SLUMS IN MUMBAI…..AND ITS RELATION WITH CITY

- - PRESENTED BY :- NITESH SASIDHARAN

INTRODUCTION:

Definition of slum by UN Habitat:A slum Is an area that combines to various extents the following characteristics:- Inadequate access to safe water. Inadequate access to sanitation and other infrastructure. Poor structural quality of housing. Overcrowding. Insecure residential status.

In the later part of the 20th century, slums exploded worldwide, becoming a cause for serious concern among humanitarian organizations, as an alarmingly high number of people live in regions which could be considered slums. In Mumbai, India, for example, an estimated about 55% of the population lives in slums.

HOW DO SLUMS FORM UP?

Slums can form in several ways: Classically, slums have emerged in existing neighbourhoods which fall upon

hard times. A slum forms as homes are slowly subdivided into cramped tenement apartments, and the population becomes highly concentrated. At the same time, access to services like healthcare, fresh food, and basic sanitation may start to become restricted, creating filth and squalor.

A slum can also arise from nowhere, as is the case with many of the shantytowns found in developing nations. These slums sometimes seem to emerge overnight, compacting humanity into filthy, densely packed areas with poorly constructed and often dangerous homes. In campaigns against slums, many cities have forcibly evicted people from these shantytowns, creating a ripple effect as forcibly displaced people attempt to relocate to new regions.

Most of the people who live in slums are extremely poor, and many are treated as second class citizens by their society. Health problems tend to be very high, as a result of improper sanitation and lack of access to basic health care. Malnutrition is another serious problem in many slums, as is crime, which can make a slum very dangerous for its inhabitants.

GLOBAL SCENARIO OF SLUMS:

Percentage of urban population living in slums (data from 2005 - source: UN-HABITAT )

SLUMS IN MUMBAI: Mumbai – is the home of Bollywood

movies and India’s city of gold, its financial capital. Like a magnet, it draws in people from all over the country. But behind the glitz, glamour and the hype lurks a different reality – a city landscape dominated by massive, sprawling slums – some of the biggest in the world. According to the city housing authority, Eight million out of the twelve million people in Mumbai live in the slums. And Mumbai is not alone. Slums are a global problem. They are home to one billion people – one in six of the world’s population. UN-Habitat predicts that by 2030, one in every three people in the world could be living in a slum.

55% of the population of Mumbai live in slums, which cover only 6% of the city’s land.

LOCATION OF SLUM POCKETS IN MUMBAI.

HISTORY OF SLUMS IN MUMBAI:

EARLY HISTORY- Late in the 17th century, Gerald Aungier, the then Governer tried

to attract traders and artisans to Bombay. As a result, the population grew six-fold in the fourteen years between 1661 and 1675. Some of the more prosperous traders built houses inside the British fort. The rest lived in crowded "native-towns" around the walls. These were probably the first slums to grow in Bombay.

The problem of overcrowding certainly remained through the 18th century. A count made in 1794 found 1000 houses inside the fort walls and 6500 immediately outside.

The Cotton boom, followed by the rapid growth of mills and shipping drew a large population from the rest of the country into a city ill-equipped to deal with them. In the middle of the 19th century slums grew around the mills and other places of employment.

ORIGIN OF SLUMS IN MUMBAI: Historically, slums have grown in Mumbai as a

response to a growth of population far beyond the capacity of existing housing.

Migrants are normally drawn to the city by the huge disparity between urban and rural income levels. Usually the residents of these densely populated enclaves live close to their place of work.

Mumbai knows another reason for the formation of slums. As the city grew, it took over land that was traditionally used for other purposes. The Koli fishermen were displaced during the development of the harbour and port. Those driven out of the fishing villages improvised living space that was often far shabbier than before.

On the other hand, some villages were encysted by the city growing around them Dharavi, originally a village with a small tanning industry, has become a slum in this fashion.

HOUSING OPTIONS FOR POOR IN MUMBAI:

1. Chawls : Consisting mainly of semi-permanent structures, which can be both authorised and unauthorised.

2. Pavement Dwellers: These are households, dominated by single male migrants living in hutments built on the footpaths of Mumbai’s roads close to places of employment.

3. Zopadpattis: These are squatters in the local terminology. These are the most predominant low-income informal settlements falling under the category of slum.

Typical Chawls

Payment dwellers

Zopadpattis (Slums)

SLUM STATISTICS :

The first official census of slums was carried out by the State Government in January 1976 (Government of Maharashtra, 1995) and 902,015 huts in 2,335 pockets were identified.

More than 50 percent of squatting was on private lands, followed by municipal lands. While 73.6 per cent of employment was concentrated in the island wards they contained only 21.1 per cent of slum population.

PROFILE OF SLUMS IN 2001: For the first time, detailed data on slum areas in the

country have been collected in the 2001 Census. In Greater Mumbai 1,959 slum settlements have been identified with a

total population of 6.25 million, which forms 54 per cent of the total population of the city (Census of India, 2001).

The Island City houses only 17 per cent of the slum population whereas the western suburbs have high concentrations of slums specially in the inner western suburbs, where there are large slums with hazy boundaries forming a continuous area containing 58 per cent of the slum population.

Out of the total 47 per cent are located on private lands. These are located on state government, central government, railway and municipal land. 62 per cent of slums predominantly have dwellings made of permanent materials like brick walls and reinforced cement roofs. 27 per cent slums have predominantly semi-permanent structures (brick walls and tin or asbestos cement sheet roof).

ACCESS TO SERVICES: About 49 per cent of slums have access to

water supply from shared standpipes, while 38.3 per cent have a supply from more than one source. Remaining slums get their water from tube wells or community standpipes.

Only 5 per cent of slums have individual taps whereas 17 slums with approximately 0.1 million inhabitants have no water supply and have to depend on adjoining settlements.

Sanitation in slums is very poor as 73 per cent of slums depend on community toilets provided by the government, 28 per cent defecate in the open, 0.7 per cent slums have pay to use toilets managed by NGOs and only 1 per cent of slums have individual toilets.

There is no organised system of solid waste collection and slum residents generally dump garbage in any open place, including lanes and railway tracks. Only in 36 slums is there an organised system of collection and clearance.

SLUM – DWELLERS: LIFESTYLE: When People come to Mumbai they get

squatted wherever they could on land owned by the government, Mumbai municipality, the railways and on private land.

They are people who stay in two tiny rooms where a family of about 10-16 sleep in shifts. They have no electricity, an illegal supply of water and no toilet.

Slumdwellers have not willingly chosen their shanty structures and unhygienic environment, but have been driven to this option due to compelling circumstances as they were thrown out of the formal housing sector, the latter being unaffordable and far beyond their income levels.

SLUM - DWELLERS EDUCATION: The majority of the older generation over the age of 50 had no

formal education. The middle aged slum dwellers had completed primary school

education and the majority of slum dwellers’ children attended the nearest Municipal Corporation school that offered free schooling.

The overall literacy rate as found in base line surveys in slums is 60 per cent (MMRDA, 2002) which is lower than the city average.

OCCUPATION: A significant number of formal workers are employed in the

surrounding area as guards, mechanics, labourers, drivers, teachers, clerks and government employees.

The base-line surveys of 16,000 households for (MMRDA, 2002) Mumbai Urban

Transport Project showed that 33 per cent of the population is working, with an average of 1.46 workers per household.

HOW THEY FORM PART OF OUR SOCIETY?

The city simply wouldn’t function without the slum dwellers:

Slum dwellers, are“60% of the population that provide all the services in the city.

From the boy who brings in your milk, to your newspaper vendor.

From the maid who works in your house to the dabbawala who delivers your lunch at work.

From the Rickshawalla’s to the people working in the factories.

From the clerk in the bank, to the municipal corporations, schools, colleges.

All these people form the backbone of the city, If they say “Halt”,

MUMBAI would come to a grinding halt.

SLUM REDEVELOPMENT…In the mid-1990s, the state government of Maharashtra

introduced an innovative strategy of slum redevelopment in its capital city, Mumbai.

The basics of the scheme are: Every slum structure existing as on January 1, 1995 (presently

changed to 2001), or before is eligible for rehabilitation. 70 per cent of the eligible slum dwellers in a slum can come together to

form a society for implementation of the slum rehabilitation scheme. Rehab tenement allotted to a slum dweller cannot be sold for a

period of 10 years from the date of allotment. However, it can be transferred to a legal heir with prior permission of CEO (SRA).

FSI permissible for a scheme depends upon the number of slum dwellers to be rehabilitated in it. It can even exceed 2.5.

Plots where slum rehabilitation schemes can be taken up include plots that are notified and categorised as slum.

If reserved for non-buildable reservation, the plot area should be more than 500 sq. mt and minimum ground coverage of 25 per cent with the slum.

PROBLEMS FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF SLUM REDEVELOPMENT SCHEME :

Builders have been lukewarm in the absence of any government money; and the big developers have shown no interest.

Developers are required to find temporary accommodation for slumdwellers.

The Scheme is unacceptable to older slums. A large number contain small cottage industries. There would be no space for such activities in the new apartments. Moreover, many residents have built an upper storey, so their available space already far exceeds what they would be allotted under the Scheme.

Maintenance costs are high. Most slum-dwellers have few costs. High-rise buildings, in contrast, require high repair and maintenance bills – anything up to 1000 - 2000 rupees, compared with a current outlay of only 100 to 300 rupees a month.

The Scheme has caused social conflict. In many slums the required 70-per-cent consent of the people has proved unattainable, and in some slums there have been disputes and feuds over who speaks with the majority voice.

SOME SRA PROJECTS COMPLETED:

WHAT HAS HAPPENED WITH THESE REHABILATED BUILDINGS IS THE FORMATION OF “VERTICAL SLUMS” WHEREIN THERE IS STILL BASIC PROBLEMS OF HYGIENE &

LIGHT VENTILATION FACED BY THE TENANTS.

DHARAVI : Often dubbed “Asia’s largest slum,” Dharavi is in

fact a heart-shaped agglomeration of primarily informal settlements, literally located in the heart of Mumbai, India’s commercial capital.

Spanning an area of about 223 hectares (535 acres), Dharavi is a transportation hub of the city.

Dharavi is home to between half a million and one million people. A 1986 survey counted 530,225 people (106,045 households) living in 80,518 structures; the numbers have surely grown since then.

Dharavi is not only a residential space, but also a major economic hub representing the city’s vast informal sector. Dharavi’s commercial enterprises include recycling industries, leather tanneries, heavy metal work, woodwork, and manufactured goods such as garments, shoes, luggage, jewellery. One conservative estimate places the annual value of goods produced in Dharavi at USD 500 million (“Inside the Slums,” The Economist, 27/1/05).

DHARAVI DEVELOPMENT PROJECT:

DHARAVI DEVELOPMENT PROJECT: The five year Dharavi Redevelopment Project worth Rs 8,600 crores was

drawn up on February 4, 2004 in view of the dense combination of commercial and residential structures.

The Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) had come up with a Rs 6,380 crore plan for redeveloping Dharavi slums by 2010.

The center, state and HUDCO are to jointly finance the plan. Global tenders to be floated and project to be implemented by private builders.

Original slumdwellers living prior to January 1, 1995 to be relocated in newly built buildings with 225 sq ft free tenement.

Plan envisages plush residential and commercial complexes, hospitals, schools and colleges.

15 percent of the land is to be reserved for open green spaces and playgrounds.

Private builders to get 4 FSI as incentive for commercial exploitation of remaining land.

Spread over 174 hectares of land Dharavi billed as Asia's largest slum connects the Island city with suburban Mumbai.

Houses about 5,000 small scale units producing intermediary goods, houses leather tanneries. SSI units here generate Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,000 crore turnover annually.

OPTIONS FOR DEVELOPMENT TO TAKE PLACE:

Government should resume responsibility for upgrading existing slums.

Those evicted by essential public works should receive alternative accommodation.

Co-operative development should be encouraged, whereby the slumdwellers themselves develop their sites.

Bona fide developers should not have to compete with the mafia and crooked operators.

Officials should be compelled to do their job properly. The only way the life of the slums can be improved is to give land

tenures to slum co-operatives to develop as they choose. ‘Land to the slumdweller’ must be the policy for humane and effective development; the governmental role must be limited to providing infrastructural facilities, cheap finance and a supply of building materials at controlled rates.

THANK YOU….