WHY DOES INDIA NEED SLUMS!!

With more than one in six urban residents of India living in slums with inhuman conditions termed as “unfit for human survival”, this has caused much moaning and groaning for all the rest of the 5 urban residents that most of us might come under. Yes, these are the very slums that have become a part and parcel of every city not only in india, but all across the world. The very areas we look at disgust while passing by, complaining about the scars they are on our beautiful cities. But the reality remains far worse for the rural areas. For millions of people who migrate from villages everyday in search of jobs, money and a better future for their family, slums are the way forward to get their way into in most cases.

Yes, slums are dark, dingy and dirty; but they are also the entrepreneurial hubs where India’s poor are climbing up the ladder of opportunity and income. The census of India 2011 report showed that 16.7% of slum households are filled with factories, shops and offices. These are humming commercial centres, not dead-ends. Dharavi in Mumbai, India’s largest slum, boasted an estimated business turnover of $650 million to create not one but plenty of slumdog millionaires. Slums should be objects of envy, not objects of sympathy.

Slums are the access point of the poor into cities. Absurd tax regulations, urban land policies and rampant corruption have encouraged a never-ending inundation of black money into the real estate structure of the cities. Urban land prices have skyrocketed year by year, and bear absolutely no relationship to the income they generate. Owning a piece of land has become a dream for most of the middle class, let alone the poor.  The poor from rural, desolate, remote areas enter cities only through existing or new slums. These areas are unregulated, illegal, yet fully accepted by politicians as a legitimate form of entry to be frequently visited before election time for a rich vote bank. Many slums simply steal electricity, with the tacit backing of politicians plus bribes to linesmen.

The census description of slums as “unfit for human habitation” is highly misleading. And because of the fact that there is no common definition used by all – be it the Census of India, the National Sample Survey Organization, the urban local bodies of a city. Such variations in definition by different organizations provide a very vague picture on the reality of a slum and its existence. Not only the absence of a proper database does not give a planner a correct picture of the deficiencies in a slum, it also undermines and hides many cases of astounding network and infrastructure present in it. In fact census data prove that slums are much better off than villages, which are presumably supposed fit for habitation! No less than 70% of slum households have TVs, against only 47% of total Indian households. The ratio is just 14.5% in Bihar and 33.2% in UP. Even Narendra Modi’s shining Gujarat (51.2%) has a  far lower rate of TV ownership than our slums in the cities! True, 34% of slums don’t have toilets. Yet the ratio is as high as 69.3% in rural India.

Similar stories hold for access to tap water, education, healthcare, electricity or jobs. As many as 90% of slum dwellers have electricity, against barely half of rural households. Ownership of cellphones (63.5%) is as high among slum dwellers as richer urban households, and way above rural rates. One-tenth of slums have computers, and 51% have cooking gas (not far short of 65 per cent of total urban households). Amazingly, more slum households (74 per cent) have tap water than total urban households (70.6 per cent).

So, let nobody misinterpret the official report on slums by the census as a terrible denunciation. The report does indeed highlight the lack of infrastructure existing and the urgent need to improve these. Yet it also provides a wealth of data showing how slums are better off than villages, and how on some counts slum-dwellers are as well off as richer urban dwellers. Official reports like Census data or Government findings through the NSSO fail to highlight the extent to which slums have generated thousands of thriving businesses and become a million dollar industry. It also fails to highlight the role of slums in helping conquer rural caste and feudal oppression.

Forget the cynical thinking on our filthy slums. Instead, see them as entry-points of the poor into the land of urban opportunity. See them as havens of dignity for millions of people who come with dreams and aspirations to improve their life and sustain their families. See them as the hubs of rising income and asset ownership, which have already generated several rupee millionaires. This means we need more slums, more hubs of opportunity. The urban gentry want to demolish slums, but they are plain wrong. Instead we should improve slum sanitation, water supply and garbage disposal. We need more improved slums, upgraded slums, but slums nevertheless. Slums which are not a extension of a city, but the most active part of it.