-Environment
and Urbanization ASIA
As per the United Nation’s World
Urbanization Prospects Report, 2018, around 34 per cent of India’s population
lives in urban areas and, by 2050, is expected to increase to 52.8 per cent of
India’s population (United
Nations DESA, 2018).
The concentration of poor people is
moving from the rural areas to cities. Slums are its obvious manifestation,
generally, because of individual circumstances and institutional failures. Slum
dwellers are subject to greater abuse (by the various institutions of the State
such as police) and constantly live under the threat of demolition of their
houses, which is a violation of their land and housing rights (Das, 2003).
In India, many flagship programmes
have been introduced with specific emphasis on making cities smart, sustainable
as well as inclusive, like the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission
(JNNURM) policy, 2005, Smart Cities Mission, 2015, Atal Mission for
Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation, 2015, Swatch Bharat Mission, 2015 and
the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana 2015..
Despite these efforts, the number
of urban homeless people and population living in slums has continuously
increased. As per the report of the Technical Group on Estimation of Urban
Housing Shortage of 2012, there has been a shortage of urban housing in India. The
Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) and Low-Income Group (LIG) account for 96
per cent (about 17.96 million dwelling units) of the total housing shortage in
India (Ministry
of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, 2012). Thus, the housing shortage
is, in fact, a reflection of the number of households located in slums and squatter
conditions (Nallathiga,
2006).
The slum rehabilitation process is
an institutional process that involves the shifting of an entire informal or
illegally built environment to a formal housing structure (Nijaman,
2008). In the urban areas of the developing countries, a large number of
people have inadequate access to basic requirements like water supply, housing,
health, education, sanitation and transportation because these are either
unaffordable due to people’s lack of income or the government does not make
efficient efforts to provide these (Mahadevia,
2002).
The lack of affordable housing
largely impacts household budget, constraining people to spending less on food,
utilities, transportation to work, health and childcare expenditures, as well
as reducing savings for pursuing higher education, emergencies, retirement and
other opportunities. These challenges may result in a lower overall standard of
living for the poor (Anacker,
2019). Inadequate slum rehabilitation policies generate forced mobility, as
some slum dwellers might be unable to face additional expenditures on legal
electricity, maintenance, taxes or have unfavourable new living conditions
(household size or economic activities).
That is why some households are
forced to rent/sell their new accommodation and move back to the slums, while
others manage to stay (Restrepo,
2010). Due to the cut-off date for eligibility of rehabilitation, the
ineligible population is left with no option but to stay in unauthorized slums
or to move to a new slum after the former one is demolished by the government (Zhang,
2016). There is a denial of people’s right to participation in the planning
process, in terms of determining the location and nature of development
projects, their size and the distribution of their costs and benefits within
procedures of rehabilitation (Das, 2003).
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