Around the world, slums are always equated with dirty, and most slums have similar characteristics: in order to save space, the already small rooms are full of people, and even some people sleep directly on the ground, they seem to live in a maze, but there is no exit from life.
Due to its high population density, India's slums are the "king of the slums", among which the Dharavi slum is "world-famous", and the pollution here is even worse than the Ganges, and people who come here can often catch a glimpse of garbage and sewage.
Unthinkable Indian slums
Since the movie "Slumdog Millionaire" became a global hit, many people saw the real scene in the Indian slum through the movie, where the sewage is flowing and dirty, but if you get close to the slum there, you will find that the real scene is far more torturous than imagined.
Mumbai is a cosmopolitan metropolis with many high-rise buildings, but in the corners of the city, there are slums, the most famous of which is the Dharavi slum.
If you first enter the slum, you will be greeted by a large area of extremely low shacks, which look like simple things built at random, and because of its popularity, some tour companies even regard the Dharavi slum as a tourist attraction.
The tour guide will also say: "Looking down from the plane, the entire Dharavi slum is like a huge garbage dump, full of collected waste and household garbage, there are almost no public health measures in the slums, and few families can enjoy the convenience of running water, so many people will defecate in the open, which makes the environment in the slums very bad." ”
Visitors come here as if they were in a zoo, with women burning wood on brick stoves outside the shacks and children scattering around, smiling innocently even in the sewage.
When they see the camera, the children are actually used to it, they will make faces at the camera, and some tourists will give them something, which is also a source of happiness for the children.
In one record, a head of household named Dras is extremely impressive.
He is a father of four children, and it stands to reason that raising children in such an environment is an extremely difficult task, but his optimism is beyond the imagination of many people.
In an interview, he said an impressive sentence: "India is a paradise for the poor, although I am in a slum, my life is still secure, and I am satisfied that I can own a slum house, which means that I have established myself in the city." ”
There are still many people who are as optimistic about life as Dras, but in the eyes of outsiders, the slums are still a breeding ground for crime, which is understandable.
Mumbai is a city with a large gap between rich and poor, and those who can buy a decent apartment in Mumbai are definitely members of the upper class of India, and it is extremely difficult for the middle class such as government servants and teachers to buy an apartment.
The emergence of slums is also a product of urbanization, and with the economy, a large number of people seeking livelihoods have poured into Mumbai, who have no extra money to rent or buy dwellings, but can only build slums next to high-rise buildings.
For these poor people, India's constitution also guarantees their right to live, according to which Indian citizens have the right to move and choose where to live, and once they have settled on their residence, they can participate in local political voting.
There is an interesting saying that if you successfully live in a vacant land for a period of time, and there is no owner to drive you away, you will not be able to drive you away in the future, which is more in line with Rousseau's contract theory.
Therefore, in the future, many rich areas of the mansion and garden will be erected with the sign of "private property", that is, afraid that someone will come to set up a tent and end up encroaching on the land.
Millions of people in Mumbai's slums have acquired property rights, and India cannot carry out forced evictions, and the slum residents are all nail households, and if the Mumbai government has relevant demolitions, it can immediately cause riots and demonstrations.
Slums are long-term and stable existences, and over time, there will be opinion leaders in the slums, and if a politician offends the "slum owner", he is very likely to lose a large number of political votes.
For these slum dwellers, they can't get a generous compensation during the demolition process, it's impossible to move, and Mumbai's housing prices are so high that few developers are willing to touch this hot potato.
In India, real estate developers cannot be called nouveau riche in the true sense, but the residents at the bottom have become the beneficiaries of land appreciation.
With the economic development, the slums are also quietly changing, even if there is still chaos, there will still be new blood inflow, such as some middle class will rent in slums to save money, and some slum "indigenous people" will renovate their houses after economic conditions improve.
Taking into account the social impact, the government has also built public facilities such as hospitals and schools in the slums.
It is strange that some people in the slums are willing to stay in the slums even if they can afford an apartment, and they still feel a sense of pride in their house.
Once you choose to buy a house with a mortgage, you will be called a "house slave", but as long as you choose to live in a slum, you can be willing to be a "homeowner", even if it is very simple, but these houses are in the prime area of the city, even the government army can not take it away.
The pain of urbanization in India
In the eyes of many poor people, slums are a "paradise", but due to the mixed causes, some vicious incidents often occur here, constantly reducing people's favorability of slums.
A few years ago, large-scale riots and protests broke out in major cities such as New Delhi and Kolkata after a girl was brutally ravaged on a black bus, which quickly set off huge waves across India, and the public widely believed that the government did not act and the punishment of criminals was not strong.
This incident is a microcosm of India's urbanization process and has also brought a great test to the governance of the Indian government.
Since India does not have a household registration management system, anyone can theoretically move from anywhere to other places, so cities are bound to sprawl.
The large influx of rural people, the first thing that needs to be solved is the housing problem, but the government basically has no corresponding policies to deal with this matter, outsiders must find their own way out, so it has become a reality for many people to find a place to build a place to live at will.
Such groups are huge, and they pose a great obstacle to India's transformation of cities, and even turn into serious political problems.
The Indian government does not have special funds to build resettlement houses, and it cannot directly evict such a large number of people, as long as the early policy of slums is more relaxed, then India's slums will inevitably become an unsolvable social problem in the future.
An exaggerated fact is that one-fifth of the population of slums in large cities, and the cosmopolitan metropolis of Mumbai far exceeds that proportion.
Social services and security in slums are extremely poor, crime rates are much higher than average, slum people are often confused or even lose hope in real life, and their emotions are generally depressed.
When a vicious event occurs, large numbers of people protest against government inaction and believe that the law is too lax, essentially worrying about whether they may experience something similar.
According to the existing laws in India, it is difficult for a rapist to be sentenced to death, usually in general disposition, and the public naturally cannot accept this result.
The chaos in the slums is far beyond imagination, but it is difficult for ordinary people to notice these problems, and the people in them have long been accustomed to the "law of the jungle".
This is a typical "third world", they obviously live in the same city, but they live diametrically opposed lives with people outside the cave, such as robbery, money fraud, drug trading and other incidents often occur here, and some criminal groups continue to expand, and many non-governmental organizations similar to criminal and evil forces will be formed.
These people can call for wind and rain in the slums, and even directly collude with officials outside the slums and make huge profits from them, and many "cave owners" who are reluctant to move out of the slums are actually driven by interests.
Most of the people in the slums have income, some have more than one, and it is also known as a concentration of cheap labor, and in a small space, various factories often appear, textile industry, waste recycling industry, etc. are all slum support industries.
Due to the low cost of labor, the products produced and processed here can often be exported to all over the world, which is also a dividend for labor.
Naked children and stray dogs can often be seen in harsh environments, and in the worst slums, some women can only wash their clothes in a stagnant pool; If you need domestic water, you have to walk to the market to buy water.
The hardship of life is very easy to form the status quo of "group heating", which is also a major reason why India's slum problem is difficult to solve.
When you think about it, it's easy to understand: people outside the slums look down on the slums, children here face discrimination when they go to school, and this discrimination carries over to work, and if they don't come together in the face of so many inequalities, their world will always be full of despair.
After all, from the entire slum population base, only a very small number of people can really get decent.
Slum formation is a long process, and it is difficult to find an exact point in time when it can begin, and in 1956, the Indian government had already noticed the problem of slums and came up with the Slum Areas Act, which at that time defined slums as improper arrangement, lack of ventilation and electricity, sanitation and safety facilities.
The Government initially hoped to channel the poor in a gentle way, and also provided loan support to state governments to improve the urban poor as a well-being.
However, because the early planning was not very clear, more and more difficulties were encountered in the process of remediation in the later stage, until the "urban disaster" could not be repaired at all, but went to the other extreme: because of the good improvement effect of a few slums, more rural poor people came to admire, hoping to catch up with the torrent of urbanization, and as a result, more and more new slums were created.
Over time, the slums and the city are completely integrated, because the industries involved in the migrant workers here can be described as multifaceted, and if the slums disappear quickly overnight, then many large cities will be difficult to function.
There is also a dynamism inside the slums, and small workshops in grey areas often appear.
At the end of 2022, Gautam Adani, chairman of India's Adani Group, decided to sign a contract with the government to upgrade the slums of Dharavi for a whopping $613 million, the richest man in India who enjoys high prestige in India.
His slogan is also appealing: Residents who built slums in Dharavi before 2000 and those who moved in before 2011 can move into new high-rise housing free of charge once their capital is approved.
However, this does not satisfy every slum dweller.
Many residents are used to living in the slums, and one resident named Lakshmicant Patil said: "No one tells us where we can move in the future, and once it is demolished, the future is ethereal for us." ”
According to local media outlet The Quint, the government proposed tenders for renovation projects in Dharavi slums in 2007, 2009, 2016 and 2018, and more and more institutions are reluctant to participate again because there are so many uncertainties in the renovation work.
For slum dwellers, who already have their own systems, moving means "restarting their lives."
And India has an even more difficult problem to solve: religion.
Slum people have different religious beliefs, and during the demolition and renovation process, any inconsistency between people's religious beliefs can cause widespread discontent.
It is actually difficult for developers to clearly propose specific plans before renovation, including where everyone can move, what criteria are allocated according to them, and how qualifications are reviewed, all of which are related to the vital interests of residents here.
While everyone reports for heating, it is easy to form a hatred of the rich, thinking that the developer only wants to make money, and also wants to drive out all the residents here as soon as possible.
Aware of the importance of slums to political votes, the opposition leader said: "This is the biggest scam in Mumbai so far, and those poor living in Dharavi will face homelessness, they are destined to become cannon fodder for the skyscrapers of the rich." ”
Reporters from the Global Times have also interviewed residents here, and many of them said: "We are all skeptical that we will eventually move to a place that is not as good as it is now." ”
reference
The richest man offered $600 million, but the residents did not buy it, where is the difficulty in renovating India's largest slum? Global Network
India's richest man supports upgrading India's largest slum with mixed responses
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Author: Li Li
EDIT: As it is