**India’s slum dwellers doubled in two decades ** Friday, May 18, 2007
NEW DELHI: The number of people living in slums in India, Asia’s fourth largest economy, has more than doubled in the past two decades, the government said on Thursday. Urban slum dwellers rose from 27.9 million in 1981 to 61.8 million in 2001 - the latest census data available - the junior minister for housing and urban poverty alleviation, Kumari Selja, told parliament.
Of the country’s major cities, the western financial hub of Mumbai has the biggest slums - some 6.5 million people living in cluttered shacks lined with a maze of open drains.
The city is home to Asia’s largest slum, Dharavi. The sprawling settlement of grey and black shacks is one of the first sights of Mumbai when arriving by air. India’s capital New Delhi follows Mumbai, with 1.8 million people living in squalor. The minister said the government has launched several schemes to provide civic amenities to slum dwellers but civil rights groups say the government has not done enough. “Slums are here to stay,” said Maju Varghese of YUVA Urban, a social organization working for more than two decades with the urban poor. About a quarter of the country’s billion-plus population live in towns and cities. reuters
These slums are mainly due to migrants from Bihar and UP. Those people go everywhere from j/k to Tamilnadu as a migrant labor and create lots of law and order problems.
It Just mean Cities are getting overcrowded ..The ppl in slums have not become poor overnite..they are migrants coming to city looking for a better future..
psj ut its not like theyse migrants left mansions in rural areas to live in slums in the city. they were poor then, they are poor now.
The city cost of living is higher than what they left behind, but earning potential is higher so they would rather live in a slum but be in teh city because they are earning more than they were in the villages.
coonsider it a shift of poor from one place to another
as far as cities getting over crowded, they have to do some studoes on unemployment rates etc. If the unemployment rate is not too high but there are slums that means city is illequipped to provide accomodation to the people it needs.
I mean there are gainfully employd people in these slums right? they are providing a srvice to the city and its people, which means they are needed. Its less of an issue of overcrowding and more of being illequipped to handle the influx of people.
many large cities around the world have to deal with same problems- affordable housing, public transport infrastructure can help in that regard.
These slums are mainly due to migrants from Bihar and UP. Those people go everywhere from j/k to Tamilnadu as a migrant labor and create lots of law and order problems.
Yeah, tell us about it, we've have had the same problem in Karachi...Altaf bhai is the most notorious example...
