Ram Rattan Sharma
Problems of slums in India are high unemployment, poverty, and the informal economy. Slums are neighborhoods with few options, run-down housing, unhygienic conditions, poor ventilation, and a lack of essential services such as lighting, toilets, and drinking water. Slums develop for many reasons around the world.
Problems are not a recent phenomenon, as they have been present in practically all cities for a long time, especially during the period of industrialization and urbanization. In cities where there is fierce competition for land and profits, slums are generally the only settlements that are affordable and accessible to the poor.
Rapid and exclusive urbanization trends due to increasing rural to urban migration are the primary reasons for slum growth. There are the top three problems in slums. These lack facilities for basic sanitation and are prone to unhygienic living conditions. Continuous migration leads to an increase in the number of slums which further aggravates the problem of sanitation,overcrowding and lack of essential needs. India is third largest country in the world and its slums are alone responsible for more child deaths than any other country in the world, due to poverty, hunger, infection and unhealthy conditions. In India, slum dwellers make up the majority of the population today.
Rapid rural to urban migration, economic stagnation, high unemployment,poverty, informal economy, artificial ghettos, inadequate planning, politics, natural disasters, and social conflict are some of the causes.
Poverty, high unemployment and the informal economy are the problems of slums in India. Due to congestion and a lack of even the most basic public amenities, streams are contaminated, the land is spoiled, and hill sides are degraded. Slum regions are characterized by poor housing conditions, population density, filthy living conditions and lack of basic services, including garbage disposal, water supply, drainage and sewage. The physical environment at the entire urban region is more and more being influenced by the presence of urban slums. In addition to the degradation of their own environment in most countries, rapid urbanization, poverty, and high unemployment rates result in more and more slums and slum dwellers.
Slum is a contiguous settlement where the inhabitants are characterized as having inadequate housing and basic services. Cities alliance action plan describes slums as neglected parts of cities where housing and living conditions are appallingly poor. Census of India 2011 explained slums as residential areas where dwellings are unfit for human habitation by reasons of overcrowding, faulty arrangements and design of such buildings, narrowness of street, lack of ventilation, light and sanitation facilities or any combination of these factors which are detrimental to the safety and health . The slum is an inevitable part of modern urbanization and the urban poor are active agents serving the non – slum dwellers and contribute to economic growth.
Rapid growth of population: – Population explosion and poverty force the urban poor to live in slums and that leads to an increase in the size of slums. Also, a regional imbalance in development creates rural to urban migration. Thus, increasing the overall urban population density, which pressurizes the urban poor to move into slums. In the past 15 years India’s urban population density has increased by 45%. It is further estimated that 40% of the population will live in urban areas by 2026. With increasingly densified urban population, there exists a huge demand for land. This shortage of land forces the urban poor to live in increasingly dense communities creating slums in the process.
Poor urban Governance: – A major factor for growth of slums is use of rigid, often outdated urban planning regulations, which are typically by passed by slum dwellers to meet their housing needs. Another issue is the failure of governments to incorporate Slum dwellers as part of the overall planning process. This is often due to the inability of many governments to keep pace with urbanization because of ill designed policies, lack of resources and corruption.
Unavailability of affordable housing rising material costs and labor costs resulting from labor shortage is another reason for the growth of slums as it makes developers unable to deliver affordable housing to the market. The gap between growing demand for affordable urban housing and insufficient supply has encouraged the formation of slums. Whenever the demand surplus is not met by formal sectors this gap is typically filled by an informal dwelling such as slum. Limited access to financial resources -slum dwellers typically inhabit marginal locations such as dumping grounds mainly due to low purchasing power of slum dwellers in formal land market when compared with high income groups. Further the urban poor lack the access to formal financial resources to help them purchase new homes or maintain a new life in a new housing unit. Rural to urban migration -Rural to urban migration is one of the primary drivers of growth of slums in Indians cities. Urban centers which are not equipped to support additional population, fail to cope up with high influx of people, which ultimately causes several problems, such as housing shortages, unemployment, and development of slums. Social factor – Moreover, social backwardness forces people to live in congested areas away from main areas. For example, more scheduled castes live in slums- with one out of every five residents belonging to the SC category.
The focus should not be only building houses for the slum dwellers but, also promoting livelihood options and social and economic infrastructure to develop the livelihood, for effective urban planning, housing and population policies based on housing rights and the right to a clean environment must be established at all levels. These policies should be directed at inclusive cities and poverty alleviation. Attention must be paid to income generation transport and empowerment of the beneficiaries to redress possible future problems. A three-pronged approach to slum free city should be adopted. Provision of clear, free title to the residents, so that they enjoy the privileges of using property as a tangible asset.
(The author is former Dy Librarian
University of Jammu)
Follow our WhatsApp channel
