THE GIST of Editorial for UPSC Exams : 25 October 2018 (India’s failure to address its urban slum problem)

India’s failure to address its urban slum problem

Mains Paper: 1 | Society
Prelims level: Indian urbanization
Mains level: Yet another attempt to redevelop Dharavi must take the lessons of past failures on board

Context

•  Dharavi is shorthand for the challenges and complexities of Indian urbanization.

•  Various attempts over the decades to redevelop the slum occupying prime real estate in the heart of Mumbai have foundered on those complexities.

•  The Maharashtra government signed off on the latest initiative.

•  A special purpose vehicle with 80% private and 20% government stake to redevelop Dharavi as a whole rather than in separate sub-clusters as previously envisioned.

•  If it is to make any headway, it must take on board past lessons.

•  Slum redevelopment is something of a Rorschach test.

•  At one end of the spectrum are the Jane Jacobs maximalists who take the urban studies pioneer’s credo of community-based urban planning and activism to an incoherent extreme.

•  The latter is undoubtedly a marvel of India’s informal economy.

•  Concrete numbers are hard to come by but, by most estimates, half-a-million people or so live in the 230 hectares the slum occupies.

•  A vast number and range of micro and small enterprises, ranging from leather and textiles to recycling, have an annual turnover in the $1 billion range.

Historical underpinning regarding to slum problem in India

•  India has flirted with such policies as well.

•  From the 1950s through the 1970s, forced demolition and relocation was common in various states.

•  The Maharashtra government’s Maharashtra Vacant Lands Act 1975 was particularly draconian. Such policies ignore basic economic logic.

•  Internal migration is a driver of growth and development, particularly in an economy like India’s where a large chunk of the rural population is seasonally employed in agriculture.

•  More, urban India’s growth is built on the back of cheap labour in everything from construction to domestic work.

•  Various combinations of rent control, opaque and distorted land markets, stifling regulation and laughably low floor space indexes have resulted in a severe lack of affordable housing in India’s premier cities.

•  Slums are the natural outcome.

•  Demolition policies degrade urban economies.

Way out

•  There are many hurdles, both major and minor.

•  The lack of adequate data and land titles in Dharavi and other slums meant expensive, time-consuming delays were common.

•  Failure to take slum dweller representatives on board meant that the informal economic networks underlying Dharavi’s economy would be disrupted by the redevelopment.

•  The lack of common standards meant that the housing built for slum dwellers was often of execrable quality.

•  The problem of slum dwellers selling or leasing the houses and returning to their previous housing, poor quality, unaffordable maintenance costs and disrupted networks often had a role to play here.

Conclusion

•  This wouldn’t work in those Indian cities where governance quality is poor; it would allow municipalities to abandon their responsibilities.

•  However, is that unless the new redevelopment plan takes Dharavi’s residents on board and addresses the socioeconomic fallout of relocation, it will be unlikely to succeed.

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General Studies Pre. Cum Mains Study Materials

Prelims Questions:

Q.1) Consider the following statements regarding Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK):

1. The programme aims at early detection of defects, deficiency, diseases and disabilities.
2. It covers children in the age group of 0 -18 years.
3. It is being implemented in both urban and rural areas.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer: D

Mains Questions:
Q.1) What are the solutions regarding slum problems in India?