The Experiences of Low Income Communities in Mumbai Vis-À-Vis
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
222 223 _Amita Bhide From The Margins: The Experiences of Low Income Communities In Mumbai vis-à-vis Changing patterns of Basic Service Delivery image credit_ Aditi Pinto image credit_ 224 chunk of urban population, which can no longer delivery has been considered a state arena by These are described below: 225 | | Basic service delivery - a be ignored or rendered invisible. As Robert Classical economists on the basis of potential The Phase of Negation AMENITY traditional function of urban local governments McNamara, the former President of the World private market failures. Partnerships through Slums were seen as unfit housing and dens of AMENITY represents one of the most concrete forms Bank said ‘If cities do not deal with the problems outsourcing and contracting attempt to get crime in the initial years of planning and the of governance for urban citizens. Thereby, of the poor in a constructive way, they will deal over these failures, through partial privatisation. concern was to demolish these and replace with changes in forms of local governance through with cities in a destructive way’. Addressing the (RCUES, 2005). Several cities in India have ‘acceptable’ housing. Thus, the Slum Clearance decentralisation and responses to globalisation issues of providing infrastructure to expanding, thus, engaged in partnerships in areas of Programme of 1956 vested the governments with can be expected to be operationalised through big and poor cities is the real challenge of date. service delivery such as electricity and water necessary powers to compulsorily acquire slum new modes of organising service delivery. supply, solid waste collection, transportation areas and redevelop them. However, there was A parallel trend in urbanisation in India is and disposal, operating toilets etc. widespread resentment against the demolition Low income communities who are on the fringes represented by the changes in the forms of that redevelopment required. Also, the limited of official citizenry of cities have been largely governance in cities, ushered in partly due to the While the poor in cities are one of the actors volume of resources available for redevelopment excluded or provided with minimum level of 74th Constitutional amendment with its emphasis included in studies which seek to compare meant that redevelopment could not match the basic services. Their experience of accessing on decentralisation and partly due to increasing impacts of changes across varied population pace of demolitions or the pace of growth of basic services such as water, toilets, solid internal and external push for globalisation which groups; there are few studies which locate slum areas. The phase of negation therefore, waste management illustrates the continuities seeks to bring cities in a competitive mode for themselves with the poor communities and slowly gave way to a phase where some and discontinuities in the discourses of state- a share in world economy. Decentralisation with seek to analyse the nature of changes in reconciliation with the reality of slums took place. provision and privatisation globalisation. its accompaniments has thus, unleashed new service delivery, if any from their perspective. Basing itself on the findings of focus-group contestations (Sridharan, 2005) between local The current paper, based on focus group The Phase of Tolerance discussions with such communities, the paper governments and within cities. Berner (1997) discussions with five ‘slum’ communities In 1972, the emphasis of government examines their experiences of accessing services, opines that globalisation creates citadels in seeks to explore this area and identify the policy shifted from programmes involving utilising them, changes in availability, quality certain localities, enhancing polarisations of continuities and discontinuities in the arena of redevelopment and rehabilitation to and terms of these services. These experiences varied natures and generally excluding the poor. service provision as experienced by them. improvement in environment through thus, become a window to an understanding provision of tap water, sewer and storm of changing governance of the city. Basic services, which include water and The dominant framework of studies today is water drains, community baths and latrines, sanitation, solid waste management, rooted in the administrative perspective, even paved roads, streetlights, etc. The Central The Context roads, community halls, street lighting etc. while it tries to be inclusive. It there by bypasses Scheme of Environmental Improvement of Urban areas are increasingly being recognised constitute a core functional area of urban the critical linkages between the past and Urban Slums (EIUS) was initially introduced as engines of economic growth, contributing local governments. The delivery of these present systems, and the rightful concerns of the in the major cities of the country and then significantly to national economies. This is services is a site where the interplay of these lowest hierarchy of the poor. The current paper is in the 80s extended to all urban areas as particularly true of the developing world where trends of decentralisation, globalisation is thus a way to bring the poor ‘in’ to discussions. part of the Minimum Needs Programme. the demographics are rapidly changing towards intensely visible, with all its convergent points, the urban. Simultaneous to this change in contradictions and tensions. Debates on The Evolving Approach Towards This shift in emphasis is related demography is a shift in character of poverty in privatisation, participatory mechanisms to Provisioning of Basic Services To the Poor to a number of factors viz. India from rural to urban. Urbanisation in India is ensure state accountability, corporatisation of The approach towards provisioning of basic a. Acknowledgement of unfeasibility of a thus, correlated with a) rapid growth of slums and local government functioning, in Corporation services to the urban poor is closely linked with redevelopment programme on a massive b) poverty. This phenomenon is well entrenched of new actors such as NGOs and CBOs have the evolving approach towards legalising the scale within resources available in the Southern, Western, Central and also quite therefore, often focused on service delivery. status of slums and the lands on which they b. Recognition of environment and a few Northern states. In India thus, about 285 are settled. It is also linked to the increasing neighbourhood as important million people reside in 5000 cities and towns As the boundaries of State-local or State- significance of the issue in terms of its intensity dimensions of housing in India. Of this, it is estimated that nearly 67 private sector-voluntarism are shifting and the numbers involved. A review of the c. An emphasis on a wider distribution million live below the poverty line and 62 million position and being redefined; public-private various programmes and polices having a of services as a more efficous use of live in slums and squatter settlements (Census partnerships, as popularly called in India (also component of basic service provisioning for resources as against redevelopment of India, 2001). Planning and policies have to referred as multi stakeholder arrangements), the poor indicates that they can be divided d. Tolerance and recognition of existence thus, contend with the poor as a significant are emerging in various forms. Service into three, roughly chronological phases. of slums as dwellings of urban poor. 226 The Institutional arrangements for implementing and notification as a slum area. The essential components of organisations and establish ‘slum’ level 227 | | the EIUS differed in different cities and states. In f. The principle of tolerance became arbitrary slum upgradation programmes as agencies in order to cover activities leading several states, Slum Clearance or Improvement in its application when combined with AMENITY implemented in the country were: towards nurturing leadership in the community. AMENITY Boards were created. The maintenance of the policies such as cut-off dates, notification a. Co-operativisation of slum settlement, The UBSP extended its geographical amenities was left to the local governments. as a slum. A study in Chennai (Gupta, 1985) b. Transfer of lease of land on which the slum outreach and tried to institutionalise A consolidated rental was collected from the notes how the pace of improvement was is located to the cooperative society, community participation, especially slum dwellers as a contribution to the overall roughly equivalent with that of demolition. c. Upgradation of basic services and focusing on the development of women. cost. The Members of Parliament, Members In spite of these lacunae, the Improvement infrastructure in the slum, of Legislative Assembly and Corporators Programmes represent an important d. Assistance to individual households for Another important contribution of the UBSP are given substantive funds (1 crore, 20 shift towards humanising the approach undertaking improvements to housing. has been its expansion of understanding of lakh respectively) for development of local to slums. They also paved the way for The experience of upgradation programmes basic services to also include child and maternal areas. These funds have also contributed further programmes to emerge. in the country is quite complex. Almost none health, basic education and income earning to supplement the basic amenities in slum of the city programmes could