A STUDY OF SLUMS IN HYDERABAD — SECUNDERABAD* RATNA NAIDU** Drawing on the analysis of data collected by the Department of Urban Community Development, Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad and other secondary sources, this paper discusses (1) locational factors in slum growth, (2) congestion and (3) social and shelter profile of slum dwellers in Hyderabad. In the final section a critical analysis of policies on slums in this city is presented. Ratna Naidu (nee Dutta) is Senior Fellow, ICSSR, University of Hyderabad, Hydera­ bad 500 001. One hundred and six slums were identifi­ 25 per cent of the total population res­ ed in Hyderabad-Secunderabad in 19621, pectively (Government of India 1975: 14). the number increased to 283 in 1972, and 74 new slums were added to the list at In so far as growth of the slum pheno­ the end of 1976.3 Since 1962, therefore, mena as is known today is associated with there has been a threefold increase of slums growth of modern industries, we need to in the twin cities. While the city popula­ remember that Hyderabad until recently, tion increased by 43.72 per cent during the was the capital city of a feudal state and years 1961-71, the slum population during industrialisation is a recent development. 1962-72 increased by 132.3 per cent. The The phenomenal growth of slums in recent slum population in 1962 was 10 per cent years can therefore be taken as a pointer of the total city population and it is now to the much more serious slum situation 19 per cent of the city population. This which is likely to develop if left uncon­ percentage of course is much higher for trolled. other metropolitan cities such as Bombay, In the first part of this study on slums Calcutta, Madras and Lucknow where it is in Hyderabad, we present the analysis of 25 per cent, 34 per cent, 24 per cent and data collected by the Department of Urban * This report is a part of the project on "Optimal Metropolitan Development of Hyderabad", administered by the Indian Institute of Economics and financed by Hyderabad Urban Development Authority. **The author is indebted to Dr. Surya Rao, Director, Urban Community Development Project of the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad for permission to use the data collected by their office through a survey in 1972 and to Prof. V. L. S. Prakash Rao for allowing to dip into his rich experience from time to time to solve research problems encountered on this project. Thanks are also due to Mrs. Renu Khator for her valuable assistance in the collection and the analysis of data, to Mr. K. Ramchander for his research assistance and to Mr. Ashoke Banerjee the cartographer for the map. 1. For 1962 data on slums see Report on the Socio-Economic Survey of Slum-Dwellers in Hyderabad City, 1964, Bureau of Economics and Statistics, Hyderabad, (mimeo). 2. The 1972 survey of slums was made under the supervision of Dr. Surya Rao, Project Director, Department of Urban Community Development, Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad. The Bureau of Economics and Statistics did a survey of slums in Hyderabad in 1962. See the reference in the footnote above. They are currently (March 77) doing another survey and we are able to obtain the data on the identification of new slums since 1972 from this source. However, for all the Surveys, the Bureau of Economics and Statistics identify and obtain the list of slums through" the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad. Definition and identification of slums stem from the Slum Act of 1956. Essentially the Act defines slums in terms of sanitation and inability of houses in terms of human habitation (that is ventilation, structural conditions and so on). Further, the definition applies to a cluster of houses rather than to single or isolated buildings which may happen to be in poor condition. Since the definition stems from sanitary conceptions slums are identified by the Sanitary Inspectors employed by the health authorities of the Municipality. 298 RATNA NAIDU Community Development, Municipal Cor­ classes remain near the central business poration of Hyderabad through its survey district, and land values around these areas in 1972. Dr. Surya Rao, Project Director remain perhaps highest in the metropolis. for the Department of Urban Community And yet we find that slums have invaded Development designed the survey and even such areas in Hyderabad at an acce­ supervised the collection of data. We have lerated rate in recent years. tabulated some portion of the data gene­ rated by that survey. Basing ourselves on The commercial belt stretching from those tabulations we select the following Charminar through Afzalgunj across the topics for discussion: (1) locational factors Musi and into and beyond Abids (with in slum growth; (2) congestion, and (3) bifurcation into Nampally road) have been developing over many decades. This con­ social and shelter profile of slum dwellers. gested commercial complex has developed In the final section we present a critical in a compact form along arterial roads, analysis of policies on slums in this city while just behind and parallel to these are in the context of the ongoing debate on residential quarters and vacant land. These policy alternatives available in the literature. stretches of vacant land have been slowly absorbed by the growth of slums. The 1962 I. Locational Factors in the Growth of survey indicates only two slums around Slums this commercial belt, one in Sultan Bazar and another in Irani Galli near Pathar The shortest possible distance from the Gatti area. The 1972 survey registered place of work is a major determining more than a dozen slums around this com­ factor in the choice of location of housing. mercial belt (ten of these being on govern­ In the technologically advanced affluent ment land). Whereas there were no slums societies the upper classes violate this around Abids and Nampally Road, the principle in their search for pleasant areas survey taken in 1976 shows that slums of residence. Earnest W. Burgess in his have emerged just off these roads. classic studies of American cities (Burgess, 1925) found that early in the development It is obvious that the reasons for the of a city, the central business district is growth of slums around these business dis­ the home of the upper classes. But as tricts have to be attributed to a different these neighbourhoods become increasingly set of factors relative to what is known infiltrated with industrial operations and usually from studies of cities in the West. with low-income housing for labourers and It is more likely that the employment gene­ migrants, the more well-to-do search out ration from these areas put tremendous for their residence more pleasant areas. In load on the housing capacity especially for the course of time low income groups low income groups in the area, and willy- become the exclusive inhabitants of the nilly occupation of vacant land and the neighbourhood around the dominant com­ process of slum formation have taken place. mercial and industrial districts of the city. Industrial growth was initiated in Hydera­ In the poor countries where infrastruc- bad much later than in other metropolitan tural facilities for transportation, school­ cities in the country. The first industrial ing, shopping, amusement and so on re­ estate was initiated as late as in 1931 on main low in spite of accelerated growth of a 120 acre site in Azamabad. A decade later the city peripheries, the middle and upper another 120 acre industrial estate was A STUDY OF SLUMS IN HYDERABAD — SECUNDERABAD 299 developed in Sanathnagar. The Chandular of Khairatabad, Chintal Basti, Charminar, Baradari Industrial Estate was set up in Secunderabad, Begum Bazar and so on. the south, more recently. A number of Other major establishments which have industrial units came up in Secunderabad spawned slums in Hyderabad are notably but they are not concentrated in any one hospitals whose low-income employees find ward. The early starters and especially the shelter in slums (such as the slum near factories in Azamabad area (sugar, tobacco, the Victoria Hospital) and the Nehru and cigarette factories, leather industries, Zoological Park whose low-income emplo­ steel works, spinning mills and so on) yees live in a nearby slum. received a boost from the wartime boom. However, post-war industrial stagnation in With the exception of the slums in the country affected industrial growth in Azamabad, the 1962 survey indicates that the city negatively for many years and the until that date the slums in this city appear­ tempo of industrialization in Hyderabad ed almost exclusively near grave-yards, in picked up momentum only after 1956, after difficult terrain as in hill and rocky areas, the Second Five Year Plan had been and along water flows and railway tracts, launched3. all places where land was easily available. Water of course is essential for slum dwel­ This chronology of locational growth of in­ lers who lack piped water and latrine dustries is also reflected in the chronology of amenities, and so the choice of wafer-front the growth of slums. The 1962 survey shows is in any case easily explained. The rocky extensive slum housing in Azamabad (ward and inferior land at Naubat Pahar and Pahar 1) and only a very few in Sanathnagar area Jahannuma were occupied by the slum (ward 7) and none in Chandulal Baradari dwellers some decades ago. These of course area. The 1972 survey indicates that slums have now become choice locations. The have mushroomed around all the industrial grave-yards in Hyderabad are located in concentrations mentioned above. The 1962 residential areas. The poor of the city found survey indicates only one slum area in shelter around these grave-yards, locations Sanathnagar.