Slums and skyscrapers are likely the two terms that are most frequently used when individuals and officials discuss how cities develop. The slums’ destitution and skyscrapers’ sterility are the Achilles’ heels of city planners and community leaders. They like residential areas that are well-mixed with residences, businesses, offices, and public amenities. This makes us think of Mumbai, India’s financial hub. Mumbai has also been referred to as the Mayanagri or the City of Dreamers, among other names. It is understandable why this city has so much to offer, from strolls along Marine Drive at night to enjoying chai while watching the rain from your balcony. Mumbai, however, displays itself in two different ways. Despite Mumbai’s gleaming oceanfront towers, affluent neighbourhoods, and exciting nightlife, the city’s dreadful reality is found in its slum district.

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In a relatively short period of time, this metropolis has expanded to astounding sizes. It is home to some of the most expensive property developments in the world, such Antilia, yet it is also home to one of the biggest slum areas. Mumbai is home to the well-known and largest slum in the world, Dharavi. Inside the Mumbai metropolis, which is made up of a continuous length of smoky passageways and open sewers, it nearly seems like a different universe.

The majority of residents of this city of dreams live in homes that are unfit for human habitation. Slums and illegal settlements have sprung up everywhere. But why are so many residents in the nation’s financial centre required to live in chawls and slums, such subpar housing structures? How did Mumbai’s urban landscape develop such a stark contrast? And what elements support its ongoing rise to prominence with each passing day? Let’s investigate.

 

Slums and Chawls of Mumbai

Mumbai has a wide range of unusual dwelling configurations due to necessity. Chawls and slums are two examples of unusual dwelling arrangements that can be found all over the world. The congestion in these densely populated areas promotes social behaviours like public sleeping, public bathing, as well as the sharing of public amenities like water and toilet facilities.

These housing systems, which date back to the early 1800s when Britain controlled India, have changed to accommodate an increasing population in a constrained space. Due to the construction of an effective public transportation system in the middle of the 19th century, post-colonial Mumbai underwent a rapid urbanization.

With such quick expansion, the city has seen a broad variety of housing alternatives arise, including tents, chawls, apartments, bungalows, and high-rise buildings.

 

Housing Section for Mumbai Residents

Mumbai’s topography is characterized by a blur of territorial boundaries due to the city’s spontaneous proliferation of both nominally and informally built properties.

This can be anything from a six-foot stretch of usable sleeping space to an ambiguous tenancy situation shared by three families that are “renting” the same room. Jhopad-patties give way to illegal, only semi-permanent constructions, which in turn give way to pavements. These buildings are connected to chawls and other sorts of subpar housing on another spectrum. Apartments owned and rented by members of the large middle class are located above this level, while the rich and extremely rich own the flats and houses that are located above them.

Slum settlements typically include a variety of housing options, including tents, mud and thatch houses, and brick and cement buildings. Each unit is frequently less than eight by eight feet, and there are no communal amenities available. Because the impoverished that lack stable housing might be found anywhere, neighbourhood lines do not properly categories these residences.

People from lower socioeconomic classes and migrants who live in cities in search of work typically reside in slums. But even once they’ve acquired some money and can afford to move out, many frequently continue to live in their claustrophobic slum dwellings. During the colonial era, these impromptu squatter homes were only found close to the areas of employment. However, as India earned its freedom, these colonies eventually relocated to less ideal urban districts, such wasteland or swampy places close to railroad tracks.

 

Colonial Mumbai’s Working Class Housing

Mumbai was given to the King of England by the Portuguese in 1661. The East India Company was given a lease on the city by the King of England two years later, in 1668, so that it might be used for business ventures. Mumbai at that time was divided into three sections:

• Bombay Island was home to the main castle.
• The annexation of Mahim.
• Parel, Mezagaon, Varlu, Matunga, Vadadla, Colaba, Naigaum, & Dharavi are the eight villages that make up this area.

The castle that originally stood on Bombay Island was replaced in 1715 by a fort wall as a result of the island’s expanding population.

The Great Fire of 1803 destroyed a significant amount of Indian merchant property, and the city was reorganized as a result of the increasing encroachment of village homes into the fort area. The Indians were moved to the region north of the fort wall as a result of this reorganization.

Additionally, it led to the British “distilling” local tribes from the fort region and forcing development outside of the fort walls. To the north of the walled city, the British built textile mills. Chawls grew rapidly in the 1850s & during the Cotton Boom of 1860 as a result of this type of industrialization. These mills may be found in locations like West Parel, Tardeo, and Lalbagh, which are now a part of Mumbai’s central business area. Mumbai’s expanding middle & lower classes increased demand for residential & commercial real estate as a result of the city’s expanding manufacturing sector.

Because they could not afford to live in more ideal places, workers from lower-& middle-class families were compelled to reside in less desirable neighbourhoods, which were frequently adjacent to industries. This strategy led to the settlement of numerous migrant mill workers in unsuitable neighbourhoods, resulting in segregated enclaves inside the city. This is today known as the Mumbai slum area.

 

Housing in Post-Colonial Mumbai for Working Class

As a result of the inflow of migrants & refugees that happened in independent India in the years following World War II, the scarcity of housing soon rose to the top of the list of the nation’s most urgent issues. The average number of occupants in a dwelling space has climbed to six by 1951. Settlements in slum areas served as the issue’s outward embodiment.

The expansion of the slums received no concern from the British government. Despite the state making relatively little investment, the economy was sustained by cheap labour, making it a profitable scheme. The Indian government declared that it would eliminate slums & replace them with “standard” housing for the working class when the nation attained independence. Better housing for slum dwellers and allowing them to live permanently on their legally or illegally invaded & annexed land continue to conflict with one another.

Mumbai’s slums’ location and characteristics

One of the most populous and rich cities in India is Mumbai. Some of the biggest slums in the world include Dharavi, Mankhurd-Govandi belt, Kurla-Ghatkopar belt, Dindoshi, as Well as the Bhandup-Mulund slums. These slums’ primary characteristics are:

• High Rate of Poverty
• A High Unemployment Rate
• Urban degradation on a large scale;
• Breeding Grounds for Societal Ills Such as Crime, Drug Abuse, etc.;
• High Incidence of Mental Disorders, Suicide, etc.;
• low economic status of the locals;
• inadequate infrastructure facilities;
• Issue of Acute Malnutrition
• Lack of drinkable water;
• Not Providing Essential Healthcare;
• unsanitary and unclean surroundings;
• Low level of existence or poor quality of life.

 

Top Facts about Mumbai’s Slums

Mumbai has been struggling to find extra space since the colonial era. Mumbai is surrounded by sea on three sides. The strain is increased by the continual flow of migrants from various parts of India who have been drawn to the city by its improving economic possibilities. Due to a dearth of affordable accommodation and an ongoing increase in metropolitan real estate costs, formal residence is out of reach for the majority of these migrants.

Adjacent to Dharavi is the Bandra Kurla Complex, one of Asia’s richest corporate hubs. Due to its proximity to Mumbai’s two main suburban train lines, people might be able to arrive at work promptly. Dharavi is home to a large number of thriving small businesses that produce high-quality ceramics, plastic, leather goods for export, and embroidered clothes. It is an extremely diverse, multi-ethnic, and multi-religious settlement. One of the most literate slums in all of India, Dharavi has a literacy rate of 69%, according to Wikipedia.

Most slum residences are devoid of private latrines and faucets. The infrequently maintained public facilities and pricey water sold by vendors must be paid for by residents. Some bathrooms in Mumbai’s slums lack electricity, while others lack running water. There are a lot of slum residences with inadequate doors.

In addition to the millions of people who live in Mumbai’s slums, the city also has a sizeable number of people who are homeless and unable to get long-term accommodation. The official figure of homeless people in the city is around a lakh. Some contend that the real figure might be much higher.

Since the 1990s, Mumbai’s state government has worked to rehabilitate the slums in order to both free up land and address its expanding slum population. The Slum Rehabilitation Authority allows new dwellings to be built in historically slum areas if private developers can win the consent of the neighborhood’s current residents. The developer shall provide free housing to the tenants in the newly constructed structures. The leftover building space might then be used to construct opulent skyscrapers that could be sold to corporations. So, while revitalizing the neighbourhood, these slum rehabilitation projects also give developers access to prime real estate.

 

Dharavi is the largest slum in the world.

The British built this slum in the 19th century to house the poor and industrial workers who were migrating from rural India to Mumbai.

Because of the slum’s higher-than-average concentration of Tamils (people from Tamil Nadu), it is known as “chotta Tamil Nadu” (small Tamil Nadu).

In the 18th century, this area was merely a mangrove marsh. Around the turn of the 19th century, many hundred Koli fishermen built the Koliwada village here.

By the middle of the 19th century, Mumbai had experienced a population explosion, and many Indians had relocated there in search of work with the East India Company. Ten times more people lived in the city than in London.

Indians with low salaries started to settle down in Dharavi. To make things easier, the British government gave them a 99-year lease in 1895. These inhabitants built tiny villages inside them, including businesses, schools, mosques, temples, and other buildings.

Dharavi started to be used as a landfill after India gained its independence from the British. Dharavi changed as Mumbai became a city of the utmost modernism, becoming the garbage dump of the city. Development plans for Dharavi were provided by each political party in power in Mumbai. But most of them came up short. In 1960, a social worker in Dharavi established the Co-operative Housing Society to enhance the standard of living for those who resided in the slum.

Numerous companies have offered numerous plans and suggestions for enhancing and reconstructing Dharavi.

All preparations have been abandoned as a result of protests from Dharavi residents and other groups.

 

Colonial Period: The Dharavi Slums

In pre-colonial India, a fishing community called Koli had developed close to the island of Parel’s northernmost point. They lived close to Mahim Creek, which had long provided them with a source of food. Keep in mind that this was the pre-colonial Bombay, which consisted of seven islands off the coast of the Arabian Sea. The Portuguese colonists did not have any impact on the Koli fishermen’s community when they built a small fort and chapel at Bandra, the beach opposite Dharavi, in the 16th century. Gerald Aungier, the second British governor of Bombay, gave the order to build the Kala Qila, also known as the Riwa Fort, in Dharavi.

For the British forces, the fort served as a watchtower, guarding them from any Maratha or Portuguese incursions. The beginning of the reclamation of Bombay’s marshes in the 18th century was a turning point in Dharavi’s history. The combined land mass of all seven islands was located outside Parel.

Dharavi Slums

Mahim Creek soon dried up as a result of the reclamation effort. The Koli village had run out of resources and had begun to spread out in quest of new chances. Initially, immigrants from Gujarat, Konkan, & Maharashtra were drawn to the colonial, industrial city of Bombay by the opportunities it offered. The authorities immediately drove these immigrants north to the outskirts of Bombay once they landed in the southern part of the city. Dharavi was the home of numerous artists and aspirants by the start of the 20th century, including Muslim leather tanners from Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh embroidery workers, & Tamil Nadu confectioners.

When Maharashtra passed the Maharashtra Slum Areas Improvement, Clearance and Redevelopment Act in 1971, Dharavi was classified as a slum. Water and sewage pipes, taps, restrooms, power, and other amenities for the public were erected along the Sion-Mahim-Link routes. To accommodate people whose dwellings were in the way of construction projects, transit camps were constructed.

 

After Independence, the Dharavi Slums

When Maharashtra passed the Maharashtra Slum Areas Improvement, Clearance and Redevelopment Act in 1971, Dharavi was classified as a slum. Water and sewage pipes, taps, restrooms, power, and other amenities for the public were erected along the Sion-Mahim-Link routes. To accommodate people whose dwellings were in the way of construction projects, transit camps were constructed. When Maharashtra passed the Maharashtra Slum Areas Improvement, Clearance & Redevelopment Act in 1971, Dharavi was classified as a slum. Water and sewage pipes, taps, restrooms, power, and other amenities for the public were erected along the Sion-Mahim-Link routes. To accommodate people whose dwellings were in the way of construction projects, transit camps were constructed.

The years that followed saw a lot of activity in Dharavi. The existence of Dharavi and the urgency for its expansion were acknowledged in the 1981 Bombay development plan. In 1985, Rajiv Gandhi pledged Rs. 100 crores to improve the housing stock and other amenities in Bombay, with about 30% set aside for Dharavi. The Prime Minister’s Grant Project was started in 1987, and a Special Planning Authority was established by the MHADA.

Mumbai was gradually demolished and rebuilt, but this time with an FSI that was roughly double. The entire premise of the report rested on a public-private collaboration to attract significant sums of funding from around the world to the housing and infrastructure sectors.

The Dharavi Redevelopment Plan was developed by the Maharashtra government in 2004 in response to the report’s recommendations. It envisioned dividing Dharavi into five parts in exchange for better developed land and requesting that businesses all over the world offer free housing to the “eligible” slum dwellers of Dharavi. This was not warmly received by the people of Dharavi. The Dharavi residents had little say in the overall development plan, and the policies ignored their needs.

 

What is the Dharavi Redevelopment Project (DRP)?

The Dharavi Redevelopment Project, often known as the DRP, was created in 1995 by Indian architect Mukesh Mehta, a non-resident. The DRP received approval from the Maharashtra government in 2004. Currently, the Dharavi Redevelopment Project (DRP) is expected to freshen up the Dharavi Notified Area (DNA), a roughly triangular area of prime land that contains astonishing 525 acres. The DRP’s pace, however, has accelerated and decelerated numerous times over the previous 16 years.

The Dharavi Notified Area was created in 2005 according to a resolution issued by the Urban Development Department after the DRP’s official approval in 2004. This resolution mandated that the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) act as the DRP’s Special Planning Authority. The DRP welcomed the project’s initial round of international applications in 2007. The government and the non-governmental organisation MASHAL also undertaken the difficult task of conducting a GIS-biometric survey and a socioeconomic baseline of Dharavi’s sectors 1–5 between 2007 and 2008.

The DRP has never been able to attract major builders or sizeable investments due to its unstable nature and the real estate market’s volatility. It’s probable that the government’s motivation to participate in the programme was diminished because the private sector showed such little interest in the DRP project. The DRP experienced a period of relative inactivity between 2008 and 2016, during which the government-controlled MHADA was in charge of developing Dharavi sector 5.

 

Dharavi Redevelopment Project

When the Maharashtra government made the decision to create a special purpose entity in 2018 to further encourage participation in the DRP, this situation changed (SPV). A single function Object () [native code] or a group of constructors working together as a single construct would be responsible for handling the building of Sectors 1–5. The state would own a stake in the special purpose vehicle (SPV) equal to 20%, or one hundred crores, and the private developer would own a stake equivalent to 80%, or four hundred crores. The Development Control Regulations 2034, which have particular rules for the DRP, were passed by the BMC in November 2018.

Only SecLink Technologies Corporation & Adani Infrastructure, two consortia of builders, participated in the most recent round of bidding. Despite efforts by the State of Maharashtra to hold the competition. SecLink Technologies Corporation (STC), a Dubai-based consortium, was named the contest’s victor, earning a promise to invest Rs. 7,200 crores in the project’s initial phase. However, the project saw yet another period of inaction.

The 16-year-old reconstruction project will now be put out to new bids, the state government of Maharashtra has determined. After the state government cancelled the project’s prior tender, this choice was made in 2020.

The rebuilding of Dharavi will have a profound impact on Mumbai as well as the political landscape for many years to come. According to experts, the effort will offer slum dwellers a sizable chance while also supporting urban planners, human rights activists, and the government of the state of Maharashtra in changing the appearance of the city as a whole.

 

Why Dharavi Needs High-Rise Structures

The agencies in charge of Dharavi’s infrastructure must simultaneously permit the construction of numerous skyscrapers and upgrade the city’s current amenities. Here’s how this will be beneficial:

The clandestine economy of Dharavi is thought to generate $500 million in revenue annually. The unemployment rate in India’s slums, like Dharavi, is substantially lower than it is elsewhere in the nation. When compared to Indian norms, the average annual salary is between $500 & $2,000, which is not exceptionally low. On the other hand, there are no further amenities available to the locals here beyond what is necessary for survival. Dharavi’s population density is currently unhealthy due to a lack of floor space in the city. More trade & interaction could emerge from a dense population. However, it also raises the chance of sickness, which has the effect of increasing neonatal mortality and decreasing life expectancy. Dharavi can maintain its high population density while simultaneously decongesting its living areas by building more towers of this type.

Dharavi’s current problems are not unique. Nearly all of a developing nation’s big cities have these neighbourhoods. Even the global western metropolis of the 19th century had them. The most populous cities in England were refer to as “death traps” during the middle of the 19th century. Deaths in London between 1650 to 1750 cut the increase in England’s population in half. People were drawn to the most lucrative cities of todays develop West, which increase the danger of premature death since they lived too close to one another in areas with inadequate water supply and sanitary facilities.

High-Rise Structures

New York has a far shorter life expectancy than the rest of the country compared to a century ago. Dharavi, India, is in a lot better condition to handle the current scenario than London or New York were 150 years ago. In a wealthy city like Mumbai, the local government can collect enough money from fees on real estate developers who build upward to fund the construction of basic infrastructure.

Like other cities throughout the globe, Dharavi has the ability to raise the level of living for its citizens. On the other side, if it fails, many individuals might draw the conclusion that Dharavi-style slums are one of the negative effects of urbanization. Despite the fact that many who live in Dharavi are better off there than in the places they left behind, this will be seen as justification for a slower rate of urbanization. Despite all the issues they bring, slums offer low-income residents the most affordable housing options.

Even though there is no proof that a higher building density will lead to a higher population density, the inadequate infrastructure in Dharavi could be use as justification for retaining the current building density. In Dharavi’s residential neighbourhoods, there has already been some informal virtualization of slums. The amount of economic activity would soar and grow even more vibrant & dynamically if these unofficial towns were given formal recognition.

Mumbai has offered slum dwellers resettlement programmes since since 1936. But these programmes typically disregard the needs and interests of those who reside in slums, and they regularly create regulations without consulting anyone. Since it is extremely expensive for them to go further outside of the city centre, slum people frequently reclaim the areas of the city where they were previously located. Real estate in this district is not inexpensive, as evidenced by the fact that shanties in Dharavi can cost more than one crore rupees. To call this place home, residents need enough infrastructures, additional floor space, and their houses’ legal rights.

 

Conclusion

Mumbai has a large number of slum regions, which contrast sharply with the city’s affluent urban population. Given the deplorable living conditions, it is only fair that slum residents have access to at least the most basic amenities and infrastructure. Along with restoration, it also contributes to a better metropolitan skyline.

 

 

 

 

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