Chapter-Ill SLUMS : A SPATIAL OVERVIEW. International Scenario

Transcription

1 Chapter-Ill SLUMS : A SPATIAL OVERVIEW International Scenario The Indian Scene Regional Pattern City Slums

2 The present chapter is in the form of an overview of slums at the international, national, regional and city levels. A comparative view has been taken of slums in the developing and the developed world, followed by the situation as obtaining in India and its various states. Finally, slums have been examined at the level of Faridabad city. International Scenario History testifies that slums have existed in one form or other, almost in every city of the world, be it the dties and towns of Roman empire, post-vedic Indian towns, feudal Europe or England of middle ages (Abram, 1990, p.9). However after world war n, as a consequence of industrial revolution, material development concomitant with massive urbanisation, slums have rapidly grown in the developing and the developed world. The third world is considered to have the worst slums. The socialist world too has not been left unaffected by this urban problem. But, there is little information available about slums in socialist countries. Different sets of factors explain the origin of slums in the developed and developing worlds. In the developed world as the importance of an area declines new centres of economic activities emerge. Opposed to this in the developing world the nature of urban space and the mode of its use is significantly different. Here, though the structure at the city centre degenerates fast and the level of pollution goes much above the permissible limit, the middle class inhabitants continue to cling to their paternal space and therefore the shift within the dty does not take place at the rate at which it takes place in the developed world. Therefore the slums in the developing part of the world do not grow at the core, nor do they grow in abandoned areas, rather they are seen to grow on unopposed public land or land earmarked for some other purpose in

3 37 the dty s master plan etc. They are seen to grow in peripheral areas or along transport lines such as along a railway line or highways etc., and they lack in urban amenities. The slums in the developing part of the world are generally temporary structures. Secondly there is a difference in morphology or level of amenities found in the slums of developed and developing world. With regards to the developing world "... immigrant foreign groups were forced to live in the worst neighbourhoods due to lack of housing and consequently high rents... hence an increasing number of immigrant families had to find accommodation in stables, attics, damp-sellers, all small and congested, with poor water supply and inadequate toilet and washing facilities." (Clinard, 1982). In contrast the slums of the developing world have houses made up of thatched roofs, huts made of waste materials like tin sheets, asbestos sheets, rags or in big water pipes etc. Moreover they are either completely lacking in other basic amenities or their level of inadequacy is quite extreme. As the era of planning started the scenario of slums changed from dilapidated old, historical clusters to government created slums, both in developed and developing worlds. Thirdly, rich world developed 'tenement slums, as in New York dty, Manchester etc. Tenements were low cost multistoried houses which were made for the purpose of crowding into one building as many people as possible. In the developing world the trend was of authorising the pre-existing slums and providing them with a few basic amenities at the least possible expense for eg: local taps, community toilets and bathrooms etc. In some of the developing

4 38 countries a poorer version of tenements can also be seen as: J.J. Colonies of Delhi. The factors accounting for a large size of slum population in the developing world are:- (i) The post world war II period : when most of the developing countries got independence, was marked by massive rural-urban migration, especially to the capital and industrial cities. Poor migrants, unskilled and ill-equipped for any job, had to get absorbed mainly in low wage informal sector. They could ill-afford any regular housing and had to take shelter in slums. (ii) Within the cities, there was a gross inequality in the distribution of urban land. An intensified pressure on urban land led to a wave of land speculation. The need of the poor and the greed of the rich rendered urban land beyond the financial reach of the poor. They were impelled to raise slums illegally on any vacant land. (iii) The prevailing soft administrative culture was also responsible for the proliferation of slums. Local authorities generally did not put any effective resistance to slum encroachments on vacant land, especially if owned by government. Meanwhile the local politicians encouraged this tendency. They regarded the slums as their vote banks. They generally pressurised the government against clearance of such localities. The proportion of slum population is highest in African cities, it is as high as 90 percent in some cases (Fig.4). The per capita income in African countries is the lowest among the developing countries: US $785 against $1955 in the Asian and $6395 in the Latin American countries (World Bank, 1998/99, p.189). Their urban population growth rate is also the highest, 7 percent per annum against 4.5 in Asian countries and 3.5 in the Latin American countries.

5 DEVELOPING WORLD : INCIDENCE OF SLUMS IN SOME SELECTED CITIES «:fffaddjs*ababa:f 1966 ABADAN if ANKARA -fix BOGOTA NAME OF THE CITY - AGORA 1969 : OAR+ES«SAEAAM : x fxxfffxf-ffx:, Vff.: KOALA-LUMP UR fxv..; 1971 r:::::::::man1taf^:f'f::!:ff:'::fx::::'x::::-:fff:::f::::x:::ff;:i:l 1972 :^;:;:f::na1bq6l;f::::f:;f;:f: fxfffff-x'ffffffffffff fmumbaiffiiffxf^xfv.xfffx-xffxfxxxfl xcalcotta i 1980 ^^ffioethtxf-fiffxiffffxxfxffxfxfxf 1980 t f :: :FARIDA:BAD: : : I 1997 : JAKARTHA xxx fix: PERCENT IN TOTAL POPULATION 100 Fig.4 Note: Definitions of slums and squatter areas differ from country to country. The above data present the roughest of comparison of slum population in different cities. Source: Johannes F. Linn (1983). Cities in the Developing World- Policies for their Equitable and Efficient Growth. Oxford University Press. New York, pp

6 39 Every big dty of the world has its own share of slums. For instance slums of Dhaka and Lagos steam with high humidity and stink from open drains. Impoverished shanty towns or squatter shacks constructed from junk, cover the hill sides of Rio-de-Janerio, Lima, Hongkong and other Asian, African and South-American cities. Slums of Hongkong are the most crowded, where a single room houses families, with only a bed space and no element of personal privacy. On the other band the communist or the Socialist world too is not devoid of shanty settlements. Erstwhile Soviet Union has plenty of these. The requisite data for these countries are not available but, the scholars who have visited these countries bear testimony to their existence (Tretton, 1970). In the Chinese cities of Canton, Shanghai, thousands of families live in waterfront damp-pan of boating slums. Bangkok also has raised wooden stills along the water fronts. The western world also has its types of slums. New York has western and lower East side. Chicago has its Black Belt. London is well known for its East End. In the developed part of world urban growth is in the form of subuibs and in the developing part it is in the form of slum urbanisation. Slums have become the most visible feature of the big cities in the third world countries. In several cities a majority of the population lives in slums. The Indian Scene In line with other developing countries of the world, India is passing through a phase of rapid industrialisation and urbanisation. Its urban population was recorded as million at the last census held in In 1951, the urban population of the country was only 62 million. The size of India s urban population has grown three to four-fold during Associated with rapid urban growth has been the process of slum proliferation. The increasing rate of

7 40 slum population, largely through immigration, is placed at twice that of the rest of urban population. The annual increase in India s slum population is estimated at over three million, totalling 55 million. This figure almost equals the population size of United Kingdom. Slums are a most conspicuous feature of metropolitan cities, where around one-third of the population lives in slums. The number of million plus cities has increased from 12 in 1981 to 23 in Cities smaller than one million population have nearly one-fourth of their residential population in slums. The comparable proportion for towns with a population of 50,000 to 1,00,000 persons, is around one-fifth. The large size of the slum population of India has several implications. In particular it demands a heavy expenditure even if only the basic services are to be provided. At the rate of Rs. 500/- per person, the cost will be no less than Rs billion. This amount is 5 times of the allocation of Rs.5.27 billion made for urban development as a whole under the eighth plan ( ). Proliferation of slums in urban areas is due to increasing shortage of housing in cities. Table 3.1 Urban India s Status of Housing s 1991 and 2001 (in millions) Particulars (estimates) Households Usable Housing Stock Housing Shortage Source: National Building Organisation (1990). The Handbook of Housing Statistics Part-1, and Government of India, Eighth Five Year Plan, , Ministry of Hanning, New Delhi, Vol.II, p.361.

8 41 Table 3.1 shows an increase in the number of housing requirements. Inspite of all the resources put in and the rapid construction work going on in the urban areas, the number of slums has increased and so has the corresponding number of shortage of houses i.e. in 1991 there was a shortage of 9.6 million houses and projections for the year 2001 reveal that the shortage is expected to 14.3 miliions. In 1981 the shortage was 4.8 million houses. Regional Pattern The urban population has increased by percent during , from millions to 217 millions. This rapid and high rate of urbanisation has infact lead to an increase in the number of persons living on pavements, in squatter and other forms of degraded settlements. In percent of total urban population lived in slums which increased to percent in The states having higher percentage of slum population in (1981) than the national average were Andhra-Pradesh, West Bengal, Punjab and Maharashtra (Fig.5). Out of the 15 major states shown in the table 3.2, Karnataka had the lowest percentage of slum population in In 1991, Kerala replaced Karnataka for the lowest percentage (17.74 percent) of slum population. Maximum decadal growth of slum population was in Assam and Karnataka (Table 3.2). Bihar, the state with the lowest per-capita incomes in the country among the major states in the country, has the dubious distinction of having the highest proportion of urban population (28.80 percent) living in slums. Assam, Uttar Pradesh and Orissa, again with a low per capita income, have nearly one-fourth of their urban population in slums. Other low income states such as Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have one-fifth of urban population in slums.

9 y s* v JAMMU A KASHMIR r 'Zzf HIMACHALV'-* poyjpradesh 1 ) INDIA: URBAN SLUM POPULATION, 1991 ARIJNACHAL <-*x /no a TMS «U ^n. "

10 42 The relatively developed states of Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh had more than one-fourth of their urban population as slum dwellers. The process of slum proliferation had strengthened and became widespread. The spatial disparity in existence of slums had reduced considerably from percent in 1981 to in One fifth of world s population lives in India, one fifth of India s population lives in urban areas and one fifth of urban population lives in slums... (Census of India, occasional paper No.3,1988). According to the sixth five year plan, in 1985 around million people lived in slums and in 1990, 51.2 million people inhabited slums (Town and Country Planning Organisation, 1985). Mass migration was evident at die time of partition of India. Subsequently it got accelerated with the ushering in of industrialisation. From rural India the upper class and caste people migrated to urban centres for higher education and white collar employment and business. On the other hand the landless labour, marginal farmers and artisans migrated in search of employment. Large scale migration of population from rural areas has aggravated the problem of accommodation in urban centres. The disintegration of families, labour migration from rural areas, existing backlog of housing in urban areas exhorbitant cost of urban land, tremendous land speculation etc. together has resulted in their inhabitation on vulnerable areas of cities or at places where there is least resistance from local authorities or on private estates where there is no resistance from the owners.

11 43 Table 3.2 India: Slum Population, Country/State Percent Slum Population INDIA Andhra Pradesh Assam Bihar Gujarat Haryana Karnataka Kerala Madhya Pradesh Maharashtra Orissa Punjab Rajasthan Tamil Nadu Uttar Pradesh West Bengal Source: (i) Census of India (1991), Series 1, Paper 2 of 1992, Final Population Totals, Registrar General and Census Commissioner, New Delhi. (ii) National Institute of Urban Affairs (1988), India - Urban Social Indicators, New Delhi. The growth rate of slums is more than 5 to 10 times the growth rate of the urban population in general. In India the percentage of slum population ranges from below 10 percent of urban population in states like Kerala and

12 44 above 40 percent in Bihar. The hill states have a comparatively low percentage of slum population. The incidence of slum population shows a positive correlation with the level of industrialisation and the share of cities in the urban population. It is also seen that its relationship with the income level of various states is indifferent. Haryana, in particular, with one of the highest per capita income in the country, is middle-ranking in terms of proportion of slum population living in its towns. City Slums Individual dties show a striking variation in the proportion of slum population. Hie share of slum population in the total has a positive relationship with the size of towns/dties. Going by the National Buildings Organisation s estimates, small and medium towns (population less than 100,000 each) have about one-tenth of their population living in slums. This proportion increases to nearly one-fifth in dties with populatins of 100,000 to 1,000,000. The "million" dties have almost one-third of their population in slums. This pattern is consistent with a higher rate of immigration to bigger dties which have a greater potential to offer employment (Table 3.3). The estimates of the Task Force are somewhat on the higher side. Small and medium towns have over one-sixth, cities with a population of 100,000 to 1,000,000 one-fifth, and the "million" cities over one-third of their population in slums. The general observation, that slums in big dties accomodate a large sedion of the population, is substantiated.

13 45 Table 3 3 India: Estimated Slum Population by Size Class of Towns, 1981 Population Size Class of Towns Percentage of slum population NBO s estimate Task Force s estimate Less than 100, ,000 to one million More than one million All classes Source: (i) National Building Organisation, Handbook No.3, Housing Statistics, 1981, New Delhi. (ii) Task Force on Housing and Urban Development Planning Commission, New Delhi, Low and high estimates for slum population in Indian towns and cities are provided. These estimates were averaged for this Table. The incidence of slum population in an Indian dty is also related to its functional character. Industrial cities have the highest proportion of slum population. Faridabad, primarily an industrial city, has 30 percent of its population in slums. Location is still another important determinant of the proportion of slum population in cities. North Indian cities have a predominance of slums in comparison to the cities of the Interior Deccan. The slum population in desert and in the mountainous area of Himalayas is low in absolute numbers. Border area towns such as Siliguri, Guwahati etc. have experienced slum proliferation due to influx of refugee population from across the border. Planned cities too have an alarmingly high proportion of slums. The proportion of population in the metropolitan cities of India living in slums in 1991 was about percent and was seen heading to 60 percent in some cities. The CSD (city slum development) study of the slums in Delhi and Hyderabad (1981, 1985) has shown that the slum population in these cities grew at the rate of percent per annum, as compared to the total population growth rate of 4-6 percent. The

14 46 total number of notified slums in 200 class I cities was 138 in 1981 and 286 in class II cities was 131. Thus 69 percent of class I cities and percent of class II towns had slums. According to 1991 census the state of Haryana had 224 recognised slums in 11 of its cities. Faridabad alone had 26 of these slums. Similarly 11 dass II towns had 132 slums (Table 3.4). The number of slums grew with size dass of towns. It has been observed that the problem of slums is far more acute than recognised by the census. For instance, in Andhra Pradesh, Warangal (Class I town), Chitoot and Jagtial (Class II towns) did not have any notified slums. Cities of Vijaywada, Bapatila, Chilakalurpet, Palamala, Rajamundry, Secunderabad Cantonment etc. have numerous slums but data regarding notified slums was not available with the census. In Gujarat, dties as Ahmedabad, Surat, Gandhi-Nagar etc. have notified slums. Other dties as Baroda, Bhavnagar etc. did not have notified slum data upto Similarly other states too have their own respective share of slums. Table 3.4 Haryana: Notified slums in Class I and II towns, Class of town Number of towns having slums Number of. slums Percentage distribution of slum population I 8/9 11/ II 3/ Source: (i) Government of Haryana (1996). Census of India 1991, Series-8, Haryana, Town Directory, Part IX-A, Director of Census operations, Haryana. (ii) Census of India, Series-6, Haryana, Town Directory, Part X-A. Director of Cenus Operations, Haryana.

15 47 Conclusions Urban slums are spread worldwide, irrespective of the development level or politico-economic complexion of different countries. These are typical of both the developed and developing countries realms as also of the capitalist, socialist and third world countries. Incidence of slum proliferation is certainly of greater magnitude in developing countries. This is associated largely with transference of their rural poor to urban places through the process of migration. Meanwhile the urban municipal bodies are proving administratively, technically and financially incapable of checking the process of slum formation for these cannot ensure adequate housing to all. In India, the percentage of slum population differs by population size, functional nature and regional location of various urban places. Percentage of slum population in the million cities is more than three times of that in places with a population of less than one hundred thousand, which is turn have larger slum population than other smaller towns. Industrial cities have larger proportion of slum population than others of different functional character, and north Indian cities record higher percentage of slum population than their southern counterpart. It is no surprise that with the process of industrialisation having picked up since seventies nearly 30.0 percent of Faridabad s population lives in slums.