Capital Matters: Slum dwellers get free homes

Slum dwellers in the city may have reason to celebrate with the government announcing plans to build multi–storeyed apartment blocks that will be handed over to slum dwellers free of cost, but experts doubt its long term benefits.

The Urban Development Ministry proposes to bring about a humane solution to slum resettlement by rehabilitating the dwellers in the very area they presently inhabit.

The present move – actively promoted by Urban Develop-ment Minister Ananth Kumar and former Prime Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh – is a definite shift from the past, when slums were demolished and residents forcibly moved away.

Singh's aim is to see that slum dwellers, who normally work in the upmarket homes around the slum clusters, should remain near their place of livelihood.

The government believes it stands to benefit as the money they invest in the flats will be recovered from the multi – storeyed commercial complexes or residential flats that come up on the land freed of slums. In addition, rehabilitating the slum dwellers is expected to push up the dwindling prices of property in prime locations.

Government agencies are also involving NGOs and urban development planners in the project. The slums marked include clusters in Pitampura, Patparganj, Laxmi Bai Nagar and Viklang Basti.

Syed Shafi, chief planner to Government of India and now consultant with National Institute of Urban Affairs is however sceptical the proposal will actually work.

He says, "With three to four million people, mostly from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, migrating to the city annually and the influx continuing, achieving any kind of target is impossible." He believes that the government did not have any consistent policy on dealing with the extremely complex problem of slums in urban areas.

"In fact, the resettlement of slum dwellers is an issue played by the politicians. They cash in on the issue as a vote bank. With an eye on elections, promises for permanent housing are made regularly. There is nothing novel that they are promising," he said.

"Like a shuttlecock the problem is thrown either at the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) or the Delhi Development Authority (DDA)," he added.

In the first Five–Year Plan, 15 per cent of the area was earmarked for service personnel. But the politicians reduced it to 10 per cent. And the proposal was finally okayed at only five per cent.

According to Shafi, "We must also first look into the reasons for such large scale migration and think of the major clusters instead of committing ourselves into providing houses for all 'in situ' (meaning, rehabilitating where they are presently dwelling) which is not possible."

Instead of making a sporadic attempt at finding a solution to the resettlement issue, a realistic approach is needed to provide basic amenities like water, electricity and sanitation to the slum dwellers where they are located.

"Conditions at Turkman Gate in the capital's old Delhi area are appalling," Shafi observed.

The Urban Development Ministry's plans to follow Mumbai's example of providing multi–storeyed flats free of cost next to the commercial or residential complexes developed by builders has also been queried by another urban development planner Sabir Ali, who is presently working for the Council for Social Development.

"The problem is multifold for we neither have human nor financial resources to deal with the magnitude of the problem," he admitted.

According to him the ready solution was to provide on site basic facilities proposed as per 1964–65 scheme. "With 50–odd families migrating to Delhi every day, the steps taken by the politicians are nothing short of talking in the air," he warned.

"Anyone who says the resettlement problem of slum dwellers can be resolved by building multi–storeyed flats is not being practical. After all where is the land to accommodate such a large population. Moreover, construction can be done only on government land, not on autonomous or private land," he declared.

The capital has seen a swelling of its population from two million in 1947 to over 15 million presently. With government unable to meet the infrastructure and social challenges, slums have mushroomed all over the city.

And if one were to include unauthorised colonies and resettlements colonies, the inescapable conclusion – nearly two–thirds of Delhi lives in a deplorable state.