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It might be difficult to believe but there were less numbers of slums in urban India in 2012 than three years earlier. The number came down by 32.3 per cent to 33,150 in urban parts in 2012, compared with 49,000 in 2009, official data issued on Tuesday show. However, at least 12 per cent of the urban population still lived in slums in 2012.
The figures are based on the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) report (69th) covering the period between July and December 2012. It was done in 3,832 urban blocks, spread over all states and Union Territories. At the all-India level, 881 slums were surveyed in urban blocks.
The previous survey was based on the 65th round of NSSO, covering July 2008 to June 2009.
Shaibal Gupta, member-secretary of the Asian Development Research Institute in Patna, said such a substantial fall seemed doubtful. However, given the fact that it is issued by NSSO, one cannot simply rubbish it, he said.
A possible reason for the decline could be that urban India is now a powerful constituency, unlike 30-35 years before. Hence, there is much effort to reduce such areas, he said.
When asked, NSSO officials said the numbers were a fact. Its official statement said at an all-India level, 24 per cent of slums had benefited from welfare schemes such as the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission,Rajiv Awas Yojana and others from state and local governments.
Slums, according to the NSSO definition, are identified by the presence of certain undesirable living conditions — overcrowding, lack of hygiene and sanitation, inadequacy of drinking water and poor construction are some.
“Any compact settlement with a collection of poorly built tenements, mostly of a temporary nature, crowded together, usually with inadequate sanitary and drinking water facilities in unhygienic conditions, provided at least 20 households lived there, was considered a slum for the survey,” it said.
About 41 per cent of these slums were notified and 59 per cent weren’t. The former category refers to slums recognised by the municipalities or development authorities concerned. Those not notified were also covered in the survey. All-India, 44 per cent of slums — 48 per cent of the notified ones and 41 per cent of non-notified slums — were located on private land.
Maharashtra, with an estimated 7,723 slums, accounted for 23 per cent of all slums in urban India, followed by Andhra Pradesh, with 13.5 per cent, and West Bengal with 12 per cent. Of the 19,749 non-notified slums estimated in urban India, Maharashtra had 29 per cent, West Bengal 14 per cent and Gujarat 10 per cent. Of the 13,761 notified slums, Andhra had 23 per cent, Maharashtra 14 per cent and Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu about nine per cent each.
The report says an estimated 8.8 million households lived in urban slums. Considering a household to be of five members, almost 44 million lived in slums in urban areas. This is 11.7 per cent of India’s total urban population of 377 mn. The percentage could be actually more, since many households would have more persons.
About 5.6 mn households were in notified and 3.2 mn in non-notified slums. The notified slums formed 41 per cent of all slums but housed 63 per cent of all slum-dwelling households.
The phenomenon of absence of electricity appeared largely confined to non-notified slums. All-India, only 6.5 per cent of all slums had no electricity —the corresponding figures being 11 per cent for non-notified slums but only 0.1 per cent for notified ones.
In about 60 per cent of all slums, the majority of houses had ‘pucca’ structures. The proportion of such slums was 85 per cent among notified ones but only 42 per cent of non-notified ones. All-India, 71 per cent of all slums had taps as the major source of drinking water, the figure being 82 per cent for notified ones and 64 per cent for non-notified slums.
