Late in the 17th century, Gerald Aungier tried to attract traders and

artisans to Bombay. As a result, the population grew six-fold in the

fourteen years between 1661 and 1675. Some of the more prosperous
traders built houses inside the British fort. The rest lived in crowded
"native-towns" around the walls. These were probably the first slums
to grow in Bombay.

The problem of overcrowding certainly remained through the 18th

century. A count made in 1794 found 1000 houses inside the fort walls
and 6500 immediately outside.
All over the world, the 19th century saw the growth of slums give the
lie to the idea of progress brought on by large-scale industrialisation
and the understanding and control of diseases. Bombay was no
exception. The cotton boom, followed by the rapid growth of mills and
shipping drew a large population from the rest of the country into a
city ill-equipped to deal with them. In the middle of the 19th century
slums grew around the mills and other places of employment.

THE BIRTH OF SLUMS

Historically, slums have grown in Bombay as a response to a growth
of population far beyond the capacity of existing housing. Migrants
are normally drawn to the city by the huge disparity between urban
and rural income levels. Usually the residents of these densely
populated enclaves live close to their place of work. The residential
area itself does not provide employment.
Bombay knows another reason for the formation of slums. As the city
grew, it took over land that was traditionally used for other purposes.
The Koli fishermen were displaced during the development of the
harbour and port. Those driven out of the fishing villages improvised
living space that was often far shabbier than before. This process
continues even now, at the end of the 20th century.
On the other hand, some villages were encysted by the city growing
around them. Dharavi, originally a village with a small tanning
industry, has become a slum in this fashion. Many of the older slums
in Byculla and Khar were initially separate villages, with their own
traditional industries.

MODERN EFFORTS AT SLUM REHABILITATION

 During the early years of this century, in the aftermath of the plague
epidemics, the first systematic efforts were made to rehabilitate
crowded living areas and slums. The City Improvement Trust was set
up with this mandate. However as Bombay continued to draw
migrants the growth of slums could not be checked even with the
development of low-cost housing. Post-independence efforts at
providing better standards of living to this section of the population
are documented elsewhere.

Dharavi (Portuguese spelling Daravi[1] British Anglicised spelling Darravy, Dorrovy) is a slum and
administrative ward, over parts of Sion,Bandra, Kurla and Kalina suburbs of Mumbai, India. It is
sandwiched between Mahim in the west and Sion in the east,[2] and spread over an area of 175 hectares,
or 0.67 square miles. In 1986, the population was estimated at 530,225,[3] but modern Dharavi has a
population of between 600,000[4] and over 1 million people,[5] Dharavi is one of the largest slums in Asia.[5]
[6][7][8][9]

In expensive Mumbai, Dharavi provides a cheap, but illegal, alternative where rents were as low as 4 US
dollars per month in 2006.[10] Dharavi exports goods around the world.[11] The total turnover is estimated to
be between 500 million US dollars [12] and over 650 million US dollars per year.[10]

Contents
[hide]

• 1 Geograph

• 2 History

• 3 Religion

• 4 Economy

• 5 Sanitatio

n issues

• 6 Media

depiction

• 7 See also

• 8 Referenc

es

• 9 Further

reading

• 10 External

links

Geography
Dharavi is located between Mumbai's two main suburban railway lines, the Western and Central
Railways. To its west are Mahim and Bandra, and to the north lies the Mithi River, which empties into
the Arabian Sea through the Mahim Creek. To its south and east are Sion and Matunga. Both its location
and poor drainage systems make Dharavi particularly vulnerable to floods during the wet season.

History
One of the entrances to Dharavi

Pottery on sale in Dharavi

In the 18th century, Dharavi was an island.[13] In February 1739, ChimnajiAppa attacked Bassein. Before
that, he took possession of Dharavi.

The area of present-day Dharavi was predominantly mangrove swamp prior to the late 19th century,
inhabited by Koli fishermen.[14] However, the fishing industry disappeared when the swamp areas filled in.
A dam at Sion, adjacent to Dharavi, hastened the process of joining separate islands into one long,
tapered mass. Thus began the transformation of the island city of Bombay. In the process, the creek dried
up, and Dharavi's fishing town was deprived of its traditional sustenance, but the newly drained marshes
provided space for new communities to move in. Migrants from Gujarat established a potters' colony,
and Maharashtrian tanners belonging to the Charmarkar caste migrated to Dharavi and set up the leather
tanning industry. Other artisans, like the embroidery workers from Uttar Pradesh, started the ready-made
garments trade.[14]

Tamil migrants, including Tamil Muslims and Nadars started coming into the area in the late 1800s, many
of whom worked in nearby tanneries, though a large influx came in the 1920s. Bombay's first Tamil school
and Dharavi's first school was constructed in 1924, it remained the only school of Dharavi, for the next
four decades. In 1930s, a single road passed through the Dharavi towards Mahim railway station.[15]

Dharavi's Co-operative Housing Society was formed in 1960's to uplift the lives of thousands of Slum
dwellers by the initiative of Shri.M.V.Duraiswamy, a well known social worker and congress leader of that
region. The Dharavi co-operative housing society promoted 338 flats and 97 shops and was named
"Dr.Baliganagar".

Religion
A majority of the residents of Dharavi belong to the dalit caste[16] but various other castes and tribes are
also present. Minorities include Christians, Muslims and Buddhists.

Economy
In addition to the traditional pottery and textile industries in Dharavi,[14] there is an increasingly
large recycling industry, processing recyclable waste from other parts of Mumbai. Financial services is
significant; the district has an estimated 15,000 single-room factories.[17]

An urban redevelopment plan is proposed for the Dharavi area, managed by American-
trained architect Mukesh Mehta.[14] The plan [18] involves the construction of 30,000,000 square feet
(2,800,000 m2) of housing, schools, parks and roads to serve the existing 57,000 families residing in the
area, along with 40,000,000 square feet (3,700,000 m2) of residential and commercial space for sale.
[19]
There has been significant local opposition to the plans, largely because existing residents are due to
receive only 225 square feet (20.9 m2) of land each.[14][19] Furthermore, only those families who lived in the
area before the year 2000 are slated for resettlement. Concerns have also been raised by residents who
fear that some of their small businesses in the "informal" sector may not be relocated under the
redevelopment plan.[20] The government has said that it will only legalize and relocate industries that are
not "polluting."

Sanitation issues
Dharavi has severe problems with public health, due to the scarcity of toilet facilities, compounded by
the flooding during the monsoon season. As of November 2006 there was only one toilet per 1,440
residents in Dharavi.[21] Mahim Creek, a local river, is widely used by local residents
for urination and defecation, leading to the spread of contagious disease.[14] The area also suffers from
problems with inadequate water supply.[22]
Slums in Mumbai have always existed. Even back in the time when the fort was
developed, the native villages have always been close to slums. They never underwent
any planning, infrastructure construction or implementation of facilities such as water,
sewage and drainage. This has led to many problems with Mumbai's poor population.
Slums have risen dramatically since
1950. Most of this is due to the fact that
Mumbai's tripled since India's
independence in 1947. The island of
Bombay is only 12 miles long, and
Greater Mumbai, including Salsette
Island, occupies an area of 240 square
miles and it has a density of 16500
people per square mile, extremely dense.
Add all of these elements to the fact that
housing in Mumbai is scarce and
expensive. In 1976, the Government passed the Urban Land Act which was supposed
to enlarge the area on which middle and lower class housing was to be built, however
the act has been used, once again in the elitist fashion, to build more upper class
housing and to keep hold of wealthy neighborhoods which has only worsened the
slum problem.
Early Slums
Before 1950 slums were predominantly found around the
mills, on the western part of the island, predominantly in an
area called Byculla. They were mostly industrial workers in
one room tenements. Health and provisions to these areas
were issues that were ignored by the head policy makers.
Instead of going away, the slums have just spread. From
1950 to1968 the amount of slums increased 18%, in the
1970s they had a huge surge and by 1980 slum dwellers
were half of the entire city's population. All this despite the
fact that the city underwent slum clearance, implemented by
the Municiple Corporation in 1954.
Slums Today
Today slum dwellers make up 60% of Mumbai's population, that is approximately 7
million people. The eventually spread into the areas neighboring Byculla, such as:
Mahim Creek, Parel, Dadar and Matunga and whereever else they can find space,
even in roads. The conditions in the slums are terrible. Slum inhabitants constantly
have to deal with issues such as, constant migration, lack of water, no sewage or solid
waste facilities, lack of public transit, pollution and housing shortages. Infant
mortality is as high as it is in rural India where there are no amenities. General
 Hospitals in the Greater Mumbai region are overcrowded and underresourced. In fact,
most people rely on private doctors, many of which do not have any qualifications or
official training. The World Bank has funded development of 176 Primary Care
Dispensaries, but they are finding that those efforts are underused and the water
supplies to the area are problematic. It seems that the water supply is always to much
or too little, for when monsoon season hits some slums are submerged knee deep in
water.
In 1985, the government tried to rectify the problem by passing the Slum Upgradation
Project. It offered secure long-term legal plot tenure to slum households on the basis
that they would invest in their housing. By giving people an interest in their housing
and by guaranteeing home ownership, they hoped to oblitterate slums. Unfortunately
the program targeted only 10-12% of the slum population, those who were capable of
upgrading their homes. It disregarded those who did not have homes at all.
Despite all the attempts to remedy the slum problem of Mumbai, slums are still
growing. The slum growth rate is actually greater than the general urban growth rate.
In fact, the city is gaining the name "Slumbay."

Big dreams in Mumbai’s Dharavi slum

Richard Orange, Foreign Correspondent
• Last Updated: February 14. 2010 9:19AM UAE / February 14. 2010 5:19AM GMT
Hayad Ansari built Badsham Mall in Dharavi, a slum area in Mumbai with a population close to a million, to
attract business. PrashanthVishwanathan / Bloomberg
Hayad Ansari, a small-time Mumbai builder, has spent every evening of late watching his team of
painters and decorators putting whitewash on his new Badshah Mall.

Each of its four storeys has been adorned with bright orange and yellow cladding and wide glass
windows – just like any other of the hundreds of malls found along Mumbai’s shopping streets.

But in one way Badshah Mall is different – it is right in the middle of Dharavi, Mumbai’s most
notorious slum.

“This is 100 per cent the first mall in Dharavi,” says Mr Ansari, who hopes to open the centre in
about two months. “Everyone thinks the name Dharavi means only slum. But I want to build a
commercial area, so that the businessmen from everywhere can come here and start a business.”

Dharavi, with a population of close to a million people, was only recently surpassed by Karachi’s
Orangi as Asia’s largest slum, and its rabbit-warren alleys and jam-packed huts featured heavily in
last year’s Oscar-winning film, Slumdog Millionaire.

But its location – sandwiched between Mumbai’s richest suburb, its new financial centre and the
old “peninsular” city – means that its inhabitants are not necessarily as poor as their cramped,
unhygienic surroundings would suggest.
“No upper class, and no lower class is there in Dharavi,” says Mr Ansari. “Sixty per cent of people
are middle class.”

Mr Ansari says he and his brother have been speaking to corporate Indian retailers such as Metro
Shoes, Big Bazaar and Reliance Fresh to try to lure them to the mall, where he hopes to sell space
for 150 rupees (Dh11.85) per square foot per month, a heavy discount on the 200 rupees per sqft
for similar retail space in nearby non-slum areas – but still a record for Dharavi. That’s if Mr Ansari
has any takers – which so far, he admits, he has not.

“Inshallah, within two to three months, we are expecting to make agreement with some parties,” he
says. Normally, a builder would want a mall like this to be booked up a year before construction is
even complete, he says.

Mr Ansari’s development may be the future of Dharavi though, as the Slum Redevelopment Project
(SRP), a US$3 billion (Dh11.01bn) scheme to tender out the slum’s 175 hectares in five packages
to international and national property developers, has been looking doomed ever since financial
bids were cancelled at the last minute last August. Shortly before this, a state-sponsored
committee derided the scheme as nothing but a “sophisticated land grab”.

The SRP would have made Dharavi fashionable, replacing the slums with shiny towers and hotel
developments, with the slum’s inhabitants housed in high-rise blocks interspersed among them.

Mr Ansari’s scheme may be a sign that even without this, the slum is becoming a little upmarket.

“Currently, 200 sqft housing in Dharavi will cost between 800,000 rupees and 850,000 rupees.
There has been a steep appreciation in rates there,” says AshutoshLimaye, an associate director
at the property consultant Jones Lang LaSalle in Mumbai. “The lowest rates there now start from
4,000 rupees per sqft and a 225-sq-ft house would cost 900,000 rupees.”

A walk down 90 Feet Road, the central avenue that cuts through the slum, reveals three or four
smart-looking jewellers’ shops, several banks with ATMs, and middle-class restaurants. Pockets of
Dharavi are already fairly developed, MrLimaye adds.
The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation “has their large office block at one corner of Dharavi already,
and when such developments happen, the edge becomes thinner and thinner. Dharavi doesn’t
have to wait for the transformation to happen all in one go: the transformation is a continuous
process and it’s already happening.”

Even where the buildings are indistinguishable in design from those in slum hutments, Mumbai is
full of examples of such structures being redeveloped as fashion boutiques, shops and hotels.

Dharavi has long drawn in migrants because of its thriving informal industries recycling, leather
work, food processing and others. It generate some $650 million a year in total revenues, but
increasingly inhabitants are getting salaried jobs outside the slum.

“The older the slum is, the more economically stable they are,” says Adolf Tragler, an Austrian who
set up the Slum Rehabilitation Society, one of Mumbai’s oldest slum charities. “They’ve established
themselves, they’ve got jobs.”

The most extreme example of this mobility is Devendra Tank, a young graduate from the slum’s
potters colony, who two years ago got a job at the US investment bank JPMorgan Chase.

“I think I’m unique,” says Mr Tank. “I know one other person from JP Morgan, but he’s on the
technical side, and a few people with good salaries who work in the Merchant Navy. Most people
are lower middle class.”

MrTragler warns that the rising incomes in Dharavi do not mean the inhabitants are not blighted by
slum life.

“Income-wise they may be middle class,” he says. “But in terms of accommodation, they may be
lower than that. The flat prices are so high that with a salary or small business you can’t purchase
a flat. You go on saving, but by the time you save, the prices go higher.”

In fact, he points out, as the growth in Dharavi’s families outpaces the rate at which people can
escape the slum into low-end flats, the slum may be getting even more crowded.

Mr Ansari’s mall is itself a hangover from the piecemeal Slum Rehabilitation Authority schemes
that preceded the SRP. Mr Ansari claims he originally got permission for the project some 15 years
ago, when he was working for Mukesh Mehta, the architect behind the SRP scheme.

Mr Ansari demolished the huts of 242 slum dwellers and re-housed them in 34 225-sq-ft flats in the
back of the mall building.

Mr Mehta himself helped design the Badshah Mall building, and stands to be paid 2 per cent of the
construction cost, but he nonetheless tried to persuade Mr Ansari not to go ahead, and many of the
slum-dwellers today grumble about the quality of the flats Mr Ansari provided.
 “I don’t think it will attract mainstream retailers in its present condition,” said Mr Mehta.
“Mainstream retailers will only come in when the Dharavi redevelopment is completed.”

Today, as Mr Ansari and his brother sit waiting for a major retailer to decide to move into their mall,
he still does not know whether Mr Mehta is right, or whether building Dharavi’s first mall will turn
out to be an inspired move.

Last Updated: Tuesday, 26 February 2008, 16:49 GMT

E-mail this to a friend Printable version

Mumbai's slum life poses world problem

By Nils Blythe
Business correspondent, BBC News, Mumbai, India

Sanitation is poor in Mumbai's best-known slum

This year, for the first time in human history, there will be more people
living in towns and cities than in the countryside. That is the conclusion
of a new study from the Population Division of the United Nations.

And the steady migration of people from rural areas to cities brings huge
problems in its wake.
Few places demonstrate this as clearly as Mumbai in India.
Mumbai - according to the UN - has a population of 19 million. And the UN
forecasts that total will rise to more than 26 million by 2025.
At that point, it would be the most heavily populated "urban agglomeration"
in the world, apart from Tokyo and its surroundings.
Mumbai's increase in population will partly be caused by increasing life
expectancy and partly by migration from other, poorer, parts of India.
Although Mumbai is India's commercial capital and rents for luxury
apartments are some of the highest
in the world, it is estimated that
And controversial plans to redevelop
the slums highlight some of the
Open sewers
The biggest and best-known slum in
Mumbai is Dharavi. It is a chaotic
There are public toilets and water
taps, but sanitation is poor with open
sewers along the alleyways.

As Mumbai has expanded, the 600

acres of land which Dharavi
occupies has become increasingly
valuable real estate. So the idea was
born that Dharavi could be
redeveloped.
The slum tenements would be torn
down, part of the land sold for
commercial property development
Workshops are a prominent feature of Dharavi
and some of the profits used to build
high rise blocks and workshops for the Dharavi community.
The man who has been driving the scheme forward for over a decade is
Mukesh Mehta.
He made his fortune by building luxury homes in the US and now describes
himself as a "social entrepreneur", determined to bring improved healthcare,
education and job opportunities to Dharavi, as well as big profits for the
property developers chosen to take part in the scheme.
But there is fierce opposition to the scheme within Dharavi. Rajiv Korde is
40 and has lived in the area all his life. He speaks with pride of the
community spirit and the tolerance between the slum's many different
religious groups.
He is not opposed to the idea of redevelopment. But he argues that the current
proposal is too generous to the property developers and does not provide
enough for the Dharavi community.
Suspicious residents
There is a fierce argument about numbers. Mukesh Mehta's redevelopment
plan envisages building new apartments for 57,000 families.
The campaigners claim that there are something like 90,000 families living in
Dharavi now, so not everyone will be accommodated.
The new apartments will be provided free. But some Dharavi residents are
suspicious that charges for water and
electricity may be more than they
can afford.

"The government are interested in

the land, not the people," says Rajiv
Korde.
"Without the consent of the people,
the government can't start this
project. We have a democracy and
consent is compulsory."
Mukesh Mehta remains confident
that the redevelopment will go The development plan has sparked protests by
ahead. Dharavi residents

Property developers have submitted

detailed proposals on how they would participate in the scheme and a short
list of participants is being drawn up.
"There is a small vested interest group which is trying to disrupt this project,"
maintains Mr Mehta. "Apart from that, there is a huge amount of support for
this project throughout Dharavi."
And Mr Mehta believes that the idea of what he calls "public-private
partnership" could be used to redevelop big city slums in other parts of the
world.
Urban challenge
Solutions to the problems caused by the urbanisation of the world's
population are certainly needed. The prospect of ever-larger cities alarms
many governments around the world.
And as well as finding ways to improve the quality of life for rural migrants
to the cities, many development specialists argue that more needs to be done
to divert investment towards impoverished rural areas.
Darryl D'Monte, a leading Indian writer on environmental issues, argues that
the big underlying issue is the rural poverty which drives people to the cities.
"The more you invest in cities, the less you are investing in the countryside
and you are just perpetuating the problem," he argues.
And it is certainly one of the great challenges of the 21st Century. The United
Nations report concludes that the number of people living in urban areas will
rise from 3.3 billion in 2007 to 6.4 billion in 2050.
That means about 70% of the world's population will be living in cities. And
by then, the urban area of Mumbai will have reached an almost unimaginable
size.
Introduction: Slums in India

The definition of “slum” varies from country to country. In India,

each state has its own definition of slum. The National Definition of ‘Slum areas’ was set by the Slum
Areas Improvement and Clearance act of 1956.1 It defines them as places where buildings:

1. are in any respect unfit for human habitation;

2. are 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.

The Census of India defines a slum as "a compact area of at least 300 in population or about 60-70
households of poorly built, congested tenements in an unhygienic environment usually with inadequate
infrastructure and lacking proper sanitary and drinking water facilities."2
Slums are an urban phenomenon and they represent an imbalance between migration into cities and
economic growth within the city itself. Slums grow in the following ways3:

1. Population growth of slums. Indian slums suffer from “poor utilization of the reproductive child
health services provided by the government, lack of awareness regarding birth spacing, and very
low use of contraceptives,” writes researcher ShraddhaAgrawal. Furthermore, "Literacy and age
at marriage are not raised in spite of laws made by the government.”4

2. Migration from rural areas to more developed areas by people looking to earn more through
higher-paying manual labor compared to the low-returns life of agriculture. KumariSelja, Minister
for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, notes that despite rapid economic growth in urban
areas, poverty is still on the rise. “The pace of urbanization in India is set to increase, and with it,
urban poverty and urban slums, despite 62 percent of GDP now being generated in towns and
cities.”5 However, the effect of this is disputed. “Urban poverty is not a spill-over of rural poverty
as generally perceived and the manufacturing sector in India has not been able to provide
 necessary pull to rural workers,”6 writes researcher S.R. Hashim in the UNDP’s Urban Poverty
Report on India.

3. Changes within a city’s economic structures also contribute to urban poverty. “Restructuring and
dismantling of larger industries in big cities like Mills due to higher land prices,” writes Hashim,
“[leaves] a large number of workforce jobless forcing them into informal sector activities.”

Health, Hygiene and Sanitation

Housing in slums becomes a major health concern because residents

of slums live in overcrowded situations. Two-thirds of households are simple one-room structures, a
majority of them with dirt floors and poor ventilation. Such overcrowding can lead to rapid spread of
respiratory and skin disease.
Access to drinking water in slums is another major problem. More than two thirds of slum residents lack
access to safe drinking water on their premises. The main sources of water are handpumps, though tap
water is available in some homes. The lack of safe drinking water facilitates the spread of water borne
diseases. The presence of stored water further promotes the breeding of mosquitoes and diseases such
as malaria.
Absence of available latrines is a major health problem as well. It is estimated that over one third of slum
households have no access to bathroom facilities, promoting open defecation, which in turn leads to
spread of fecal-oral disease and parasitic infestation.
Education
Primary schooling, through corporation schools, is a free educational system provided by the Government
of India. “Further studies,” writes researcher VydyanathanLakshmanan, are “highly dependent on a host
of personal factors, like availability of funds, interest in studies, [and] family situations.”7According to the
2001 census, literacy in slums is only 65%; though slums in Chennai are at 80%, above the national
average. The Government of Tamil Nadu has done a commendable job in terms of promoting the free
educational system. However, dropout rates remain high, and many students do not continue studying
beyond their 8th standard. As one resident of Oduma Nagar, a Chennai slum, says, "we don´t have
money to send our children to good school and the local school is of no use."8Thus, though they are
literate, they lack suitable educational levels to pursue higher studies – the only way to break out of a
vicious cycle of poverty.
Social Problems and Moral Apathy
It is obvious that slums represent a huge economic failure. Sprawling urbanization has failed to produce
corresponding economic growth, thereby leaving many city dwellers behind. However, the problem of
slums cannot only be defined in economic terms. In our own experience working with slum dwellers in
India, it is clear that slums suffer from problems that are beyond economic ones.
Alcoholism is a disease endemic to slums and it leads to moral and economic degradation. Many men
take to consuming alcohol; this limits the amount of their income that can be spent for their family, and it
leads to social diseases of domestic abuse as well as serious health problems. In order to advance any
program in slum areas, alcoholism must be discussed openly and managed.
Finally, apathy is a major contributor to suffering in slums. Slum residents, men and women alike, hail
from villages and come to the cities looking for better work. Viewing themselves as ‘temporary workers’
they tend to neglect the importance of economic and social advancement. From medical to educational
issues, residents of slums are unwilling to make changes – however simple – to improve their lives. This
is not something that can or should be blamed on the residents themselves. However, no program
directed towards the social advancement of slum residents can deny the role of motivation and positive
reinforcement.
POVERTY AND SLUMS IN INDIA – IMPACT OF CHANGING
ECONOMIC LANDSCAPE
Guest Column by HariSud
Western media headlines as usual are as follows – twenty five percent of Indians
live on less than a dollar a day and seventy percent live on less than two dollars a
day. The forgoing was the headline of May 9, 2005 in a major international
newspaper. Others headlines are not any less mischievous. These are all
meaningless analysis. It does not reflect that same amount of money has differing
values in different places. A more acceptable and bit accurate description of
incomes in countries is Purchase Power Parity (PPP), which is, pricing identical
products and services as needed by the local population in different countries, thus
establishing a new and a more equitable exchange rate. The foregoing is applicable
mostly to tradable goods. The PPP will put India’s GDP at $3.7 Trillion. This will raise
daily monies of twenty five percent of Indians at the lowest rung of the society to
seven dollars. The latter is still low but is much higher than the Western media
would like to project. The forgoing is not the point; the point is that poverty is a
major shame in India’s otherwise decent, scientifically advanced, peace loving and
at times turbulent image. Poverty creates slums and slums breed hopelessness and
crime. Hence it needs to be tackled as an integral part of economic development.
The key question that arises - will the current hype in economical development in
India alter the landscape for the very poor?
The answer is that, not much will change in next 20 to 25 years. The real impact will
be felt later than twenty-five years. That is when 8% growth trajectory will take the
PPP daily income of the very poor in India from seven dollars to forty dollars. By
then, a $20 Trillion GDP economy (PPP basis) and $600 billion in exports (year 2001
basis) will add one hundred and fifty million jobs, of which forty to fifty million will
go to the very poor segment of the society. This general prosperity will not only put
food on the table but will add to better living, better housings etc. In the intervening
period of 25 years, rising income levels will definitely add to the exodus from the
slums to planned living areas. The forgoing also requires massive governmental
effort to house people properly.
Let us examine this issue of poverty and slums in Indian cities and its relationship to
the betterment of economic conditions of the masses, a bit further?
What Causes Slums in the Cities in the First Place?
It is vicious cycle of population growth, opportunities in the cities (leading to
migration to the cities), poverty with low incomes, tendency to be closer to work
hence occupying any land in the vicinity etc. The key reason out of all is the slow
economic progress. After independence in 1947, commercial and industrial activity
needed cheap labor in the cities. Plentiful was available in the rural area. They were
encouraged to come to cities and work. People, who migrated to the cities and
found work, brought their cousins and rest of the families to the cities. Unable to
find housing and afford it, they decided to build their shelter closer to work. First,
one shelter was built, then two and then two thousand and then ten thousand and
on and on. Conniving governments provided electricity and drinking water.
Politicians looked at the slums as vote bank. They organized these unauthorized
dwellers into a political force; hence slums took a bit of a permanent shape. More
slums developed as more population moved to the cities. By mid sixties Mumbai,
Kolkata, Delhi, and all other large cities were dotted with slums.
Very poor people live in slums. They are not the only one dwelling there. Fairly well
to do people also reside there. They are either offspring of the slum dwellers that
found education and an occupation. They have prospered but are unable to find
affordable housing, hence have continued to stay in the shantytowns. Others are
avoiding paying rent and property taxes. The latter is more often the case. It is not
unusual that in the dirtiest of slums, where misery prevails that TV sets,
refrigerators and radios are also blaring music. This is quite a contrast from the
image which one gets in the media or from the opportunist politicians.
India’s capital of Delhi has a million and a half out of fourteen million living in slums.
Mumbai is worst with greater percentage living in slums. Other big urban centers
have done no better. Newly built cities like Chandigarh and surrounding towns
where shantytowns could have been avoided altogether have now slums. The
forgoing is India’s shame despite huge progress.
How will the growing Economy impact Poverty and the Slum dwellers?
As stated above, 8% growth rate of Indian economy will push per capita GDP to
$2,000 level in about twenty to twenty-five years (PPP per capita GDP will be much
higher). The forgoing presupposes that the population does not explode in the near
future but continue a healthy 1.5 to 2% growth. That is where the magic equilibrium
of prosperity and desire to live a better life begins. These two together could end
poverty and slums. With availability of affordable housing and jobs, slum dwelling is
the last thought on people’s mind.
On the other hand if the above does not happen then slums dwellers will triple
in 25 years and so will the poverty. Delhi will have four and a half million-slum
dwellers. Kolkata and Mumbai will have even bigger numbers. India’s shame will
have no end. To avoid that, India’s economy has to remain at a high state of
growth. Jobs created by the economic growth, hence higher incomes are key criteria
for poverty reduction and slum elimination. The foregoing together with the current
urban renewal in progress in the urban areas today will give cities in India a new
look. Higher incomes will create a demand for in-expensive housing, which will have
to be met with innovative use of land and building techniques. Government
provided housing would be a great failure as it has been elsewhere in the world.
Instead sufficient cash has to be placed in the people’s hands together with in-
expensive land that people’s housing program become efficient and affordable. In
addition slum living has to be made unattractive with land taxes and denial of social
services. Slum colonies, which opt out of current hopelessness, should get a better
deal in housing which replaces the slums. This followed with rapidly growing rural
economy will kill migration. That will also reduce pressure on housing.
No single policy has ever brought an end to poverty and slums. It is a concerted
effort and better policies, which will end it. No country in the world has ever been
able to end poverty and slums completely. That includes the richest nation of the
world – USA. The point is that if economy progresses and special effort is made to
uplift the poor, poverty and slums will be overtaken by better economic conditions
of the people.
How did US Tackle its Slums?
US had its share of poverty and slums in around the immigrant dominated cities.
New York and Boston had great amount of poverty and slums at the turn of the
twentieth century. These slums worsened further with the arrival of newly liberated
African-American population from Deep South. The era pictures give a glimpse of
everyday life and it is not pretty. People without jobs and with no prospects
crowded cities in the North. A new word, Ghetto was coined, which described these
places. Immigrant from different background or race crowded together and gave
rise to Ghettos. At that time US did not have control over its economy and Civil War
debt and additional monies borrowed to rehabilitate agriculture and commerce after
the Civil War was unpaid. As twentieth century progressed a concerted effort was
made to clean up the Ghettos and push people inland with free grant of land and
promise of prosperity. Industrial Revolution, which was slow in reaching America
from Europe, finally arrived. And it made the difference. It provided the much-
needed jobs to the immigrants and colored. Also, free land in the West gave rise to
food self-sufficiency and paying off of all Civil War and post Civil War debts. First
World War gave US economy a boost and America joined the select group of
countries of Europe in prosperity. Poverty by the end of the Second World War was
a thing of the past. In just fifty years, i.e. by 1950, US were nation of 160 million
souls, all prosperous and all well employed (forget the habitual lazy). That does not
mean that all the Ghettos disappeared. They continued to exist. They exist today,
but on a much lower scale. These are not eyesores.
One critical factor which eliminated slums and poverty in US was quadrupling of the
US economy from 1900 to 1940. A free wheeling economy created industrial giants
and a super rich class. Need for war material during the WWII resulted in creation of
huge industrial infrastructure and innovation. Post war reconstruction in Europe
added greater impetus to the economy. General well being of the people living in
the poorer section of the cities dramatically improved. US raced ahead of Europe
and are still ahead, 60 years after the WWII. In most cities, ghettos disappeared or
shrunk. Urban renewal and building boom in last sixty years has completely
changed the landscape of the country.
There is a parallel here. Poverty and slums in India are at the same level as they
were in beginning of the twentieth century in America. Economic growth over fifty
years eliminated them. It is possible in India too if the economy sustains the 8%
growth trajectory.

Slums and the Great Briton

Great Briton was a great big slum before they became a colonial power in the
nineteenth century. For eight hundred years prior, until 1800s, Great Briton was an
agrarian society, where the lord lived happily in his Manor and Castles and the
masses lived in a great squalor. Slums were everywhere. London had the biggest
slums. Colonization brought prosperity and prosperity brought in a huge effort to
improve the lot of the people and clean up of the cities. That is when the
unemployed and slum dwellers were pushed to newly developing industrial hubs of
Sheffield, Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester. Compared to that Delhi, Kolkata
were heavens. First slums in Kolkata appeared in 1850-70 as a result of systematic
destruction of textile industry in Bengal and destruction of trading infrastructure in
and around Kolkata. Slums elsewhere followed.
It took all the Victorian age from 1825 to 1900 to vanish poverty and slums in
England. Their GDP multiplied 8 times over this period. British factories produced
goods and services which were sold at profit in the in the colonies. Work for
everybody in England was the cornerstone of building well-serviced cities.
The point is that reduction of poverty and slums follow closely with economic
development. Faster the economic development, sooner will the poverty vanish and
with it, the slums.

How did China handle its Poverty and Slums?

Chinese had a unique way of making slums disappear from its urban centers. Permit
system to live in a city or in a particular neighborhood was introduced just after the
Communist took control in 1949. That means that a migration of rural population to
the urban areas in search of jobs was arrested. In addition the war ravaged eastern
provinces where rural population had moved to the cities and into the slums, were
emptied out. Nobody questioned Mao Tse Tung’s wisdom; hence he had a free
hand. People were permitted to return to their homes in the cities only after proof of
their residency had been established. Outsiders were sent back to their own homes
and land in the rural area. Future residency in the cities was permitted on a permit
basis only. Hence the major problem of unplanned urban squatting was prevented.
Even today the foregoing policy continues. The FDI built cities of Guangdong
province carry on with the permit system established in 1949. In order to move
there, a person has to have a job and place to reside. The latter could be a factory
provided bunk bed. This prevents urban squatters. The above is no comparison to
how poverty was vanished in UK, US and elsewhere. Major economic progress in last
20 years has re-invigorated the cities with investment and reconstruction. Whether
the same is true in the China’s rural areas is a debatable issue. China likes to
pretend that poverty has been removed. Published reports state otherwise.
(http://www.economist.com/World/asia/displayStory.cfm?story_id=5636460)

Urban Renewal In India

Urban renewal is in progress in India in a big way for the last 50 years. The British
starved cities in India of the funds for two hundred years. They only built regal
palaces for themselves in Delhi, Shimla and Kolkota. No new funds were made
available to the people to renew and rebuild, hence Moghul Delhi presented a
decaying and a rundown look, when they finally left India in 1947. The problem got
compounded with migration of people from rural areas. Expanding industry and
commerce needed them hence migration was encouraged. Thus urban slums and
squatting began in a big way. Today, some estimates place 10 to 15% of Delhi
population as slum dwellers. Slums in Kolkata predate Delhi slums. So do the
Mumbai slums. They all began the same way – people’s livelihood was destroyed or
they were invited to work in factories without adequate housing. The problem grew
acute with huge population growth after 1950. From 1950 to today, cities lacked
funds to renew themselves and help build additional housing. People lacked
adequate jobs hence are caught in the poverty cycle.
Only recently a huge building and construction boom has started in all cities in
India. Whereas governments are concentrating on building infrastructure and
industrial base, private construction is building work places, shopping districts and
housing for the middle class. The poor and slum dwellers are not there in any
building equation. Cheap housing projects are lowest in the category. Hence slum
dwelling has become a way of life.
How Long the Poor have to wait?

If the experience elsewhere is a guide then poverty, slums and urban squat
will be a diminishing phenomenon, if the rapid economic progress keeps its
pace. Today we would have smaller of the slums, had economic policies of
the present were in place 50 years back. Only now, all signs point to a
rapidly rising GDP together with rising per capita GDP. With rise in income
level, tendency to head to the slums has lessened. Die-hard slum dwellers
who wish to pay no taxes and spend nothing on housing will most certainly
continue to stay there. Others will prefer to move out. This is a normal
phenomenon. It happened in US and elsewhere. It will happen in India too.
An economic equilibrium has not been reached in the society yet, where
enough money in people’s pocket will persuade them to vacate the slums.
This won’t we reached for another 20 to 25 years. By about middle of this
period with increased availability of housing and higher incomes, the growth
in slum dwelling will be arrested. Decline will begin only when much higher
incomes are reached (as stated above), provided India does not make the
mistake of regularizing the slums/bustees with land tenure on tenable land
and other amenities. That is a sure fire method to keep the slums going.
People will always wait for free grant of land ownership even if these grants
never materialize. Even the possibility of this ever happening in a distant
future will keep the slum dwellers in the slums.

Conclusion
Poverty, slums and urban squat are not going to go away in next 20 to 25 years.
Reversal of this phenomenon will begin after sufficient economic progress had been
made. Eight percent GDP growths is a good sign. With quadrupled GDP in 25 years,
there is a good chance that the new and upcoming generation may stay away from
slum dwelling. It may take another 25 years before the slums are vacated.
Statistics made available by the World Bank recently, won’t sound all that alarming to most Mumbaikars
but will surely raise an eyebrow of many living outside Mumbai city. But what can one do or say…
afterall“YehHai Mumbai, MeriJaan”.
Here is a look at some Mumbai stats and facts.
1. Almost 54 per cent of Mumbaikars live in slums today.
2. Another 25 to 30 per cent live in chawls and footpaths.
3. Remaining 10 to 15 per cent, live in buildings, bungalows or high-rises.
Future of the city…
Sources say that factors like the halt to the slum demolition scheme, the unhindered migration into the
city, antiquated housing laws and sky-rocketing real estate prices, will see slums overtake the Mumbai
skyline, in another 20 years.
From being known as slum capital of the country, Mumbai is now all set to become the slum capital of the
world.

Show me the Money….

In fact, Businessworld magazine’s WhiteBook of Marketing of 2005 clearly indicates that contrary to
popular belief, Mumbai does not have the largest number of elite (top socio-economic class). Mumbai’s A-
class measures only 14.8 per cent compared to Delhi’s 25.4 per cent, Chennai’s 16.3 per cent.
Migration has to stop
It is estimated that 100 to 300 new families come to Mumbai every day and most land up in a slum colony
or just erect a shanty on the nearest available footpath.
Professor R N Sharma, head of the Urban Studies unit in Tata Institute of Social Sciences says that
Mumbai is undoubtedly disintegrating into slums.
“Thanks to migration, the city’s population is rising rapidly. Already 67 per cent of the city works in the
informal sector. If the World Bank estimate of the city reaching a population of 2.25 crore by 2025 is true,
slums will be everywhere.”
But all you read is not always true
However, A Jockin of SPARC, the NGO that works for slums, said that the rehabilitation process is the
only way out. “This talk about Mumbai having predominantly slums is rubbish. Already 67 per cent of
slums on railway land have been re-settled. The airport project and the rehabilitation near Mithi River is
also happening at a good pace. These figures of slum population rising is not true.”
Rehab is the way out
Former housing minister NawabMallik also agrees that rehabilitation is a big draw to get rid of slums. “But
the market push needs to be there to make it a success. If the market forces do not push real estate,
Mumbai could just go the slum way.”
 Since the beginning of the
city, slums have been a part of
Bombay's landscape. However,
the first official enumeration of
the population living in slums
was performed only in 1976. It
found 2.8 million people in
1,680 settlements all over
Bombay. The total population
was then 5.9 million.
A second count in 1983 found
1,930 settlements. They
contained 4.3 million people in
924,572 households. The
number of people living on
pavements was estimated to be
700,000. These two populations
accounted for about half of
Bombay's citizens.
Recent estimates claim that
about 40% of the city's
population live in 3.5% of its
area. The population density in
these enclaves then come out
to be 400,000 persons per
square kilometer! On the other
hand, the 1991
census calculates a density of
16,400 persons per square
kilometer in the slums of
Bombay.
These numbers do not
capture the human cost of
slums, they give only an idea of
the magnitude of the problems
of low-cost housing in urban
India.
Where are the slums?
In the 19th century slums grew
around the mills and other
 places of employment. Now
they grow in any empty space.
Although older slums
in Byculla, Dharavi and Khar we
re initially separate villages, with
their own traditional industries,
most people who live in slums
work outside them.
Data from the 1984 survey
fraction of
on land owned by
slums

50% Private

18% BMC

16% State government

Maharashtra Housing
9%
Board

6% Central government

C18 The area that is now

Byculla was part of the low-lying
Flats into which the sea poured
at high tide through the the
Great Breach at Mahalaxmi.
With the closing of this Breach
by the Hornby Vellard in 1784,
and the construction of the
causeway known as theBellasis
Road in 1793, this land became
available for building. The
European enclave
in Mazagaon then began to
grow westwards into Byculla. A
race course was founded and
became so popular that the
Bombay Turf Club was
established in 1800.
C19 During the nineteenth
century, Byculla grew into a
prosperous and elegant suburb,
with grand British
and Parsi houses. Sir David
Sassoon built a house and a
synagogue here. When the
Byculla Club opened in 1833 it
was the first of Bombay's
residential clubs. In the same
year a new church was
completed, with neo-classical
columns left over from those
imported for the town hall. This
immediately became the
fashionable church for the
British, totally eclipsing St.
Thomas' in the Fort area.
By 1857, the Byculla railway
station was completed, and the
first mills were already polluting
the clear air of this fashionable
district. The Byculla Iron Works
was established in the same
year, and limps along even
today. Carriage and furniture
makers moved into the area,
and established themselves
near the railway station, where
there was already a flourishing
fruits and vegetables market.
In 1878 the first races were held
at the site of the present race-
course in Mahalaxmi. The
decline of Byculla had begun,
although chambers at the club
were still much sought-after,
with its Rs. 350 a month charge,
including dinners that featured
prawn curry and the
BycullaSouffle, full of liqueurs.
The Turf Club moved out of
Byculla in the 1890's. Then the
plague finally drove the British
and the richer Parsis to the
newly fashionable Malabar Hill.
The Byculla Club doddered
along, overtaken in importance
by the Yacht Club at Apollo
Bunder founded in 1898. It was
turned into a hospital during the
First World War, and was
eventually sold in the 1920's.
The area where it stood still
contains some grand-looking
buildings.
C20 Byculla is now a lower-
middle class enclave with a
large Muslim population. Unlike
the more crowded areas to the
west and south, it still retains a
charming air of genteel decay.
The furniture shops attract as
much crowd as the Victoria
Gardens with its congested zoo,
visited every weekend by large
numbers of middle-class
families out on a Sunday picnic.
On such days the statue of
Edward VIII at the entrance gets
the attention which it must have
been used to while it stood in
the Fort area and gave its name
toKalaGhoda.
The development of Andheri and the adjoining regions was set into motion
around 1915, when the Western Trunk Route, fromBandra was extended to
Jogeshwari. Records from 1921 show that of the 4000 approved building
plans in that year, a substantial number were in Andheri and Khar. By the
1930's the areas had been laid out in roughly the pattern seen today. Khar,
Andheri and Jogeshwari were then administered by a Collector in charge of
the "Suburban District". With the creation of Greater Bombay in 1945, the
administration was merged with the rest of Bombay city.
Mumbai's slum demolitions: Utter shamelessness and treachery

Photo courtesy:BBC

Mumbai can't be a Shanghai if the slums exist. But a filthy Mumbai over a Shanghai
built over lies?
BY BABYCHEN MATHEW

1. The shamelessness of you, me and Shekhar Gupta

Mumbai faces a dilemma - choosing between a proliferation of slums, or cold-hearted demolitions.

What did you say, again? What dilemma?

For Indian Express and Shekhar Gupta, there is no dilemma. For the Shiv Sena, there is no dilemma. For
the large proportion of the middle-class, and the elite for whom the slums do not exist in their universe,
there is no dilemma.

There is a dilemma only if you believe in something you learnt as a child - Do not lie. Do not cheat.
Sometimes, even famous newspaper editors - not to mention the common man - forget this teaching.

Try as we might to confuse the issue, what the middle-classes, the English media (in this instance,
the Indian Express) and the well-meaning bureaucrats and some citizen-activists advocate regarding the
slum demolition drama in Mumbai is cold-blooded deceit.

Let me explain how.

First, the origin of the slums. We all know how the slums came into being in Mumbai. Political complicity,
bureaucratic corruption, slumlords and mafia and you and me needed them. That is why they are there.

Cut to the 2004 Maharashtra state assembly elections. There was one party which has consistently taken
a stand against the slums - the Shiv Sena. The Shiv Sena and its bossman the ageing tiger Bal
Thackeray were always clear that they would be happy to see the slums vanish overnight. They were,
during the elections, very clear that Mumbai can do without slums, and they would demolish everything
which came up post-1995. The Congress and the NCP, on the other hand, went to great lengths to
canvass the slumdwellers for votes, assuring them that only shanties which were built after 2000 will be
demolished.

The Congress came to power. Within a week of coming to power, VilasraoDeshmukh, the Maharashtra
Chief Minister, started talking about turning Mumbai into another Shanghai. He pushed the BMC to
demolish the slums. Well-meaning former administrators and bureaucrats and a section of the media
applauded, and the process was set in motion.

That was outright lying and cheating.

And you, the Mumbai resident - if you think that this is necessary, you should have voted the Shiv Sena
into power. If it really mattered to you. If you did not and preferred the Congress, and then prefer to see
them going back on their promises and destroying the homes of thousands, then you are a hypocrite and
as much a danger as the lying, cheating politicians this country and Mumbai are infested with. If you still
prefer the treachery of the Congress to the abrasive truth of the Sena, you are asking for it. A society
which prefers that the politicians lie to it because it is convenient for them today will get its comeuppance
tomorrow. And remember that your children are earning from your hypocrisy, picking up your values.
When they show you the finger tomorrow, remember not to cry.

Am I saying you should have voted for the Sena? No. The Sena has a different vision for Mumbai - the
vision of a large fort around the city of Mumbai, with Bal Thackeray perched atop a flagpole with a saffron
flag fluttering. The Bangladeshis are their primary evil, followed by Muslims, then North Indians, South
Indians and then Christians in that order. In that vision, Marathi spreads across the country and the world
under the tutelage of Shiv Sena. And if slums exist, by the grace of ShivajiMaharaj, they will be Hindu,
Maratha slums. No, I don't subscribe to that vision, but that still does not justify breaking promises.

Shekhar Gupta,

Editor and CEO

Indian Express

And now we come to Indian Express and Shekhar Gupta. Is this not the same paper that takes politicians
to task for not fulfilling their election promises? Isn't Indian Express the same newspaper where past and
recent statements of politicians are compared side-by-side in large boxes, so we can be suitably shocked
at their hypocrisy? Is it the same Shekhar Gupta who lets out this heart-wrenching cry over stoppage of
demolitions the same editor in chief and CEO who makes sarcastic observations about the
shamelessness of politicians?

Let us now take a detailed look at what the Indian Express printed in its pages on 19 Saturday February
2005. The three stories on the demolitions in Mumbai - The front page story on VilasraoDeshmukh's
misery after Sonia stopped him; the Edit piece and Shekhar Gupta's edit-page piece 'Mumbai Shanghaied
to Patna' - hold a mirror to what we are. Ignorant, ostrich-like, selfish and hypocritical.
Shekhar Gupta's piece, especially. So, because he threatens Mumbai that it is on the way to being a
Patna. Oh the horror. What better way than to garner the support of the denizens of Mumbai who abhor
the criminality, administrative coma and caste-politics than to tell us we are on the way there? And how
utterly shameless too.Because while scaring us with that nightmare, Shekhar Gupta is supporting our tacit
approval of our own politicians going back on their word. That, I believe, is a shorter route to Patna than
the route through slums.

Read through this: "Just a drive around Patna could help you see the ongoing slum demolition
controversy in Mumbai in a comprehensive perspective. If you allow divisive vote politics to determine
every aspect of governance, this is what you get: India's most non-functional capital of India's most non-
functional state. If all that matters to you is winning elections, and if it does not matter to you that you do it
by dividing and exploiting the people, you can get three or even more (who knows!) terms in power. But,
in return, you also get the state of Bihar." Shekhar Gupta says that it is votebank politics that is forcing
VilasraoDeshmukh's hand. It is. Who played the votebank politics? The Congress. Natural that the snake
will bite them back. It should. Hopefully the forced turnaround will make everyone think about a long-term
solution.

Shekhar Gupta suggests that the cut-off date of year 2000 is 'scandalous and self-serving'. As Congress
was in power in Mumbai from 1999 till now, and they do not want to touch slums that have benefited from
their benign eye. If that is so, the same goes for 1995. Then, the Sena was in power in Mumbai, and they
do not want to touch anything from that period either.

After that, for a moment, Shekhar Gupta sees the light. He asks, "You cannot deny that demolitions are
inhuman, and reasonable rehabilitation is a fair demand. But should there be no punishment, no price
paid by anybody, official or political, for allowing encroachments in the first place?"

Ah-ha. But then he goes on rambling about land, land mafia, property rights and rent rules that are not in
tune with the times. If those are the issues, solve them before you break people's homes. Doing it now
without any plan apart from destruction is a short-term measure. If Shekhar Gupta truly believes that
those are the reasons why Mumbai is where it is now, he should argue for reforms there before the
demolitions. He won't. Because he too is caught up in the little lie - that if we close our eyes tight, the
slum-dweller will go away. The fact is, Mumbai's slum problem is a large issue that cannot be tackled
through demolitions, rehabilitations, or punishments to politicians and bureaucrats as everyone is
responsible for the current mess. Arguing for demolitions now and the serious work later ignores the fact
that we are talking about the people who live in those slums as a disposable, slave class with no
humanity. Probably, if the slum kids had fairer skins, we could think about them as humans too?

To Shekhar Gupta and the shameless middle class who preferred to turn off NDTV and switched to Zoom
TV when little kids were rummaging through the broken rubble to retrieve their textbooks - you shall reap
as you sow. Your clean, beautiful Mumbai cannot be built over lies. It does not happen that way. You
want it, go about it like an honest society. Make your politicians tell you the truth. Understand the reasons
why slums exist, and what are the solutions. Be prepared to do your bit for Mumbai - but do it as an
honest, civilized city would. Think about the lives of human beings who die or turn to crime because they
can't earn what you spend on your pet dog in a day. Crapping on the lives of beggars and little kids is not
the way ahead.

Photo courtesy: BBC

2. The lucky middle class and elite of Mumbai

You may not know, living as you are in Mumbai, about how lucky you are. The slum demolitions which
have destroyed 90,000 shanties so far - that's a couple of lakhs of people without homes - were perfectly
capable creating a giant social upheaval. Thank your lucky stars it did not happen, as we denizens of
Mumbai closed our eyes to the dreams being laid barren next door to our apartments.

I am a migrant from Kerala, the land of the leftists. The land where people have a good idea - some may
say more than a good idea - of what their rights are in this democratic country of ours. You may not watch
the Malayalam channels - but if you ever care to watch the news, you would see some strange sights.
Daily battles between party workers and the police, people stoning buses, vehicles being burned down,
protestors stoning the police, the police stoning them back. That is Kerala for you.

Imagine the slum demolitions that are happening in Mumbai happened in Kerala. You would have a
gigantic explosion on your hands. The slum dwellers would attack government buildings, burn every
vehicle on the street, attack the middle-class and anyone who looked like he was living in pucca housing.
The attitude would be - we have a right to housing, and if we lose it, neither will you have your little house.
Kerala has come to a standstill for issues a 1000 times less important than people losing their houses. I
say you are lucky in Mumbai, because the poor do not have a grasp of their rights as they have in the
communist states of Kerala or West Bengal.

I guarantee you, if the people of slums decide to protest as a group, our favourite Mumbai would cease to
exist as we know it. You would need the Army to bring law and order back. That's no threat - we're just
lucky that there is no one who knows how to capitalize on the anger and frustration of the slum dwellers.
The political parties are staying away from organizing any mass agitation. It is only the thoroughly
impractical and emotional MedhaPatkar who has been protesting, and a few civic activists. Medha has
hardly a record of success - thank God it's her who is taking up the cause of the slum dwellers. There are
no naxalites in Mumbai. No one who believes in armed revolution to attain your rights. The Mumbai riots
would seem like a minor scuffle if the slum dwellers had spilled out in anger. Thank them for not doing so.

3. Save Mumbai - abandon it.

Back to MrShekhar Gupta. Mr. Gupta, I do not know if you have traveled around Mumbai - or if your
travels have been limited to the city, the Indian Express office or the Gateway of India. The answer to
Mumbai's problems are very much in front of us - only, the politicians and the average Mumbaikar too -
choose to ignore it.

Abandon Mumbai. Get out of there. It is not livable anymore. The geography of Mumbai does not allow
any further expansion. Amendments to laws, more flyovers, slum demolitions, multiplexes, traffic
restrictions - nothing can save Mumbai. It is a piddly little island surrounded by water with land so
precious that the more you try to clean up its infrastructural problems, the demand would just as easily fill
it up. There is no way you can provide affordable housing for the middle class in Mumbai - forget
affordable housing for the slum-dwellers. The land is too precious for that. The average Mumbai citizen
will stay in the suburbs, and travel to his office in town in the morning in the millions, and travel back in the
evening by local trains and buses. Nothing can change that.

Unless you take Mumbai out of Mumbai.

Do to Mumbai what Noida and Gurgaon did to New Delhi. Satellite towns with facilities. Places where the
offices and companies can shift to. There is no real reason why the government or any of the major
private companies need to be in Mumbai city any more. The logistics of expanding Mumbai along the
western line past Virar, on the central line past Thane and Kalyan and on the Harbour line, encompassing
the ready and planned development of Navi Mumbai would be a lot easier than trying to solve the
problems of Mumbai proper.

The only way out is to move out. Move the government out of Mumbai. Move the courts out of Mumbai.
Embrace Kharghar, the upcoming city node in Navi Mumbai - supposed to be the second best designed
city in India after Chandigarh. The Agricultural Produce Marketing Co-operative markets were moved out
of Masjid Bunder years back, and the benefits it brought to the congestion there was huge. Stop giving
people a reason to crowd closer and closer to Mumbai, and Mumbai's problems will be lessened.

Who has understood the benefits of moving out of Mumbai? Reliance, for one.Wipro. Tata Tele. Mumbai
International Infotech Park.And more than a million people.

What will happen to slum dwellers then? Right now, the slum dwellers are where they are because there
is demand for them in the heart of Mumbai and in and around all the suburbs. The means for them to
make a living are concentrated in Mumbai city. Spread it out. Do not allow any further constructions in
Mumbai. Move government and all major institutions out. Spread them out beyond Panvel and Kalyan
and Ambernath and Virar.
What would happen? The slum dwellers will move with the demand. Mumbai's population will move with
their jobs and businesses. Land is relatively cheaper once you are out of Mumbai. Provide affordable and
cheap housing in those places, and ensure that slums do not come up there - that is much easier than
uprooting existing slums. For example, there are very few slums in Navi Mumbai. There are poor people
there too, who work as our istriwallahs, bais and watchmen. But they have some kind of housing, and
they are more or less legal. It is easier to ensure that there is no new land mafia than to try to rout the
existing ones. The poor can't afford housing - but only in Mumbai. Once out of Mumbai, there are places
for them to rent out, buy and live with proper planning and politicial initiative.

Face it. Mumbai will never be a Shanghai. It will not even be Mumbai. Leave Mumbai as the cultural and
historical capital of Maharashtra. A place where we take our visiting guests to show them Hotel Taj, the
Gateway of India, Victoria Terminus and Churchgate station. A place you visit to remember those days of
pollution, traffic, slums and congestion. Let Mumbai out of its limits, let it breathe. So that millions of
people - the middle classes and the slum-dwellers have a chance at something resembling a life.

Megacities must urgently address the needs

of slum dwellers to prevent human disaster
By Patricia Nunan (VoA), with additional research by City Mayors

8 March 2006: The world's population is booming - no more so than in its cities. Today, there are
21 megacities around the world, three-quarters of them in developing nations like India. By 2020,
research by City Mayors predicts there will be at least 27 megacities. That staggering rate of
urbanization brings its own problems, especially in developing nations, where the majority of the
megacities will be found. Mumbai (formerly Bombay) is one of India's megacities and forecast to
become the world’s second-largest urban agglomeration.

Employment and educational opportunities are the main attraction of urban centers. But hopes for a better
life are often dashed as overpopulation puts a huge strain on cities' infrastructures and their ability to
provide basic necessities - like clean water and a decent place to live.

Many rural migrants who come to Mumbai fail to find adequate work, and therefore cannot afford decent
housing. The World Bank says 54 per cent of Mumbai's 15 million residents live in slums.

The problem of slums caused by migration is shared by India's other two megacities, Delhi and Calcutta,
as well as urban centers throughout the developing world. The problem is pressing, with the United
Nations predicting half the world's population is expected to be living in cities by next year.

The three fastest growing megacities are Mumbai, India; Tokyo, Japan; and Lagos, Nigeria. India's former
chief city planner, Edgar Ribeiro, says Mumbai was doing moderately well by comparison. "Comparing
these three, they say that infrastructure is so weak in Lagos and it cannot catch up with the rate of growth,
so it's already a disaster," he says. "Tokyo will never face a disaster because it knows how to deal with [it]
in its investments in infrastructure and services. Mumbai has learned how to deal with it. It's not good
enough. It's not bad enough either. It's somewhere in between."

Still, nearly everywhere that there is a spare piece of land in Mumbai, slums emerge along the side of
train tracks and highways, and even on sidewalks. Many say addressing land and housing issues should
be the city's top priority.
Ribeiro disagrees. He says the demands of transport, improved housing for slum residents, environmental
protections and other issues must all be addressed in tandem to catch up to residents' needs. "Today the
infrastructure in Mumbai would have been wonderful for eight million, but you have 12 million," he
explains. "When you start improving it, you will say it's wonderful for 12 million - but it's gone up to 16, and
so on. It is catching up - infrastructure. How fast it is catching up, how fast it learns to have integrated
growth are the issues."

In the meantime, there is a pressing need for basic amenities for slum residents. Darryl D'Monte, an
environmental journalist and an advocate for improved urban planning, explains what might help. "If you
granted them a lease - not everywhere, but in some places, a lease meaning you have a right to rent your
pitch, your space, you pay a rent. Don't forget that's 1.1 million families. You pay rent of 100 or 200
rupees a month - that's enough for the government to provide these basic amenities, which is water,
sanitation, lighting," he said. "[And] the big advantage of that alternative is that you'd provide employment
within the slum for masons, carpenters."

Improving conditions for slum-dwellers is also a matter of public health. In the Mumbai slum of Golibar, a
room about 15 square meters is home to a family of eight. Among them is DewaRamchandraBhalerao,
21, who has been fighting tuberculosis for four years. His sister-in-law, who also lived here, recently died
of the disease, leaving behind a young son. The family has nowhere to go outside the slum, and Bhalerao
says he's afraid he may be infecting the others.

He says he is trying to get well, but he can no longer afford the expensive medicine, and his health has
declined and he cannot eat well. He says he is really scared since his sister-in-law died.

The threat of diseases in crowded cities has taken on a new urgency with the looming threat of a bird flu
pandemic. India reported its first ever outbreak in chickens in Maharashtra state, where Mumbai is
located. Officials have contained the spread and there are no cases of humans becoming infected for
now.

"[It's] very difficult to difficult to gauge the magnitude in that case," says Dr. TusharRane, who is with
UNICEF. "But definitely the magnitude is on the higher side for all the airborne diseases. We have seen
tuberculosis or measles - which we see as the major killer of the child. But we haven't seen such an
epidemic or such a thing happening in the slum area." Could it be a disaster? "Yes," replies Dr. Rane, "it
could be a very big disaster."

Like in so many developing nations, Indian authorities are working to improve infrastructure and slum
conditions, but resources are limited. Mumbai's population will continue to grow. The question is whether
the city - and other megacities like it - can take the strain.
More than a year after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) came up with a project to protect the water
mains and the adjoining municipal land from encroachments, barely 7 per cent of the total work has been completed.
Of the total encroached area of 1.42 lakh square metres adjacent to water pipelines, reservoirs and pumping stations
identified by the hydraulic engineering department, only 10,000 square metres of such land has been cleared until
now. The reason for the delay in the Rs.81-crore project is that over 70 per cent of the slums along pipelines have
been built before 1995 and the civic body needs to provide alternative housing for them before demolishing the
hutments.
The proposal was passed with a view to prevent damage to pipelines that happen through frequent thefts and
pilferage by those residing in the encroached areas. Nearly 20 per cent of the total water supplied to the city is lost
owing to thefts and leakages.
The civic body had in May 2009 passed a proposal for protection of pipelines, reservoirs and pumping stations and
the adjoining land owned by the hydraulic engineering department by constructing compound walls, fencing and
developing gardens on the land. The proposal also included surveillance of pipelines by security guards. The contract
was awarded to Krystalsecurity firm for carrying out surveillance for a period of two years. However, after spending of
Rs 13.85 crore —the total allocated budget is Rs 81 crore— only seven percent of the work has been completed.
In a survey conducted by the hydraulic engineering department of the BMC, a total area of 1,42,158 square metre
was found to be encroached upon by hutments close to a stretch of 61.7 kilometres of water pipelines and a number
of reservoirs and pumping stations across the city, eastern and western suburbs. As many as 15,743 such structures
were identified.
In the past one year, 6000 square metres of encroached land adjacent to water pipelines near the international airport
in Andheri and 3000 suqaremetres of encroached land near the BMC ward officeinBandrahas been cleared by
demolishing hutments.
“In most cases, we can’t demolish slums because they are protected. Following the court’s clearance to the demolish
slums near airport and in Bandra, we have constructed compound walls, pathways and gardens around it after razing
hutments. We have also posted security guards to prevent encroachments. However, for the rest of the places, we
need to constrcut alternative housing before carrying out demolition drive,” said Deputy Hydraulic Engineer
PramodGuhe. However, he added that the remaining work would be completed before May 2011.
The BMC has formed a squad to stop mushrooming of illegal slums and remove
unauthorised ones. The responsibilities of surveillance squad will include severing
illegal water connections in slums erected before 1995 and removing slums that do
not produce documents, such as electricity bill or water bill, to prove the structures
were established before 1995.

In 1997, the state government regularised the slums erected before January 1995
and has declared as illegal all such structures built after that. According to a report,
about 60 per cent of the slums have been erected without the mandatory
permission of the BMC and state government. Despite the order declaring as illegal
all slums built after 1995, there has been a continuous rise in the number of slums,
which the authorities have apparently ignored. Now, they want to tackle the
menace by forming the special squad.

“If the slum dwellers have not registered their names in voter list before 1995, their
accommodation will be removed by the surveillance squad,” a BMC official said,
adding that each municipal ward will have squad to deal with the problem in the
area.

Each squad will consist of 12 including an assistant security officer, two security
guards, a licence inspector, a sanitary inspector, a market inspector, an engineer
from hydraulic department, an engineer from building proposal and an engineer
from maintenance department.

As per the BMC and the district collector’s record, there are about 3.37 lakh
regularised slums, out of which 3.05 have received photo passes issued on the
basis of 2000 Census.

About 80,000 slums erected after 1995 have already been removed by the BMC to
make free 265 acres.
Bhubaneswar, July 9: The Bhubaneswar Municipality Corporation (BMC) is launching a pilot project to upgrade
slums in Bhubaneswar.
The Bhubaneswar slum upgrade pilot project intends to improve the quality of services to slum areas, especially by
providing drinking water and sewerage facilities and lead to improvement of health standards.
Bhubaneswar has 377 slums — with 60,000 households and 3.08 lakh people. Most slums lack access to basic
municipal services and housing. This affects the health of slum dwellers and of those living in close proximity. Only
one third of the slum dwellers get water from pipes through public stand posts. The rest use handpumps or tubewells.
Less than one fifth of the slums have access to household toilets and only one tenth have access to community
toilets.
The pilot is proposed to upgrade seven settlements in Bhubaneswar. The first phase of the project has already begun
at Gyannagar slum in the city. The project will provide water supply connections to homes from the city network. Each
house, connected to the network, will have at least two taps — in the house and the toilet. Each household will have
an individual toilet connected to the city sewerage network.
The project is being implemented by BISWA, a micro-finance NGO with the technical support from USAID FIRE (D)
and financial support from Michael and Susan Dell Foundation (MSDF), in active partnership with the Housing &
Urban Development Department. While MSDF will finance the augmentation of the city water supply and sewerage
networks to be laid along the streets, BISWA will assist the poor families through microfinance to pay for the internal
work of the house connections as well as the connection costs.
Based on the success of the slum upgrade project, the BMC will prepare a “Citywide Slum Upgrading Strategy”, said
mayor Ananta Narayan Jena.
“This will aim at providing a framework of action and sustainable solutions for slum development across the city. The
strategy will recommend new norms for service delivery standards for slums; identify and reform actions for
mainstreaming slums into city systems,” said BISWA chairman K.C. Mallick.
What I have to say won't make me popular.
It's time for Mumbaites to wake up and smell the coffee - It's all too easy to blame everything on the
government, but Mumbaities are equally to blame. For the utter disrespect they have for the city. For the
crime of irresponsibility that they are guilty of. For treating the streets of their city like a garbage dump.

I am not saying the government is doing a great job - it sucks! But so do we citizens -- we need to take a
long hard look at ourselves.

Mumbai is by far the dirtiest city in India [ Images ], and dare I say, the world. It has left the slums of
Calcutta far behind. Each Mumbaite must share the blame for the disastrous state of affair in Mumbai.
Perhaps now the citizens will realise the truth behind the saying that each bag of plastic that you toss
away ends up clogging a rainwater drain.

Wise up Mumbaites! Get a social conscience and learn civic responsibility -or else pay the price without
moaning!

-- JagatRathore

Any great city sustains its status with the infrastructure it maintains. The 19th and 20th century rulers built
Mumbai by identifying its geographical potential for trade, and constructing its infrastructure to last for the
next century. The architects and town planners under the British Raj of the late 19th century gave it a look
and feel that closely resembles London [ Images ]. Their careful infrastructure planning made the city to
grow into a financial powerhouse for a good part of pre &post independence era.

The cultural diversity that trade and commerce brought to Mumbai over the last 150 years made it a
unique place in many respects which Mumbaikars are still proud of. It is this infrastructure that attracted
the elite and the ambitious people. It is the ambitions of these people that flourished in a so called well
built and maintained city during the 20th century.

The first Indian railway was built in Mumbai.

The First Indian Cinema started in Mumbai. Asia's largest IMAX theater is in Mumbai.

Built in 1833, the Asiatic Society of Bombay is the oldest public library in the city.

The Jehangir Art Gallery and The National Gallery of Modern Art, The Prince of Wales Museum in South
Mumbai and many such monuments, temples and historical sites have made Mumbai a landmark city.
It is not by accident that Mumbai is the birthplace of many firsts. This could be attributed to good
governance, ambitious plans and a well built infrastructure system then present that attracted the working
class and the elite together to pursue their dreams.

Thus for the last century and a half, Mumbai has been perceived as a city to pursue your dreams. That
reputation has led to a mass influx, overburdening the city's limited infrastructure and creating resentment
between the original inhabitants and the people who arrive with dreams of striking it big.

With the limited land that Mumbai has, managing these psychological expectations of the people should
be the first step towards any infrastructural development.

Being a democratic society, this naturally cannot be forced on to people. But it could be managed by
regulations, right representations, managing people's expectations and dreams in their hometowns
and extending the infrastructure beyond Mumbai and its suburbs.

The legacy of the British-built infrastructure that we are blindly riding on for the last fifty five years needs
to stop. If last week's gridlock is any indicator, we need to start thinking about the direction in which we
are taking our city.

Rather than shifting blame to our government that we elect, we should look within ourselves.

When was the last great architectural structure built in or around Mumbai?

Since Independence, we have become a more reactive society than being proactive to our ever growing
needs, and encourage the large influx of people and haphazard building without giving due regard to the
sanctity and sustainability of the area.

Just after independence, a new wave of nationalism led to great strides in building many dams and
infrastructure throughout India. That pride in building for the future has waned away.

Let this monsoon rain be the revival of that wave. Let us bring back our enthusiasm to stop and think, to
do something for our future. We owe it to ourselves and our future generation to nurture a right attitude
towards making Mumbai the architectural landmark of the 21st Century.

Kuala Lumpur, Seoul, Singapore and many other cities have the same problems as Mumbai, yet they
succeeded far better than Mumbai in developing world class communities over the last couple of
decades. They have shown that the will of the people, the politicians, the town planners and the private
sector working together builds a great city.

We are in no way lagging behind in Mumbai, other than our will to plunge in the right direction. Our
politicians need to work for the people rather than for themselves. The present government lacks the
audacity to take on ambitious projects at the grass root levels. Very seldom have we seen a Mumbai
government joining hands with the private sector to take on the needs of the future to build a great city.
No wonder the likes of Bangalore and Hyderabad and Pune and Noida are leaping ahead, while our
cynical local government continues to take Mumbai's status as a financial powerhouse for granted.

Our politicians were quick to change the name of 'Bombay' the financial powerhouse to Mumbai (land of
goddess Mumba Devi). Now we owe it to the goddess to at least make a constructive effort to develop an
infrastructure to keep it clean without just setting up committees and passing blame on each other.

Everything is possible in Mumbai. Let us all make this dream come true to make our children and our
grand children proud of us and proud of Mumbai.

-- Ajay Wagh, a Mumbaikar in Houston

The never say die spirit of Mumbai is well appreciated, but the government is taking advantage of it.
That attitude enables citizens to help themselves and forget these things after the calamity is over. For
some time people may even curse the government, but after a month or so everything is back to normal
and no one really bothers till the next calamity or tragedy strikes. I would say people in Mumbai are very
submissive and bear all nonsense in silence, which should not be the attitude.

No one is really taken to task in this city. The chalthahai attitude is everywhere. There are many
steps that can be taken, but it is of no use writing about them, since the will will to implement them will last
only for the next 15 days or maximum for a month.

Every politician and the administration take Mumbaikars for granted. First of all this impression should be
changed…then the rest will automatically follow. It is only useful to talk about these after the impression of
the people are changed...

-- Hemant

The basic problem of the highly spirited people of Mumbai is lack of civic sense, traffic sense, and
knowledge of their rights. To add to it corruption has made inroads in all aspects of life so terrible that we
have not only started condoning it but feel that it is a inseparable path of our life.

We allow politicians to misguide us, and focus on non issues and let calamities like this strike us with
nowhere to go.

We should understand the basic universal truth that we get what we deserve.

Nevertheless the people of Mumbai do have a heart and still can rise to occasion. Like Surat[ Images ],
which is a cleaner place to live now thanks to the plague threat, we should all take corrective steps and
automatically the government will have to follow the wishes of it subjects

God bless Mumbaikars

-- M Rasiwala
For the past two days the television channels are full of affected citizens and so called citizen activists
accusing the Maharashtra [ Images ] government of being inactive, useless etc.

However, we need to ponder whether we as citizens are performing our jobs properly. Who is to be
blamed for this calamity? What should we do to ensure that it does not happen again?

It is easy to blame the government. But did those doing so attend office for the last 5 days? If they could
not, how do they expect poor class IV employees of BMC/TMC/KDMC who are also affected due to floods
to do so?

The government and all political parties have to be blamed for playing partisan politics. In order to retain
their vote bank, political parties are allowing slums to grow in every nook and corner of the city.

One of the main reason for bad sewage is slum dwellers. Because of them filth is littered all over the
place and no one wants to take the responsibility of removing the increasing pile of garbage.
MrVilasraoDeshmukh[ Images ] undertook a sincere effort for clearing the slums but was stopped by Her
Highness Sonia Gandhi [ Images ]. We should ask her to live near an unauthorised slum then see her
reactions.

Second menace are the tabelas in the heart of the city, another fertile ground for filth generation. The
tabela owners are so callous that they tied all the buffalos, preventing them from swimming to safety. We
should in fact book all the tabela owners for culpable homicide.

At least now politicians like Sonia Gandhi, Bal Thackeray [ Images ] etc should learn a lesson and take
corrective steps to prevent such disasters in future.

These steps are

• Remove all slums irrespective of the day they are built. slum should be out of city areas including
thane, kalyan etc.
• Do not permit unauthorised constructions (all done with the knowledge of ward officers)
• Do not give permission for new construction recklessly without assessing water and other
infrastructure facilities Ensure ban of polythene bags Cultivate the system of collecting separately
dry garbage and wet garbage. Ensure fuses and live wires are not kept in unsafe condition in
roadside lamps etcHeavily penalize power theft, a normal feature during political rallies and by
slums.
• Train police and municipal staff on effective crisis management
• Reduce unnecessary security cover to all and sundry politicians

When I was in Kolkata [ Images ] in the beginning of this month I was surprised to note that there was no
security person accompanying the West Bengal [ Images ] chief minister. He is a true leader, unlike our
leaders who pride in having scores of security person attached to them and wasting public money. I feel
these leaders are gutless and paranoid that they cannot behave like west Bengal chief minister.

-- Natrajan T S
The measures to be undertaken are as follows:
1- Improve the drainage systems

2- Stop excessive building constructions

3- A check on Mangrove degradation and other forest cover

4- A strict check on migrants in the city by setting up a population monitoring system

5- A more committed administrative system

6. There should be more open spaces in the city, more greenery than concrete jungles.

The basic question is, Does Bombay/Mumbai have enough capacity to hold the large number of buildings,
and the large number of illegal migrants who only mess up the city by producing slums and increasing the
population?

Bombay began with 7 islands...The day is not far when we'll be back to that number or even worse!

-- Neelam

I was a resident for Bombay (Mumbai) till 1994. I used to live in Andheri, Veera Desai Road. I remember
very well when our apartment got flooded twice from 1991-1993. The water level may not have been as
high as what it was on "Terrible Tuesday", but it was high enough for us to lose almost all our belongings.
I remember people kept blaming the clogged sewer system at that time.

It just seems amazing to me that over the following years, there seems to be no or minimal efforts to clear
the sewers. No efforts to lay a solid infrastructure for building office complexes. Now, it seems we have
been adding and building malls and buildings like there is no tomorrow, without considering the danger.

Does the government and BMC even consider whether the current infrastructure can handle such sudden
expansion? How come no one learns from the previous mistakes? People let things be as they are and
pray that nothing bad will happen.

Bombay needs to learn and take better steps to have a solid infrastructure for generations to come. Stop
continuing and funding blind construction of buildings. Let the process go through a rigorous evaluation by
a committee. And please make every effort to stop under the table dealings as we are talking about
people's lives, which are not cheap.

There should be a committee or a group set up to drive efforts to solve the errors done in the past. There
should be a better weather warning system, which should alert citizens a week beforehand in case of
such emergencies.
Considering the fact that we are growing by leaps and bounds in technology, how come we don't have a
top grade weather warning system in India? We need to invest the money in that area instead of adding
more buildings and malls.

It was just irresponsible to not inform thousands of daily office workers about such weather changes.
Many lives were lost because of sudden flooding and uninformed citizens. That could have been avoided
and must be avoided on all counts.

I know I am talking from outside Bombay, but considering the image we are creating of being among the
fastest growing economies, we can't afford to just hang out and let things like these roll by for yet another
bigger catastrophe, which I hope and pray does not happen.

We can't just spend money in buying the latest IPod and not worry about the days like these. Donate
money to support changes and fixes in the infrastructure, if that's what it takes. Make sure that money is
going where it needs to go. Create an internet site to track the money. We have earned the reputation
and credibility that we have been waiting for a very long time; we can't just lose it in few days.

I hope the young generation uses some of their hard earned money, knowledge and their great spirit to
make Mumbai one of the best cities in the world.

Jai Maharashtra!!!

-- Nikhil G

An SMS from my dad came as I sat down to write this, saying that my colony in Kurla is again floded,
there is knee deep water & it's rising..

First of all being a Mumbaikar I would like all Mumbaikars to join hands irrespective of caste, religion &
status and work towards helping the suffered ones.

Secondly we must throw this government out of power at any cost. This government has failed on all
fronts. I agree you cant fight nature, the god, but we can take measures to minimize losses, right?

Imagine what would have happened if there was a massive earthquake, or a tsunami. The impact would
have been beyond our imagination.

We don't need any government, president's rule is more than enough for us. We don't need a BMC either,
because even in past to clean our drains or rectify water problem we hired private contractors, since no
one from BMC attended to our repeated complaints...am I right dear Mumbaikars?

We must wake up now...this is the right time & last chance for us to react.

To react for our survival, to react for our basic rights, to react for our peaceful living, to react for a better
Mumbai for our children (not a Shanghai).

-- Zafar- A true Mumbaikar from Kuwait

Get the basics correct, everything will fall in place.
Being an electrical engineer, I know the importance of drawing a correct plan that is "practically possible"
and then implementing it. In our case the government seems to draw plans on paper without knowing
how to implementing them.

Further, working with a US based company, I've seen processes running not just big projects but giant
organizations, which run and deliver without fail in adverse situations.

Maybe our government can take lessons from successful companies and put all its employees under
"tight processes" with targets that see everything running successfully.

Those failing to follow the processes should be severely punished.

Otherwise, there will be no improvement.

-- AnandArora