Mumbai is a megacity and a World city, it has grown
enormously since the 1950’s and gives a great case study of urbanization and
its issues within an LEDC. This case
study will explore how urbanization, suburbanization, counter urbanization and
now re-urbanisation processes have occurred in the Mumbai region and how those
processes have been managed.
Mumbai is located on a peninsular on the Western coast of
Maharashtra state in western India, bordering the Arabian Sea. Bombay is a thriving megacity that has had
an economic boom in recent years. It is home to Bollywood and the film
"Slumdog Millionaire" was based there. Indeed, property in Mumbai is
becoming some of the most expensive in the world. One 28 story structure for
one family cost £2 billion. However, many of the residents of Mumbai live in
illegal squatter settlements. Despite the poor conditions in the slum Prince
Charles thinks that the people of Dharavi "may be poorer in material
wealth but are richer socially".
Indeed, in terms of population size Mumbai is India's
largest city, and is the financial capital of the country, being home to the
Mumbai Stock Exchange. Up until the 1980s, Mumbai owed its wealth to its
historical colonial past, textile mills and the seaport, but the local economy
has since been diversified and now Mumbai is home to most of India's
specialised technical industries, having a modern industrial infrastructure and
vast, skilled human resources. Industries include aerospace, optical
engineering, medical research, computers and electronic equipment of all
varieties, shipbuilding and salvaging, and renewable energy. Mumbai serves as
an important economic hub of India, contributing 10% of all factory employment
and 40% of India's foreign trade. Many of India's numerous Trans National
Corporations (including the State Bank of India, Tata Group, Godrej and
Reliance) are based in Mumbai. Other formalized workers include many state and
government workers.
Alongside this incredible wealth is a large, unskilled
and informal workforce, who work as self-employed and often unregulated
workers. Many of these people earn their living as street hawkers, street
sellers, taxi drivers, mechanics and other such occupations.
Bollywood and other Media Industries also employ huge
numbers of people. Most of India's major television and satellite networks, as
well as its major publishing houses, have headquarters here. The centre of the
Hindi movie industry, Bollywood, produces the largest number of films per year
in the world.
Urbanisation
and its impacts
Mumbai has urbanised over the past 60 years and urbanized
rapidly from its origins as a fishing village.
The site of the fishing village soon became a port region as the site
favoured development. Protected from the
Arabian Sea by a peninsular art the southern end of Salsette Island, it had
access to sea on two sides and the British colonial administration in India
developed the sheltered inlet into a major port. The British viewed the port and surroundings
as the ”Gateway to India”. This made it
the closest port of entry to subcontinent for travellers from Europe, through
the Suez Canal. As with many major
global ports area around the port became industrialised – processing goods for
export and handling imports.
The city grew during British rule as variety of services
grew up around the port and continued to grow after British left in 1947. Since 1971, the graph shows the inexorable
rise in the population of Mumbai, from 8 million in 1971 to 21 million now. The other significant factor to note is that
slum dwellers make up an ever increasing proportion of the population, creating
numerous problems for people and planners.
It should be noted that the original urbanisation phase of Mumbai
focussed upon the southern tip of Salsette Island, and outside of this the city
suburbanised in a Northern direction.
The causes of urbanisation are multiple, but involve a
high level of natural increase within Mumbai itself and in-migration
principally from the surrounding district of Maharashtra but also from
neighbouring states. Mumbai booming economy means that migrants come for job
opportunities in the expanding industries, financial institutions and
administration.
Mumbai has grown in a Northern direction limited by
physical geography as shown in the image below. It is limited in where it can
grow with creek systems to the North and East, the Arabian Sea to the West and
its harbour to the south East. Mangrove
swamps further complicate the picture, and these marginal lands often form the
location for the poorest people who live illegally in slums.
One such slum is Dharavi, in the heart of Mumbai.
Watch both video clips
The following notes are based upon Kevin McCloud's
"Slumming it." And show the consequences of rapid urbanisation in
poorer countries, where the pace of urbanisation make it difficult to maintain
services essential for an acceptable standard of living.
Dharavi slum is located in Mumbai (formally Bombay) in
India. India’s and Mumbai's biggest slum is known as Dharavi. There are a
million people crammed into one square mile in Dharavi. At the edge of Dharavi
the newest arrivals come to make their homes on waste land next to water pipes
in slum areas. They set up home illegally amongst waste on land that is not
suitable for habitation. In the wet monsoon season these people have huge
problems living on this low lying marginal land. Many of the people here come
from many parts of India as a result of the push and pull factors of migration.
Conditions
in the slum
In the slum people have to live with many problems.
People have to go to the toilet in the street and there are open sewers. Children play amongst sewage waste and
doctors deal with 4,000 cases a day of diphtheria and typhoid. Next to the open
sewers are water pipes, which can crack and take in sewage. Dharavi slum is
based around this water pipe built on an old rubbish tip. The people have not
planned this settlement and have no legal rights to the land. There are also
toxic wastes in the slum including hugely dangerous heavy metals. Dharavi is
made up of 12 different neighbourhoods and there are no maps or road signs. The
further you walk into Dharavi from the edge the more permanent and solid the
structures become. People live in very small dwellings (e.g. 12X12ft), often
with many members of their extended families.
Many architects and planners claim this slum could hold
the solution to many of the problems of the world’s largest cities.
Water is a big problem for Mumbai's population;
standpipes come on at 5:30am for 2 hours as water is rationed. These standpipes
are shared between many people. Rubbish is everywhere and most areas lack
sanitation and excrement and rats are found on the street. 500 people share one
public latrine.
The famous cloth washing area also has problems, despite
its social nature sewage water filters into the water used for washing clothes.
The
Positives of Dharavi Slum
There are positives; informal shopping areas exist where
it is possible to buy anything you might need. There are also mosques catering
for people's religious needs.
There is a pottery area of Dharavi slum which has a
community centre. It was established by potters from Gujarat 70 years ago and
has grown into a settlement of over 10,000 people. It has a village feel
despite its high population density and has a central social square.
Family life dominates, and there can be as many as 5
people per room. The houses often have no windows, asbestos roofs (which are
dangerous if broken) and no planning to fit fire regulations. Rooms within
houses have multiple functions, including living, working and sleeping.
Many daily chores are done in social spheres because
people live close to one another. This helps to generate a sense of community.
The buildings in this part of the slum are all of different heights and
colours, adding interest and diversity. This is despite the enormous
environmental problems with air and land pollution.
85% of people have a job in the slum and work LOCALLY,
and some have even managed to become millionaires.
Recycling
and waste in Dharavi
Kevin McCloud found that people seemed genuinely happy in
the slum. However, toilets are open holes above a river – hardly hygienic. This
could lead to Dengue fever, cholera and hepatitis
Dharavi has a recycling zone. It is claimed that
Dharavi’s recycling zone could be the way forward to a sustainable future.
Everything is recycled from cosmetics and plastics to computer keyboards. 23%
of plastic waste gets recycled in the UK, in Mumbai it is 80%. However, it is
humans who work to sift the rubbish in the tips where children and women sift
through the rubbish for valuable waste. They have to work under the hot sun in
appalling conditions. They earn around a £1 a day for their work.
At the edge of the tip the rag dealers sort their haul
before selling it on to dealers. The quandary is that people have to work in
poor conditions to recycle waste. From the tip it arrives in Dharavi where it
is processed. It is sorted into wire, electrical products, and plastics.
Plastics in India are continuously recycled. People work in dangerous
conditions with toxic substances without protective clothing; this could affect
people’s life expectancy. Even dangerous hospital waste is recycled.
One private enterprise makes the metal cages inside
suitcases, making 700 pieces per day, paid 3 rupees per piece. There are 15,000
one room factories in Dharavi which there are 300 feeding most of Mumbai. Many
of the products from Dharavi end up around the world based upon very cheap
labour. Many of the people work in very poor working conditions, and includes
children. Indeed, Dharavi is trying to do in 20 years what the west did in 200,
develop.
Managing
and improving Squatter settlements
Large scale redevelopment
A $2billion development project threatens the recycling
district and part of Dharavi. The land upon which Dharavi is built is next to
Mumbai’s financial district. This makes it a prime target for redevelopment.
The people who are relocated will be put into smaller housing in apartment
blocks. An ancient fishing village is also threatened. These areas have strong
safe neighbourhoods that have low crime and communal areas. Also at risk are
the local shops and markets and the community spirit which has taken
generations to develop. The locals would prefer small improvements to the
existing slum such as improvements in drainage. The value of land is so high
that redevelopment is now a real threat. The alternative accommodation is very
small.
The slum dwellers face 14 story apartments as
accommodation as proposed by the cities Slum Rehabilitation Authority. This
will separate communities and make people work away from where they live. Only
people who have lived in the slum since 2000 will be relocated. Current
redevelopment projects are densely populated and house lots of people. They are
not good for community cohesion.
Local
Based Improvements
There is an alternative to large scale redevelopment and
that is to allow LOCAL people design the improvements to the slum.
The Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centres,
better known as SPARC, this is an NGO that supports the efforts of local people
to get better housing for their many members. Ideas generated from local people
supported by this charity include adding an extra floor to buildings so that
all family members can be accommodated in the same building. These flats also
had 14-foot high ceilings and a single tall window so are well ventilated,
bright, and less dependent on electric fans for cooling. Their loft spaces add
extra room without seeming crowded, and include small spaces for bathing. But
toilets are placed at the end of each of the building’s four floors, and kept
clean by the two or three families who use each one. These ideas only work when
water is running in Dharavi.
Architecture students have also been hard at work. One
student has created a multi-storey building with wide outer corridors connected
by ramps “space ways in the sky,” to replicate the street. These space ways
allow various activities to be linked, such as garment workshops, while
maintaining a secluded living space on another. Communal open space on various
levels allows women to preserve an afternoon tradition, getting together to do
embroidering.
One student also tried to help the potters of Dharavi. He
designed into existing houses the living space at one end and a place to make
the pots at the other. Each has an additional open terrace on which to make
pots, which are fired in a community kiln.
As the National Slum Dwellers Federation has repeatedly
proven, housing the poor works best, costs less and is better for the
environment, when the poor themselves have a say in what is being built.
Dharavi could also follow the Brazilian model, as
evidenced in Rocinha in Rio de Janeiro. Within the Favelas the government has
assisted people in improving their homes. Breeze blocks and other materials
(pipes for plumbing etc) were given as long as people updated their homes. This is an approach known as SITE and
SERVICE.
The Brazilian government also moved a lot of people out
of shanty towns and into low cost, basic housing estates with plumbing,
electricity and transport links. The waiting list for these properties was
huge.
Suburbanisation in Mumbai
Mumbai now has a long history of suburbanisation, and
many key events have occurred in the suburbanisation process, initially in a
Northwards direction along major transport routes such as roads and rail links,
and now in an Eastward direction. This
suburbanisation has involved not just the growth of residential areas but also
the relocation and growth of new industrial areas.
1930s to 1940s The
rise of Shivaji Park area, Matunga and Mahim as the outlying suburbs
1960s (post independence) Inner suburbs in southern
Salsette and Chembur-Trombay had emerged
1970s Assimilation
of the `extended suburbs' beyond Vile-Parle and Ghatkopar.
As with other major cities, other towns and villages have
been swallowed up by Mumbai in the process of suburbanisation. In the last
decade, Thane, Vashi and Belapur have become extended suburbs despite being
planned as individual towns. All of these developments are summarised in the
map below.
The northwards movement along rail and road corridors
comes first. Next, the areas around
these communication links are developed.
Third, these areas extend outwards and can involve reclaiming land next
to creeks and mangrove, and slopes in the hills of Salsette can be colonised
too. The major railway stations have areas around them that have become
shopping fronts. The reclaimed areas house the wealthier middle and upper
classes, but poorer people will build huts in and amongst these areas and full
shanties can grow on the poorest quality land.
This suburbanisation has had consequences;
1. People are
economically stratified into those that can afford better housing and those
that cannot, rather than historical caste, religious or linguistic
stratifications
2. Less than a
third of the population of Mumbai lives in the `island' city.
3. The centre
of density of population has shifted from the island city well into suburban
Salsette.
4. The commuter
traffic has changed. Rather than being
just one way into the Central Business District (CBD) in the south of the city
in the mornings there is an increasing movement of people in the opposite
direction. Increasing industrialisation of the suburbs is increasing this
movement.
For details on these changes.
http://www.newgeography.com/content/002172-the-evolving-urban-form-mumbai
For details on these changes.
http://www.newgeography.com/content/002172-the-evolving-urban-form-mumbai
Counterurbanisation in Mumbai
The map below shows that some of the population of Mumbai
is also counterurbanising, with a decline in population over a 20 year period
within the original heart of the city in Mumbai district. The largest growth is in those districts
directly to the East of Salsette Island, and even districts 50 or more
kilometres from Mumbai are growing. One
such phenomenon fuelling this growth is that of planned towns (new towns in the
UK. Navi Mumbai is a planned township
directly to the East of Mumbai and was designated in 1972. It is the largest new town in the world. The town was developed to reduce congestion
and population densities in Mumbai, which itself was restricted by its physical
geography. The new town now has a
population of 1,111,000 people, is linked to Mumbai by road and rail bridges
and an international airport. It also
has an extensive bus network, an international airport and many IT and software
firms in areas such as the International Infotech Park at Vashi and the New
Millennium City near Mahape.
Reurbanisation – changes to
Dharavi Slum
A $2billion development project threatens the recycling
district and part of Dharavi. The land upon which Dharavi is built is next to
Mumbai’s financial district. This makes it a prime target for redevelopment.
The people who are relocated will be put into smaller housing in apartment
blocks. An ancient fishing village is also threatened. These areas have strong
safe neighbourhoods that have low crime and communal areas. Also at risk are
the local shops and markets and the community spirit which has taken
generations to develop. The locals would prefer small improvements to the
existing slum such as improvements in drainage. The value of land is so high
that redevelopment is now a real threat. The alternative accommodation is very
small.
The slum dwellers face 14 story apartments as
accommodation as proposed by the cities Slum Rehabilitation Authority. This
will separate communities and make people work away from where they live. Only
people who have lived in the slum since 2000 will be relocated. Current
redevelopment projects are densely populated and house lots of people. They are
not good for community cohesion. Indeed, the planned redevelopment is part of
the Maharashtra state governments plan for Dharavi. The architect employed to put together a $2
billion bid from major developers across the world to demolish Dharavi and
build homes and amenities, Mukesh Mehta, has said ‘Dharavi is a black hole –
something we should be ashamed of. My vision would be that it would be
transformed into one of the better suburbs of Mumbai.’
The residents do not want this redevelopment, Arputham Jockin grew up in Mumbai's slums and
now represents the slum dwellers in their fight against the government's plans.
‘Selling this land to the global market and giving it over for commercial use -
how will that improve our lives? 90% of the people here want a stake in their
future and a say in how it is transformed. It has to work from the bottom up -
not top down.’ he says. As of 2012 no
progress had been made with the plans.
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