Why Mumbai Has Slums
Summary
TLDRThis transcript explores the housing crisis in Mumbai, where over half the population lives in slums due to the lack of affordable housing. Despite the high demand, formal housing remains out of reach for many, exacerbated by land scarcity, government indifference, and market forces that favor high-end developments. The situation has led to a paradox where vacant houses coexist with widespread slums. The discussion highlights the need for better policies focused on upgrading informal settlements and providing affordable housing options.
Takeaways
- 🏢 Shakti Verma, a resident of a slum in Mumbai, left a well-paying job to start his own business due to the unaffordability of housing in the city.
- 📉 Over 52.5% of Mumbai's population lives in slums, which occupy only 9% of the city's total geographical area.
- 🏘️ The lack of formal, affordable housing options forces many residents into slums, exacerbated by the high cost of land in Mumbai.
- 🏗️ Post-1991 liberalization led to increased reliance on the private sector for development, reducing the government's role in affordable housing.
- 💰 Slum rehabilitation schemes often involve private builders constructing flats for slum residents while using most of the land for high-end apartments.
- 📈 Mumbai's housing market is also an investment market, leading to high numbers of vacant houses despite the housing shortage.
- 🏚️ The Bombay Rent Control Act of 1947, now the Maharashtra Rent Control Act of 1999, disincentivizes landlords from renting out properties at pre-1965 rent levels.
- 🏙️ Despite land scarcity, there is enough real estate in Mumbai to build sufficient affordable housing units through slum and model land redevelopment.
- 🚫 Both government and private sectors have historically failed to meet Mumbai's housing demand, producing only 20,000 units annually against a demand of 50,000 units.
- 🔄 Experts suggest upgrading informal settlements and providing serviced land for self-building as a viable solution to the affordable housing crisis.
Q & A
What motivated Shakti Verma to leave his job and start his own business?
-Shakti Verma left his job that paid him one lakh rupees a month to start his own business because he believed he could never afford a proper house in Mumbai on a fixed salary.
Why do over 50% of Mumbai's population live in slums?
-Over 50% of Mumbai's population lives in slums due to the lack of formal affordable housing options in the city.
What are some challenges faced by residents living in Mumbai's slums?
-Residents in Mumbai's slums face social and financial burdens, being labeled as encroachers and illegal settlers, and suffering from poor sanitation and overcrowding.
What impact did the 1991 liberalization have on affordable housing in Mumbai?
-The 1991 liberalization led the government to abandon its responsibility for social welfare projects, including affordable housing, and shifted focus to privatization for development.
How has the real estate market in Mumbai contributed to the housing crisis?
-Mumbai's real estate market has become an investment market, leading to high property prices and many houses being kept vacant as investment assets rather than for residential use.
What is the significance of the Bombay Rent Control Act in the housing market?
-The Bombay Rent Control Act of 1947, which froze rents at pre-1965 levels, disincentivizes landlords from renting out properties, contributing to the housing shortage.
What potential solution is suggested for addressing the housing shortage in Mumbai?
-A potential solution is the redevelopment of slum and government-owned land to create surplus affordable housing units, focusing on upgrading informal settlements and providing serviced land.
Why is there skepticism about the government's ability to address the housing crisis?
-Skepticism arises from the government's historical inability to meet housing demands, with public and private housing output falling short of the annual demand since 1947.
What is the argument against the belief that providing better housing would lead to more migration into cities?
-The argument is that migration is driven by employment opportunities and the prospect of a better life, not by the availability of housing alone.
How has the approach to housing in Mumbai evolved over the last century?
-Over the last century, Mumbai has shifted from demolishing informal settlements to creating slum rehabilitation schemes, yet the city continues to struggle with providing adequate housing for its population.
Outlines
💼 Struggles and Aspirations of Mumbai Residents
The speaker shares their journey from being a business development executive to starting their own business, highlighting the financial struggles of living in Mumbai. They discuss how the high cost of housing makes it difficult for residents like Shakti Verma to afford proper homes, leading many to live in slums. The lack of affordable housing and the high cost of land are major issues in Mumbai, with over half of the city's population residing in slums due to the scarcity of formal housing options.
🏚️ Challenges of Living in Slums
Living in slums poses significant social and financial burdens on families. Basic amenities like water and sanitation are often inadequate, leading to various health issues. The example of Sanjay Nagar illustrates the harsh living conditions, with overcrowded homes and overflowing drains. Despite the high number of vacant houses in Mumbai, many remain unoccupied due to investment purposes and rent control laws. The housing market's focus on investment rather than providing affordable homes exacerbates the issue, leaving many without proper housing.
🏘️ Addressing Mumbai's Housing Crisis
The discussion shifts to potential solutions for Mumbai's housing crisis. Experts suggest that both slum redevelopment and utilizing vacant land can produce a significant number of affordable housing units. However, skepticism remains about the government's ability to undertake these projects effectively. The historical context reveals a longstanding demand for housing that has not been met by either public or private sectors. The speaker advocates for self-building and upgrading informal settlements as viable solutions, arguing that a good housing policy will not necessarily encourage an influx of people into the city, but rather provide better living conditions for current residents.
🕰️ Historical Context and Future Outlook
The final part of the script provides a historical perspective on Mumbai's housing issues, tracing back to the early 20th century. The Bombay Improvement Trust's efforts to create sanitary housing often resulted in demolishing more homes than it built, leading to the formation of slums. The speaker warns that the current slum rehabilitation scheme might repeat this pattern, benefiting builders and politicians while failing to address the root causes of informal housing. The next episode promises to explore the scheme's impact further, delving into its consequences for Mumbai's residents and urban landscape.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Business Development Executive
💡Corporate World
💡Affordability
💡Slums
💡Land Scarcity
💡Affordable Housing
💡Liberalization
💡Slum Rehabilitation Scheme
💡Per Capita Income
💡Sanitation
💡Self-Building
Highlights
Shakti Verma, a resident of Mumbai, left a high-paying job to start his own business due to the unaffordability of housing on a fixed salary.
52.5% of Mumbai's population lives in slums, which occupy only 9% of the city's geographical area.
The government's definition of slums as 'unfit for human habitation' highlights the living conditions of many in Mumbai.
The lack of formal, affordable housing options is a significant issue in Mumbai, pushing residents towards slums.
The cost of land is a critical factor in housing affordability, with Mumbai's scarcity and high prices exacerbating the problem.
Post-independence, the Indian government's shift from socialist policies to liberalization in 1991 impacted social welfare projects, including affordable housing.
Slum rehabilitation schemes involve private builders constructing flats for slum residents, with the remainder of the land used for high-end apartments.
The average cost per square foot for a house in Mumbai is significantly higher than the average per capita income, making housing unaffordable for many.
A report by the National Institute of Urban Affairs indicates that 95% of Mumbai households cannot afford to buy a house in the formal sector.
Living in slums can impose social and financial burdens, with residents often labeled negatively and facing poor living conditions.
Mumbai has the highest number of vacant houses in the country, yet a paradox exists with the simultaneous housing crisis.
The Bombay Rent Control Act of 1947 and its successor have resulted in landlords having little incentive to rent out flats in old buildings.
Experts suggest that there is enough real estate in Mumbai to build sufficient formal housing units, but current practices favor commercial projects.
A report shows that rehabilitating slum dwellers and developing model land could produce nearly 900,000 surplus affordable housing units.
The government's historical inability to meet annual housing demands raises skepticism about its capacity to undertake large-scale housing projects.
Self-building and upgrading informal settlements are suggested as viable methods for producing affordable housing in Mumbai.
Regularizing slums could potentially disrupt the market for private developers, impacting the city's housing dynamics.
The historical context of Bombay's housing issues, including the bubonic plague and the impact of the Bombay Improvement Trust, is highlighted.
The slum rehabilitation scheme is criticized for potentially creating more informal housing pockets and benefiting builders and politicians.
Transcripts
I started off my career as a business
development executive after I completed
my BA CID in mind that and you know
juggling you know in the corporate world
I also come to admire and be from a
material city where I can afford Oprah's
arts Pizza is about the way I can afford
a meal once in a month and IPC but I
really cannot have a peaceful sleep
because it's really a big problem it's
big problem for all of us because at the
end of the day what matters is how
Shakti Verma a resident of a self aslam
in Mumbai Scott Cooper left the job that
paid him one lakh rupees a month to
start his own business according to him
he would have never been able to afford
a proper house in Mumbai on a fixed
salary
if you look at a map of Mumbai you will
find these clusters of informal
settlements officially called slums
across the city along with varma 52.5%
of mumbai his population lives in them
all of them crammed into just 9% of the
city's total geographical area the
government defines slums as residential
areas when dwellings are unfit for human
habitation so why does every second
resident of the financial capital of the
country live in them the reason is
simple because there are no formal
affordable housing options in the city
so the question is why does the city not
produce formal affordable housing very
simply one reason one important reason
is that as long as land the cost of land
is going to factor in the cost of
housing you are going to have a problem
of an affordability and land being
scarce and Mumbai is expensive
but others feel it is due to the
government's indifference upon
independence India had pledged to be a
Socialist Republic which means the
government had taken upon itself the
exclusive responsibility of promoting
social welfare projects including
affordable housing or social housing now
come 1991 the year of liberalisation the
government dumps that responsibility and
role and talks about facilitating the
private sector it began to depend on
privatization as a means for development
undertaking development projects now
that to my mind has been the major
disaster leading to a state that we are
now in where housing crisis has hit the
roof where Slama fication our cities has
begun to threaten our quality of life
das is referring to the slum
rehabilitation scheme by which private
builders are roped in to construct flats
for slum residents on a small portion of
the slum plot while the larger portion
of the area is used to build high-end
apartments land is at a premium in
Mumbai since the city is located on a
peninsula over the decades the city has
grown northward and so have the land
prices the average cost per square foot
for a house in Mumbai is 21 thousand
rupees where is the average per capita
income is 2.5 lakh rupees at this rate a
500 square foot house would cost more
than a cruel a some out of reach for the
average citizen according to a report by
the National Institute of Urban Affairs
around 95 percent of households in
Mumbai cannot afford to buy a house in
the formal sector slum housing was one
response to this problem
but living in slums can place a huge
burden on families socially and
financially the residents are routinely
called encroachers and illegal settlers
while others label them dirty yeah chica
khana Khazana and Yoshi rich Patel DNA
no urban planner an article made on
Ebola Turkey yeah it's tricky see Heke
it but if he shivered Vasari over cousin
Joe ship crucify girls cannot
Kelantan and example came to sky captain
got accompany a camper oh I'm up who
conquered am bidding I'm up to come
capacity building it but Hannity Sumida
homily honey detector up the react and
some other Quindaro calsilica a poppy
Lazaro a bob shark mostly cake honey
banister budget oh - subic or time parag
parag or any other to go sorry look like
making a Vasari look up sivak compare
summa cunningly they are
bomb-making Hanabusa turkey taking a
paramdham below both a minute karate
mookie services later but job opening
turkey diamond cutters on command coach
Eska and coachman got their homes may be
less expensive but they end up paying a
lot more for water and basic amenities
sanitation is virtually non-existent
which can result in a wide variety of
illnesses take Sanjay Nagar on the
eastern edge of Mumbai a broken wall
separating it from the dem nah garbage
dumping ground families live here 7
members to a room the open drains were
covered only 3 years back but they keep
overflowing into the residents homes in
the Raja - a security just karate
teacher Layla get you mom doesn't play
DVDs of cheese cutter cutter colada you
can take him home look like a few yoga
Olivia
[Music]
one would be tempted to think that the
proliferation of slums is due to a
shortage in housing but in fact Mumbai
has the highest number of vacant houses
in the country according to the 2000 17
and 18 economic survey around 5 lakh
houses are vacant in mobile what
explains this paradox in more recent
years I think one of the facets that we
have to look for is that Mumbai is no
longer only a housing market it is an
investment market and which is why the
even though there has been very little
buying in within the housing market for
the last three years you still see that
there is hardly any dip in the prices in
2015 NRA's invested thirty four thousand
two hundred crore rupees in real estate
in India houses bought for investment
purposes mostly remain unoccupied but
there's another reason why lakhs of
houses in Mumbai are kept empty on
purpose the Bombay Rent Control Act of
1947 which became the Maharashtra Rent
Control Act of 1999 the Act covers 23
lakh buildings in Mumbai where the rents
have been frozen and the pre-1965 levels
this gives landlords little incentive to
rent out flats in the old buildings
experts believe however that even with
the scarcity of land there is enough
real estate in Mumbai to build
sufficient formal housing units instead
of commercial projects instead of
high-cost housing projects on slum land
which is cleared after rehousing them on
20% we if there was a restriction to
those areas let's say we build only
three hundred square feet to eight
hundred square feet houses on them then
we've done a report which shows that
after rehabilitating the existing slum
dwellers we are able to produce or
construct 400,000 surplus affordable
housing just through the slums
redevelopment schemes on the other hand
we
physical planning of over 2,000 hectares
of model land in Mumbai City and we find
after rehabilitating the existing
tenements who are residing on model and
we are able to produce 500,000 surplus
affordable housing so if you put these
two figures of 500,000 through Mahara
Landry development and slum land
redevelopment then we produce 900,000
houses which is the shortfall that
government has identified for Mumbai
city there is reason however to be
skeptical of the government's ability in
undertaking the work Mumbai had an
annual demand for housing of up to
50,000 units every year since 1947
however all of the formal housing put
together whether it is public housing or
privately built housing the output was
not beyond 20,000 units a year
so if both the government and the
private players have been unable to
provide adequate housing for the poor is
there any other way what the housing is
not a panacea it's not going to produce
housing for for all privately developed
housing is not going to produce housing
for all they if you look at the amount
of housing units that have been
constructed by private developers over
the past 10 15 20 years and if you
project that for the future you'll find
that they are not going to be able to
produce enough affordable housing over
the next hundred hundred and twenty
years right which means that the only
real viable mode of housing and
effective and tried and tested method of
producing affordable housing in the city
is self building so really the focus the
policy focus should be on upgrading and
improving informal settlements and
providing service land to people to
build their own homes and what stops the
government from doing that then doing
that because if you regular I slums
private developers will not be able to
build flats on them and sell them in the
market it's as simple as that on the
other hand what about fuels that
regularizing slums might encourage an
influx of people into the cities just so
we can get three houses the idea that if
you have a good housing policy it will
encourage people to migrate is
completely you know muddle-headed
because people don't come into a city
because there is housing available you
can come into the city because there is
a possibility of a better life
possibility of employment there are
opportunities that the city offers that
that's the reason why people migrate
into the city
by the turn of the twentieth century
Bombay had become one of the largest
cities in the world
but the city lacked a proper drainage
system which led to an outbreak of
bubonic plague in 1896 the Bombay
Improvement Trust set up in 1898 to
create sanitary housing for the urban
core demolished more houses than it
could build and so the poor went back to
living around the edges of the cheol's
built by the trust in what would now be
called slums in the 1920s the Scottish
urban planner Patrick Geddes visited the
BI teachers and remarked Bombay is not
housing its workers it is warehousing
them
a hundred years later not much has
changed with the slum rehabilitation
scheme threatening to do the same in the
next episode we delve into how the
scheme became a goldmine for builders
and politicians while creating more
pockets of informal housing in Mumbai
[Music]
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