Swelling slums

These days, slum settlements have become a problem for the world. According to estimates, about a quarter of the world's urban population lives in slums. This is a big problem in India also. In the coming 10 years, 50 per cent of India's population will start living in cities. 28 per cent of India's current population already lives in cities. This huge increase in urban population will have a direct impact on their habitat. There will be a rapid increase in the population living in slums in the coming years. According to a report, there are slum areas in 2,613 cities of India. A large population lives in these settlements. Of these, 57 per cent of the population lives in Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra.

Delhi is the sixth largest metropolis in the world. Despite this, one-third of the houses here are part of slum areas. Even basic resources are not available there. According to a recently released report, every sixth urban citizen in the country is forced to live in slums. These settlements are not fit for human habitation. The person living here is forced to live a low standard of living. Statistics show that every third urban family in Andhra Pradesh lives in these slums. 9 out of every 10 houses in Odisha have no drainage facility. Slum settlements can be seen in 65 per cent of the cities of the country. Despite being a part of the dazzling world of cities, the people living in these settlements are still in darkness.

Statistics show that 6 out of every 10 people in the country live in slums. There are dirty drains in these settlements. 4 out of every 10 do not have access to basic facilities like clean water. The people living in these slums are the result of political games and administrative neglect. Actually, slum area means illegal urban settlements on public land. Usually, it develops continuously and irregularly over a period of time. Slum areas are considered an integral part of urbanisation and are seen as an expression of the overall socio-economic policies and plans in the urban area.

In the slum areas, most of the people live in poverty. The literacy rate is low in these places. However, the literacy rate in Dharavi, the country's largest slum area, is 69 per cent. In Andhra Pradesh, 36.1 per cent of the urban population lives in slums. A large part of the urban population of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, West Bengal, Sikkim, Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana live in the slums. According to a report, 64.1 per cent of the houses living in slums of Odisha have not yet attained clean drinking water. On the other hand, 90.6 per cent of the houses in these settlements do not have any arrangement for drainage. There remains a risk of spreading diseases here.

A total of 65.49 million people live in 13.7 million slum houses in the country. Slums and slum areas exist around 65 per cent of Indian cities, where people live in dense clusters. According to the National Service Scheme Round survey, as of 2012, there were about 6,343 slums in Delhi, with more than one million houses. 52 per cent of the total population of Delhi lived here. About 81 per cent of the country's population works in the informal sector. It may be recalled that the sudden imposition of the complete Covid lockdown had severely affected the livelihoods of slum dwellers. Delhi saw a large number of reverse migration after the first lockdown. Thousands of migrant workers went back to their hometowns. During this period, about 70 per cent of the slum population became unemployed, 10 per cent had wage cuts and eight per cent saw other effects.

According to a study published in the International Journal of Environment and Pollution, weather patterns are changing in Asia due to pollution from slum settlements. On one hand, the wind speed is increasing, and on the other hand, the rainfall is decreasing. Climate models have already indicated that local pollution can influence the formation and development of cyclonic storms. It is noteworthy that many big cities are situated on the east coast of India, which are regularly affected by storms between October and December every year. Millions of people living in the slums of these cities still use wood as fuel for cooking, which produces large amounts of biomass particles that end up in the air. These polluted particles, which remain chemically in the air in cities for a long time, are affecting the process of cloud condensation nuclei in the clouds.

In reality, the benefits of government schemes reach only a small section of the intended beneficiaries. Most of the relief funds and benefits do not reach slum inhabitants. The main reason for this is that these settlements are not officially recognised by the government. The country has seen a lack of proper social distancing measures and this has had a huge impact on our ability to fight the malaise. Thus, new approaches to urban planning and effective governance are the need of the hour. It is important to take necessary actions to build sustainable, strong and inclusive infrastructure.

The writer is a senior journalist. Views expressed are personal