Dharavi in Mumbai is the chief The Mumbai Slum region which is known as one of the largest slums in the world if the largest as yet. Mumbai being an island city has little scope for expansion and the limited land available is the reason behind a huge share of Mumbai's population residing in the mobile housing by the roadside.
As per the latest reports, the slum population has risen to constitute 60% of Mumbai's population. The figure varies from survey to survey and the according to the reports of World Bank, the percentage of slum dwelling Mumbaikars is around 54%. The slums in Mumbai have been present ever since the development of City from the fishing village. Nowadays people from a variety of background are known to inhabit slums but in the times post independence, the slum dwellers were mostly the laborers who toiled in factories and mills. The slums were concentrated in Byculla, Parel, Dadar and Mahim Creek.
The problem of the Mumbai slums is the living conditions do not match up to health living standards. There is no proper sanitation or sewerage system. The houses are extremely unplanned and too many
|
people share a single room. Not all have the advantage of staying under the roof. Hundreds of people sleep on roadside and footpath. As a result of such clumsy living, the slum areas always remain littered with garbage, faces and give off obnoxious odor. In the times of rain, the slums are very badly affected. The people have to deal with water logging, lack of drinking water, food and shelter.
One reason why the Mumbai slum has been in an ever expanding phase is because of the growing population, the high cost of land and house rental, the increasing number of immigrants to Mumbai and the lack of a proper planning to develop cheap housing for people of low income. Some of the slum dwellers in Mumbai have been there for generations. Mumbai is a dream city, where people come over every day in hope of work. Not all can afford to stay in hotels or guesthouses and the obvious alternative becomes the slums in Mumbai.
To deal with the problem of slums, the government of Mumbai had launched the Slum Upgradation Project in 1985. The goal of the project was to reserve lands and plots for slum dwellers.
|
