Access to Civic Amenities in Slums of Mumbai.pdf - Urban Design ...

AMENITY | 248flow of migrants from the rural areas. (9) Slums arelinked with the British rule in India. A majority ofthe rural migrants, displaced in the process ofcolonial development, migrated to large citiesfor seeking employment. The industries and cityadministration were not concerned to provideadequate shelters to these migrants. In somecities, particularly in the states of Maharashtraand Gujarat, industrialists tried to attract andretain them by providing small tenements ormulti storied row houses in the pattern of armybarracks, called ‘Chawls’, mostly built in 19 thcentury. Over time, due to lack of maintenance,dilapidation etc. most of the chawls havebecome extremely poor in terms of quality oflife. (10) Poverty is the main reason behind theslums and slums breed hopelessness and crime.The key reason is the slow economic progress.By mid sixties in India; Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi &all other large cities were dotted with slums. (11)The main reason behind the origin of Bombay’sslums can be traced to its development as animportant political and economic centre of thecountry. It fascinated a large number of peoplefrom the rural and small town areas. After theSecond World War there was a subsequentrise in population due to economic upheaval.Private enterprise constructed houses with amaximum profit motive which gave birth tobuildings known as chawls. These chawls consistof number of tenements, usually one small roomfor each family and served by water-closetsand water taps for all families. Some of themare even five to six storied. Due to lack of townplanning and satisfactory standards laid downby law in respect to minimum accommodationand sanitation, the growth of Mumbai wenthaphazard. And the gradual decay andneglecting of chawls made them unfit for humanliving. Later on these chawls got overcrowdedand congested, lack of hygiene and sanitationconverted them to slums. Slums can be groupedinto: chawls, semi permanent residentialstructure and unauthorised huts put up onvacant lands. Various wards of Bombay reportedslums before the Second World War. Populationand urban growth has taken place at such arapid pace that the housing sector has not beenable to deal with this problem resulting intodevelopment of numerous slums in the city. (12)The biggest slum of Asia, Dharavi is situatedin G ward of Mumbai city, comprising ofsmall fishermen villages and low lying marshyland. After the post-war period there wasa gradual rise in population and resultingshortage of housing. These migrants chosethe so called slum area for their huts, madeup of pieces of old tin, bamboo etc. Thesehuts are characterised by lack of openspace between the huts and waste waterfrom the huts without the proper drainagefacility resulting into dampness. (13)As awareness and utilisation of loan facilityin almost all slum areas was very low, thisresulted into almost no utilisation of availablecredit facility. Study shows that in orderto improve the life of slum dwellers majorinitiatives are required at all fronts. It includesprovision of basic amenities, educationand vocational training, health care andpromotion of income generating activities. (14)In the earlier studies due to the lack ofdata not much work has been done onthe slum population of metropolitan cities.Comprehensive information on the slums isessential for the formulation of an effectivepolicy for their improvement and rehabilitationas they have not received due attentionin urban planning and have remained anarea of neglect. So there is a need to studythe characteristics of slum population. Themain objective of this paper is to study theconditions of slum households in Mumbai ata ward level in term of access to electricity,tap water, toilet and sewer facility.Data:Both published and unpublished data from the2001 Census have been used in this study. Inthe 2001 Census, for the first time, an attemptwas made to collect detailed demographic dataabout slums across the country, particularly, incities and towns having population of 50,000or above (as of 1991). The information ondifferent characteristics of the slum dwellershas been collected through the same censusquestionnaire of household schedule, whichwas canvassed for the population enumerationin the country at the 2001 census. Slumpopulation has been reported from 640 citiesand towns of 26 States/Union Territories (UT).More than 72,000 enumeration blocks havebeen identified as slum enumeration blocks inthese cities/towns which constitute nearly 22%of the total enumeration blocks in urban areas.In the remaining 9 States/Union Territoriesthere were no identified slums. While censushas published demographic characteristics ofslums, the information about basic amenitieswas available in unpublished form until recently.We have been provided the data by the Censusoffice on number of slums ward wise, numberof slum households, length of paved roadsin slums, number of tap water connections,number of latrines (private and community), typeof sewerage system (sewerage, open surfacedrains) and method of disposal of night soil.This study utilises this data and presentsward wise distribution of population inslums, distribution of tap water facility,electricity connections, toilet facility,and sewerage system in both notifiedand non-notified slums in Mumbai.Definitions and Concept of SlumsAccording to Census of India 2001, thedefinition of slums is as follows --i. All specified areas in a town orcity notified as ‘slum’ by State, UTAdministration or Local Governmentunder any Act including a ‘Slum Act’.ii. All areas recognised as ‘slum’ by State, UTAdministration or Local Government, Housingand Slum Boards, which may have not beenformally notified as slum under any act;iii. A compact area of at least 300 populationor about 60-70 households of poorlybuilt congested tenements, in unhygienicenvironment usually with inadequateinfrastructure and lacking in propersanitation and drinking water facility.Table1: Size and Growth of Populationin Greater Mumbai, 1981-2000.YearGreaterMumbai(M. Corp.)GreaterMumbai(U.A)GreaterMumbai(M. Corp.)GreaterMumbai(U.A)Population Annual Growth Rate (%)1981 8,243,405 9,421,962 - -1991 9,925,891 12,596,243 1.86 2.902001 11,914,398 16,434,386 1.83 2.65Note. U.A. – Urban AgglomerationM. Corp. -Municipal CorporationSource: Registrar General and Census Commissioner,2001, Census of India: Maharashtra Population Datawith Slum Population in Urban Units, MumbaiTable 1 presents the population size and growthrate of Greater Mumbai (Municipal Corporation andUrban Agglomeration) for the year 1981 to 2001. Thetable shows that the population of Greater Mumbaiincreased more in Mumbai Urban Agglomerationarea compared to the city area within the MumbaiMunicipal Corporation. On the other hand, thegrowth rate in Mumbai Municipal Corporationremained almost stable of 1.86 to 1.83 percent perannum, whereas the growth rate in Mumbai UrbanAgglomeration has declined from 2.90 percentper annum during 1981-1991 to 2.65 percentduring 1991-2001. This paper aims to present theconditions of slum dwellers in Mumbai city (M. Corp)with regard to their access to tap water, electricity,toilet facility and sewerage at the ward level.AMENITY | 249