Slumproof Cities: Rethinking Housing Rights for Urban India

 Slumproof Cities: Rethinking Housing Rights for Urban India

Slum areas are not just heaps of small houses, tarpaulin roofs and unconstructed dwellings. They are evidence of larger failures in structure when the state has gotten out of the way, when development has chosen to forget the poor, and where laws do not provide the needed protection for the most vulnerable. In India's fast-growing metropolitan cities like Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi, slums have become the automatic means of residence for millions. Cities in India are growing, but not evenly. Big towers and gated communities sit alongside tin-roofed slums and congested alleys. Slums are not accidents; they are the result of systematic exclusion, policy neglect and legal silence. 

Slum is often a simplistic operational definition which refers to a haphazard, informal settlement without access to life-sustaining basic services like clean water, toilets, drainage and some form of legal security. While slums may lack infrastructure, they certainly do have resilience. It becomes home to rural migrants, displaced families, laborers, street vendors, and the vast and largely invisible engine of urban economies. 

But why do people live in slums? Simply, because they have no other choice. Formal housing markets in Indian cities price them out of options. Government schemes are slow to rollout, are poor in funding, and often disconnected from reality. Rental housing options for low-income groups are largely absent, and largely exploitative. When people have arrived in cities mainly to escape poverty, the reality is that there is no available option other than a temporary informal settlement where they are not arrested, or evicted immediately.

Once a person is in a slum area, getting out is very difficult. Living in slum areas is more than just physically hard, it's legally precarious as well. Without official recognition, most residents don't have identity cards, ration cards, or voter registration. Without these forms of identification, residents can't access welfare schemes, open bank accounts or enrol their children in schools. Even after decades of living in the same place, residents are legally classified as "encroachers."

The legal framework in India is not designed to fully protect the urban poor. Although Article 21 of the Indian Constitution provides for the Right to Life, and the courts have interpreted that to include shelter, Indian law doesn't explicitly provide for an enforceable right to housing. The government of India runs initiatives, such as the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) and the Affordable Rental Housing Complex (ARHC) scheme, but these are poorly enforced and often do not benefit slum dwellers themselves. The application processes are bureaucratic, inflexible, and favour facilitation via online applications to actual slum dwellers.

Rather than working to prevent slums, legislatures work to eliminate them. We have the Slum Areas (Improvement and Clearance) Act, 1956, which enables the demolition and subsequent redevelopment of slum settlements. Yet... what about slum prevention? There is no national slum prevention law. There is no law that guarantees cities have to provide low-income migrants with affordable housing. There is no law that guarantees that once someone is displaced because of a metro project or flyover, they will automatically be resettled. 

Local governments typically treat slums as a blemish on the urban landscape rather than as a community or habitat. In the name of beautification and development, slums are bulldozed without any notice. The displaced are left to fend for themselves, or are relocated to far flung places that are isolated and disconnected from transport, jobs, and schools. The result? New informal settlements spring up and the cycle repeats itself. 

We need to change our mindset about slums. They are not places to get rid of, they are places where we failed to prevent them. A "slumproof city" is not a city where slums are hidden or destroyed, it's a city where people need not live in a slum in the first place.

What would slumproofing look like?

It would mean treating housing as a right, not a policy. It would mean a national urban housing law requiring land reserved for affordable housing, affordable housing occupancy, rental housing stock, and inclusive planning. It would mean ensuring that every person - no matter how poor - has a legal address, access to welfare, and cannot be evicted.

Urban poverty is not an individual failure. It's a failure of law and planning. And only law can lay the foundation for a city where dignity is not reserved for gated communities. If India is serious about being a developed country, it must start with recognizing people's right to a safe, legal home. A Slumproof City is not an illusion; it is a reality for which India must contend. 

Conclusion

The future of India cannot be built on broken promises and bulldozed homes. It must be built on rights. And the first one is the right to a roof - protected by law, guaranteed by policy and delivered in practice.

Closing Credit

 Author-  Suresh Theni 

"The views expressed are personal. This article is intended for educational purposes and public discourse. Feedback and constructive criticism are welcome!"