URBAN DEVELOPMENT – For a new Mumbai, at great cost
ANUPAMA KATAKAM

After the demolition of slums by the Birhanmumbai Municipal Corporation in the ef-fort to make Mumbai a "world class city", shelter and livelihood are at stake.
THE ambitious "Shanghaisation" of Mumbai is finally under way. Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh kicked off the project, which was initiated by the previous Democratic Front (D.F.) government, by announcing a Rs.31,000-crore package (ca. 25 million US Dollar) in early De-cember 2004 and subsequently launching a massive clean-up drive of the metropolis.
While the end result could benefit all its citizens, the initial impact is bound to be the hardest on the city's poor and voiceless. So far more than 45,000 shanties have been demolished, dis-placing nearly two lakh (100 000) people, but freeing up to 300 acres (120 hectares) of land. Activists, social workers and urban planners question the government's callousness in evicting people who were a precious vote bank until recently. Does the solution to Mumbai's problems lie in clearing the urban poor and building projects to be used by less than 40 per cent of the population? they ask. Or, is this is just a ploy to free precious real estate?
Undoubtedly, Mumbai is bursting at the seams. Over the years several attempts have been made to streamline development, improve infrastructure and manage the influx of migrants from all over the country. While some plans were implemented, others remained in cold stor-age. In November 2001, encouraged by the government, Bombay First, a non-governmental organisation with representatives from the corporate world, commissioned global consulting firm McKinsey and Company to prepare a comprehensive plan for the city.
McKinsey presented a blueprint in September 2003 for the overall development of the city over the next decade. This plan, coupled with the government's strategies, came to be called the "Vision Mumbai" project. A task force created to strategise and execute the project stated that Mumbai can be turned into a "world class city" by 2013 at an estimated cost of Rs.2,000,000 crores (ca. 50 billion US Dollar).
Essentially, McKinsey focussed on six key areas: economic growth, transportation, housing, other infrastructure (to ensure safe water, sanitation, health facilities and reduce pollution), financing of projects and governance. The McKinsey report said that to revamp Mumbai, an 8-10 per cent economic growth, up from the current 2.4 per cent, was essential. This would in-volve creating almost 0.5 million jobs. With regard to housing, land availability would have to increase by 50-70 per cent, besides an increase in the floor space index and relaxation of the coastal zonal regulations.
Over half a dozen transport-related projects will benefit immediately from the Rs.31,000 crores (ca. 25 million US Dollar). The projection is that by 2013 Mumbai will be a slick city with wide roads, modern highways and more comfortable trains and buses, beautiful seaside prome-nades, gardens and playgrounds. There will be no shortage of public utilities such as water, electricity and sanitation either. BUT to make all this happen it is the poor and the voiceless, as always, who will have to pay a price. To make land available for these projects it was decided to rid government property of encroachers. So in the first visible "cleaning up" move, in early December 2004 the Bri-hanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) was given carte blanche to demolish slums that had encroached on BMC and State government land after 1995. Those that existed before 1995 were regularised. According to BMC estimates, through December, 83 squads of workers de-molished approximately 45,000 shanties across the city.
The lakhs (thousands) of people rendered homeless by the demolitions do not have secure shelters. They live in the hope that some relief will be provided soon. "It is cold, we have no food and we cannot go to work because there is nowhere to keep our belongings," said Sunita Kaude, who came from Marathwada with her husband and two children in 1996 and found a place in a slum at Colaba in south Mumbai. "We cleared the land, which was a swamp, and made it liveable. Now they want the land. The politicians promised to regularise our home if we gave them our vote. They said they would do it for all those who built before 2000. What happened to that?" The politicians have backtracked on their promise. Moreover, Sunita has a weak case, for she and her neighbours cleared mangroves to build huts, which is illegal.
"We don't have a target but our aim is to get rid of every illegal shanty in the city," said Prakash Patil, an Assistant Municipal Commissioner who is overseeing a part of the clearing drive. "The demolitions have been on the government's agenda but because of the two elec-tions last year we could not carry them out. The Election Commission directives did not permit them. But as soon as the new government took over, we started clearing the encroachments." Until the first week of January more than 300 acres had been freed in the island city, he said.
According to Sharit Bhowmik, a sociologist involved in rehabilitation programmes, slums are projected as the cause of most, if not all, urban problems. The general idea is that they gener-ate filth, breed criminals and usurp facilities that should rightfully go to "tax-paying citizens". Whether slum dwellers are really responsible for the strain on the civic amenities is never in-vestigated, but these views are convenient to use in the argument in favour of demolition.
Bhowmik points out that high-rise apartments cause greater strain on public utilities (drainage, garbage, water and so on) as their consumption is much higher than in the slums. Besides, many of the settlements have risen out of marshland, where the settlers have filled the land and made it liveable. Since most of the dirty work has already been done, it is easy for the government to claim ownership now. "If you want to tackle the city's problems, you must ask why there is this proliferation of urban poor in Mumbai," said Bhowmik. The shrinking of employment opportunities in the city's formal manufacturing sector has pushed workers into low-income and insecure work in the informal sector. "Do not underestimate this sector, they are crucial in making the city function," said Bhowmik.
Along with this, low-skilled migrants from smaller towns and rural areas, who come in search of work because of drought or other such adverse circumstances, add to the burgeoning popu-lation of the poor. What is worse, he added, are the rehabilitation schemes when demolition takes place. Most poor people live near their sources of employment. When the government rehabilitates them, it is often in uninhabitable areas or at such great distance from their work-places that they have to spend a fair amount of their earnings to get to work.
Although the intention to turn Mumbai into a liveable and efficient city is not being questioned, the point is whether it can be redeveloped on the debris of thousands of shanties. Much of the "Vision Mumbai" plan has been declared pro-rich, pro-privatisation and pro-builder. Even the viability of some of the larger projects is being debated, particularly since many of the past projects have not been as successful as they were made out to be. Perhaps Mumbai will even-tually turn into Shanghai but hopefully not at the cost of the marginalised.
Source: http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2202/stories/20050128002004600.htm