Slums in India

Slums known as bustees in India, favelas in Brazil, katchi abadis in Pakistan and focos insalubres in Cuba, all have few characterictics in common:

• Poor structural quality and durability of housing
• Insufficient living areas (more than three people sharing a room)
• Lack of secure tenure
• Poor access to water
• Lack of sanitation facilities

The Pranab Sen Committee has given a new definition for slums in India. It has defined a slum as “a compact settlement of at least 20 households with a collection of poorly built tenements, mostly of temporary nature, crowded together usually with inadequate sanitary and drinking water facilities in unhygienic conditions”.

The new definition of slum is different from the definition adopted by the 2001 Census of India. Accordingly to 2001 Census, slum areas broadly constitute of:

1. All specified areas in a town or city notified as ‘Slum’ by State/Local Government and UT Administration under any Act including a ‘Slum Act’;
2. All areas recognized as ‘Slum’ by State/Local Government and UT Administration which may have been formally notified as slum under any act;
3. A compact area of at least 300 people or about 60-70 households of poorly built congested tenements in unhygienic environment usually with inadequate infrastructure and lacking in proper sanitary and drinking water facilities.

There are various reasons for creation of slums of which the most important are as follows:

• Increased urbanization leading to pressure on the available land and infrastructure, especially for the poor.
• Natural increase in the population of urban poor and migration from rural areas and small towns to larger cities.
• Inappropriate system of urban planning which does not provide adequate space for the urban poor in the City Master Plans.
• Sky-rocketing land prices due to increasing demand for land and constraints on supply of land.
• Absence of programmes of affordable housing for the urban poor in most States.
• Lack of availability of credit for low income housing.
• Increasing cost of construction.

Although Land, Colonization and Slums are State subjects, the Central government has brought up with the following schemes:

a) Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) which was launched on 3rd December, 2005 with the objectives of augmenting infrastructure facilities in cities and towns along with provision of shelter and basic civic services to slum dwellers/urban poor. JNNURM aims at creating ‘economically productive, efficient, equitable and responsive Cities’ by a strategy of upgrading the social and economic infrastructure in cities, provision of Basic Services to Urban Poor (BSUP)[1] and wide-ranging urban sector reforms to strengthen municipal governance in accordance with the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992.

b) Interest Subsidy Scheme for Housing the Urban Poor (ISHUP) has been conceived for providing interest subsidy on housing urban poor to make the housing affordable and within the repaying capacity of Economically Weaker Section. The scheme encourages poor sections to avail of loan facilities through Commercial Banks/HUDCO for the purposes of construction of houses and avail 5% subsidy in interest payment for loans upto Rs. 1 lakh.

c) Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) has been launched in 2009, for the slum dwellers and the urban poor. This scheme would aim to provide support for shelter & basic civic and social services for slum redevelopment and for creation of new affordable housing stock to States that are willing to assign property rights to slum dwellers. The Slum Free City/State Plan is envisaged to comprise of  two parts-- Part I- Strategy to redevelop existing slums and Part II – Strategy for prevention of creation of slums, delineating the development of affordable housing for the urban poor and revision to existing urban policy and programmes for the prevention of slums. This plan would form the basis for providing assistance to the States, after the scheme is approved.