehta and key members of the
community in Kumbharwada. She puts emphasis on how much effort Mehta is
putting into the development by considering all of the issues the NGO groups
raise as discrepancies in previous meetings between the three sectors.
Weinstein goes on to explain how Mehta took the effort to speak in the
Kumbhars native language of Gujarati, rather than English or Hindi. As one
would expect, the meeting did not go smoothly the whole way though. When
quoting the scheme as a "slum scheme" (Weinstein, 2009, p. 399) the local
people reacted angrily because they do not view the area as a slum, but as a
normal community like any other settlement around the world today.
If Mehta or any one of the other private 'actors' in this partnership are quoted
in a misleading fashion the repercussions can be very severe. Slum-dwellers
seem to be very defensive about their communities because their whole lives
are based on the survival skills they have built within Dharavi. "The NGO
Concerned Citizens for Dharavi' held a '15,000-strong peaceful Black Flag
Day" (Patel et al., 2009, p. 242). The reason was because of the lack of
consultation at the time of the announcement of the first plans in 2007. The
relentlessness the slum-dwellers is admirable considering the situation they
are in. Events that give the people voice or power are alarming for the state
government. The threats can easily turn into actions of revolt. Therefore, they
tend to give into the slum-dwellers needs so that little or no damage is done to
the economy and surrounding societies in Mumbai. Historically, these
overhauls in political power to show a public voice have ended in an unstable
environment and many years of riots. To keep the balance in the partnership,
the government have to intervene and make sure that the developers are less
commanding. Historic events can also give a reminder to the government that
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slum upgrading projects are very delicate matters that have to be considered
in a lot more detail than Mehta's plans show. His role as head architect for the
DRP is a powerful role but also very demanding. If the project continues to fail
the needs of the slum-dwellers, the development will favour an institutionalist's
view and will benefit companies and developers in the private sector. Once
again, this will be like projects of the 1980s, when the aim was to benefit the
economy, rather than giving empathy and aid to the ethical issues (Endicott,
Gonzalez and Polhemus, 2009, p. 3).
Mehta's task is huge. Involving existing trade systems and the booming
economy the slum creates, through the process of regeneration, so that it can
continue in the post-development period, will be the ultimate test to decide
whether this project is successful or not. In a wider context of slum upgrading
projects around the world, this project seems to be one of the easier ones.
Especially when comparing the problems the architects that have to deal with
when developing in third-world countries. These areas have significantly
higher poverty and crime rates. Public-private partnerships in favelas in Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil, or refugee camps in Lagos, Nigeria, are just two examples of
more extreme circumstances than Mumbai, India. In Dharavi, the citizens
don't live in an ideal world, but a feeling of satisfaction is sensed in the area,
mainly because they are earning a living in a modestly safe environment. Nor
do they pay tax or have to pay the high-priced rents of living in a city (UN-
HABITAT, 2003, p. 99b). This justifies why staying and living in the slum of
Dharavi seems like the best option for these people.
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4. Conclusion Response to Slum Upgrading
From the research undertaken in this essay, the conclusion in response to the
problems ongoing in the slum of Dharavi still remains unanswered. However,
the majority of sources used in this debate all carry similar polemics to one
another. These include the issue of density, height to floor ratios, future
inhabitants of the area, consultation of issues and the livelihoods of the slum-
dwellers in a post-development period. Before any of these issues are
answered by the developers, the first actions taken have to be to cooperate
with the slum-dwellers.
Arnstein's Ladder of Citizen Participation (see fig. 3) explains how Mehta is
operating around rings one and two on the scale of participation. Events that
occur in Dharavi, like the Black Flag Day, put emphasis on how important the
area of Dharavi is to the slum dwellers. Instead of reacting to this situation in a
positive manner, Mehta has remained committed to his 5 sector plan (see fig.
6). A counter-action that would have seen Mehta's popularity rise would be
not to deal with the slum as five pieces of a puzzle, but put in the due care
and attention to the 85 neighbourhoods that need to be dealt with individually.
The reason this alternate method would work more effectively is echoed in
Sharma's introduction to Rediscovering Dharavi. The slum-dwellers origins
are not Dharavi, but their own communities.
Preceding this more advanced level of interaction, the underlying polemics of
the quality of buildings can be assessed. In the UN-HABITAT report of 2003,
the ideals of a post-modern world are given as specific examples of how a
slum upgrade would fall into decline. Yet, baring this in mind, Mehta's plans to
build high-rise still only benefit the economy and not the environment. Both
Berner and Harris present notions of how the government do this when
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upgrading slums. Hackworth and Smith's description of a revanchist style of
urbanisation mimics the methods of how Mehta is acting in the DRP.
Not all of the issues can be improved significantly. The complexity of the area
has to be taken into consideration. It would be almost impossible for Mehta to
complete the DRP to suit everyone, meaning compromises have to be made.
The compromise of building vertically to tackle density is potentially one of the
most disastrous for the livelihoods of the slum-dwellers. A balance does have
to be made in the PPP and the repercussions of high-rise may lead to loss of
jobs and businesses. As it stands, the only way the DRP can succeed using a
PPP is to take the left over land on offer to the developers to reduce the
density further, without building vertically. This will mean that the developers
will either lose interest in the quality of the build because the profits they were
promised have been diminished or they will pull out altogether.
Robert Neuwirth speaking on TED offered a varying solution. He speaks of
the most primitive shanty found in Kibera, a "stick in the mud hut." He goes on
to explain of developments, the "plastic tarps on the roof" in Bombay. This
protects the huts from monsoon season. Then onto Rio where there are
"scavenged terra cotta tiles and little pieces of signs, some colour." Further
progression is described in Sultanbelyi where a door and a fence have been
scavenged. "And then you get Rocinha and you can see that it's getting even
better. The buildings here are multi-story." The roofs here are rented for
further development on top of the current built. In Turkey, a "higher level of
design" is shown through "the crud in the front, which is mattress-stuffing." So
on and so forth. The point Neuwirth is trying to prove is that squatters can be
developers and given time and resources, an under-developed area of
squalor will eventually turn into an urbanised town or city (2005).
Drawing comparisons to the case studies in China, Dharavi can be tackled in
a very similar manner. Flexibility in the design of a desokotas means that they
can be built to accommodate the complex lives of the slum dwellers. This
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includes a home environment, a work environment and a social environment.
As easy as it is to draw other conclusions to the problem in Dharavi, the DRP
has chosen the method of a PPP to solve the current issues. A change in
slum upgrading process is highly unlikely and the benefits, or more so, the
repercussions of the development will only be there to see once the new
environment has been built.
This raises the question to World Organisations such as UN-HABITAT of
when considering slum upgrading processes: Should a proven and successful
method such as a desakota be used homogenously? Or does every project
have to be dealt with specifically for the same complex reasons that have
arisen in Dharavi.
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