ECONOMICS PROJECT

Pivotal role of Computer Science Engineering in

enhancing lives of the impoverished with emphasis of
slum dwellers

Neeraj Verma - DTU/2K15/CO/083

Piyush Ajmani - DTU/2K15/CO/092
Puneet Gupta - DTU/2K15/CO/097
Vasudev Singh - DTU/2K15/CO/142
Yadnesh Sawant - DTU/2K15/CO/145
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Table of Content

1. Basic definition
2. Slum Population in India
3. Living conditions in Slums
4. Characteristics of Slums
Location and Housing
Insecure Tenure
Inadequate or no infrastructure
Overcrowding and Overpopulation
5. Problems faced by Slums
Overview
Major Problems
Suggested Solutions
6. Role of Computer Science
7. Detailed Analysis
Data Analysis
Housing Problem
High Crime Rate
Poor Sanitation and Pollution Levels
High Child Mortality
Low Education Levels
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Lack of opportunities
Lack of worthy knowledge
8. Role of Science
Solar water purifier
Waste to energy

9. Conclusion
10. Bibliography

Basic Definition

Slum - Aslumis a squalid and overcrowded urban street

or district inhabited by very poor people.A dirty,
unhygienic cluster of impoverished shanties with long
lines of people crowding around a solitary municipal
water tap, bowling babies literally left on street corners
to fend for themselves and endless cries and found voices
emanating from various corners.

Most of them are engaged in eking out their daily lives,

always below the poverty line, byworking as
construction laborers, domestic helps, rag picker sand
chhotus in neighbourhood dhabas.

In spite of poor conditions in slums, second generation

residents who are not nostalgic about their rural
background - feel that life in slum is reasonably tolerable
and city life isprobably better than rural life.

Slum population in India

Slum Population simply refers to people living in slum areas
below the poverty line. As India is still on the path of
development, there is large number of people living below the
poverty line. These people usually live in slum areas
connected to the city.
India's slum population will surge to 104 million by 2017 - or
around 9% of the total projected national population of 1.28
billion that year. According to data provided in Parliament,
Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya
Pradesh will host the largest chunks of India's slum
population
According to Government sources, the Slum Population of
India have exceeds the population of Britain. It has doubled in
last two decades.
Increase in Indian Population over a period of time has also
resulted inslum population growth. Despite of Government
efforts to build new houses and other basic infrastructure,
most of the people living in slum areas do not have electricity,
water supply and cooking gas.

In a reply to a starred question by Nashik MP Sameer Bhujbal

last week in Parliament, the government offered a projection
of the slum population on the basis of the Pranab Sen
Committee report submitted in 2010. The committee's
previous projection of slum population in 2011 was 93
million, or 7% of a total population of 1.21 billion.
Slum
The 2011 census shows the problem is growing as it indicates
the percentage of people living in slums in smaller cities with
a population of less than a million is rising. While 62% people
in these cities are slum dwellers, it is 38% in all million-plus
cities that include mega metros like Delhi and Mumbai.

Living conditions in the Slums

People accept and adapt to their circumstances without

(external) triggers to encourage them to do otherwise
slums are adaptive organisms
Living conditions in the slums are basically, the problems
faced by them. These are the privileges the slum people are
not able to enjoy.
Lack of affordable low cost housing and poor planning
encourages the supply side of slums. Shelter - Almost all the
houses in slums are in bad, and sometimes dilapidated,
conditions. The houses are usually inadequately ventilated.
The designs are such as to afford bare shelter, leading to acute
congestion. In squatter settlements, houses are constructed
using materials like mud, un-burnt bricks, tin-sheets, asbestos
sheets, bamboo, gunny bags, plastic sheets etc. and are usually
single-room units with inadequate space standards.
Informality ofland tenureis a key characteristic of urban
slums.At their start, slums are typically located in least
desirable lands near the town or city, that are state owned or

philanthropic trust owned or religious entity owned or have

no clear land title.[
Toilets - Private toilets do not exist in a majority of slum areas
and even common toilets are available only in a few. Where
there are no toilets, people defecate in the open which,
besides being an environmental nuisance, poses hardships
for, especially women. Community latrines, even where
available generally remain filthy and insanitary.
Water - Attaining universal and equitable access to safe and
affordable drinking water for all by 2030 (sustainable
development goal 6)will be a major challenge, particularly in
urban slum communities. Most of the houses in slum areas do
not have individual water supply. In some slum areas, public
taps do exist but the number of persons using each such tap is
generally very high. Many slums, especially in the outskirts of
the cities, have open wells as their only source of water for
drinking, bathing and cleaning. These wells are generally
insanitary. No attention is paid to the maintenance of wells,
or even of public taps.

Education It is unfortunate, as these people do not have

enough money even for the basic education. Education is the
building block of everything. In India, some slums are
notified, or recognized, by the government. In some cities,
notified slums are entitled to receive security of land tenure,
which means that the people who live in them cannot be
arbitrarily evicted. In other words, inhabitants have a form of
property rights to the land even though they do not own it.
Drainage System - The drainage system in almost all the
slums is very poor. With the exception of puck buildings in
old city areas, slum settlements generally do not have any

drainage. Furthermore, a majority of unauthorized colonies

and squatter settlements are located on low-lying lands. As a
result, silage water cannot flow away. This is extremely
unhygienic. Even when sound public health and economic
reasons exist for providing slums with access to municipal
water supplies, lack of property rights can impede provision
of this vital service. A recent court ruling from Mumbai, India,
illustrates the nature of these legal and political barriers to
water access and the potential of human rights law to
overcome them.
Electricity Slums either dont have electricity supply or they
use illegal electricity. Illegal electricity is not reliable at all.

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Characteristics of Slum

Location and Growth - Slums typically begin at the outskirts

of a city. Over time, the city may expand past the original
slums, enclosing the slums inside the urban perimeter. New
slums sprout at the new boundaries of the expanding city,
usually on publicly owned lands, thereby creating an urban
sprawl mix of formal settlements, industry, retail zones and
slums. This makes the original slums valuable property,
densely populated with many conveniences attractive to the
poor.
Insecure Tenure - Informality ofland tenureis a key
characteristic of urban slums.At their start, slums are
typically located in least desirable lands near the town or city,
that are state owned or philanthropic trust owned or religious
entity owned or have no clear land title.Some immigrants
regard unoccupied land as land without owners and therefore
occupy it.In some cases the local community or the
government allots lands to people, which will later develop
into slums and over which the dwellers dont haveproperty

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rights. Informal land tenure also includes occupation of land

belonging to someone else.

Inadequate or No Infrastructure - One of the identifying

characteristics of slums is the lack of or inadequate public
infrastructure.From safe drinking water to electricity, from
basic health care to police services, from affordable public
transport to fire/ambulance services, from sanitation sewer to
paved roads, new slums usually lack all of these. Established,
old slums sometimes garner official support and get some of
these infrastructure such as paved roads and unreliable
electricity or water supply.
Overcrowding and overpopulation - Slum areas are
characterized by substandard housing structures.Shanty
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homes are often built hurriedly, on ad hoc basis, with

materials unsuitable for housing. Often the construction
quality is inadequate to withstand heavy rains, high winds, or
other local climate and location. Paper, plastic, earthen floors,
mud-and-wattle walls, wood held together by ropes, straw or
torn metal pieces as roofs are some of the materials of
construction.

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Common problems faced by Slums and

Slum Dwellers
INTRODUCTION

Slums are an unhappy reality for our country and many

others across the world. Over one billion world inhabitants
live in slums today and the numbers are climbing. The UN
estimates that about 1.4 billion people will be occupying
slums by the year 2020. In India the total number of slum
dweller totals about 65 million, of which Maharashtra alone
accounts for 11 million. Next comes Andhra Pradesh, with a
slum population of 10 million, followed by West Bengal and
Uttar Pradesh, with over 6 million each. The figures are
indeed staggering. Slums are a major urban drawback and a
huge hurdle in the countrys development.

THE MAJOR PROBLEMS

Within a slum problems are manifold.Some of the common

problems include :
1. Deplorable Housing conditions
2. High crime rate
3. Poor sanitation
4. High child mortality
5. Low education levels
6. Rampant presence of diseases

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WHAT CAN BE DONE: A FEW SUGGESTIONS

Various solutions have been suggested :

Making clean water available
Encouraging proper sanitation and waste management
Controlling pollution levels
Providing transport facilities
Arranging for informal education
Making credit and finance available as per requirement
Introducing new programmers for income-generation
Providing a platform for sharing ideas, inputs and
experiences.]

However, these are only broad guidelines and there can be no

single uniform model for urban planning which can be used
globally. Slum rehabilitation and upgrading are vital, but each
city has certain distinctive political, cultural, environmental
and economic factors which determine the extent to which
such rehabilitation is feasible. Hence, proper assessment has
to be made and prospects evaluated before the problem can
be addressed.

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Role of Computer Science

In todays fast paced technology driven environment,

computer science has emerged as an indispensable
component of every section of society.The wide flexibility and
broad scope and range of applications and roles computer
science can adapt as a discipline implies that it plays a critical
role in determining solutions to a wide variety of problems
facing society.Thus,a strong belief persists in sections of
technocrats and bureaucrats regarding the impact the
discipline can have in overcoming the grave problems facing
the poor and the slum-dwellers in todays world.

A MORE DETAILED ANALYSIS

In the following section , we shall cover in details few

problems facing the slum-dwelling people as well as provide
plausible solutions to them , with emphasis on the
particular role computer science as a discipline can play
in solving these problems facing us.

1. Figuring out exact problems - The realm of data analysis

At a large generalized scale, computer science has the ability

to enable smarter decisions. The strong data analytics and
programming domains can equip and empower the
government to realize exactly what problems the slum
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dwellers and poor are facing and what is the gravity of the
problems. Data science and analytics implies that we can
figure out a narrowed set of problems facing the people and
shall enable more focused and directed attempts to achieve
better results.

2. The housing problem

The slum-dwellers and the poor are often exploited by the

dominating and the powerful who rent out spaces to these
desperate and needy people at high prices and exempt them
without proper notice. Using computer science, we can ensure
normalization in the pricing environment of the housing in
slums as well as ensure proper documentation of the tenancy
contracts to prevent exploitation of the poor.
The immense power of technology can be used to regularize
the housing scenario to prevent exploitation of the poor and
solve problem of 'homelessness'.

3. High Crime rate

Due to prevalence of poverty , high levels of crime are

prevalent among the poorer sections of society.Providing
computer education is a means of skilling up the unprivileged
youth and help the correct and lead better lives.With
educations, comes wisdom.Thus, we can use computer
education as a tool for the poor to earn a more stable and
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respectable means of living.The particular benefit of this

discipline is that no particular degree is required, it is
primarily skill based and also the input resource cost required
per individual is low, implying benefit can be supplied to
more people at a lower cost

Also, at another aspect.The Government and many startups

have come up with technology driven tools to ensure women
safety. One of these includes a venture named LEAF that
originated in DTU itself. They develop low cost bracelets and
lockets that can also be used to send out an SOS call just by
pressing the device that ensures safety for them.

4. Poor Sanitation and Population levels

A technology driven approach implies that we can set up

wireless sensor networks where in sensors may either be
based on video processing or external detection sensors.
Sensors can be used to monitor the pollution levels and the
sanitary situations of the surroundings to alert the
appropriate authorities to do the needful

5. High child mortality

Technology resources can be employed by monitoring and

ensuring that new born children and their mothers in poorer
sections of society are provided with proper conditions and
medical resources to counter this growing measure. The
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greatest advantage of computer science technology is its wide

reach to even the remotest and poorest sections of the society.
It is imperative that the advantage be exploited to exploited
to the fullest

6. Low education levels

Can use computer science as a means to dispense education to

people in all sections and divisions of society. The ability of
technology to provide wide reach in connecting people is a
clearly evident benefit. Higher education levels would help
the younger generations in escaping the vicious cycle of
poverty they have been stuck in.

The particular benefit is of providing computer education is

the relatively higher number of opportunities and that fact
that is a low input cost resource, the return on investment is
higher, no degree is required and has high potential to help
people grow in life.

7. Lack of Opportunities

Technology, computer science and its greatest gift the internet

provide the platform to showcase talent and abilities.
Internet and technology connect the world make it a smaller
place. It gives people an opportunity to showcase their
potential to the rest of the world. YouTube, Facebook, twitter
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are some of the potential sources that has enabled the people
get the opportunities they deserve and hence grow in life.
Computer science provides and signifies the abundance of
opportunities that have the potential to enable people to rise
in life and perform to their potential.
It has transformed a lot of lives and shall continue to do so in
times to come.

8. Lack of worldly knowledge

They possess a very constraint view and knowledge about

issues concerning them and their families due to lack of
exposure. Hence they are exploited and suffer in various
spheres of life

The brainchild of computer science have given the everybody

in society including the poor an opportunity to broaden their
viewpoint and gain insights into how the world functions as
well as about the rest of the world. The enable them to
broaden their mindset, realize the opportunities that lie
ahead for their future generations.Thus, the support that the
younger children would receive consequently would help
their family, society and the nation as a whole.

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Role of Science
Other than infrastructural problems, the people in slums
suffer from lack of clean water and a proper supply of
electricity.
1. In order to improve life of poor people in slums we have
devised a plan to improve water conditions by using
solar water purifiers which is cost effective and can be
provided to the poor people by the government.
2. There is a lot of waste near slum areas as the slum areas
are usually near garbage dumping sites. We propose that
these waste garbage items be used to create electricity
that can be provided to the people of the slums. This
waste to energy conversion can be highly economic and
effective.

Solar Water Purifier

Distillation is one of many processes available for water
purification, and sunlight is one of several forms of heat
energy that can be used to power that process. Sunlight has
the advantage of zero fuel cost but it requires more space (for
its collection) and generally more costly equipment. To dispel
a common belief, it is not necessary to boil water to distill it.
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Simply elevating its temperature, short of boiling, will

adequately increase the evaporation rate. In fact, although
vigorous boiling hastens the distillation process it also can
force unwanted residue into the distillate, defeating
purification. Furthermore, to boil water with sunlight
requires more costly apparatus than is needed to distill it a
little more slowly without boiling. Many levels of purification
can be achieved with this process, depending upon the
intended application. Sterilized water for medical uses
requires a different process than that used to make drinking
water. Purification of water heavy in dissolved salts differs
from purification of water that has been dirtied by other
chemicals orsuspended solids. Solar distillation systems can
be small or large. They are designed either to serve the needs
of a single family, producing from 12 to 3 gallons of drinking
water a day on the average, or to produce much greater
amounts for an entire neighbourhood or village. In some
parts of the world the scarcity of fresh water is partially
overcome by covering shallow salt water basins with glass in
greenhouse-like structures. These solar energy distilling
plants are relatively inexpensive, low-technology systems,
especially useful where the need for small plants exists. There
are four possible ways of purifying water for drinking
purpose:

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1. Distillation
2. Filtration
3. Chemical Treatment
4. Irradiative Treatment
Distillation method is preferred owing to the following
benefits:
It produces water of high quality
Maintenance is almost negligible
Any type of water can be purified into potable water
by means of this process
The system will not involve any moving parts and
will not require electricity to operate.
Wastage of water will be minimum unlike reverse
osmosis in which almost 30% of the loaded water
flows out in form of unusable water that can only be
used for toilet or other cleaning purposes.
DESIGN
We need to reduce the working pressure inside the distiller to
increase the rate of evaporation at lower temperatures and
hence increase efficiency. One more additional feature in the
distiller that we are proposing is that it would use the latent
heat which is released during condensation to heat up the
water at lower temperature. This is achieved by using an
innovative staged still design.
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WASTE TO ENERGY IN INDIA

India has drawn the worlds attention in recent years with its
booming economic growth, large demographic of young,
English-speaking workers, and its shift from an agricultural to
a more service-oriented economy. The consequence of this
economic success has been a massive increase in waste. This
waste is dumped in dumpsites where there is a noticeable
slum population.
Waste to Energy conversion is perceived as a means to
dispose MSW(municipal solid waste), produce energy, recover
materials, and free up scarce land that would otherwise have
been used for landfill. Setting up this Waste to Energy(WTE)
plant will clean up garbage and can be used to produce
electricity to the poor. More research is needed to quantify
various aspects of the solid waste management sector. A
number of key statistics, such as the value of recyclables, the
amount of environmental pollution from waste sources, and
the quantity of industrial waste generated, need to be
computed to gain a better understanding of this sector. In
terms of research related to WTE, detailed analysis of costs
and available funding is needed. In addition, investigating the
suitability and quantifying the costs and benefits of combined
heat and power for Mumbai would be useful. Independent
researchers or consultants should carry out such research in

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order to prevent any biases that may otherwise occur.

Outreach to both environmental groups as well as the public
at large is important in order to demonstrate the benefits of
WTE technology to the community, city, and local
government. This can be achieved by educating the public
through campaigns, workshops, town hall meetings,
university lectures, and so on. Creating an open dialogue with
environmental groups is an essential first step to sharing
information and collaborating to create better environmental
conditions.

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Conclusion
The conditions of slums in India is deterring by the day.
People living there not only face physical issues but also
undergo many mental traumas due to improper facilities,
financial instability and poor living conditions. We, the
current and the upcoming generation of Engineers, can come
together and work for the with the ever growing technology.
We can together make a difference. To bring a change that we
want to see in the world, we need to act and be the change
ourselves.

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Bibliography

www.sra.gov.in
http://www.inclusivebusinesshub.org
http://www.kathputlicolonydda.com
http://www.researchgate.net/publication/5890462_Impro
ving_the_Health_and_Lives_of_People_Living_in_Slums

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