India's Slums Are Underrated and Overrated At The Same Time

The common perception is that life in slums is not livable. It is believed that slums are more homogenous than they actually are and slum dwellers extremely poor. So, slums in India are underrated and overrated at the same time. Policy analysts and common people alike think that something should be done about the slum menace.

But there are people who have more pressing needs than slum dwellers. Should we cure the slum menace at the expense of people who live in even worse conditions? Obviously not. There are many people who live on the periphery of large Indian cities, including pavement dwellers and chawl dwellers, who are even more impoverished than slum dwellers.  The conditions depend on the location, and many other factors. There are many people who voluntarily live in slums of Delhi or Mumbai when they still have the option to live in a formal house in the village they grew up in. This does not mean that people who live in slums is not tragic. But the problems of slum-dwellers should not take precedence over the problems of people who have less comfortable lives.

It is important to see where slums stand because India's housing policy is largely based on the assumption that people who live in slums deserve a much better life. This would be reasonable only if people who live in slums have inferior living standards when compared to other marginalised groups. According to the Census Commissioner's report of 2012, 66 per cent of the slums in urban India have toilets, while only 30.7 per cent of the homes in rural India have them. Almost 90 per cent of the slums in urban areas are electrified, while less than 50 per cent of the houses in rural areas are electrified. More than 74 per cent of the slums across India have tap water, while even in urban areas, only 70.6 per cent of the formal houses have tap water. These figures, of course, do not tell the whole truth. A slum dwelling may have access to tap water, but this may be shared by many others. But it is still true that slum dwellers enjoy better amenities, when compared to most rural Indians.

Indian states where there is a greater clustering of slum dwellings are also more prosperous states. For instance, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu are a few states states that have more slum dwellers per population. The average income levels in slums are higher too, though there are no reliable estimates on this.

It may be true that policy analysts and activists think housing as an important component of deprivation. But, many people are inadequately housed, and not all of them are slum dwellers. Moreover, many are less adequately housed than slum dwellers. Even when redevelopment projects are formulated, activists and intellectuals argue that slum dwellers should be allowed to capitalise on the value of land on which their house stands. But, it is not clear why other poor individuals are not granted the same privilege. It is also not clear why governments want to rehabilitate people who are living in a slum on a certain date, which is arbitrarily decided.

But in some ways, slums are underrated. Given the resources that we have at our disposal, given the policy environment, slums are the best way to make housing affordable. Without slums, living in the heart of Indian cities would not even have been possible for many millions. It is true that we can do much better, but now the truth is slums serve a fundamental need of many millions.

For regular updates on real estate, click here