A bold new experimental venture

After 40 years when first thought of, Dharavi, is finally undergoing a complete makeover to become a mini city within the megapolis, Mumbai. Dharavi, just grew and grew over at least 60 years, to earn the dubious distinction of Asia’s (if not the world’s) largest slum, housing over 1 lakh families and well over 11,000 small businesses! Successive governments came up with plans to reconstruct and rehouse in situ, the residents. But each plan took a long time to prepare and the biggest stumbling block became the ‘cut-off date for deciding which slum dwellers would be entitled to be rehoused. As the debates continued, more people kept pouring in, increasing the population of Dharavi. Successive governments kept taking forward the cut-off year, which inevitably was a few years out of date, leading to protests by residents, and opposition politicians arguing that the large number of ‘ineligible’ residents couldn’t just be thrown out with nowhere to go. The courts also often gave stays on any coercive action. At the same time, as newcomers kept coming in, enterprising slumlords (many with some political backing) added first and even second floors to the dingy slums. This only complicated any task of rebuilding and rehabilitation.

In the meantime, as in any democracy, humanitarian pressures built up to provide electricity and water to the residents, even if on a limited scale. Poor slum dwellers were often compelled to pay Rs1 per bucket of water, and that too after queuing, at odd hours. As in most slums, the residents were not destitute. And the slum continued to provide office peons, drivers and cleaners, and help the middle class need. Over time, small businesses sprung up successfully – the most successful being leather, small workshops and pottery. Dharavi got fully integrated with Mumbai. Dharavi became synonymous with Mumbai. So much so that films were shot there (including foreign hits like Slumdog Millionaire). Tours of Dharavi were even offered to tourists. At the same time there was the seamier side of crime. All this, coexisting in slums that were a disgrace to any civilised society.

The slums, in most of our big and small cities, are the biggest and most visible failures of our cities, post-independence. Mumbai has the terrible distinction, of 50 per cent of its population living in slums or utterly substandard housing. There is the inability of our society, including Municipal and State governments (cities is a State subject in the Constitution) all over the country to deal with this urban blight.

It is against this background that the Dharavi Redevelopment Project, launched by the Devendra Fadnavis government must be seen and finally judged. No plan is perfect, nor can it predict exact results. And not everyone can be satisfied. All the decisions taken, including forming an SPV, with the Adani group with an 80 per cent stake, the phase-wise development, the commercialisation of part of the TDR generated, must be viewed as the best practical and bona fide way to implement a redevelopment that has been a mirage for decades.

Above all, the DRP houses all eligible families in situ. As also all ‘ineligible families’ – though not in distant or out-of-town locations. As it progresses, over 7 years, it will change the lives of lakhs of people, allowing them to live with dignity.

Few projects of this size and complexity have been attempted in India. If successful it will be copied in other cities. The Fadnavis government and the Adani group need to be congratulated for taking on this bold new experimental venture.