Slums in Million Cities

The present chapter is an overview of slums at international and national level. A

comparative view has been taken of slums in the developing and developed world, followed

by the situation as obtaining in India and its various states. Finally, it describes the magnitude

of the slums in million plus cities.

Rapid urban growth without needed urban infrastructure development has resulted in

slums. These are neglected parts of any city where housing and living conditions are

appallingly poor. Slums range from high density, squalid central city tenements to

spontaneous squatter settlements without legal recognition or rights, sprawling at the edge of

cities (World Bank, 2000). The last few decades have seen them proliferating tremendously,

although they have been in existence since historical times. The prevalence of slums varies

dramatically across cities of the developed and developing world. The broad patterns of slum

life are common all over the world, although these differ in origin and nature in the

developed and developing countries. A slum locality in a developed country may be good

living area as per the standards in developing countries. One can, of course, distinguish

between the nature of interest as shown by the scholars in the developed and developing

countries as also by the international agencies. In the developed countries, the primary

interest in this scheme has been in the form of the question of social justice, or rather

injustice, in the cities. This is represented by the work of geographers like Harvey (1973,

2008), Smith (1973), Peet (1977) and Costello (1987). On the other hand, the focus of study

in the developing countries is on urban housing, urban poverty and rural-urban migration

(Bolay, 2006; National Institute of Urban Affairs, 1988; Kundu, 2007).

Rapid urbanization is often an overwhelming challenge for developing country

governments. Slums result from a toxic combination of weak governance, underinvestment in

basic infrastructure, poor planning to accommodate growth, unrealistically high standards for

residential neighborhoods, infrastructure standards that are unaffordable for the poor, and

insufficient public transportation that limits access to employment. Urban slums in

developing countries threaten both national and international security, health, and

environmental sustainability. Poverty, extreme income inequality, and high rates of

unemployment, particularly among the younger segments of society, can create an

environment of real and perceived lack of opportunity in which social unrest and political

radicalism can flourish. Deplorable living conditions coupled with high population density in

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slums pose a direct threat to public health as well as increase the vulnerability of urban

populations to the effects of climate change. Poorly managed urban growth can thus lead to

deteriorating health and environmental conditions, with serious implications for national

government stability and international security (International Housing Coalition, 2009).

Recently, Indian cities especially metropolitan areas have witnessed a significant

increase in their development activities in the form of renewed urban planning and

construction, establishment of industries and trade, expansion in transport and

communication system, availability of their infrastructure facilities in post independence era.

These have opened new avenues of employment, resulting into migration of population to

these cities from rural areas as well as from small towns adding to the spurt of urban

population. These migrated persons get some gainful employment but face the problem of

shelter because city system hardly allows them to have good shelter. Consequently, over the

years, these low income migrants have settled in pockets of city known as slums. Urban

congestion, tremendous migration of labour force both skilled and unskilled, non-availability

of housing infrastructure has lead to occurrence of slums and reflects the deteriorating quality

of life in urban areas. Areas which are seen to be over crowded, dilapidated and faulty laid

out and lacking in essential services are generally termed as ‘Slum’. Problem of slums which

is product of modern industrial civilization is common to the cities all the world over. It is

clear that urban areas have more people than they can support given the present urban

infrastructure. Poverty and deficit of housing in the rapidly growing cities are considered to

be the main reasons for emergence of slums. Slums are highly congested areas of human

degradation (Misra and Misra, 1998) and slums are now becoming the permanent features in

the million cities.

Concept and Definition of Slums

There are a large number of studies made available concerning the problems of slums and

squatters all over the world. The concept of slum commonly defines that; physically it

represents a group houses in dilapidated condition with inadequate service facilities, over-

crowding and congestion, hygienically unsuitable for human habitation. Sociologically it is a

way of life, sub-culture with a set of established norms and values which is reflected in poor

sanitation and health, deviant behaviour, apathy, high mobility and social isolation.

Economically it is a place for the concentration of urban poor and daily wage comers or

urban homeless. In a real sense, it is the place of living for the lower order service class

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population (Parveen, 2002). There are number of terms by which slums are known in

different cities. In India, they are known as Katras, Gallis, Juggi-Jhopadpatti in Delhi, Chawls

in Mumbai, Ahtas in Kanpur, Bustee in Kolkata, Cheris in Chennai, Keries in Banglore and

Pattas in Andhra Pradesh. A number of definitions are available on ‘slums’.

In India, slums have been defined under Section 3 of the Slums Areas (Improvement

and Clearance) Act, 1956 as areas where buildings – are in any respect unfit for human

habitation; by reason of dilapidation, overcrowding, faulty arrangement and design of such

buildings, narrowness or faulty arrangement of streets, lack of ventilation, light, sanitation

facilities or any combination of these factors which are detrimental to safety, health and

morals.

Census of India 2001 has adopted the definition of ‘slum’ areas as follows: (i) 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’, (ii) all areas recognized as ‘Slum’ by

State/Local Government and UT Administration, Housing and Slum Boards, which may have

not been formally notified as slum under any act, (iii) a compact area of at least 300

populations 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.

The National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), India, defines a slum as a

“compact settlement with a collection of poorly built tenements, mostly of temporary nature,

crowded together usually with inadequate sanitary and drinking water facilities in unhygienic

conditions” (NSSO, 2003). Also, there are two kinds of slums: notified and non-notified.

Areas notified as slums by the respective municipalities, corporations, local bodies or

development authorities are treated as notified slums. A slum is considered as a non-notified

slum if at least 20 households lived in that area.

UN Habitat (2003) define that a slum is an area that combines to various extents the

following characteristics; inadequate access to safe water, inadequate access to sanitation and

other infrastructure, poor structural quality of housing, overcrowding and insecure residential

status.

Oxford English Dictionary defined slums as ‘A street, alley, court, etc., situated in a

crowded district of a town or city and inhabited by people of a low class or by the very poor;

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a number of these streets or courts forming a thickly populated neighborhood or district

where the houses and the conditions of life are of a squalid and wretched character’.

The Dictionary of Human Geography (2009) defined slum as ‘An area of substandard

housing and inadequate provision of public utilities, inhabited by poor people in high

densities, who develop a distinctive culture as a means of both survival and self respect’.

Geographically, a slum is an urban site possessing a quite contrasting spatial,

structural and socio-economic situation of urban environment. Most of the times it is a part

and parcel of urban sprawl and identify with distinct functional behaviour. The spread of

slum in any city/town, undoubtedly poses multi-faceted problem, through not to be a physical

environmental, but essentially a problem of poverty (Eswaramma et. al, 2006).

Development of Slums

The relocation of the labor pool of poor from the rural areas to cities has resulted in many

problems especially in the form of a housing shortage. A consequence of this increasing

migration has been the growth of slums in every major city, not only in India, but elsewhere

in the world. Thus rapid industrialization and urbanization based on a capitalist mixed

economy has given rise to what has been termed refuse dumps of human misery known as

slums in Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai, Jakarta, Singapore and other cities (Desai and Pillai,

1970).

Since the earliest days of concentration of human being within a small area to achieve

efficiencies in processing and delivering goods and services, cities have always housed their

working poor in slums or cheap housing. The slum usually suffers from low economic status,

over-crowding, poor housing quality and poor sanitation and health (Anderson, 1959). Rural

to urban migration, land use for commercial and industrial activities, decaying of

neighborhoods, availability of low paying unskilled jobs and poor housing facilities with

accompanied housing shortages have all contributed to the formation of slums (Clinard,

1966). Though slums are considered to be manifestations of poverty and ill-planned

development, they are, however, a shelter for necessary cheap labor. The growth of the city is

dependent of the labor of this working population. The housing crisis which leads to slum

formation in many ways is related to poverty, under employment, bad management and

financial constraints (Dewit and Shenk, 1989).

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Review of Literature

The 21st century has witnessed a rapid growth of urban population coupled with

incommensurate development of social facilities which has resulted in the creation of slums

and associated problems of an alarming magnitude. Owing to lack of employment and

suitable jobs in the countryside, people from rural areas migrate to the cities. In cities they

obtain jobs, but their income hardly allows them to have good accommodation or

neighborhood. Hence they occupy vacant land or try to adjust themselves in the existing

slums. This results into a growth of slums and squatter settlements in most of the cities and

towns of the country. Such problem of slum growth is not only peculiar to Indian cities but

also to those of developing countries.

The international agencies, UN Habitat, World Bank and IHC have played a crucial

role in highlighting the slum problem in general and in stressing the need for formulating

feasible strategies for resolving it, in particular. UN Habitat has a remarkable contribution in

the study of slum related issues all over the world. It’s work focus on global monitoring of

slums urban poverty and improving their lives and Cities without slums (2002 and 2003),

Situation Analysis of informal settlements (2005) slum upgrading (2009), youth

entrepreneurship & empowerment (2009), low-income housing and building urban safety

through slum upgrading (2011). The Challenge of Slums: Global Report on Human

Settlements presents the results of the first global assessment of slums. The report proposes

an operational definition of slums and, on this basis, provides the first global estimates of the

numbers of urban slum dwellers. It discusses the local, national and international factors

underlying the formation of slums. The report analyses the social, spatial and economic

characteristics and dynamics of slums. It explores both the negative and positive aspects of

slums and identifies participatory slum upgrading programmes that include urban poverty

reduction with objectives as the current best practice. The report emphasizes the need to scale

up such slum upgrading programmes to cover whole cities, and to be replicated in all other

cities, as well as for sustained commitment of resources sufficient to address the existing

slum problem at both city and national levels. It also highlights the need for investment in

citywide infrastructure as a pre-condition for successful and affordable slum upgrading and as

one strong mechanism for reversing the socio-economic exclusion of slum dwellers. The

report provides a new impetus to all of these efforts. More importantly, it provides directions

for the future that are worthy of consideration by national governments, municipal

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authorities, civil society organizations and international organizations concerned with

improving the lives of slum dwellers. In this context, the report highlights the great potential

for improving the effectiveness of slum policies by fully involving the urban poor, as well as

the need for the public sector to be more inclusive in its urban policies.

World Bank’s study basically focuses on developing countries. Its literature focus on

slum study in different cities like; Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Dakar, Johannesburg, Nairobi,

Dhaka and Salvador. World Bank effort provide the approaches to urban slums (2008), their

mobility, poverty, living condition and infrastructure access (2010), and benefits of slum

upgrading programmes (2006). International Housing Coalition (IHC) an effort to highlight

the importance of focusing increased foreign aid on urban development and housing issues.

The IHC is a non-profit advocacy organization located in Washington, D.C. that supports

Housing for All and seeks to raise the priority of housing slum improvement on the

international development agenda. The IHC supports the basic principles of property rights,

secure tenure, effective title systems, and efficient and equitable housing finance systems—

all essential elements to economic growth, civic stability, and democratic values. IHC 2009

study describes urban development and housing issues in the developing world. Recently

study in 2012 focus on slum upgrading and land-regularization for the successful urban

development in the African country of Brazil and Mauritania.

In India, slums are found in all the cities, large and small, old or new, unplanned or

planned. The unplanned residential areas are mostly occupied by the poor, engaged in various

low-paid occupations. A large number of slum-dwellers are underemployed or unemployed;

they are forced to lead a life of crime and immorality. The Indian catalogue has, by now,

considerable literature on slums. Diverse contributions have been made by social scientist,

research institution, planning organization and the Census of India. A variety of perceptions

on the theme are available. These studies focus on regarding the creation, growth and

identification of slums. The National Institute of Urban Affairs, New Delhi, has conducted a

number of studies relating to situational analysis and approach of poverty of slum and their

perception (1988), basic services of poor (1990) and slum improvement and upgradation

project for Trivandrum, Cochin and Calicut (1993) and environmental improvement of urban

slums (1997).

Individual contribution in this direction is also significant. Pothana et. al. (1992) has

examined the socio-economic conditions of slums dwellers in Visakhapatnam. Study shows

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that around 30 percent of the total population of the city is living in the slums. One of the

important facts brought by this study is that there has been deterioration in availability of

public utilities in slums. They have studied literacy rate and percent of scheduled caste and

scheduled tribe population in slums areas of Visakhapatnam. Singh (1999) outlined the origin

and spread of slums in Faridabad city. It dealt with the issues relating to slums households on

the bases of primary survey. Study examined the slum strategies in order to seek policy

direction that need to be taken with them. Kundu (2003) study the emergence of slums from

past to the present of Kolkata mega city. Kolkata slums can be divided into three groups: the

older ones, up to 150 years’ old, in the heart of the city, are associated with early

urbanization. The second group dates from the 1940s and 1950s and emerged as an outcome

of industrialization-based rural–urban migration, locating themselves around industrial sites

and near infra-structural arteries. The third group came into being after the independence of

India and took vacant urban lands and areas along roads, canals and on marginal lands.

Burra (2005) paper examined the institutional framework and financial mechanisms

for “slum” upgrading in Mumbai. The paper discusses the historical relationship between the

central, state and local governments and slum communities, and the evolution of policies that

have affected slum dwellers from the 1950s to the present. It also describes the opportunities

that the institutional and legal framework provided for community-driven approaches by the

Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centres (SPARC), the National Slum Dwellers

Federation (NSDF) and Mahila Milan. This includes a discussion of how these approaches

were financed and of the strategies of engagement used by urban poor federations with the

state, the private sector (especially banks) and the World Bank. The paper also identifies the

changes needed to make pro-poor slum upgrading more effective and capable of reaching a

much larger scale. Chandrasekhar (2005) has outlined the differences in the condition

prevailing in the non-slums urban and rural areas. He analyzed the service available in the

slums and examined the improvements in the slum conditions over the last five years. He

found that the slums are similar to rural areas in some respects and dissimilar in many other

respects. He also found that the government is active in initiating most of the slum

improvements with the NGOs.

Mony et. al. (2006) studied the slum population’s demography, environmental status

and maternal health care in slums of Vellore Town. This study provides a situational analysis

of the demography, environmental and maternal health care status in urban slums, which are

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conventionally neglected or under-represented. They concluded that access to safe water

supply, sanitation facilities and garbage disposal was however very low. Singh (2006) has

examined demographic environmental aspects of slums population in Mumbai with ward-

wise in 1991 and 2001.

Rahul (2006) has give an idea about what we know about ‘slums’ in India and what

the present day scenario in India. This article describes the different government policies

implemented through the 50’s and till present with special emphasis on Maharashtra and

discusses the pros and cons of these policies. Krishan (2006) mapped the slumful and

slumless cities in India. The cities which recorded at least 33.3 percent or one third of their

slum dwellers are described as slumful. The cities where the share of slum population was

less than 3.3 percent have been qualified as slumless. He found that the slum problem is

characteristic of not only of big cities, as is commonly believed, but it is more pronounced in

the smaller ones in the range of 1 lakh to 50 thousand population, recorded highest

percentage of 32.7 of their population as slum dwellers.

Kaur (2007) has focused on population characteristics of slums in million plus cities

of India and raise some issues that require serious consideration and deliberation. This paper

has been divided into two sections. The first deals with a select demographic profile and

second deals with issues and policy concerns. For the demographic profile she used five

indicators – (a) Population Size, (b) SC and ST Population, (c) Sex Ratio, (d) Literacy and (e)

Child Population. She suggested that the problems can be resolved by the creation of new

institutional arrangements of urban governance through collective planning and participation

of states as well as central government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and

public at large. Agnihotri and Shrivastava (1984) have attempted to analyze the relevance of

improvement plans for upliftment of the urban poor living in slums areas of Sagar city. They

found that basic problems such as congestion, pollution, poor drainage, muddy and unlit

paths have remained untouched perhaps the lack of funds or because of the lack of

enthusiasm of the civic authorities.

Health and Living Conditions in Eight Indian Cities (2009) report analyzes health and

living conditions in eight large Indian cities (Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Indore, Kolkata,

Meerut, Mumbai, and Nagpur). The report is based on data from India's 2005-06 National

Family Health Survey (NFHS-3). The study examines the living environment, socioeconomic

characteristics of households and the population, children's living arrangements, children's

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work, the health and nutrition of children and adults, fertility and family planning, utilization

of maternal health services, knowledge of HIV/AIDS, attitudes of adults toward schools

providing family life education for children, and other important aspects of urban life for the

eight cities by slum/non slum residence and for the urban poor. The analysis shows that more

than half of the population in Mumbai lives in slums, whereas the slum population varies

widely in the other seven cities. The poor population in these cities varies within a narrower

range, from 7 percent in Mumbai to 20 percent in Nagpur. The analysis finds that a

substantial proportion of the poor population does not live in slums and that a substantial

proportion of slum dwellers are not poor. In some cities, the poor are mostly concentrated in

slum areas, whereas the reverse is true in other cities. Although slum dwellers are generally

worse off than non-slum dwellers, this pattern is not consistently true for all indicators in

every city, and the differentials are quite small in some cases. However, there are large

disparities in health and living conditions between the poor and the non-poor in these cities

(Gupta et. al., 2009). Schenk (2010) paper also delineates the categories of slums according

to their historical generative forces, details the ethnic composition of slums, and examines the

historical patterns of slum policies and how historical influences and ethnicity have shaped

current conditions in the slums of Kolkata city.

Hence, slum found a place of detailed description in literature also. Indian cinema

depicts the sensitivity of the slum life in their story. Film producers too did not leg behind.

Movies like ‘Chakra’ and ‘Salam Bombay’ ‘Nayak’ and ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ which won

Oscars Award of 2009 are the graphic representation of slum life. Hence literature on slums

has flowed in form diverse directions. The present chapter is an effort of this direction for

million plus cities study.

A far more serious concern is felt by the administrators and planners who found the

process of slum formation intractable. They have resigned themselves to the fact that slums

are inevitable. It is impractical to clear or relocate these. The only thing they can do is to

improve or upgrade these localities. At the same time, the planner and administrators have

felt concerned with the problems, policies and procedures of urban renewal or

redevelopment. In this direction, Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission

(JNNURM) has been launched by Government of India in 2005 for 63 cities including 35

cities with million plus population. The main thrust of the mission is an integrated

development of slums through projects for providing shelter, basic services and other related

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civic amenities with a view to providing utilities to the urban poor (Jawaharlal Nehru

National Urban Renewal Mission, 2005).

After 2005 urban planners have intensively focused on the alternative approaches to

addressing issues of slums and affordable housing. The major policy has been

announcements by the government on this subject. Tenth plan schemes under JNNURM for

providing affordable shelter and decent living and working conditions to the poor and for

helping them to develop self-employment enterprises was an important component. The

Swarna Jayanti Shahri Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY) provided gainful employment to the urban

unemployed (below the poverty line) was implanted during the Eleventh Plan. The Rajiv

Awas Yojana (RAY) has been outlined as another major program for urban improvement

specifically from the perspective of prevention of slums and improving the condition of the

urban poor in the approaches to twelfth five year plan.

The ever-increasing of slum population in urban areas is a continuous phenomenon; it

is quite impossible to provide all basic amenities at the rate of their growth, but full

utilization of the mearge efforts will definitely benefit all the slum dwellers. Human welfare

is not pity or compassion but the principle of equal rights and opportunities. It is a social and

national responsibility to improve the slum environment and make it livable (Agnihotri,

1994).

Urbanization and Slums in the World

Rapid urbanization, one of the greatest socio-economic changes during the last five decades

or so, has caused the burgeoning of new kinds of slums, the growth of squatter and informal

housing all around the rapidly expanding cities of the developing world. Urban populations

have increased explosively in the past 50 years, and will continue to do so for at least the next

30 years as the number of people born in cities increase and as people continue to be

displaced from rural areas that are almost at capacity. The rate of creation of formal sector

urban jobs is well below the expected growth rate of the urban labour force, so in all

probability the majority of these new residents will eke out an informal living and will live in

slums.

UN Habitat Slum Report 2003 results presented a picture on slum population all over

the world. In 2001, 924 million people, or 31.6 per cent of the world’s urban population,

lived in slums. The majority of them were in the developing regions, accounting for 43 % of

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Table 7.1: Slum Configuration in Indian states/union territories, 2001

Name of States/Union territories

Percent of Slum Reported Towns to Total No. of Towns

Percent of Slum Population to total No. of Slum Town

Percent Urbanisation

Slum Concentration

Urban Concentration

Maharashtra 16.1 33.3 42.4 26.3 18.3

Andhra Pradesh 36.7 32.2 27.3 12.2 8.7

Uttar Pradesh 9.8 20.7 20.8 10.3 11.5

West Bengal 15.7 27.1 28.0 9.7 8.2

Tamil Nadu 7.6 20.0 44.0 6.7 7.8

Madhya Pradesh 10.9 25.2 26.5 5.7 5.2

Delhi 25.8 18.0 93.2 4.8 6.1

Gujarat 16.9 14.7 37.4 4.4 6.9

Haryana 20.8 33.1 28.9 3.3 2.3

Karnataka 13.0 12.7 34.0 3.3 6.0

Rajasthan 11.7 16.9 23.4 3.0 4.2

Punjab 17.2 20.5 33.9 2.7 3.1

Chhatisgarh 12.4 31.4 20.1 1.9 1.4

Orrissa 10.9 22.2 15.0 1.5 1.5

Bihar 17.7 11.0 10.5 1.3 2.6

Jharkhand 7.2 12.5 22.2 0.7 1.3

J&K 6.7 18.6 24.8 0.6 0.8

Uttrakhand 7.0 19.4 25.7 0.5 0.6

Chandigar 100.0 13.3 89.8 0.3 0.4

Meghalaya 6.3 65.0 19.6 0.2 0.1

Assam 5.6 6.0 12.9 0.2 0.7

Pondicherry 50.0 14.3 66.6 0.2 0.3

Kerala 8.2 2.0 26.0 0.2 1.7

Tripura 4.4 15.8 17.1 0.1 0.1

A & N Island 33.3 16.3 32.6 0.0 0.1

Goa 4.6 8.3 49.8 0.0 0.1

Total 12.8 23.1 27.8 100.0 100.0

Source: Census of India – 2001, Slums Data II, India (UAs/Town).

the urban population, in contrast to 6 per cent in more developed regions. Within the

developing regions, Sub-Saharan Africa had the largest proportion of the urban population

resident in slums in 2001 (71.9 per cent) and Oceania had the lowest (24.1 per cent). Africa

had a total of 187 million slum dwellers (about 20 per cent of the world’s total), while Latin

America and the Caribbean had 128 million slum dwellers (about 14 per cent of the world’s

total) and Europe and other developed countries had only 54 million slum dwellers (about 6

per cent of the world’s total). With respect to absolute numbers of slum dwellers, Asia (all of

its sub-regions combined) dominated the global picture, having a total of 554 million slum

dwellers in 2001 (about 60 per cent of the world’s total slum dwellers). Some sub-regions

within Asia are faring worse than others. Eastern and Southern Asia harbour 80 per cent of

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the slum dwellers in the region, with Southern Asia hosting nearly half the region’s slum

population.

These figures are largely attributable to China and India, which are the most populous

countries in the world and have significant proportions of their urban populations living in

slum conditions. Although China hosts the world’s largest slum population – almost 196

million people – its slum prevalence in 2001 was lower than that of India; UN-HABITAT

estimates that 38 per cent of China’s urban residents lived in slum conditions that year,

compared with India’s 56 per cent. Most of the slum dwellers in Southern Asia – 63 per cent,

or almost 170 million people – reside in India. The share of Southern Asia’s slum dwellers

constitutes 27 per cent of the global total. India alone accounts for 17 per cent of the world’s

slum dwellers. The country has pioneered many best practices and good policies in recent

years that are having some impact on the lives of slum dwellers, but they have not reached a

sufficient scale to ameliorate the proliferation of slums. Although India has seen remarkable

economic growth rates in recent years and has managed to reduce extreme poverty by 10 per

cent in the last decade, the impact of poverty reduction is still not being felt in cities. Unless

more radical policies are pursued in India, the global target for improving the lives of slum

dwellers will not be reached (Slum trends in Asia, UN Habitat, 2006).

Urbanization and Slums in Indian States

Slum demography had been presented on the basis of actual count in Census 2001 for the first

time in the history of the Population Census in the country. Detailed demographic data about

slum areas across the cities in the country having population more than 50,000 in 1991

Census were enumerated. This process of systematic delineation of slums for collection of

their demographic characteristics was probably first such exercise in the history of census not

only in India but also internationally (Report of the Committee on Slum Statistics/Census,

2010). The slum population was reported from 26 States/Union territories in India. Nine

States/Union territories namely, Himachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram, Sikkim, Arunachal

Pradesh, Manipur, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu and Lakshadweep did not report

any slum population in their cities/towns.

Only 640 towns reported slum population out of 5161. It means only 12.8 percent of

total towns have reported slum occurrence. In 2001, 42.6 million population lived in slums in

India. This constituted 15 percent of the total population of the country and 22.6 percent of

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the urban population of the States/Uts reporting slums. The distribution of slum towns across

the states and union territories was not uniform in India. Andhra Pradesh had the largest

number of towns (77) reporting slums followed by Uttar Pradesh (69), Tamil Nadu (63) and

Maharashtra (61). On the other hand Chandigarh, Tripura, Meghalaya, Andaman and Nicobar

had reported slums in one town each. Maharashtra had reported 61 slum towns out of 640,

which accounted for 11.2 million slum population which was 26.3 percent of the total slum

population of the country. It was followed by Andhra Pradesh (5.1 million), Uttar Pradesh

(4.4 million) and West Bengal (4.1 million). Indian 12 state namely, Maharashtra, Andhra

Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi Gujarat, Haryana,

Karnataka, Rajasthan and Punjab accounted for 39.4 million population which accounted for

92.4 percent slum population of the country.

Fig. 7.1: Concentration of slums and urban population, 2001

In Indian states, 23.1 percent slum population lived in towns in 2001. Meghalaya had shown

exceptionally high percentage of slum population i.e. 65 percent. Only few states like

Maharashtra, Haryana, and Andhra Pradesh had shown high percentage of slum population

than the national average. Some states like Kerala, Assam and Goa had reported slum

population less than 10 percent.

Concentration of Slums and Urban Population in India:2001

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Table 7.2: Concentration of slums in million cities, 2001

UAs/M.Corp No. of Towns No. of Towns

Reporting Slum Slum

Concentration Urban

Concentration

Greater Mumbai UA 8 8 32.1 15.2

Kolkata UA 99 31 12.7 12.2

Delhi UA 59 16 9.1 11.9

Hyderabad UA 17 11 5.4 5.3

Chennai UA 53 7 5.1 6.1

Nagpur UA 3 1 3.3 2.0

Pune UA 6 2 2.8 3.5

Surat UA 8 1 2.3 2.6

Faridabad (M.C.) 1 1 2.2 1.0

Ahmadabad UA 21 4 2.2 4.2

Meerut UA 2 1 2.1 1.1

Bangalore UA 15 1 1.9 5.3

Jaipur (M. C.) 3 1 1.7 2.1

Kanpur UA 5 1 1.6 2.5

Ludhiana (M.C.) 1 1 1.4 1.3

Vijayawada UA 3 2 1.3 1.0

Jabalpur UA 9 2 1.3 1.0

Asansol UA 10 4 1.2 1.0

Indore UA 2 1 1.2 1.4

Amritsar UA 1 1 1.0 0.9

Madurai UA 12 1 1.0 1.1

Visakhapatnam UA 3 1 0.8 1.2

Vadodara UA 10 1 0.8 1.4

Lucknow UA 2 2 0.8 2.1

Rajkot UA 1 1 0.7 0.9

Jamshedpur UA 10 3 0.7 1.0

Allahabad UA 2 1 0.6 1.0

Nashik UA 4 1 0.6 1.1

Varanasi UA 6 1 0.6 1.1

Bhopal UA 1 1 0.6 1.4

Agra UA 4 1 0.5 1.2

Coimbatore UA 27 1 0.3 1.4

Dhanbad UA 32 3 0.2 1.0

Kochi UA 21 1 0.0 1.3

Patna UA 5 2 0.0 1.6

Total 369 118 100.0 100.0

Source: Census of India – 2001, Slums Data II, India (UAs/Town).

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Bihar, Meghalaya, Orissa, Chattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh have high incidence of slums in

comparison to level of urbanization where remaining states have low incidence of slum than

urbanization. There was a high positive correlation (r=0.95) between urban and slum

concentration in Indian states. Some of the states have recorded high slum concentration than

urban concentration, they are – Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Madhya

Pradesh, Haryana, Chhattisgarh and Meghalaya. Out of 640 towns/cities, 378 cities and 262

towns reported the existence of slums in 2001 and recorded the 22.7 percent slum population

in case of cities whereas 26.4 percent in case of towns.

Million Cities and Slums

In million cities every fifth person lived in slum areas spread over 57 districts and 369

towns. In thirty five million plus cities, 22.4 million population lived in slums which was

52.6 percent of the total slum population and 20.7 percent of the population of million cities.

Greater Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Faridabad, Meerut, Nagpur, Vijayawada, Asansol,

Jabalpur Amritsar and Ludhiana have high incidence of slums in comparison to the rest of the

million plus cities. Patna and Kochi have recorded lowest concentration of slum population

among all the million plus cities. Those cities which are urban agglomeration, have recorded

slum population in their outgrowth also. There was a positive correlation (0.59) between

concentration of slum population and size of million plus cities. The slum population of these

million cities’ ranges from 4965 in Patna (Bihar) to 7188447 in Greater Mumbai

(Maharashtra). Greater Mumbai is the most populated among all the million cities in the

country, with 71.9 million slum population accounting for 32.1 percent of the total slum

population of million cities. It is followed by Kolkata (2.8 million), Delhi (20.3 million),

Hyderabad (1.2 million) and Chennai (1.2 million). These five million cities have 64.4

percent slum population of the total slum population of million cities, whereas greater

Mumbai has alone 32.1 percent slum population. Except Coimbatore, Dhanbad, Kochi and

Patna cities have more than hundred thousand slum population. At the percentage level

Faridabad (46.5 percent) has the highest slum population, followed by Greater Mumbai (43.7

percent), Meerut (40.6 percent) and Nagpur (34.6 percent). Seven million cities had less than

10 percent of slum population and two million cities namely Patna (0.3 percent) and Kochi

(0.6 percent) had slum population less than one percent. Seven million cities have reported

cent percent slum population. The highest slum concentration found in Indian larger Cities.

Greater Mumbai accounts for 32.1 percent followed by Kolkata (12.7), Delhi (9.1 percent),

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Table 7.3: Configuration of slum population in million cities, 2001

UAs/M.Corp Slum Population Percent Slum Population

Total M.Corp Out Growth Total M.Corp Out Growth

Greater Mumbai UA 7188447 6475440 713007 43.7 90.1 9.9

Kolkata UA 2835051 1485309 1349742 21.5 52.4 47.6

Delhi UA 2029755 1851231 178524 15.8 91.2 8.8

Hyderabad UA 1201249 626849 574400 20.9 52.2 47.8

Chennai UA 1148315 819873 328442 17.5 71.4 28.6

Nagpur UA 737219 737219 0 34.6 100.0 0.0

Pune UA 616136 492179 123957 16.4 79.9 20.1

Surat UA 508485 508485 0 18.1 100.0 0.0

Ahmadabad UA 497214 473662 23552 11.0 95.3 4.7

Faridabad (M.Corp.) 490981 490981 0 46.5 100.0 0.0

Meerut UA 471581 471581 0 40.6 100.0 0.0

Bangalore UA 430501 430501 0 7.6 100.0 0.0

Jaipur (M Corp.) 368570 368570 0 15.9 100.0 0.0

Kanpur UA 367980 367980 0 13.6 100.0 0.0

Ludhiana (M.Corp.) 314904 314904 0 22.5 100.0 0.0

Vijayawada UA 293889 263393 30496 28.3 89.6 10.4

Jabalpur UA 282353 275662 6691 25.7 97.6 2.4

Asansol UA 277687 158324 119363 26.0 57.0 43.0

Indore UA 260975 260975 0 17.2 100.0 0.0

Amritsar UA 229603 229603 0 22.9 100.0 0.0

Madurai UA 221338 221338 0 18.4 100.0 0.0

Vadodara UA 186020 186020 0 12.5 100.0 0.0

Lucknow UA 180479 179176 1303 8.0 99.3 0.7

Visakhapatnam UA 170265 170265 0 12.7 100.0 0.0

Rajkot UA 166030 166030 0 16.6 100.0 0.0

Jamshedpur UA 152120 59314 92806 13.8 39.0 61.0

Nashik UA 138797 138797 0 12.0 100.0 0.0

Varanasi UA 137977 137977 0 11.5 100.0 0.0

Allahabad UA 126646 126646 0 12.2 100.0 0.0

Bhopal UA 125720 125720 0 8.6 100.0 0.0

Agra UA 121761 121761 0 9.2 100.0 0.0

Coimbatore UA 58406 58406 0 4.0 100.0 0.0

Dhanbad UA 37579 5526 32053 3.5 14.7 85.3

Kochi UA 7897 7897 0 0.6 100.0 0.0

Patna UA 4965 3592 1373 0.3 72.4 27.7

Total 22386895 18811186 3575709 20.7 84.0 16.0

Source: Census of India – 2001, Slums Data II, India (UAs/Town).

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Hyderabad (5.4 percent) and Chennai 5.2 percent. Fifteen million plus cities slum

concentration less than one percent. Thus, analysis indicates that the problem of slums arises

in Indian larger cities.

Fig. 7.3: Slum and urban concentration in million plus cities, 2001

In the million plus cities 84 percent slum population was found to be living in

municipal corporation area and only 16 percent in their out growths. An observation of intra-

urban agglomeration of million plus cities indicates that slum population in urban

agglomerations like Dhanbad and Jamshedpur which have attained the status of million plus

population in 2001 have shown fast growing UA periphery. As a result they recorded a higher

percentage of slum (more than 60 percent) population in their periphery than in the cores.

Hyderabad, Kolkata and Asansol also recorded the higher proportion of slum population in

their outgrowth (more than 40 percent), but as well municipal corporation also noticed more

than 50 percent slum population of each city. But Greater Mumbai and Delhi mega cities

recorded less than 10 percent slum population in their out growths. But in this series,

Chennai, Patna and Pune recorded more than 1/5th

of slum population in their outgrowth.

Most of the million plus cities more slum population residing in the core areas.

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Conclusions

Slums are neglected parts of city where housing and living conditions are appallingly poor.

These may differ in origin and nature in the developed and developing countries but the

broad patterns of slum life are common all over the world. Some call it black dot on cities,

some as the essential evils of urbanization and some stated as the byproduct of

industrialization. In the developed countries, the primary interest in this scheme has been in

the form of the question of social justice or injustice whereas in the developing countries it is

on urban housing and poverty. The prevalence of slums varies dramatically across cities of

the developed and developing world. The increasing migration from rural areas has led to

growth of slums in every city, not only in India, but elsewhere in the world. In 2001, 924

million persons, or 31.6 per cent of the world’s urban population lived in slums. Majority of

them were in the developing regions accounting for 43 per cent of the urban population in

contrast to 6 percent in more developed regions. India alone accounted for 17 percent of the

world’s slum dwellers. Census statistics highlighted that in 2001, 42.6 million population was

living in slums spread over 640 cities/ towns. This constituted 15 percent of the urban

population and 23.1 percent of the cities/ towns’ reported slum. 26 states/union territories in

India had reported the occurrence of slums in 2001. Nine States/Union territories namely,

Himachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Dadra and

Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu and Lakshadweep did not report any slum population in their

cities/towns.

The distribution of slum towns across the states and union territories was not uniform

in India. Andhra Pradesh had the largest number of towns reporting slums followed by Uttar

Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. Only few states like Maharashtra, Haryana, and

Andhra Pradesh had shown high percentage of slum population than the national average.

Some states like Kerala, Assam and Goa had reported slum population less than 10 percent.

Metropolitan areas, in India especially after Independence have observed a significant

increase in their number and population size putting a serious burden on their management.

People are coming from the rural areas both skilled and unskilled in search of employment to

cities, which have resulted in many problems especially in the form of a housing shortage,

sanitation, water supply and electricity. Consequently, over the years, these low income

migrants have settled in pockets of city known as slums. In India, slums are found in all

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cities, large and small, old or new, unplanned or planned. The unplanned residential areas are

mostly occupied by the poor, engaged in various low-paid occupations.

In million cities every fifth person was living in slum area in 2001. 22.4 million

population lived in slums in these cities which was 52.6 percent of the total slum and 20.7

percent of the million plus cities population. Greater Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad,

Faridabad, Meerut, Nagpur, Vijayawada, Asansol, Jabalpur Amritsar and Ludhiana have high

incidence of slums in comparison to the rest of the million plus cities. Patna and Kochi had

recorded lowest concentration of slum population among all the million plus cities. Five

largest cities in India namely Greater Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, Chennai and Hyderabad

constituted more than 64 percent slum population of the total slum population of million plus

cities. Thus, the mega cities are the main dwelling place of slum population. Majority of the

slum population lived in municipal corporation area. Only 16 percent slum population was

enumerated in their out growths.

The pattern of slums in each city has resulted from its environment, stage of

development and characteristics of location. Analysis of slumming in these cities reveals that

the slum proportion decreases with the decrease in population size as well as industrial status

of a city. Highly industrialized cities have highest area of slum localities. Thus, they

constitute the highest percent of slum population. Slumming and planning have inverse

relationship. Slumming generally flourishes in such cities where planning is lacking. At the

micro level, slum reflects the failure of government to guide and facilitate the growth of low

income housing and basic services for incoming migrants through appropriate policy and

planning in metropolitan areas. Neither slums can be removed or shifted completely from the

cities. However, full utilization of the meager efforts and state welfare policies can give them

some relief or make their living condition slightly better if honestly implanted. There is an

urgent need to tackle this situation for long term sustainable development as well as for city

prosperity.