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THE BOMBAY METROPOLITAN REGION: A SOCIO-ECONOMIC PROFILE OF THE PROJECT AREA P. K. MUTTAGI With a view to determining the ability and willingness of different categories of consu­ mers to pay for water and sanitary facilities, a socio-economic survey was conducted in the project area in the Bombay Metropolitan Region. This fast developing area is just outside the Greater Bombay Municipal limits. The article contains a brief discussion on population growth, housing conditions, slums, community facilities, income and expenditure of the households, industrial and commercial growth and so on. Dr. P. K. Muttagi is the Head of the Unit for Urban Studies of Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Deonar, Bombay-400 088. The Background: The Water Resources Institute of Social Sciences. The investiga­ Management Board of the Bombay Metro­ tion began on the same, in August 1978 politan Region Development Authority has and was completed finally in June 1979. prepared a project for improving the infras- tructure including the schemes for the pro­ The Objectives vision of water supply and sewerage services for a portion of the Bombay Metropolitan As the primary objective of the study was Region adjoining the Greater Bombay the determination of the ability and the Municipal limits. This project area compri­ willingness of the consumers to pay, two ses of the municipal towns of Ambernath, independent but interrelated facts were Bhiwandi, Dombivli, Kalyan, Thane and covered namely, an assessment of the eco­ Ulhasnagar and 104 villages, all of which nomic justification of the project, with parti­ are at varying stages of urbanisation. Six cular reference to the benefits, derived by of the villages, namely: Badlapur, Bhayan- the poor; deciding the tariff structure which der, Katemanivli, Kulgaon, Majiwade and would be responsive to the social needs of Mohone are classified as non-municipal the people particularly, the poor, not over­ towns or semi-urban towns. The project looking the economic viability of the envisages the execution of an integrated projects. scheme for water supply and sewerage and includes the improvement and augmentation The Tasks of the existing schemes as well as the under­ taking of new ones. The WRMB approach­ The following tasks were specified: ed the World Bank for an appropriate loan. As the technical feasibility of the project (i) Identify the areas of concentration had already been investigated by Technical of the poor. Consultants, a socio-economic survey was (ii) Prepare an inventory of present water called for, so that the World Bank could supply and sanitary facilities. appraise the proposed water supply and sewerage scheme as per their procedure and (iii) Assess the appropriate norms for requirements, prior to their loan assistance. supply to various income groups, with The WRMB entrusted the task of socio a view to reducing incidence of economic survey of this area to the Tata water-borne diseases. The Investigator is grateful to the officers of the Bombay Metropolitan Region Deve­ lopment Authority and also the research team of the Unit for Urban Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, for the valuable help and co-operation in conducting the study. 148 P. K. MUTTAGI (iv) Ascertain the percentage of consu­ (5) Officers of the Municipal Councils. mers who can pay for the water (6) Officers of the Zilla Parishad. and sewerage services, (7) BDOs and VDOs. (8) Presidents and elected members of The major organisations from which data the Municipalities, the Zilla Parishad, were gathered are: the Gram Panchayats, and other Public Bodies. 1. Water Resources Management Board 2. Municipalities in the Project Area Several formats were prepared and used 3. Thane Zilla Parishad to collect data from primary and secondary 4. District Health Officer, Thane sources. Thus, an exhaustive schedule was 5. Office of the Block Development prepared to collect information from the Officers municipalities, which included questions on 6. Gram Panchayats and Panchayat the operation of the schemes, the water Samitis supply and sewerage system, the financial 7. Offices of the Village Development management and so on. Another exhaus­ Officers tive questionnaire was designed to collect 8. Directorate of Economics and Stati­ information from the rural areas. This in­ stics, Maharashtra cluded questions on the population, the 9. Chief Inspector of Factories, Maha­ socio-economic conditions, the number of rashtra industries etc., in addition to the questions 10. Environmental Engineering Organi­ asked to the municipalities. sation A separate schedule was prepared and 11. Maharashtra Industrial Development sent to the Presidents and Chief Officers of Corporation the municipalities and likewise, to the Pre­ 12. The Offices of the Government of sidents of the Gram Panchayats and the Maharashtra Panchayat Samitis, as well as to the elected 13. Public and Private Libraries representatives of the people. 14. National Malaria Eradication Unit A fairly exhaustive schedule was mailed 15. Various Urban Development Autho­ to 30 experts in Bombay and other cities rities in India. This questionnaire covered several 16. Bombay Municipal Corporation. aspects of the system — water supply, sewe­ 17. Various Manufactures' Associations. rage facilities, metering of supply, tariff 18. Directorate of Health Services, practices and structure, minimum require­ Poona. ment of water etc. In addition, comprehen­ Similarly, primary data were collected sive personal discussions were held with from different consumer groups and know­ some experts from Bombay and other cities. ledgeable persons, the major ones being:- A questionnaire was also sent to 25 diffe­ rent Development Authorities all over (1) Domestic Consumers. India, to understand the activities of such (2) Industrial and Commercial Establish­ authorities. A separate schedule was pre­ ments. pared to collect information from industrial (3) Non-domestic non-commercial esta­ and commercial establishments and other blishments, like hospitals and schools. non-domestic consumers, and an actual sur­ (4) Knowledgeable persons from Bombay vey was conducted among 202 commercial and outside. establishments and 35 industries. Last but A SOCIO-ECONOMIC PROFILE OF THE PROJECT AREA 149 by no means the least, a separate schedule size, followed by the urban and semi-urban was canvassed among 2000 households, who areas. were domestic consumers. It dealt with de­ There were 245 slums in the project area mographic data, the type of dwelling, in­ in 1976. A majority of the slums (67.35 come and expenditure pattern, possession of percent) are found in Thane and Ulhasna­ durables including livestock, diseases in the gar. Over 3 lakh people (36.18 percent) of family, water supply and sewerage facilities the total population live in slums. A size­ etc. able section of the population in Amber- nath (64.01 percent) and nearly half the Major Findings population of Thane (46.05 percent) and Ulhasnagar (41.98 percent) live in slums. The data reveal that for various reasons, Dombivli has the lowest percentage of slum the population has been growing rapidly in pockets, hutments and slum population. the entire project area. There has been an There are 35659 housing structures in 91 over-all increase from 30 percent to 60 per­ villages. Considering the number of villages cent in the decades between 1951-61 and in each Taluka, villages in Thane Taluka 1961-71 in all the municipal towns, the in­ seem to have a greater number of houses. crease is very great in the case of Dombivli A sizeable number of the houses in the and nominal in the case of non-municipal rural area (41.34 percent) are pucca struc­ towns, although it is less pronounced, while tures. Hutments and Kuccha structures are in the case of the villages, the increases found in larger number in the villages of may appear to be comparatively limited. Bhiwandi taluka. Thus although the different towns and vil­ There are 251 schools in the 5 towns*. lages are apparently at different stages of They are either run by the municipalities, urbanisation, the entire project area is grow­ by private bodies or individuals. While ing very rapidly. There is considerable the number of private schools is almost population growth in the project area both two times that of municipal schools, the due to migration and natural increase. In number of students studying in private fact, at least in the towns, there are in schools is only marginally higher than the general, three-five births for every death. number of students studying in municipal In the year 1971 the population of the schools, indicating that municipal schools project areas was 8,78,639; of which 71.19 cater to more children than do private percent lived in the urban areas, 7.42 per­ schools. cent in semi-urban areas and 21.39 percent On the basis of the child population for lived in rural areas. Thane and Ulhasnagar the year 1971 (17 percent of the total popu­ are class I towns having a population over lation) the child population for the year one lakh. The total population of the project 1978 may be estimated to be 122116. An area is expected to increase to 16, 19,000 overwhelming majority of 82.98 percent of by 1983. children in the age group 6-12 years attend The average household size of the project school. There is variation between towns area is (4.92) or almost five. However varia­ especially in the case of Dombivli and tions can be observed between the towns, Bhiwandi, in the proportion of children at­ the semi-urban areas and the rural areas. tending primary school. Though the number The rural sector has the largest household of students in municipal and private schools * Requisite information could not be obtained from the 6th town namely, Kalyan. 150 P. K. MUTTAGI does not show significant variation, the of respiratory diseases may be attri­ number of teachers working in private buted to industrialisation particularly, the schools is appreciably greater.

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