Why Mumbai Has Slums

Summary

This 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

00:00

💼 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.

05:05

🏚️ 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.

10:09

🏘️ 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.

Keywords

💡Business Development Executive

A business development executive is a professional who is responsible for developing new business opportunities and maintaining relationships with existing clients. In the video's context, the individual starts their career in this role, which is a common starting point for those looking to advance in the corporate world. The script mentions this as the initial step in the person's career journey.

💡Corporate World

The term 'corporate world' refers to the environment of businesses and corporations, often characterized by a hierarchical structure and formal operations. In the script, it is mentioned in relation to the struggles of balancing a career in this competitive environment with the desire for a more affordable and peaceful life.

💡Affordability

Affordability refers to the ability of an individual or a group to pay for goods or services without financial strain. The video discusses the issue of housing affordability in Mumbai, highlighting how the high cost of living, especially housing, affects the residents' quality of life.

💡Slums

Slums are areas characterized by substandard housing conditions, often resulting from poverty and lack of formal housing options. The script uses the term to describe the living conditions of a significant portion of Mumbai's population, emphasizing the city's housing crisis.

💡Land Scarcity

Land scarcity refers to a situation where the demand for land outpaces the available supply, leading to increased land prices. In the video, it is identified as a major factor contributing to the high cost of housing in Mumbai, as the city is geographically constrained by its location on a peninsula.

💡Affordable Housing

Affordable housing is housing that is financially accessible to those with low to moderate incomes. The script discusses the lack of formal affordable housing options in Mumbai, which forces many residents to live in slums.

💡Liberalization

Liberalization, in an economic context, refers to the relaxation of regulations and the opening up of an economy to private enterprise and foreign investment. The script mentions 1991 as the year of liberalization in India, which led to a shift in the government's approach to housing and development projects.

💡Slum Rehabilitation Scheme

The Slum Rehabilitation Scheme is a government initiative aimed at improving the living conditions of slum dwellers by involving private builders to construct housing. The script critiques this scheme, suggesting it has led to more high-end apartments rather than affordable housing for slum residents.

💡Per Capita Income

Per capita income is the average income earned per person in a given area, usually calculated annually. The video uses this metric to illustrate the disparity between the cost of housing and the average income in Mumbai, indicating that most households cannot afford to buy homes in the formal sector.

💡Sanitation

Sanitation refers to the infrastructure and hygiene practices that ensure clean and healthy living conditions. The script describes the lack of sanitation in slums, which can lead to various health issues for the residents.

💡Self-Building

Self-building is the process where individuals construct their own homes, often as a more affordable alternative to purchasing property. The video suggests that self-building and upgrading informal settlements could be a viable solution to the housing crisis in Mumbai.

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]