The Manifesto for Zero Slums in India

The Manifesto for Zero Slums in India by 2040

"It is high time to ponder on the future rights on such aspects. We are conscious of the needs of the large cities which require a large amount of migrant work force and recognition of the residential needs of such a workforce. However, this could not mean that valuable lands, either public or private, can be taken away merely because such lands for a long period are permitted to be encroached, throwing to the winds, the elementary adherence of principles of law on the right to property.", said a Mumbai High Court divisional bench in 2024, on hearing a case with respect to the encroachment of private Church land by slum-dwellers in Bandra (PTI, 2024).

This particular quote covers various aspects of the challenges facing our basti/slum-dwellers and the urban planning & regional development of our cities in general. Right from cities becoming unitary magnets for development to no proper planning for this economic development leading to informal settlements housing the poor, and from assimilation into mass-voting blocks for the political parties to the lack of property right often being a Damocles sword keeping the urban poor caught up in a poverty trap.

This Manifesto aims to provide a solution for preventing slums from coming up in the first place—not just redevelopment of existing slums or relocation/re-settlement of existing slum dwellers. This is what remains a blind spot in the Indian context, which is recognising why slums come up in the first place and addressing the root causes of those issues in the medium to long-term.

So, here goes the Manifesto for making India slum-free by 2040.

 

 

 

 

Urban Governance challenges w.r.t. slums (Harish Gupta, 2018), (Arimah, 2010),	Existing policy framework	Main area of intervention
High population and migration density in select cities (stretching the already depleted infrastructure)	Smart City and Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation	Regional Development Hubs - Smart Regions instead of just call 'Smart Cities'
Rising inequality and poverty of the urban poor, who migrate away from a depleting agriculture sector but into another maze of lack of opportunities in the urban areas	Unemployment initiatives focused on villages/rural areas with a NREGA	Urban livelihood programs - To begin with, focused on the small towns and intermediate cities - so that the big city infrastructure is not stretched anymore.
No security of tenure in informal and unorganised housing for the urban poor currently living in slums, shanties, squatter colonies etc	Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, as a subsidy for building house on one's own land (but does not address the challenge of the land-less, ownership-less majority) (Kundu, 2012)	Land management policy reforms - Making the Awas Yojana kind of subsidy schemes as a part of the larger structural "Zero Slum" challenge for the nation
The highest non-utilised land parcels in cities is found across the Indian ones (Patrick Lamson Hall, 2020)	No established policy framework to address non-use of public land	Simplifying and prioritising land-usage patterns
The lack of supporting public services and infrastructure limits the expansion of cities spatially, and leads to excessive crowding in limited vicinities of opportunities in the city (Sanganal, 2020)	Siloed interventions across various para-statal departments which address transport, water, power etc, separately	Urban infra and service delivery improvement through the right partnerships
A century-old colonial hangover trap or of the idea of cities to today's idea of patrons driving the catchment area for political parties for mass votes in cities, keep them in a constant state of paralysis	Currently heavily dependent on an informal economy of patrons who help represent and solve issues for the slum-dwellers	Addressing head-on the path dependence issues of the marginalised and the historical baggage of the development of the cities

 

 

Main area of intervention	Actions to be taken	Potential pushbacks that would need to be addressed
Regional Development Hubs – ‘Smart Regions’, instead of just call 'Smart Cities'	1) Planning of overnight shelters and dorms for those young into their migration journey / transitioning 2) India urgently needs to promote and develop new towns, small towns, and intermediate cities, along with "counter-magnet city development." (Mathur, 2024) 3) Regional development strategies were none have existed before, are now critical.	The least resistance on this, as Smart City is caught up anyway in basic infrastructure upgrades in path-dependant cities (Singh, 2023)- while the more effective route will be to do it ground-up in newer and developing towns, where the openness and feasibility of carrying out projects anew will be existent.
Urban livelihood programs - To begin with, focused on the small towns and intermediate cities - so that the big city infrastructure is not stretched anymore.	1) Skilling and apprenticeship program with the companies getting special concessions to relocate such smaller towns or intermediate cities. 2) Important need for development of "Kaarigars Community" or clubs, in which cross-learning of skills can happen. These can begin as an invited space, enabled by the state machinery and on gathering a critical velocity can become invented communities. 3) On the lines of a NREGA for villages, a NREGA for these smaller cities can do wonders in engaging workforce in the growth in the construction, real estate, public infrastructure facilities segments of newer urban areas.	The re-allocation of livelihood welfare schemes being rural and developing new urban areas will need to be done efficiently - with the narrative of a better life, better neighbourhoods, away from the concrete jungles of the city and yet much better than their village lives - this has to be done in a mission campaign mode, taking everyone along.
Land management policy reforms - Making the Awas Yojana kind of subsidy schemes as a part of the larger structural "Zero Slum" challenge for the nation	1) Indian cities have the lowest FSI/FAR of all global cities (Dhar, 2023) - leading to artificial escalation in prices of available houses, commercial establishments as the real estate players have to get the same returns from a potential 1/5th of the available constructed space - resolving this is the lowest hanging fruit for utilising best the under-developed land parcels in urban areas and cities. Also, this Manifesto suggests not to carry out the FSI increase in city-centers (which has been the clarion call of many urban economists), but to do it more beyond the city-centre, which can help the general public infrastructure and transportation connectivity also support the increase in population density which follows an FSI increase (which the heart of our cities can no longer sustain) 2) No amount of affordable or low-income housing will solve the problem of slums (Patricia Clarke Annez, 2010) as "most schemes (for low-income/affordable housing), rarely cross the realm of political rhetoric and numbers who benefit are always far too small" (Rao, 2011). So, another low hanging fruit is to send start looking at utilising un-used flats even in medium to income high areas - using the rent model to spread the density will be valuable, and "emphasising access over ownership" (Dhar, 2023) will be critical, to take the burden off housing only meaning ownership, for those living on the margins. 3) Parallel focus on public transportation and other urban infrastructure elements is mandatory - "the transportation needs of a city should address the safety and connectivity concerns of the poorest residents, which can expand the choices that people have regarding where to live and work" (Dr. Abir Bandyopadhyay, 2013)- more on that in Points below 4) Development of mixed neighbourhood is critical, to avoid spatial inequality that creates further poverty traps of ghettos with no or less access to basic amenities. Creating cluster of low to high income housing in same neighbourhoods, addressed head on the problem of public amenities standards.	Pushback from affluent neighbourhoods on the concept of "mixed neighbourhoods" (Dhar, 2023). With reduced FSI/FAR, they will also have their individual accommodation value go down, with the area in general seeing more construction and more overall value - but less value per unit of households - and the urban upper class has anyway been the least dependant on public amenities, so any improvements on that will also not be an added benefit for them. The solutions to this will not be simple – as although the ones being affected will be a smaller community, but will also be a more vocal community.
Simplifying and prioritising land-usage patterns	1) Simplifying the procedure for land use and land ownership is critical to enable shift of land-use patterns with fear, favours, rent-seeking, cost escalation and time delays beyond human comprehension. Along with this, "zoning constraints that interfere with household decisions also leads to slum formation" (Tiago Cavalcanti, 2019). hence relaxing individual household size norms is critical and the focus for any new affordable housing has to be more on the public or shared services (Patricia Clarke Annez, 2010) 2) Un-utilised govt land, most of which is not in dispute, but is held in some of the prime real estate of a city can be freed up 3) Tapping into the "Night Economy" (Dhar, 2023) of the cities and urban areas is important to ensure higher net utilisation of fixed assets around the clock - cities with a history of being safe and secure for women and vulnerable travellers can be the first ones to jump on this shift and lead by example.	Bureaucratic control and power will weaken, and we could face a pushback from them. Incentivising bureaucracy (low to medium level) to enable this transition will be critical - their growth, promotions etc can be linked back to these performances in a competitive environment (on the lines of the China poverty trap escape model (Ang, 2016)).
Urban infra and service delivery improvement through the right partnerships	1) Embracing private "social impact" (Fusaro, 2009) investment into development of infrastructure for the poorer sections of urban localities is critical to ensure that reasonable priced material as well as ladder-pricing of services can be availed of, basis need, by the urban poor - this can bring about a "dramatic increase in capital directed towards combating the growth of slums and making meaningful impact" (Fusaro, 2009) 2) An innovative area, where the urban infrastructure can be maximised at the least cost is by tapping into the Green Energy transition for such development projects - ranging across solar lights, roof rain water harvesting, aggregate waste collection mechanism in dense localities etc - "such projects (can have) local committees carry out work" (United Nations Climate Change, 2023) of such micro-development for the infrastructure of their own localities 3) Municipal institutions are to be given further teeth in piloting dynamic revenue collection models across areas for service delivery in areas of water, power, drainage, public transportation, medical and school facilities – for our cities to be able to decide themselves and invest back into their local poor living dynamics improvement.	Social impact investment will flow in if they see living standards and conditions improving basis govt. CAPEX support - more like a chicken & egg situation, where the govt. too would require champion investors to lead by example along with them. Can't all be "socialisation of risk, privatisation of reward" (Mazzucato, 2018)
Addressing head-on the path dependence issues of the marginalised and the historical baggage of development of the cities	1) Ghettoisation of marginalised to be addressed through not just legislative means but also that getting-together of civil society, citizen groups and RWA's to start breaking down these barriers of exclusion - "people living in slums often feel isolated and disconnected from the mainstream society, and they are more vulnerable to social exclusion and discrimination" (Faster Capital, 2024) 2) Utilising the already existing competitive spirit of development between political party representatives and patrons existing across slums, in giving them a more formalised and structured on-boarded role 3) The catchment area for political parties for mass votes, which leads to extensive focus on slums re-development or re-designing, and spending much of our resources in making sense of the challenges of their lives within the slums rather than thinking from a fresh perspective of how the cities and urban areas itself can be re-designed and planned in ways that the slums do not mushroom in the first place.	Political resistance against letting go of mass scale votes will be very high - and that is why it will be futile to do only this, without bringing about structural changes mentioned in the points above.

 

 

The table below has further details on the implementation dynamics of this Zero Slum Plan.

 

ANNEXURE 1 – DEEP-DIVE INTO THE IMPLEMENTATION DYNAMICS OF THE ZERO SLUM PLAN FOR INDIA 2040

Main area of intervention	Additional budget required	Potential Impact on Zero Slum vision	Political feasibility	Time frame of implementation
Regional Development Hubs - Smart Regions instead of just call 'Smart Cities'	Medium (transfer Smart City budget, into Smart Region schemes - focusing around the main slum / urbanisation clusters of the country)	High	High	Medium term 7-10 yrs
Urban livelihood programs - To begin with, focused on the small towns and intermediate cities - so that the big city infrastructure is not stretched.	Low (With small towns and nearby cities being developed, NREGA re-allocation to be done between rural & urban)	High	High	Near term 3-5yrs
Land management policy reforms - Making the Awas Yojana kind of subsidy schemes as a part of the larger structural "Zero Slum" challenge for the nation	None (transfer Awas Yojana budget into the structural change on Zero Slum Project)	Medium	Medium	Near term 3-5yrs
Simplifying and prioritising land-usage patterns	None (we free up the economy, to be tapped into and optimised by private market forces)	High	Medium	Near term 3-5yrs
Urban infra and service delivery improvement through the right partnerships	None (social impact private investment maximised + municipalities given teeth for revenue generation in the dense urban clusters)	Medium	High (Private social investments) Medium (Municipal Reforms)	Medium term 7-10 yrs
Addressing head-on the path dependence issues of the marginalised and the historical baggage of development of the cities	None (Existing informal & unorganised mechanisms to be leveraged in a formal way)	Medium	Low	Long term 15yrs

 

Bibliography

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Dhar, D. (2023). Urban Equity : Bridging the Infrastructure Deficit. In D. Dhar, India's Blind Spot : Understanding and Managing our Cities (pp. 140-150). Gurugram: Harper Collins.

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