SLUMS – Detailed Notes
8.1 Meaning of Slum
• Overcrowded, decayed residential areas where houses are unfit for living.
• Basic needs like clean water, drainage, sanitation, and adequate ventilation are
absent.
• Poverty is extreme; health indicators are poor — high birth rates, infant mortality,
disease, and crime rates.
• Common names in India: Bustees (Calcutta), Jhoparpattis (Bombay), Jhuggi
jhonpris (Delhi), Cheries (Madras), Ahatas (U.P.).
• Historic accounts (e.g., Whitley Commission, 1930) describe garbage heaps,
open sewage, dark single-room houses, and improvised privacy screens
blocking light and air.
• Often described metaphorically as “hell on earth,” created by greed, lack of civic
sense, and inadequate urban control.
8.2 Causes of Slums
1. Rapid Industrialisation – Industrial jobs pull rural migrants into cities. Workers
settle near workplaces to avoid travel costs, leading to unplanned, congested
housing.
2. Population Growth – Housing construction lags far behind rapid population
increases, causing shortages that create slums.
3. Lack of Zoning – Weak or absent zoning lets industries mix with residences,
encouraging overcrowding.
4. Decentralisation – Wealthier residents move to suburbs, leaving poorer
populations concentrated in the city core where conditions degrade.
5. Lack of Education – Residents may neglect hygiene, civic duties, and
neighbourhood improvement, becoming vulnerable to vice and crime.
6. Poverty – Low, uncertain income forces people into the cheapest, least healthy
housing options.
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7. Neglect of Repair and Maintenance – Without regular upkeep, older buildings
deteriorate into slum conditions.
8. Inadequate Powers of Authorities – Limited legal authority or enforcement lets
unhealthy settlements expand unchecked.
8.3 Effects on Town Life
• Health hazards from absence of clean water, sanitation, and waste disposal.
• Social and cultural life is minimal or non-existent.
• Residents may be drawn into criminal activity, drug trade, illegal alcohol, or food
adulteration.
• Noise, smoke, and crowding disturb workplaces, schools, and hospitals.
• Streets become unsafe with higher traffic accidents.
• Open spaces vanish, leaving no recreational or fresh air zones.
• Slum life erodes ambition, civic pride, and neighbourly relations.
8.4 Precautions to Prevent Slums
• Early monitoring and control — “Prevention is better than cure.”
• Provide enough low-cost, healthy housing for workers, including water,
sanitation, electricity, and drainage.
• Employers to be legally bound to provide decent accommodation.
• Control rents via legislation and stop illegal/unplanned construction.
• Raise wages to improve living standards.
• Educate residents on hygiene and community upkeep.
• Encourage timely building repairs to avoid deterioration.
8.5 Slum Clearance
Two main approaches:
1. Improvement Method
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o Best when housing is basically sound but environment is unhealthy (e.g.,
bad drainage).
o Upgrade utilities, widen roads, remove unsafe structures, fill low/swampy
areas.
o Keeps disruption minimal and costs low.
2. Complete Removal Method
o For heavily congested, unsafe areas.
o Demolish all unfit buildings, keep only good structures.
o Use cleared land for open spaces, wider roads, or planned housing.
o Provide Transit Camps for displaced residents during construction.
o Follow legal steps: announce scheme, acquire land, pay compensation,
arrange rehousing.
o More expensive but long-term beneficial to the community.
Method Features Benefits Limitations
Fix drainage, utilities; widen Low cost, Works only if
Improvement roads; remove unsafe minimal housing is
structures disruption basically sound
Demolish unsafe buildings, High cost,
Complete Long-term
keep good ones; reuse land for temporary
Removal improvement
open spaces or new housing relocation needed
Key Legal Steps – Publish scheme, acquire land, pay compensation, provide rehousing.
8.5 Financial Assistance for Slum Clearance
• 1956 Scheme – Central Govt. funds States/UTs for clearance and improvement.
• Aim: minimal displacement, rehouse residents nearby at rents they can afford.
• Focus on essential hygiene and services, not costly buildings.
• Actions covered:
o Acquire slum land and rehouse families earning ≤ Rs. 350/month.
o Improve environmental conditions.
o Build Night Shelters for pavement dwellers at nominal charge.
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• Housing types: open plots, skeletal houses, pucca houses, dormitories — all
with lavatories, baths, water taps, and drainage.
• Costs: Rs. 1,850–8,750 per unit; rents Rs. 6–39/month.
• 25-year repayment, interest decided by Central Govt.
• 1960 Delhi Scheme – remove jhuggis/jhonpris, lease plots for 99 years with 50%
subsidy; payment in lump sum or 10 instalments.
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