Horizon of DRP

HORIZON OF THE DHARAVI REDEVELOPMENT PLAN

IntroductionA cluster of seven islands perched off the main land on the west coast of India merged to form the financial capital of India – The City of Mumbai. It is one of the richest cities in the world that claims to be the world’s new Shanghai and the second largest urban composition of the world after Tokyo by the year 2025. Like every coin, Mumbai too has the other side to it by throwing the global inequality in the most striking manner into the perspective. Though it homes the most expensive private homes, it is also a home to the world’s largest slum – Dharavi, which is occupied by 55% of the Mumbai’s population that is a staggering figure

of 1 million who moved in years ago.

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Source: www.news.bbc.co.uk and wikimapia

Horizon of DRP

Growth of Dharavi into Informal settlementDharavi is situated in the heart of the city facing the Mahim creek to the north and surrounded by the upcoming Bandra – Kurla commercial district, wedged between the Western and Central Railway lines and bounded by the major road connecting the north and the south Mumbai and hence has access to all the important areas of the city. Dharavi occupies the 2 sq. km. of the valuable land in the city. Being an island, Dharavi was one of the six ‘Koliwadas’ (fishing village) inhabited by the kolis (fishermen). With the development of Mumbai as metro-city, the islands got filled in and became a convenient dumping ground for the city. Dharavi was left undeveloped and unwanted for decades being it a dumping ground to develop into what it is today. With the people migrating into the city from the rural areas, city’s poor looking for cheap accommodation and employment and the growing shortage of land, people started filling the boggy marshland making it habitable. Dharavi spreads over 435 hectares of land with the population density of 17,000 per sq. km. According to a survey conducted by SPARC, there are 86,000 structures lodging 106,000 families at an average of 6.2 people per house. Dharavi has 162 taps for water and 842 toilets, one for every 150 people.

The potter community from the south of Mumbai was forced to move towards the north when the land they occupied became valuable to the state. These people formed a small district call ‘Kumbharwada’ (potters’ district) that distinctly exists in Dharavi. Dharavi is a composition of a number of small industries and settlements with their own identity which were formed due to industrialisation that had forced the workers’ families to leave the industries and seek out alternative employment. There were lot of local factories and cottage industries were formed in district of Dharavi that include leather tanneries and the finishing of leather goods, clothing industries, bakeries, poppadum drying, printing businesses and recycling of numerous materials. Practically every home here produces something to sell. Dharavi has more than 10,000 industries running giving a daily turnover of more than $1 million and annual turnover of $650 million. This makes Dharavi bare all the entrepreneurial spirit and multi-million dollar micro-business and break all the stereotypes of a slum. Moreover, the products made in Dharavi are sourced and sold globally. An informal census showed that in a slum like Dharavi only 10% of the people are unemployed where as in the other slums there is only 10-15% people employed. Most of the residents of Dharavi find employment where they live.

Redevelopment of DharaviMost of the people living in the city will be affected by the redevelopment plan. The redevelopment plan is on the global radar and the outcome of it will set a precedent to other sums in the city, country as well as other parts of the world. There have been a number of rehabilitation efforts made before the Dharavi Redevelopment Plan (DRP). In

1976 – Slum Improvement Program

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1980 – Slum Up-gradation Program 1980 – Site & Service Program 1985 – Prime Minister Grant 1994 – People’s Participation Program 1996 – Slum Rehabilitation Scheme

In 1985, the ‘Prime Minister Grant’ of `1 billion was given by Prime Minister Rajeev Gandhi as part of the centenary celebrations of the Indian National Congress to improve the infrastructure in the city out of which ` 350 million was given to Dharavi for the improvement of the slum. A unit called Prime Minister’s Grant Project (PMGP) was made by the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) with the a special planning authority to undertake the process. There were a lot of leather industry together with most of the leather curing done in Dharavi got moved. Thought there were some improvements made in the shanties with some housing construction, there was no change in the overall appeal and nature of Dharavi (Patel S. & Arputham, J - 2007). Before and after this program there were other efforts made for the improvement of the slum in Mumbai.

Dharavi is important for Mumbai’s future development with a view of how the slum dwellers are benefitted from the redevelopment. The city’s future strategies in dealing with the slum dwellers will be influenced by the way in which Dharavi is redeveloped at a time when the real estate development has global capital prospering into the city in answer to the increased demand for high-end housing and commercial space. The recent Dharavi Redevelopment Plan is aspiring in which the region of Dharavi is divided into different sectors in which the redevelopment will be executed by the international companies by bidding for the right to develop every sector. The people whose homes and settlements were bulldozed and for those who have to move for the new developments in the city have been ensured some provisions by the government and are termed as the “project-affected persons”. The government and the developer can reduce the number of the project affect persons to reduce the costs by providing this entitlement only to those who have lived in for a number of years or by demanding a proof residence which a lot of residents cannot produce. The cut-off year was 1995 which was later amended to the year 2000. The major and the most important question arises here that whether the redevelopment plan will take place in partnership with the residents and their enterprises or will the plan be imposed on them without their involvement and consultation? (Patel S. & Arputham, J - 2007)

Challenges in Implementing DRP and Responses from the StateFor the benefit of the slum dwellers the different Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) have taken steps and communicated with the government and the developers involved in the redevelopment plan. Jockin Arputham from the National Slum Dwellers Federation (NSDF) writes an open letter to the

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Horizon of DRP

government and to the developers involved in the redevelopment mentioning that all the people who live and work in Dharavi accept the need for the redevelopment. They agree to the development that includes the residential buildings with some units for sale to the outsiders with come commercial developments to support and finance Dharavi’s redevelopment. With this the residents demand for their involvement in design and implementation of the plan. The people of other informal settlements in Mumbai along with the residents of the slum living close to the International airport and along the railway lines also agree to this demand because without their involvement and consultation even their own settlements will be at higher risk. Moreover, they also agree to the need for development near the airport but they want to be consulted and involved in the process and know when and how it will be done and where will the residents have to move. (Patel S. & Arputham, J - 2007)

There are political parties involved in the redevelopment plan. The ruling party – Indian National Congress strongly support the redevelopment but there are other opposition parties such as Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) oppose the plan even though they themselves supported the plan when in power. The alliance formed by the civic organisation in Mumbai for the support of the poor – the NGOs like SPARC, National Slum Dwellers Federation (NSDF) and Mahila Milan. The politicians in India envision Indian cities like the other world class cities like Chicago, Singapore and now Shanghai. But above all, the character of Mumbai as the spirited city where the rich and the poor co-exist, safety of women and it pride in being people’s city has not changed. This city can be developed into people-centred redevelopment by developing a structure that mediates between the interests of the private developers and the residents but this needs a mature political leadership. Dharavi spreads over 2.4 square kilometres of which 1.44 square kilometres are divided into sectors for development. The plan promises to re-house all the residents of Dharavi but there are low trust because of the poor records of the government in actually meeting the promises made. (Patel S. & Arputham, J - 2007)

Moreover, there were no surveys undertaken before the start of the project to record the number of people and living and working there to ensure the all the residents at present get entitled for the free housing. This is left for developers to do later over the fact of Dharavi being so well located that the developer will reduce the space allocated to the residents and increase the space that can be commercially developed or sold. The government has also refused to involve the residents because the township lies on the state land. The industries in Mumbai rely on the enterprises or the people in Dharavi to a great extent. Moreover it has cheap accommodations in central locations in spite of it being over-crowded. (Patel S. & Arputham, J; 2007) Hindustan times in its article in 2011 said that the DRP continues to face hurdles in turning Dharavi into a plush township. MASHAL, a NGO conducted a biometric survey of slum dwellers in Dharavi in which it was found that around 31% of the residents are not eligible for the free housing under the ` 15000 crore project of redevelopment in sector 5 which the state housing agency wishes to develop and the reason being they moved in after

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January 1, 2000. The eligibility issue increased as it was found that 63% of the residents were not eligible for the housing in sector 3. (Patel S. & Arputham, J - 2007; Patel S. & Arputham, J - 2008)

The group called the Concerned Citizens of Dharavi raised concerns about the DRP and wrote to the chief minister of Maharashtra in May 2007. The other groups formed by the residents of Dharavi are the Dharavi Bachao Andolan (Save Dharavi Movement) which is a union of associations, cooperatives and networks and Dharavi Vikas Samittee (Dharavi Development Committee) which is a union of cooperatives and business leaders that jointly sought to increase the pressure on the state government and emphasize that not only were they unhappy with the way the redevelopment was being organised but also the local citizens on the city. These groups were formed as a consequence of the earlier listing carried out by alliance of SPARC, Mahila Milan and NSDF to counter the listing of there being 55,000 houses in Dharavi by the state government. The enumeration by the alliance showed more than 81,000 structures and more than 120,000 households and businesses. (Patel S. & Arputham, J – 2008; Patel S., Arputham J.,Burra, S. & Savchuk, K. - 2009)

The Concerned Citizens of Dharavi (CCD) came together as a self-formed group of activists to raise concerns about the redevelopment plan which include that the scheme was oriented towards maximising commercial exploitation at the expense of the residents’ access to land, housing and space for economic activities; contravention of legal and planning standards; the redevelopment plan is operated without transparency and there is a serious requirement of adequate informational base and the approval and inclusion of the residents of Dharavi. It would not be fair to continue with the existing plan of redevelopment because there have been a lot of changes in Dharavi since like the number of people living, number of structures, kind of activities undertaken and increase in the connectivity of Dharavi with the rest of the city. These changes have left the existing plan completely out of date. One of the important issues is the level to which the plan will serve to those living and working in Dharavi and provisions made for their enterprises. There is no certainty and clarity in the Slum Rehabilitation Authority’s (SRA) estimation of 57,000 houses in Dharavi and the eligibility criteria for the rehousing. According to the census reports, numbers of tenants are much larger than the number estimated by the Dharavi Rehabilitation Plan which makes it difficult to plan for its redevelopment. This suggests the need for a survey to evaluate the current conditions with the number of structures and their various purposes in Dharavi. (Patel S., Arputham J.,Burra, S. & Savchuk, K. - 2009)

A topographical survey is important because huge areas of Dharavi are prone to flooding which has not been carried out so far. This survey will help to establish critical issues in planning for a redevelopment like the natural drainage systems, flood prone areas and soil conditions. There is no in depth tactic for the land use, traffic infrastructure and environment.

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The developers are given the right to increase the Floor Space Index (FSI) to increase the commercial and residential space within Dharavi which will imply increase in the population of Dharavi and increased volume of traffic and commercial activities with no basis for traffic planning. These implications are neither understood nor assessed carefully. The residents have no idea as to where they might be relocated; it might be a low-lying and flood prone area. There are small areas assigned to rehouse the residents of Dharavi that do not reflect population densities in these sectors as there is difference in the densities of each sector for rehousing. With the increase in the FSI, there are higher chances of the residents being rehoused in higher buildings with less public amenities like health and educational facilities and open spaces. There is a need to lower the bonus FSI given for the every square feet of social housing built as the government can break even with 0.25 bonus FSI. The alliance feels there is no need to increase the FSI to 4.0 as the low FSI would also attract the developers to such a difficult area because of its development as a township and its location in vicinity to the Bandra –Kurla Complex.

Thought the DRP had been initiated by the government of Maharashtra, the activities like the survey, planning and deigning are left to the private developers. The government has not been able to fulfil its role of negotiating its own interest along with those of the other groups and also the public and the community interest have not been fulfilled. (Patel S., Arputham J.,Burra, S. & Savchuk, K. - 2009)

There is a mention of providing various services like the educational and health facilities without any mention of who will be responsible to establish and run them and their affordability to the low income groups. There is a strong requirement to re-introduce the clause of public participation and encourage their involvement as the people have no idea about their eligibility and entitlement criteria, transit tenement, permanent accommodation and means to protect their livelihoods. The size of the houses to provided are 225 square feet which is inadequate for their purposes especially for the people with large families.

Redevelopment plan was strongly opposed by the people of Dharavi which became evident in June 2007 by the black flags hoisted onto the electric poles around Dharavi. A peaceful procession of 15,000 people including representatives of social groups walked to the MHADA from Dharavi which showed unison against the planning. A special duty officer was appointed for Dharavi who was convinced of the need to carry out a baseline survey and conduct studies such as transport and infrastructure assessment. Hence there lies a possibility of inclusion of demands and expectations of the residents in the plan. The survey to be conducted will document number of structures and the activities occurring in the area. MASHAL undertook the baseline socioeconomic survey jointly with SPARC in December 2007.the data of the survey was put into a computerized GIS-based database to provide the basis for future planning.

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Turning Point of the Dharavi Redevelopment PlanIn the year 2008, Gautam Chaterjee was appointed as a replacement to the special duty officer appointed earlier due to his experience in PMGP. With his appointment a transparency was created about the project by arranging regular meetings with politicians, residents and CCD. Institutional participation was encouraged by accepting the self-created CCD as the expert advisory group. An advisory group of 11 members including NGO representatives, senior civil servants, prominent architects and faculty from the local architectural institutions was formed to discuss and give approvals on different phases of the project which has given rise to a lot of changes in the development framework.

There was an important design guideline of not exceeding the height of 8 or 10 storeys was incorporated where originally the height went up to 20 to 30 storeys. This will also reduce the cost of maintenance and increase natural ventilation and also continue their livelihoods. Most of the free-sale building will be used for commercial use that will be located on the periphery near the existing transport nodes. 6% of the total built-up area of the every rehabilitation building will be provided as a multi-purpose community space. Moreover the demand of the slum dwellers was responded to in 2008 by increasing the size of the flat from 269 to 300 square feet.

The NGOs – SPARC and Dharavi Vikas Samittee took up the responsibility of correcting maps, number structures and carry out the survey whereas MASHAL would conduct GIS mapping, tagging and biometric identification. Information on demographics, income, use of the structures and other amenities was collected through this survey. There were a lot of challenges faced during the survey including the resistance from the resident due to insecurity, campaigns to stop the survey by the political parties, changes in the leadership of the DRP and many others. The benefit of the survey was the production of genuine data for planning and confirmation of number of families eligible for the resettlement. Collaborations were made with the academic and professional groups to increase global awareness by allowing visits for students, government officials, media and many others. The collaboration with Royal University College of Fine Arts in Stockholm and KRVIA together produced a book on Dharavi redevelopment. KRVIA, Mumbai and CEPT, Ahmedabad documented the arrangements in Dharavi and suggested alternatives to the proposed plan which became easier with SPARC facilitating student visit to Dharavi.

There are many challenges in Dharavi Redevelopment Plan to manipulate the constantly changing environment. Eventually Dharavi will remain in eye of the development gust and overcoming the challenges with the support of the residents of Dharavi.

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Horizon of DRP

Bibliography Patel, S. and Arputham, J. (2008), Plans for Dharavi: negotiating reconciliation between a

state-driven market redevelopment and residents' aspirations, Environment and Urbanization, Vol. 20, March, pp. 243-254

Appadurai, A. (2001), Deep democracy: urban governmentality and the horizon of politics, Environment & Urbanisation, Vol. 13 No. 2, October, pp. 23-43

Patel S. & Arputham, J. (2007) An offer of partnership or a promise of conflict in Dharavi, Mumbai?, Environment & Urbanisation, Vol. 19 No. 2, April, pp. 501-508

Burra, S. (2005) Towards a pro-poor slum upgrading framework in Mumbai , India, Environment & Urbanisation, Vol. 17 No. 1, April, pp. 67-88

www.dharavi.org Patel S., Arputham J.,Burra, S. & Savchuk, K. (2009) Getting information base for Dharavi’s

redevelopment, Environment & Urbanisation, Vol. 21 No. 1, March, pp. 241-252

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