Sreelatha Menon: Rescuing Dharavi

EAR TO THE GROUND

The Maharashtra government has put out an advertisement for "expression of interest" for the redevelopment of Dharavi, but without consulting its 600,000 inhabitants

Inclusive development makes for good speeches, but on the ground it is tough to get there. Here is a sample of development of just the opposite kind from Dharavi, which is threatening to turn into an urban Nandigram. The Maharashtra government has put out an advertisement for "expression of interest" for the redevelopment of Dharavi, the world's largest slum sprawl. And Dharavi's most well-known slum dweller, Magsaysay awardee Jockin Arputham, has already declared war against the move. His demand: inclusive redevelopment. Develop, but in partnership with the residents of Dharavi. Any takers?

Arputham set up the first slum dwellers' federation of its kind in India in Dharavi 35 years ago and since then it has been building housing cooperatives. It has constructed 5,000 multistoried houses so far, with home loans worth Rs 50 crore from banks like ICICI, UTI, Citi Bank and NHB. The federations run savings units, maintain community toilets and engage in activities to empower the residents.

Arputham is now organising the slum dwellers against the Dharavi redevelopment plan that has kept the residents totally out of it. The intention of the government is clear, he says. The highest bidder will get 75 per cent of the 524 acres of land, while the 600,000 population would be asked to be confined to the remaining land. And such is the lack of transparency, the government has not bothered to inform the people before coming out with an advertisement for the global market, he says.

The government, instead of helping the poor, is subsidising the rich, luring bidders with floor space index of 4 in place of 2.5 in the rest of the city, he says.

Arputham says the people of Dharavi are not opposed to redevelopment and resettlement. "They just want to be consulted and involved in the plans. They have offered the private companies and government agencies a real partnership, but if this offer is ignored they will be forced to protest."

"We don't want this, but it is turning out to be like Nandigram and very much like an urban SEZ," says Arputham. Already, banks in the UK and China have agreed to keep off the project, he claims.

Plans are afoot to stop movement by air, road and rail, maybe by the end of this month, says the Tamilian who migrated to Mumbai slums from Bangalore in 1963. "We do not want to resort to this; we want a partnership in making both these development plans and other plans in Mumbai a success." He says.

Thanks to Arputham's initiatives, between 2001 and 2003, slum dwellers' federations in Mumbai worked with the state government and railway authorities to move 60,000 people whose homes were located next to the railway tracks. There was no conflict and they moved on the designated day.

Arputham and his friends in Dharavi have been pleading with the government for the past one year to hear them before it finalises its redevelopment plan. "Courts call slum dwellers pickpockets. Then so am I. But I won't allow governments to steal their rights," says Arputham.

Arputham is also taking his empowerment formula to slums in cities like Lucknow, Varanasi, Indore, Bhopal and Chennai. His gaze is also set on Delhi, the scene of some of the worst kind of evictions in recent years.

When people were dumped in far off Narela and Bawana, the government of Delhi had the audacity to give them just 120 square feet, he points out.

Clarification: In the article 'Building on dreams', which appeared on May 27 in this column, the name of PNC Menon was wrongly mentioned as PSN Menon. The error is regretted.