SLUM DEMOLITIONS
Justice eludes Mumbai's homeless
Displaced by the flawed implementation of Slum Rehabilitation Authority's policy and an unholy nexus of real-estate mafia, thousands of slum-dwellers continue to fight for their basic right to shelter.
Swati Priya
reports from Mumbai.
THE NEWS IN PROPORTION
28 JANUARY 2020
Poverty : Housing
FLOODED OUT
Families in Majuli island are used to the vagaries of the Brahmaputra. But the floods this year have been particularly harsh on them.
Ratna Bharali Talukdar
reports.
VOICES FROM THE GRASSROOTS
Were we interested in a comfortable home for Medhi, or were we looking to give her just another house from
our stable of development schemes?
R Balasubramaniam
remembers a lesson he learned well.
URBAN POVERTY
Though the homeless exist in large numbers, society tries to render them invisible, says a recent study on homelessness in four Indian cities.
Arpan Tulsyan
reports on the findings.
HOMELESS IN THE CITY
I could smell Buddham Bai before I could see her. She was covered with layers of clothes once white, laced with the acrid odour of incontinence, of
old age.
Arpan Tulsyan
reports on one woman's poverty and homelessness in the capital.
VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE
How do we bring back to our streets the Indian identities they once had? The answer lies in documenting and codifying the many elements of
construction in the past, for evolving an architecture with an Indian identity, writes
Kiran Keswani.
SLUMS
A systematic, participatory effort to map and understand the need for sanitation in Sangli's slums has helped Shelter Associates bring about a change
in the mindset of civic officials and residents alike. Its director, Pratima Joshi believes this is a model that can be replicated in many other
cities.
Rasika Dhavse
reports.
SLUMS
The belief that slum dwellers convert any structure they are given into another slum is thoroughly disproved in Charkop.
There is clearly a sense of community, and each cluster feels proud to maintain the cleanliness of its surroundings, writes
Kalpana Sharma.
2005 MUMBAI FLOODS
While the sheer scale of the flooding in Mumbai last year made relief operations difficult, there was still much that the
government could have done, but failed to do. The citizens themselves, were far more resourceful and sensitive to the
plight of others, writes
Darryl D'Monte,
who served on the Concerned Citizens' Commission.
AFFORDABLE HOUSING
A traditional rural residence is almost always based on adaptations to the local environment, and is often
built with the labour of the villagers themselves without the need for external mechanised inputs.
Surekha Sule
reports on the Rural Building Centre, a NIRD initiative showcasing several such homes.
OPINION/HOUSING
"This building is dangerous. It may collapse at any time. Enter at your own risk." So goes a warning sign
at the entrance to a building in Mumbai. Buildings that crumble are an old tradition in this
city, with at least one cause being the Rent Control Act.
Dilip D'Souza
says the pernicious law must go.
Who is buying the new homes that are mushrooming in every city? What income group does this class belong to, and how does
their affluent consumption compare to the national average, or to home-buyers elsewhere in the world.
Darryl D'Monte
finds some of the answers at a session with a human geographer.
Not least because affordable rental housing in Bombay is an urban myth, the jobs we invite our fellow Indians to fill
so that we can have all those good things of a booming economy, are filled by people who have little choice but to live
in slums. And then we raze those slum homes. Cavalier, says
Dilip D'Souza.
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