The Slums of Kolkata

The Slums of Kolkata
A truth we know and a truth we don’t see:
The Past, The Present and The Future
September 2013
Shanto Baksi

The Slums of Kolkata: A truth we know and a truth we don‘t see
Shanto Baksi: September 2013 Page 2
Table of Contents
Serial Titles Page
A. List of Acronyms 05
B. The Glossary 07
C. Preface 08
D. Acknowledgements 09
1. Introduction 10
1.1 The Background 10
1.2 The Outline of the Report 12
1.3 The Slums visited for this Study 14
1.4 Study Methodology 16
2. The Past 18
2.1 The City of Kolkata 18
2.2 The Early Slums of Kolkata 18
3. The Present 20
3.1 The Kolkata Metropolitan Area 20
3.2 The Urban Poor 21
3.2.1 How much a person / family needs to earn to get-out of the
tag of ―urban poor‖?
22
3.2.2 Is it possible to get-out of the situation of being urban poor in
one lifetime / is it only the second generations which can /
may be able to drag themselves out of this situation of living
like refugees in their own country?
22

3.3 What role Education can play in bringing Changes 23
3.3.1 Children living in the slums 27
3.4 What are the main obstacles in the way of slum dweller‘s
development: their backgrounds, present social status,
livelihoods, future plans / lack of it and issues like lack civic
facilities inside the slums
29
3.4.1 Housing: viable, low cost and eco-friendly 30
3.4.2 Health: situations, habits and facilities 32
3.5 Rights: as humans and as citizens of India 33
3.6 A case study: Durbar Disha Mahila Grihasramik Samanwaya
Committee
35
3.7 Area study: Dhapa, garbage dumping ground for Kolkata 38
4. The Future 40
4.1 The population 40
4.2 The Government Efforts for the Urban Poor 40
4.3 The Future Ahead 41
4.4 The Government Support 42
4.5 The Support from Civil Society Organizations: NGOs CBOs
and Private Companies
43
4.6 Join Ventures: PPP 43
5. Appendixes 45
5.1 Appendix – 1) Definition of Slum 45
5.2 Appendix – 2) Important legal and Constitutional Provisions
in India: Childhood
46
5.3 Appendix – 3) Important Union laws Guaranteeing Rights
and Entitlement to Children
47
5.4 Appendix – 4) Map of Kolkata Metropolitan Area 48
5.5.1 Appendix – 5) Map of Kolkata Municipal Corporation
Wards
49

5.5.2 Appendix – 6) Map of Kolkata Municipal corporation
showing the percentage of distribution of Slum Population
49
6. References 50
6.1 Resources available Online 50
6.2 Resources available as Published Material 52
Table – 1 11
Table – 2 16
Table – 3 24
Table – 4 25
Table – 5 42
Table – 6 44
Image – 1 19
Image – 2 39

List of Acronyms
A. D. Anno Domini
AIE Alternative Innovative Education
BIP Bustee Improvement Programmme
BPL Below Poverty Line
BSUP Basic Services for the Urban Poor
CASS Care Awareness Support and Sustainability
CBO Community Based Organization
CDC Child Development Center
CESC Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation
CLPOA City Level Program Of Action
COSTFORD Centre of Science and Technology for Rural Development
CSR Corporate Social Responsibility
DDMGSC Durbar Disha Mahila Grihasramik Samanwaya Committee
DFYWA District Fishermen‘s Youth Welfare Association
DMSC Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee
FGD Focus Group Discussion
FCI Food Corporation of India
HDSLNSN Howrah Danesh Sheikh Lane Navadoy Seva Niketan
HUDCO The Housing and Urban Development Corporation Limited
IPC Indian Pinal Code
IPER Institute of Psychological & Education Research
JNNURM Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission
KC Koikala Chetana
KMA Kolkata Metropolitan Area
KMCP School Kolkata Municipal Corporation Primary School
KMDA Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority
KSUP Kolkata Urban Services for the Poor

NFHR National Forum for Housing Rights
NGO Non-Government Organization
PPP Public and Private Partnership
PRAYAS Progressive Rural Active Youth‘s Action for Society
RAY Rajiv Awas Yojana
SEED Society for Socio-Economic and Ecological Development
UWK United Way of Kolkata
VAMBAY Valmiki Amebedkar Malin Basti Awas Yojana
WWW World Wide Web

The Glossary
Badli Replacement
Child Any person who‘s age is below 18 years
Crore and Lakh A) 1 Crore = 100 Lakh = 10 million,
B) 1 million = 10 Lakh: 1 Lakh is = 100 thousand,
C) 1 billion = 1000 million = 100 Crore,
D)1 trillion = 1000 billion = 1 Lakh Crore
Katha One Katha = approximately 720 square feet of space
Kutcha Temporary structure
Nalla Narrow Canal, sometime the word Khal also used for
describing a Canal
Pucca Permanent structure
Rickshaw Tricycle / manually pulled three-wheeled vehicle used as
passenger carrier (2 passengers and 1 cyclist/puller)
Slum These words are used to describe slums in Kolkata: Bustee /
Basti, Udbastu (Refugee) colonies, Jhupri (temporary
shelter): synonyms used in other parts of India are, Katras,
Jhuggis (Delhi), Jhopad-patties, Chawls (Maharashtra; could
also be pucca), Cheris (Chennai) and Katchi Basties
(Rajasthan)
Tali Terracotta clay roofing tiles: it‘s made just like Bricks, and
it‘s used for making / shaped semi-permanent roofs
Thika Temporary contractual labor/business agreement
Zamindars Landlords

A. Preface
The Slums of Kolkata, a very interesting proposition for study,
so many organizations have worked for so many years in the
slums of Kolkata for its development, but still there is a lot to
do, this study is also a small part of that big effort for
betterment of people living in slums, and more than anything this
study will try to raise more questions which are worth following
for answers.

B. Acknowledgements
First and foremost I must thank Mr. Mrugesh Daniel Macwan, the Secretary,
SWAMAN TRUST, Bharuch, Gujarat, India. It‘s he who first informed me about
the National Forum for Housing Rights (NFHR) meet planned at Bengaluru,
Karnataka; in September 2013; and it‘s his support and inspiration which
motivated me to prepare this report about the slums of Kolkata.
Special thanks go to Mr. Dipankar Sinha, Director General (Town Planning)
Kolkata Municipal Corporation.
I couldn‘t have done this work without the help from all my friends: who are
integral parts of my personal and professional life, just like the city of Kolkata.
They are:-
Ms. Rina Singh, Mr. Supriyo Chowdhury, Mr. Mrinal Bhattacharya, Mr.
Tarunkumar Debnath, Mr. Saikat Mukherjee, Ms. Paromita Chowdhury, Ms.
Dipmala Saha, Mr. Biswajit Modak, Mr. Renihard Fichtl, and many others
Some organizations also helped me to complete this study: -
Koikala Chetana (KC), Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee (DMSC),
Progressive Rural Active Youth‘s Action for Society (PRAYAS), Care
Awareness Support and Sustainability (CASS) and Howrah Danesh Sheikh
Lane Navadoy Seva Niketan (HDSLNSN)
Most significant support came from the SEED (Society for Socio-Economic and
Ecological Development) Registered Office: 17 / 1, Naktala Road, Kolkata – 700
047, West Bengal, India Email: - seed.naktala@gmail.com, Website: -
www.seedin.org: I work for SEED and the management of SEED and my
colleagues allowed me to conduct this study and provided all possible assistance
regarding this work.
Also last but not the least: the Internet / the WWW (World Wide Web) for
countless free downloadable resource materials1
.
1
Please Note: - it‘s a non-funded study inspired by the Slums of Kolkata. It received influences
and contributions from various people, and anyone who thinks that this document can provide
any assistance to their efforts for the underprivileged, can use it without any prior permission:
it‘s a free document in the public domain.

1. Introduction
1.1 The Background
In the year 2008 we have reached an invisible but momentous milestone: for the
first time in the story of human civilization about half of its population, 3.3 billion
people, is living in the urban areas; and by the year 2030 this is expected to be
almost 5 billion. Many of the new urbanites are and will be poor. Their future, the
future of cities in the developing countries, the future of the world itself, all depend
very much on decisions made now in preparation for this enormous growth in
population in the cities around the world2
.
This will be particularly visible in Africa and Asia where the urban population is
going to be double between 2000 and 2030: That is to say, the accumulated urban
growth of these two regions during their entire Past will be duplicated within the
span of a single generation.
Like many other developing countries India also faces the same problem of rapid
and economic compulsion driven growth of the urban population in its major cities,
such as Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Bangalore and Delhi. In
India employment options are mostly in and around these major cities and that‘s
why this leads to a situation where people from all walks of life are coming to
these big cities for work. Add to that the growth of the already residing population
of these cities.
In India the phenomenon of growth of population in the cities / urbanization is not
an option. It is an inevitable outcome of the faster rates of growth to which the
economy has now transited.
India‘s urban population will reach a figure close to 600 million by 2031: the
growth of India cannot be sustained if urbanization is not actively facilitated.
The exodus from rural areas towards the big cities in India may be presented in this
manner: table – 1.
2
The world‘s urban population grew very rapidly (from 220 million to 2.8 billion) over the 20th
century; the next few decades will see an unprecedented scale of urban growth in the developing
world.

Table – 1
The Core Issue The Process The Destination
The livelihood options are
better in the big cities and,
then there is also the
attraction of city life and,
a chance to make a
difference that pull people
towards the cities.
The migrations towards
the cities are not always
planned and in various
circumstances they cannot
be planned; migration for
better life by vulnerable
people is mostly unsafe.
The population which
comes to the big cities
need to adapt to situations
and circumstances which
are not always conducive
to decent life; hence the
emergence and existence
of slums.
Possible Reasons Consequences Possible Impacts over the
Lives of the People
Lack of sectorial / state
development plans / poor
implementation of
sanctioned rural and
urban development plans.
The development
efforts for
underprivileged
people are not
implemented properly
and consequently
people continue to
stay underdeveloped.
Note: - situations like war
and natural calamities
also contribute in people
getting displaced and
Circumstances like these
are very hard and create
destabilization /
joblessness and push
people to accept any and
every job opportunity, and
in most cases people end
up in exploitative
situations.
Unemployment or
underemployment
Working for very low
wages for very long
hours for a very long
time
When families go through
situations like these then
women and children
suffer most.
Frustration / Alcohol
addiction etc. for
men and often all the
rights of women and
girls are violated:
domestic violence
Vagabond youth3
Children do not go to
or dropout from
schools
3
The juvenile IPC-recognized crimes in 2011 have increased by 10.5% over those of 2010 as
22,740 IPC-recognized crimes by juveniles were registered during 2010 which increased to
25,125 cases in 2011. Major Juvenile crimes were under the heads of ‗Theft‘ (21.17%), Hurt
(16.3%) and Burglary (10.38%) in 2011.

coming towards the cities
in search of new
beginning in life.
Doing things / work
unwillingly
Unsafe migration
ending in trafficking
Possibility of getting
involved with crime:
in many situations it
has been seen that
people with insecure
future are easy to be
misled / pursued for
doing improper
activities.
Working as child
labor4
Girls getting married
and becoming
pregnant before 18
years of age,
consequently facing
many problems and
giving birth to
premature babies and
many children do not
live beyond 5 years
age5
.
The featured city in this report is Kolkata, the capital of the state of West Bengal,
India. The slums of Kolkata are very important part of this very unique and,
historically speaking rather new city of India. The lives in the slums of Kolkata are
as matchless as the city itself is matchless among the other big metropolitan cities
of India.
1.2 The Outline of the Report
The Past of the slums of Kolkata: the beginning why and when the slums started to
become visible and became an important part of Kolkata‘s habitat.
The Present situation of the slums of Kolkata: its nature (facilities, advantages and
disadvantages), main livelihoods of people (for the female, children and also
4
Around the world, an estimated 215 million boys and girls aged 5–17 years were engaged in
child labor in 2008, 115 million of them in hazardous work: report of International Labour
Office.
5
Worldwide in the year 2010, 7.6 million children died before their fifth birthday and there were
nearly 360,000 maternal deaths. Almost all child and maternal deaths occur in developing
countries—a fifth of under-five deaths and more than a quarter of neonatal deaths (deaths during
the first month of life, which account for two-fifths of all child deaths) occur in India alone.

for the male) and the quality of life of children living and growing up in these
slums.
The Future of these slums: what possible shape these settlements can take and
what will happen to the lives of the people living in these places: the impact of
rising rents and other costs of living in the urban areas and, that of the coming
social transformation of the ever changing Indian society.
The report is planned as a qualitative study only to inspire a bigger study / studies
in the near future for better understanding of the life in the slums of Kolkata: under
the following areas of human development: -
Livelihoods + Housing
Growth + Health and Education and,
Rights + Empowerment
This report is not at all about how much is done by whom and, what is the actual
situation of the slums regarding caste, class, religion and ethnicity related problems
and divides. This study will try to take an unbiased snapshot of the life in the slums
of Kolkata today, to know as a citizen of India, which rights are being violated in
our slums, so that plans can be made about a better future for the people living in
these areas.
This study will try to find answers to some key questions, from two perspectives:
from the point of view of people living in the slums, and from the point of view of
people who are not living in the slums: -
Who are the urban poor?
1. How much a person / family needs to earn to get-out of the tag of ―urban
poor‖?
2. Is it possible to get-out of the situation of being urban poor in one
lifetime / is it only the second generations which can / may be able to
drag themselves out of this situation of living like refugees in their own
country?

What role education can play in bring changes
1. Children living in the slums
What is the main obstacle in the way of slum dweller‘s development: their
backgrounds, present social status, livelihoods, future plans / lack of it and
issues like lack civic facilities inside the slums
1. Housing: viable, low cost and eco-friendly
2. Health: situations, habits and facilities
Rights: as humans and as citizens of India
1.3 The Slums visited for this Study
As per the report published by the Census of India on March 31, 2011, the state of
West Bengal has got a total population of 91, 347, 736, and it‘s approximately 7.55
% of the country's total population6
. It is the fourth most populous state in India,
with a population density of 1029 persons per square kilometer. In the cities the
density is higher. Around 8000 persons live within a square kilometer in the
Kolkata Metropolitan Area.
The population pressure in the state inevitably puts more pressure on its basic
infrastructure. The extremely high population density obviously affects per capita
resource availability.
The slums are one of the first places to get the feel of lack of facilities. Pressure of
population and high price rise make the lives of people in the slums of Kolkata
very difficult. There are approximately 7,000 notified and un-notified slums in and
around Kolkata.
The slums can be divided into 2 board groups, given below: -
The pre-independence (1690-1947) unplanned development of settlements to
provide accommodation to the migrant labor force which arrived from
6
The population of India according to the Census of 2011 is 1,210,193,422, and 7.55% of that is
91,369,603.36.

different parts of West Bengal and India: to serve the new class of rich
people (traders turned Zamindars) or, to work in the new industries.
The planned and unplanned settlements to provide place to post-
independence (1947- ) forced migration of people towards Kolkata, for
various reasons: refugees from caste and gender based oppression,
communal riots, India-Pakistan partition, war in neighboring countries 7
, and
lack of planned growth in other parts of West Bengal, eastern India and, in
the neighboring countries.
Another general statement which can be made about the slums of Kolkata is this:
most of the slums that are inside the city are notified / recognized settlements and
majority of the slums that are un-notified / unrecognized settlements can be found
in-and-around Kolkata / in the suburban areas.
These areas / slums have been selected for the present study on the basis of a
single criterion: wherever an individual / organization has offered help to willingly
support and participate in this study without any payment, since it‘s a non-funded
project, there only voluntary assistance has been used to conduct this study. The
names of slums that were visited for this study are: -
The areas inside Kolkata: -
1. Bidhan Palli, near Dum-Dum Railway Station: courtesy DMSC
2. Dhapa, the garbage dumping ground of Kolkata: courtesy SEED
3. Ghashbagan, Tiljala and Darapara, Park Circus area, Municipal ward 67:
courtesy Mr. Supriyo Chowdhury
4. Basti number 10, close to Ajanta Housing Quarters, Behala, Municipal
ward 132: courtesy CASS
7
The archetypical example of forced migration is that of the refugee, who, according to the UN
Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (1951), must be outside his or her country of
nationality and unable or unwilling to return due to a well-founded fear of persecution for any
one of the following five reasons: race, religion, nationality, membership of a social group, or
political opinion. It is this definition that has been endorsed by 135 UN member states and that
guides the work of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

5. Slum at Mayurvanj Road, close to G.C.G. Polytechnic College,
Municipal ward 78: courtesy Ms. Dipmala Saha
In other parts of West Bengal: -
6. Slum near 57 Bus Stand, Howrah: courtesy PRAYAS
7. Baxara (Khalerdhar / by the side of Canal) close to the Botanical Graden,
Howrah: courtesy HDSLNSN
8. Slum close to Tarakeshwar Railway Station, Hooghly: courtesy KC
9. Chaigada (Ashes dump) close to FCI (Food Corporation of India)
warehouse / CESC (Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation) Power Plant,
Budge-Budge, South 24 Parganas: courtesy Ms. Rina Singh
1.4 Study Methodology
The intervention logic used for this study is given below, in table – 2.
Table – 2
The Key Questions
Analysis of
Conclusions: On the
basis of 3 sources, the
listing of common and
uncommon answers /
feedbacks about the
key questions
Data / Information assembled
during the Study
Interviews
FGDs
Facility mapping
Information from the Government
about development efforts for the
urban poor
Interventions by other agencies
(beside the Government) about
development of urban poor

The study has been conducted in participatory manner with volunteer contributions
from various involved and concerned people and organizations, and information
about slums and people living in the slums has been collected through these
methods: -
Facility mapping in-and-around the slums
One-to-one interactions and FGDs to know about the life in the slums: their
past, present and future
Information about Government efforts for the Urban Poor
Study of other reports made about slums of Kolkata and about those in the
other parts of the world
The sample size of the survey: visit to 9 areas / slums (making a kind of CV of the
slums) and interview with 30 people living in the slums.

2. The Past
2.1 The City of Kolkata
Kolkata is a kind of unique / freak city; this city was nowhere in Indian Past until
the English East India Company (British) came to India and, then suddenly within
few years it became one of the most important cities of India 8
and then within a
very short span of time it became the second most significant city of the
transcontinental British Empire. The very old traditions / heritage of India was
present in and around this city / area but never made a rigid impact over the lives
of people of this area, and that‘s why the modern western ideas / systems that came
with the British got a very good reception and breeding ground in Kolkata. Those
ideas / systems created a new class of educated people who later on took part very
pro- actively, in the freedom movement of India to free India from British rule.
The unique mix of western education and Indian traditions makes Kolkata a city
which is at the same time a part of the Indian society and also very different from
the rest of the Indian society, therefore it may not be a surprise if we find that the
hypothesis that the slums of Kolkata are also different from the slums of other
cities of India is true.
2.2 The Early Slums of Kolkata
The arrival of the British not only brought new commerce, new ideas and
knowledge; but, as the industrial revolution unfolded in England, it also brought
new technology and industrialization, with the new factories becoming the new
places for work and prosperity. The demands for labor for the new commerce and
factories became higher and, that demand increased rapidly. The people of rural
areas started to come to the city of Kolkata for work in the factories; and they got
jobs, but no place for their stay was organized by the factory owners. The new
workers in and around Kolkata started to build their own small and temporary
housing facilities: the slums of Kolkata became visible.
Life started to change around the city of Kolkata, which sprang up from three very
insignificant villages, into the most important city of India within 200 years
[roughly from 1700 to 1900]. The journey was very fast for Kolkata and her
8
Since the later part of 1400 A.D. the reference of Kolkata (Kalikata and Kalighat: a temple site
in the city) started to appear in literature, for instance, such reference can be found in Bipradas
Pipalai‘s Manasabijoy Kabya (1495 A.D.) and, in Abul Fazal‘s Ain-e-Akbari (1592 A.D.).

people. Its rapid growth created a new class of rich people and subsequently
demands for a big service sector industry.
This need could not be handled by the villagers of Sutanuti, Kolkata, and
Govindapur 9
, therefore a migration was inevitable to fill this gap / shortage of
labor The migration was not only from within Bengal; people from all parts of
India started to come to this city for fortune hunting. Not all the service sector
industry labors got the chance to stay in the houses / hotels, and other
establishments where they were employed, and that is why they also started to take
shelter in the slums. Kolkata was clearly divided into 2 parts: the White Town and
the Black Town.
Slowly but steadily the slums become an important and integral part of this city,
and now the city cannot be described without its slum population 10
.
Image – 1) Old Map Kolkata Area
9
These three villages were combined to create the city of Kolkata.
10
In the year 1772 Calcutta became the capital of British India when the first Governor-General
Warren Hastings, transferred all important offices to this city from Murshidabad. The capital of
India was moved from Calcutta to Delhi in the year 1911, with that official act Calcutta‘s
dominance as the number one city of India came to an end. In the year 2001 Calcutta was
officially renamed as 'Kolkata'.

3. The Present
3.1 The Kolkata Metropolitan Area
The city is growing very fast: the population of Kolkata Metropolitan Area11
(KMA) was projected at 17 million in 2011, 20 million in 2021 and 21.1 million in
2025. According to the 2001 census, the slum population of the Indian cities is
estimated to be 61.8 million, which is roughly 14.12 percent of the urban
population. A significant proportion of this slum population is without access to
even the most basic services. KMA is no exception to this phenomenon. The socio-
economic profile of the households in KMA undertaken in 1996 – 1997 by Kolkata
Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) revealed that about 45% of the
households lived in slum like environments.
We may go into the details of actual population
of the slums of Kolkata and, into other issues
like what is a slum and which places cannot be
called / considered as slum etc. but, that will
take us away from the real problems of people
living in the slums. This study is also not
interested about finding the social and cultural
profiles of the people that are visible among the
slum dwellers of Kolkata.
Different opinions about a particular
subject is natural in a democracy, that is
why the estimates of the % of people
living in the Indian cities is oscillating
between more than 30% and less than
50%, and same is also applicable about the estimates about the number of
people who are coming from villages to cities, which oscillate between more
than 20% and less than 30%.
11
Kolkata Metropolitan Area should not be confused with Kolkata District as Kolkata
Metropolitan Area is larger than Kolkata district or Kolkata City. Kolkata District and Kolkata
City are same. The Kolkata Metropolitan Area consists of Kolkata District along with some of
the Sub-urban areas. Kolkata Metropolitan Area (KMA) extended due North up to Kalyani
(Nadia district) and Bansberia (Hooghly district), in the South up to Budge Budge (South 24
Parganas district), due East up to Baruipur (South 24 Parganas), and in the West up to Uluberia
(Howrah district). Kolkata Metropolitan Area consists of 3 Municipal Corporations (including
Kolkata Municipal Corporation) and 38 Municipalities and 22 rural Panchayat Samities.
For example, in India, 30% of
the population now lives in
cities, and 50 cities have
population of over 1 million. An
important feature of urbanization
in India during the period of
1981-2001 was the relatively
small contribution of migration
(this definition of migration does
not include seasonal migration)
to the increase in urban
population: net migration from
rural areas is responsible for
growth of approximately 20% of
the present urban population of
India.

3.2 The Urban Poor
To describe the phenomenon called urban
poor is a very interesting task: if someone
earns around Rs. 17,000.00+ per month
(for a family of 3 persons including
herself / himself), that is Rs. 200,000.00+
per year then that person‘s income
becomes taxable ; and, that person will
not be considered a poor person.
However, if that person takes a one room
rented accommodation (with toilet and
kitchen) / flat in a non-slum area of a city,
then s/he will have to pay something between Rs. 6,000.00 and 8,000.00 per month
(excluding electricity bill and other maintenance charges). While in the slums s/he
can get a room for less than Rs. 2,000.00 per month (with electricity) with common
toilet, and most of the time they cook inside that same room. A cluster of reasons
like these makes a family stay in the slums with very poor living conditions,
though they not be, technically speaking, poor according to the manuals of the
government.
The slums are also a place where lot wealth is generated, and many slum dwellers
are living with / using lot of modern equipment for their daily life. It is not a
criticism, it‘s a statement of fact; and, they can only enjoy these facilities because
of the cheap / low-cost living conditions in the slums.
The urban poor are persons who have no property in the city: first generation
of migrant laborers / internally displaced people / refugees from other places
or countries.
The urban poor are people, who earn in-and-around Rs. 1,000 per month,
and then there are the people who are situated BPL 12
.
12
BPL (Below Poverty Line): an income of Rs 32 per day is the poverty line in India; i.e., Rs. 32
X 30 = Rs. 960.00 per month or, Rs. 32 X 365 - Rs. 11,680.00 per year. Based on the
recommendations of the Tendulkar Committee, the Planning Commission has set the poverty
line in India at Rs 965 per capita per month in the urban areas; and, Rs 781 per capita per month
in the rural areas.
Varying Definitions of the word ‛Urban’
in India: all statutory places with a
Municipality, Corporation, Cantonment
Board, or Notified Town Area
Committee; and, all places satisfying
the following three criteria
simultaneously: (i) a minimum
population of 5000; (ii) at least 75 per
cent of male working population
engaged in non-agricultural pursuits;
and (iii) a population density of at least
400 per sq. km (1000 per sq. mile).

3.2.1 How much a person / family needs to earn to get-out of the tag of “urban
poor”?
It‘s a joint consensus among the people who have contributed to this report that if a
person earns Rs. 2,500 in a month, and a family of 4 persons as a whole earns Rs.
10,000 in a month, then they should not be considered as poor people in a urban
setting, nevertheless this kind of earning cannot help you to get out of the slums
inside the city limits and build / purchase a house for yourself / family.
It‘s easier for those persons to buy property who are doing their own
businesses, for people who are working for a fixed salary it‘s very difficult
for them to save some money to buy some property for his future:
approximately 100 km. away from Kolkata you may get 1 Katha of land for
Rs. 20,000, where the roads are temporally made with bricks, and if you
move towards Kolkata for another 15 / 20 km. then the price of 1 Katha is
Rs. 80,000, here you will get roads of asphalt or concrete or macadam.
3.2.2 Is it possible to get-out of the situation of being urban poor in one
lifetime / is it only the second generations which can / may be able to drag
themselves out of this situation of living like refugees in their own country?
It‘s a majority opinion that most of the people (first generation that has come to the
city as migrant) find it very difficult to get-out of the slums in their lifetime; it‘s
the second generation which is most likely to move to a better living condition
during their lifetime.
For the second generation also it‘s true that people who are trying to make a
living by doing a business of their own has the better chance to move from a
slum to a better place of living: building entrepreneurs kind of holds the key
to the success of backward people‘s empowerment and social mobilization.
Note: - Additionally another thing was also observed that sometimes the second
generation is reluctant about hard work, which was the key for survival and
recognition for their parents, the new generation becomes more ambitious about
making it big in one life time, but fails to understand the value of hard work, and in
many situations they end-up frustrated and aimless in life, and gets involved with
anti-social activities.

3.3 What role Education can play in bringing Changes
To live is to fight for existence. A fight is part of a war, and if it‘s a war for
existence, then education is the best weapon that a person can carry with
herself/himself: the more you use it, the better it becomes. To educate a child one
needs to invest a lot of knowledge, time, energy and money, especially when that
child is young: from the age of 0-5 years and onwards.
Near the slums inside any metropolitan city of India mainly 3 types of Schools are
available: Government, Private Aided and Private Unaided (Private unaided
schools are schools that do not receive any funding from the government. They
manage their financial obligations through fee collection, donation and
endowment. Private unaided schools can be either recognized [by the government]
or unrecognized).
The unrecognized schools takes help from recognized schools regarding admitting
their students into Government recognized schools: the students of unrecognized
schools give their last exam (mostly class IV final exam) under the umbrella of a
recognized school, so that their students can get admitted in Government schools /
recognized private schools in class V.
Additionally there are NGO, CBO and Community run schools which will come
under the type called school running on the basis of an external funding from
another organization, but these schools are mostly part of projects thus they can
only run till the project is there / fund is available, and that‘s where sometimes they
fail to sustain a process of development after a great start regarding the education
of underprivileged children.
These NGO, CBO and Community run schools / CDC are very pro-active in
nature and create lot of interest among children and, they have also created
lot of mass mobilization / public awareness; they have made a very
significant contribution towards bringing out of school children back into
mainstream school system13
.
13
One such project was Sikshalaya Prakalpa, a project which is jointly implemented by City
Level Program Of Action (CLPOA) and Loreto Day School, Sealdah. The project was about
educational development of children living in slums of Kolkata, under this intervention 600
Alternative Innovative Education (AIE) centers were opened allover Kolkata and 29,000+
children receiving education and 60 NGOs working in the project.

The Government Schools: - the student teacher ratio is very high; and in some
schools there are more than 50 students per teacher: additionally the teachers are
absent from schools for various reasons (Election duty, data collection for
Government projects, administrative reasons for visiting the district headquarter,
etc.).
The Private Aided Schools: - are the new elite schools of modern Indian society,
consequently they are very expensive and for the children of elite people (some
Private Unaided Schools also comes under the criteria of elite schools).
Private Unaided Schools: - are the best deals for the urban poor, these are mostly
within their reach and also most of the time within the neighborhood.
The NGO, CBO and Community run schools are mostly working as some
kind of backup support system for the children of the people of slums:
children go to these schools mostly to complete their homework. A
comparison of fees in private unaided schools of Kolkata is given in table –
3 below.
Table – 3
The private unaided schools were
divided into three categories,
according to monthly fees
charged for providing education.
• Within the reach: less than Rs. 300 per
month
• Reasonable: between Rs. 300 to 600 per
month
• Out of the reach: more than Rs. 600 per
month
Note: - beside the monthly fees of the school there are several other expenditures
related to providing education to a child: food, dress, travel, private tuition and
educational materials are the major areas of related expenses for a poor family.
The Government Schools are much less costly, but people have the belief that,
private schools are better focused about providing education to children and, they
also think that a child coming out of a private school system is more prepared for
the job market: there is more emphasis on teaching spoken English in private

schools, than in Government schools, and the capability of speaking English do
provide an edge to a person looking for jobs in the present Indian job market.
A series of FGDs were conducted earlier this year, in the slums to know
more about people‘s 14
spending priorities for their family; and, to see where
they put education related costs in their rankings; among the participants of
FGDs18 persons were selected for this exercise 15
, and the corresponding
summery of lists of priorities is given in table – 4 below
Table – 4)
Priority – 1 Food / Health (Doctor and Medicine)
Priority – 2 Food / Education / Rent / Electricity / Health
Priority – 3 Education / Rent / Electricity / Health
Priority – 4 Festival / Garments / Travel / Gusts / Rent / Electricity / Health
Priority – 5 Repaying Loan / Festival / Garments / Travel / Rent / Electricity /
Health
Priority – 6 Cosmetics / Dress / Gusts / Education / Rent / Electricity / Travel /
Festival / Miscellaneous
Priority – 7 Sending Money / Travel / Festival / Cosmetics / Miscellaneous
Priority – 8 Cosmetics / Garments / Miscellaneous
Priority – 9 Miscellaneous
14
The men are: - Daily laborers, Drivers, Electricians, doing small odd jobs, in small businesses,
earning between Rs. 5,000 and Rs.7,000 per month; and, the women are: - Housewives, Maid
Servants, in small businesses, earning between Rs 2,000 and Rs. 4,000 per month.
15
This exercise was conducted for the Institute of Psychological & Education Research (IPER) is
selected by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) to do a situational analysis / impact
assessment of the educational services provided in a KMC Primary School located at 5/1 Dr.
Radha Kumud Mukherjee Road, Kolkata 700 019, inside ward number 68. The assignment was
undertaken in collaboration with United Way of Kolkata (UWK), in January 2013.

After the lists of priorities were made, we found that among our respondents 95%16
of the people put food on the top of their list of priorities, which is natural and
most common.
Among the lists of items of priorities maximum number of respondents mentioned
list number 9, and minimum number went for list number 6. Miscellaneous was
indicated as the last priority.
1. For 50% (9 families) of the respondents number of priorities are 7 items
2. For 39%17
(7 families) of the respondents number of priorities are 8 items
3. For 5.5% (1family) of the respondents number of priorities are 9 items
4. For 5.5% (1family) of the respondents number of priorities are 6 items
All the families spend most for food: maximum 35% of their earning, and
minimum 20% of their earning.
For education: the maximum that a family spends is 22% of their earning,
and minimum 8% of their earning
The findings show that the people are willing to pay for education of their children:
these days the backward / underprivileged people do understand the value of
education for betterment of their children.
Among the respondents, 18 in total: 8 had put education as number 2 in
their list of priorities, 7 of them had put education as number 3, and for 3
respondents education related expense are not inside top 3 priorities of their
family
The first 3 priorities take most of every family‘s income: maximum 77%
and, minimum 47%, of their total income
The future of private unaided schools is promising from a business as well as
social prospective, because it‘s the best tool which can be used for betterment of
16
17 out of 18 is 94.44%
17
7 out of 18 is 38.88%

children living in slums of Kolkata: a proper business related intervention with
organized and systematic approach about providing good quality education with
not very high price can make a lasting impact over the lives of these children and
create better citizens of Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
Additionally educated children and youth are more likely to stay away / can save
themselves from these things / situations18
listed below: -
Sexual abuse and exploitation
Early pregnancy
Alcohol and drug addiction
3.3.1 Children living in the slums
The kids are kids all over the world, and all the children are born with same
amount of intellect, equal amount of potential and similar kind of nature: poor,
rich, rural, urban everywhere it‘s potentially the same.
The children living in the slums in many cases get less opportunities for growth in
comparison with the children not living in slums (in the same city), so in many
situations the children living in the slums don‘t do well in the race of life to
become successful.
In very near future the population of the cities in India is going to be very high and
consequently the population in the slums will also rise, therefore number of
children living in the slums wills also increase 19
and, so will their need for better
support system for their development. Many children from slums don‘t get the
right opportunities regarding personal development and a big percentage of them
get lot in the following situations: -
18
It is alarming that, in 2011, the Crimes against children reported a 24% increase from the
previous year with a total of 33,098 cases of crimes against Children reported in the country
during 2011 as compared to 26,694 cases during 2010.
19
India has one of the largest proportions of population in the younger age groups in the world.
35.3% of the population of the country has been in the age group 0-14 years at the Census 2001.
41% of the population account for less than 18 years of age.

Working for the family
Not getting the chance to study: staying at home due to bad financial and
unequal social circumstances
Not completing their study: dropouts (due to migration, bad financial and
unequal social circumstances)
Early marriage: lack of awareness about child development, inequality
about the value of a girl child
In this way the society is at a loss, and the skills and abilities of these children are
not getting fully used in the process of development of the society.
In this context a table is presented as appendix and it provides a view at a glance
about the laws and acts related to child and childhood in India: appendix – 2.
The enormous number of children living in the slums is a large part of the future
population of India, and this vast human resource needs to be developed for the
betterment20
of the Indian society.
20
The Census found an increase in the number of child laborers from 11.28 million in 1991 to
12.66 million in 2001. The major occupations engaging child labor are agriculture (68.14%),
manufacturing (16.55%), trade and hotel (8.45%), commerce (3.41%), construction (1.95%),
transport (0.66%), finance (0.57%), mining and quarrying (0.25%), electricity and water
(0.02%), as of 2004-05 [resource available online, number 17]. There is considerable increase in
the absolute number of child labor between 1991 and 2001 in the states of Uttar Pradesh,
Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Bihar, West Bengal, Haryana, Uttaranchal, Himachal
Pradesh, Punjab, Nagaland, Assam, Meghalaya, and Delhi, whereas the States of Maharashtra,
Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Orissa, Gujarat and Kerala have
shown significant decline in the number of child laborers.

3.4 What is the main obstacle in the way of slum dweller’s development: their
backgrounds, present social status, livelihoods, future plans / lack of it and
issues like lack civic facilities inside the slums
The origin of slum dwellers is that they are migrants, from within the state and also
from other parts of the country21
, and additional population in the slums are the
refugees from neighboring countries, therefore they start their lives in the city
slums as people with very little rights, and they also prefer to maintain a low
profile so that the indigenous / local people don‘t get annoyed with their presence.
For survival the migrants accept all kinds of odd job / things that the local people
don‘t consider as a proper employment; it leads to situation which marks the slum
population as people who do dirty22
jobs. These people also do many other service
sector related jobs like working in shops, as industrial laborers, drivers,
electricians, plumbers, Rickshaw-pullers, and other odd jobs.
Since the ―first-class‖ citizens of a city don‘t live in the slums (who are in most
cases the people who have occupied majority of Government positions regarding
decision making especially about their own city) the development efforts regarding
the slums in most of the cases takes a back sit, and the ―development‖ related
activities around the slums mostly happen spontaneously / in unplanned manner.
At first these people live with the philosophy of earning for day and living for a
day, and no one can blame them for this mindset; it‘s kind of natural for a person /
family which is fighting for survival, and because of this in many situation all the
members of the family are engaged in earning for the family; if the children are at
home and not earning for the family then they are looking after their smaller
siblings so that both the parents can go out of the house to earn for the family.
21
Each year, millions of persons are compulsorily displaced by development projects, whether
dams, roads, reservoirs or oil, gas and mining projects. Although such projects can bring
enormous benefits to society, but they also create displacement and they also inflict cost increase
in the project areas, which are often leads to problems for the poorest and most marginalized
members.
22
Not criminal activities, but all kinds of low wage blue collar jobs: garbage collectors, janitors
(toilet cleaners), domestic worker and etc.

In these kinds of situations girls suffer more (receive less opportunities
regarding personal development: education), because they are the customary
first choice as babysitters and also as domestic helpers for their mothers23
.
To have a better future you need have a plan, and to make a plan for the future you
need a relatively peaceful present situation, and most of people in the slums are
very busy about their today: present time, therefore they find very little time to
make plans for their future and consequently their children get trapped in a cycle of
vulnerability / insecurity.
To take people out from a vulnerable situation, we need overall
improvement of basic Infrastructure: housing, health, education and
transport system, and additionally targeted interventions about specific needs
of people regarding their personal development related issues.
3.4.1 Housing: viable, low cost and eco-friendly
The living condition of slums are not at all appropriate for growth of any human
being, and therefore making good quality houses for slum dwellers is one of the
most important need of the hour.
The Government of India is planning to do a lot of activities for betterment of the
urban poor, and that includes housing development for the urban poor, but still it
will need a lot of proactive individual efforts on behalf of slums dwellers for their
betterment and by others for the slum dwellers, otherwise it is not going to be
possible only on the basis of Government efforts to improve the living conditions
of the slums. The main areas work here is: -
Reorganizing the space inside the slums
Relocating the slums in new places
Alongside Government efforts individuals have also worked for the development
of low cost housing for the poor people, and one such person was Mr. Laurie
23
The female literacy rate in India according to the Census of 2011 is 53.7% whereas the male
literacy rate is 75.3%; in rural areas female literacy rate is 46.1% and male literacy rate is 70.7%;
it‘s better in the urban areas where the female literacy rate is 72.9% and male literacy rate is
86.3%. http://www.censusindia.gov.in

Baker24
who has worked for housing development related projects in India and
created the Centre of Science and Technology for Rural Development
(COSTFORD): http://www.costford.com/.
A place is not only an area / house it‘s also related to the identity of a person and
the fear of displacement is a permanent fear in the minds of slum dwellers, and
because of this many times housing projects to resettle slum dwellers have failed in
the past owing to the thought that: if I change the place I will lose my identity.
In Andhra Pradesh for the reasons of ―development‖ many villages of
Fishworkers were shifted from the seacoast to a place which is just 20 / 25
km. inside the main land and this shifting has led to a situation where older
Fishworkers who have grown up by the shoreline watching the sea in front
of them became psychologically sick because of depression and lost their
lives – this information has been provided by the District Fishermen‘s Youth
Welfare Association (DFYWA), an organization working for rights of the
traditional Fishworkers of Gajuwaka, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.
To motivate the people living in the slums to get voluntarily relocated in safe,
affordable and culture-friendly housing sites is the basic human challenge for our
housing policy makers and slum-improvers.
24
Born in Birmingham, England, in 1917, Laurie Baker studied architecture at the Birmingham
School of Architecture from where he graduated in 1937 and became an associate member of
the, Royal Institute of British Architects. During the World War II he was an anesthetist to a
surgical team in China where he also worked on disease control and treatment. On his way back
to England he had to wait for about three months for a boat in Bombay. There he met Gandhiji
and was influenced by him. He decided that he would come back to India and work here. During
1945 - 1966, apart from his general freelance architectural practice throughout his life in India,
Baker was architect to leprosy institutions in India and 1ived and worked in a hill village in Uttar
Pradesh. In 1966, Baker moved south and worked with the tribals of Peerumede in Kerala. In
1970, he came to Trivandrum and has since been designing and constructing buildings all over
Kerala. He has served at various times as Governor of HUDCO, on the working group on
Housing of the Planning Commission, and on several expert committees at the national and state
level. He died in 2007.

3.4.2 Health: situations, habits and facilities
The slums are generally
dense-packed settlements,
there is lack of open
space, and it‘s always
over crowded 25
.
When homes are made
with no adequate space in-
between them, then it‘s
natural that condition of
hygiene is going to be the
most prominent issue of
concern, and many health
problems start from lack
of cleanliness in the
neighborhood, and as result of that the people of slums get sick more often than the
other citizens of the same town.
Many slums are by side of a broad / narrow Nalla, and it‘s the main source
of unclean atmosphere inside the slums.
For the people of slums lack of cleanliness and lack of basic civic facilities26
is
kind of obligatory evil which they have to accept as slums dwellers.
Lack of own toilet (in many slums 12 / 15 persons are using 1 toilet): in
many slums the water source is located in open place / neutral ground and
for women it become very difficult to use that area for their needs related to
bathing, washing etc.
25
Slum dwellings have high occupancy rates in all-purpose rooms. Cooking, sleeping, and living
with 13.4 people per 45 m2
room, as in the slums of Kolkata, India, places residents at risk of
respiratory infections, meningitis, and asthma. In Manila, the Philippines, children living in
squatter settlements are nine times more likely than other children to have tuberculosis.
26
Source of drinking water: from treated source 65.3%, Source of lighting: electricity: 90.5%,
Drainage connectivity for waste water outlet: closed drainage 36.9%, open drainage 44.3% and
no drainage 18.8%, Type of latrine facility: latrine within the premises 66% and no latrine within
the premises 34%. An additional information: 63.5% of the households in the slums in India
have mobile phones [Source: Housing Stock, Amenities & Assets in Slums - CENSUS 2011]
The displaced / migrant people coming from different
parts of rural India into the big Indian cities are coming
with their culture and social habits, and one of the
habits is related to health and hygiene: garbage
disposal. The slums are mostly living areas of villagers
in the cities, and they find it very difficult to control
garbage disposal inside the slum, because the way
they are accustomed about dealing with this issue in
the village is inadequate inside the slums / cities. As a
whole the knowledge about garbage disposal is very
backward / unscientific: very few people in India have
appropriate ideas about biodegradable and non-
biodegradable garbage, and even fewer have the habit
of separating biodegradable and non-biodegradable
garbage in different places / packets at the time of
garbage disposal.

Lack of safe drinking water (many families buy water costing Rs. 300 / 500
in month / spend 1 / 2 hours of time in bring water from a safe source)
Lack of cleanliness: garbage (lot of waste: biodegradable and non-
biodegradable are left here and there inside the slum)
Another issue of big concern is lack of safety: fire is the most likely threat, and
there occur countless incidents of fire related accidents in the slums all over India.
Only architecturally safe townships can eliminate this risk, otherwise fire is
going to stay as the biggest threat for the slum dwellers of India.
Government-run health-care system is available inside the metropolitan cities of
India; therefore that facility is available for the people of slums in the big cities,
but it‘s the situations inside the slums, which is the main reason of concern
regarding health related problems of slums-dwellers.
The space inside the slums / lack of it is not only the reason for creating
unhealthy atmosphere, but also in situations of firefighting it becomes the
most prominent obstacle for all kinds of aid workers, and in many cases it‘s
the biggest reason for not being able provide aid in time for people in need
inside a slum that‘s under fire.
3.5 Rights: as humans and as citizens of India
People come to cities for work and a
better life, but not everyone is ready to
face the challenges of life in the cities
and many of them end-up in the slums
as the last asylum for them.
The slums are illegal at first: by
occupying land without permission /
authorization. In the beginning slums
have evolved in vacant lands, which
were not prime property at that time, but
later on when the city starts to expand
its limits the land where the slums are
located become valuable property, and
that‘s where the story of eviction of slums becomes alive for re-acquiring the land.
Inside the heartland of Kolkata the area
of Park Circus is a place where there
are many illegal houses, and a very big
area which used to be a slum is now
turning into an area of multistoried
buildings, and many of them are illegal,
just one thing is good enough to prove
this point and that’s the space between
2 buildings, in some case it’s less than
100 centimeters. Every year
approximately 200,000 Lakh square fit
of floor space is added to the city of
Kolkata and Rs. 7,000 Crore is spent for
doing this work.

We have found that many slums are located by the side of Railway lines and
these lands are property of Indian Railways but since these places are kept
open / empty by Railways as part of standard procedure / safety measures
these places stay empty and it‘s easy to build a slum there, but it‘s always
very dangerous especially for children: only when extension of Railway
lines take place these slums are evicted.
A very new type of eviction is going on in the slums of Kolkata, at the place of a
semi-permanent house a big building is getting made and people are either getting
paid to leave the area / they are getting a very small room (8‘ x 8‘ and in many
cases without a window) at the basement. The big buildings are made very
unscientifically and they are also very unsafe in every possible way they can be,
which creates an atmosphere of very unhygienic living conditions for all the people
of that area. These are the cases of our new-look high-rise slums.
Additionally there is always the case of removing slums in the name of
―development‖ of the city; one such contemporary issue is of Nonadanga slum
eviction, and this is just another case of unimportant land becoming prime
property, and people are being displaced from their homes.
Most of migrants start their
lives in a new place as tenants,
and the same is applicable for
slums dwellers, but at the time
of eviction most of the
dialogue takes place with
minority landlords and often
the rights of tenants are
violated.
Over the years many laws are
made about regulations related
to rented places / tenants, a list
of few is given below: -
Calcutta Thika Tenancy Act of 1949
The Calcutta Slum Clearance Bill of 1957
Chhaigada a slum in Budge-Budge - South 24
Parganas, where most of the people are engaged
in these 2 occupations / trades: 1) working as
substitute workers for permanent staff of FCI,
doing their work on the basis of an illegal system
of working as Badli getting paid less than half of
official wage, and 2) stealing Coal from the
railway wagons carrying Coal for CESC Power
Plant and selling it outside: often the Coal is wet
and for selling it outside they have to burn it to
make it ready for use for domestic purposes, and
this exercise of making the Coal ready for use
leads to a very unscientific and unhealthy
situation which later becomes the main reason
for respiratory sickness / Tuberculosis for many
dwellers of this slum.

Thika Tenancy Act of 1981
The National and regional Governments have started many activities / schemes of
development for slums dwellers / urban poor, such as: -
The Bustee Improvement Programmme
(BIP) in late 1960‘s
The Kolkata Environmental Improvement
Project by KMC: to improve the slums of
Kolkata, the efforts started after formation
of Calcutta Metropolitan Development
Authority 1972
The Basic Services for the Urban Poor
(BSUP)
The Kolkata Urban Services for the Poor
(KSUP)
Nevertheless whenever the land become valuable / profitable for housing projects
inside a city the slums are going to be evicted and this process will continue for
some time to come, until and unless we start to acknowledged the slums dwellers
as equal citizens of India.
3.6 A case study: Durbar Disha Mahila Grihasramik Samanwaya Committee
Background: The issue of slum development is a subject of decision for a long
time and many efforts are been made for development of slums and the people that
are living in these places. Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee (DMSC)27
is an
organization working for the rights of Sexworkers and their children since 1995
and also for the rights of other marginalized population. One such effort supported
by DMSC is Durbar Disha Mahila Grihasramik Samanwaya Committee
(DDMGSC) organization of domestic servants / housemaids living in slums of
Kolkata, mostly in-and-around Dum-Dum Railway Station (north end of Kolkata).
The Slum: The name of the slum is Bidhan Palli and it‘s divided with number tags
like section 1, 2 … 5. About more than 40 years back (1968-69) this slum was
27
http://www.durbar.org/
The slums are also an easy
place for running
manufacturing related
ventures: due to availability of
labor force and low
infrastructural costs /
overheads, therefore slums
work as an area where low-
cost / small business can run
very easily: these ventures
don’t follow any rules
regarding safety of people that
are involved with these efforts,
thus many accidents take
place in slums.

established by displaced / migrant people who came from various parts of West
Bengal and Bangladesh (then East Pakistan), by occupying this land, which
according to slum dwellers belong to the Indian Railways, and around 7 / 8 years
back the slum dwellers got their land rights, and now they pay tax, and most of the
people have electricity connection in their homes: not everyone has a proper
connection, some have acquired electricity illegally by hooking , nevertheless still
rumors that the slum will be evicted / demolished goes around in the slum.
Rent: to rent for a room of 10‘x10‘ the rent is Rs. 1,000 / 1,200 with one
light for a month, and for additional electrical things it‘s like this, Fan Rs.
350 / 400, TV Rs. 250 and for night lamp Rs. 50 per month. Some landlords
provide sub-meters (temporary arrangement to calculate electric bill) to their
tenants and charge Rs. 10 per unit of electricity consumed.
The slum has around 250+ (under section / part number 1 are 30 houses, under
section 2 are 40 houses like that) houses and on an average each house has a
population of 18 / 20 people: 250 x 18 / 20 = 4,500 / 5,000 inhabitants. The houses
are semi-permanent (walls are made of bricks and concrete and the roof is
temporary: made of Tali). The place is by the side of a Railway Track and a Canal.
The water comes 3 times a day, for total 10 hours, but it not good for drinking, and
people buy water (10 liters for Rs. 5.00.) or some people go up to 1 / 2 km to bring
drinking water. Majority of the taps are on the road (maintaining a certain distance
between 2 taps) and it takes 1 / 2 hours every day to collect water.
Almost every house has a toilet inside the premise, but on an average 15 / 18
persons are using one toilet (more than 90% of the people have their own toilets
and less than 10% people use Government made toilets); some toilets that are
personal were made by the Government, and others are made by slum dwellers and
among them some are makeshift ones and they are not at all hygienic. Garbage is
strewn everywhere and the place is very unclean, and in rainy season water gets
logged in many parts of the slum and it stays stagnant for around 2 / 3 months in
every year.
Main livelihood of people: most of the women are domestic servants / housemaids
(members of DDMGSC) and, most of the men are Rickshaw-pullers; the others are
doing all kinds of odd jobs: many Rickshaw-pullers also do part-time odd jobs for
extra income.

The family where husband and wife both are working they can earn around
Rs. 10,000 / 12,000 per month, but most of the husbands are alcoholic and
spend a lot of their earning on alcohol: Rs. 3,000 / 4,000 per month.
Private Doctors are available and people take their help at the time of crisis, but
Government Hospital is far away from the slum (R.G. Kar Medical College and
Hospital: approximately 10 km away); there also only the treatment is for free, but
you have to buy all the medicine from outside. Main sicknesses among the people
of these slums are jaundice, various fever and diarrhea.
Most of the children of go to schools, but majority of them don‘t complete class X,
for reasons like, chance of earning easy money, lack of financial stability, negative
role models, early marriage and etc.
Durbar Disha Mahila Grihasramik Samanwaya Committee: The women of these
slums are very focused about development of their lives, and that‘s how they have
got connected with DMSC and formed their own organization DDMGSC in the
year 2011; they are fighting for getting registration as a trade union under the trade
union act of India. The women also reached to other slums which are located
nearby and have been able to make many women members of their organization, as
of now they have more than 350 members in their organization.
Activities conducted by DDMGSC for betterment of people and slum: -
Education center for 40 children
Primary health center for the entire population of the slum (this component
is now closed due to lack of funds)
Awareness program of various kinds about rights of domestic servants /
housemaids
By doing these kind of social mobilizations related activities DDMGSC has made
a very effective start about a community led movement of development for slum
dwellers.
These women hold the key to slum development in this area, and women‘s groups
like these hold the key for other slums of Kolkata and West Bengal. They need
systematic support and legal guidance, so that they can become advocates of their
rights and live with dignity as citizens of India.

Still the best method of intervention / accessing people to influence changes
in their lives is through peer model of intervention: by the people for the
people; in this regard in Mumbai, an intervention was done in which urban
slum-dweller women's groups worked to improve local perinatal health28
.
3.7 Area study: Dhapa, garbage dumping ground for Kolkata
The area of Dhapa is serving Kolkata as a dumping ground since 1981; and the
area is approximately 125 square km. It‘s also one of biggest slums around
Kolkata, and many people are living in these slums in very difficult situations.
The city of Kolkata generates approximately about of 3,500 tons of garbage on a
daily basis. Thousands of people are earning their living by transporting and
redistributing this garbage into recyclable and non-recyclable items, and for that
they are living inside this garbage dump. Another source of income for people of
this area is growing vegetable; for that recyclable garbage is used for farming of
vegetables and approximately 50% of green vegetables for the markets of Kolkata
come from Dhapa.
One of the main problems of this area is unsafe drinking water for the people,
many hand-pumps are inside / very close to the dumping area and the chance of
water is getting contaminated is very real.
The slums are as usual temporary housing facilities for the people of this area, and
these kind of housing facilities are destined to create an unclean atmosphere and
it‘s very clearly visible; this life on the garbage dumping ground is leading to
sickness and unhealthy life and lifestyle (of scavengers) and people are stacked and
locked inside a loop of, living for the garbage inside garbage.
28
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3389036/#pmed.1001257-Filippi1

Image – 2) Outline of Dhapa Area
The only possible way out for these people is a systematic approach from the
Government to upgrade the system of garbage disposal and distribution of garbage:
recyclable and non-recyclable items, and providing training to these people to
convert them into modern / scientific workers about cleaning / sanitizing, and
making Kolkata a modern Indian city. How their housing conditions, water supply
and health may be improved by them remain open questions.

4. The Future
4.1 The population
As we know that the population of India is growing29
and consequently the
population of the slums of India30
. The slums of Kolkata are also going face the
same problem of overpopulation. As predicted, by the year 2025 the population of
Kolkata / KMA will be more than 20 million , then the population of slum will be
approximately 1.4 million /1,416,00031
in Kolkata and for KMA it will 9,000,000 /
9 million people32
.
4.2 The Government Efforts for the Urban Poor
The Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM): Rationale for
the JNNURM: -
1. National Common Minimum Programme of the Government of India: The
National Common Minimum Programme attaches the highest priority to the
development and expansion of physical infrastructure. Accordingly, it is
proposed to take up a comprehensive programme of urban renewal and
expansion of social housing in towns and cities, paying attention to the needs
of slum dwellers.
2. Commitment to Achieving the Millennium Development Goals: The
Millennium Development Goals commit the international community,
including India, to an expanded vision of development as a key to sustaining
social and economic progress. As a part of its commitment to meet the
29
It‘s been predicted that by the year 2030, the towns and cities of the developing world will
make up for 80 per cent of the urban humanity.
30
The investment for urban infrastructure over the 20-year period is estimated at Rs 39.2 lakh
Crore at 2009-10 prices. Of this, Rs 17.3 lakh Crore (or 44 per cent) is accounted for by urban
roads. The backlog for this sector is very large, ranging from 50 per cent to 80 per cent across the
cities of India. Sectors delivering urban services such as water supply, sewerage, solid waste
management, and storm water drains will need Rs 8 lakh Crore (or 20 per cent). The responsible
Committee has made explicit provision of Rs 4 lakh Crore towards investment in renewal and
redevelopment including those of the slums.
31
This is been made according to the calculation used in the census of 2001.
32
According to KMDA

Millennium Development Goals, the Government of India proposes to: (i)
facilitate investments in the urban sector; and (ii) strengthen the existing
policies in order to achieve these goals.
3. Need for a Mission-led Initiative: Since cities and towns in India constitute
the second largest urban system in the world, and contribute over 50 per cent
of the country‘s GDP, they are central to economic growth. For the cities to
realise their full potential and become effective engines of growth, it is
necessary that focused attention be given to the improvement of
infrastructure33
.
The Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) was announced by Government India in year
2009-2010, which aims at promoting a slum-free India in five years and would
focus on according property rights to slum dwellers. It would provide basic
amenities such as water supply, sewerage, drainage, internal and approach roads,
street lighting and social infrastructure facilities in slums and low income
settlements adopting a 'whole city' approach. RAY also suggests ‗in situ‘
development programs with basic amenities and an enabling strategy for affordable
housing in the case of ‗tenable‘ slums.
The Government of India Ministry of Urban Development has recently
launched ―Valmiki Amebedkar Malin Basti Awas Yojana‖ (VAMBAY), which
will be operated through HUDCO (The Housing and Urban Development
Corporation Limited). The objective of the new scheme is to provide shelter and to
upgrade existing shelter for Below Poverty Line (BPL) families in urban areas.
Note: - in many issues the efforts of JNNURM, RAY, VAMBAY and BSUP are
intertwined and these schemes / programs are complementing each other to create
a better tomorrow for the urban poor and as whole and a better India for all the
Indian citizens.
4.3 The Future Ahead
The needs of development related issues of urban poor can be divided into these 3
broad categories: -
Overall development of infrastructure in the cities
33
http://jnnurm.nic.in/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/PMSpeechOverviewE.pdf

Housing
Empowerment of backward / underprivileged people
The above mention areas of development can only be achieved through public and
private joint interventions and in no other way it can be achieved for the betterment
of people in need of support regarding materialistic and psychological needs for
their development.
4.4 The Government Support
The support from Government is always going to be on large scale for overall
development of the country and as well as for a particular area / state. There will be
gaps in the efforts and it‘s natural in any large scale intervention. The civil society
organizations can help the Government in filling up gaps to have a better impact
oriented interventions. The Government‘s intentions are visible in Eleventh Five
Year Plan of India (2007 - 2012) –see: table – 5.
Table – 5
Accelerate GDP growth from 8% to 10%. Increase agricultural GDP growth rate to
4% per year.
Create 70 million new work opportunities and reduce educated unemployment to
below 5%.
Raise real wage rate of unskilled workers by 20 percent.
Reduce dropout rates of children from elementary school from 52.2% in 2003-04
to 20% by 2011-12. Increase literacy rate for persons of age 7 years or above to
85%.
Lower gender gap in literacy to 10 percentage point. Increase the percentage of
each cohort going to higher education from the present 10% to 15%.
Reduce infant mortality rate to 28 and maternal mortality ratio to 1 per 1000 live
births
Reduce Total Fertility Rate to 2.1
Provide clean drinking water for all by 2009. Reduce malnutrition among children

between 0-3 years to half its present level. Reduce anaemia among women and
girls by 50%.
Raise the sex ratio for age group 0-6 to 935 by 2011-12 and to 950 by 2016-17
Ensure that at least 33 percent of the direct and indirect beneficiaries of all
government schemes are women and girl children
Ensure all-weather road connection to all habitation with population 1000 and
above (500 in hilly and tribal areas) by 2009, and ensure coverage of all significant
habitation by 2015
Connect every village by telephone by November 2007 and provide broadband
connectivity to all villages by 2012
Increase forest and tree cover by 5 percentage points.
Attain WHO standards of air quality in all major cities by 2011-12.
Treat all urban waste water by 2011-12 to clean river waters.
Increase energy efficiency by 20 percentage points by 2016-17.
4.5 The Support from Civil Society Organizations: NGOs CBOs and Private
Companies
The assistance from NGOs, CBOs and private companies (under Corporate Social
Responsibility – CSR) can be used for targeted interventions to bring an area /
problem under focus to draw attraction of the lager society to provide a sustainable
solution of the particular problem.
4.6 Join Ventures: PPP
The areas of infrastructure and housing development related issues can only be
handled by the Government in a big country like India, but in the areas related to
human interaction the NGOs, CBOs and private companies can always help the
Government in reaching a target in a short span of time to make a better result
oriented effort for the underprivileged population of India.

For example Government Primary Schools are being used to present a model of
future PPP (public and private partnership) joint ventures: it‘s just an outline, for
implementation lot of detailing is needed: see table– 6.
Table – 6
Improvement of Government Primary Schools
Government
contributions
Building
Teachers
Educational materials (books, uniforms, etc.)
Food (midday meal)
Possible contributions
from NGOs, CBOs and
private companies
Organizing / providing additional funds for extra staff:
social worker, additional teachers
Making an effective Parents and Teachers Association
Collecting a monthly donation from parents for
betterment of the schools
Doing awareness programs inside the community
to prevent children from becoming dropout from
schools
Organizing extra-curricular activities on holidays /
Sunday: sports, drawing, singing, dance, drama
etc.
The future of human civilization is going to face a major problem of over
population in the big cities and Indian is also going to have the same problem, for
betterment of big Indian cities we need to start now, and the steps taken today are
going to play a vital role in shaping up the lives of urban poor and additionally the
coming future of India.

5. Appendixes
5.1 Appendix – 1) Definition of Slum
A slum, as defined by the United Nations agency UN-HABITAT, is a run-down
area of a city characterized by substandard housing, squalor, and lacking in tenure
security.
A Slum, for the purpose of Census 2011, has been defined as residential areas
where dwellings are unfit for human habitation for reasons of dilapidation,
overcrowding, faulty arrangements and design of such buildings, narrowness or
faulty arrangement of street, lack of ventilation, light, or sanitation facilities or any
combination of these factors which are detrimental to the safety and health.
The Slum is densely populated area of substandard housing, usually in a city,
characterized by unsanitary conditions and social disorganization.
Rapid industrialization in 19th-century Europe was accompanied by rapid
population growth and the concentration of working-class people in overcrowded,
poorly built housing [Encyclopedia Britannica].
The definition of poor involves the judgment regarding the basic human
necessities and is quantitatively expressed by pricing those basic
necessities. The prices so arrived, act as the benchmark for the poverty line
and the people whose earning fall below this line or figure, are identified as
the poor. Urban poor are also defined following the same principle. The
Planning commission estimates the proportion and number of poor based
on the projection of minimum needs and effective consumption. Such a
projection was based on a norm of 2100 calories per capita per day
consumption for an urban area (Ref.: Urban Management, A Journal of The
Institute of Local Government & Urban Studies, October 2002). The
calorie norms are expressed in monetary terms that change with time vis-à-
vis the changing consumer price index. It is important to acknowledge that
though most of the urban poor do live either in slums or squatter
settlements, all the people living in such places need not be identified as
urban poor. The populations living in slums or squatter settlements are
often heterogeneous in terms of their skills and nature of their employment
that have invariable bearing on their income, asset and housing.

5.2 Appendix – 2) Important legal and Constitutional Provisions in India:
Childhood
Article 45 of Constitution of India states - ‗the State shall endeavor to provide free
and compulsory education for all children till they complete the age of fourteen
years …‘
Different Acts under Labor Laws declare different age criteria :
The Apprentices Act (1961) ‗A person is qualified to be engaged as
an apprentice only if he is not less than
fourteen years of age ….‘
The Factories Act (1948) ‗A child below 14 years of age is not
allowed to work in any factory. An
adolescent between 15 and 18 years can
be employed in a factory only if he
obtains a certificate of fitness from an
authorized medical doctor….‘
The Child Labour Prohibition and
Regulation Act (1986)
‗Child means a person who has not
completed his fourteenth year of age.‘
Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (2006) declares ‗Child means a person who, if a
male, has not completed twenty-one years of age and, if a female, has not
completed eighteen years of age‘.
The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2000, amended in 2006,
2010 declares ‗‖juvenile‖ or ―child‖ means a person who has not completed
eighteenth year of age.‘
Indian Penal Code in its Criminal law states ‗Nothing is an offence which is done
by a child under age of 7 years. The age of criminal responsibility is raised to 12
years if the child is found to have not attained the ability to understand the nature
and consequences of his/her act.

5.3 Appendix – 3) Important Union laws Guaranteeing Rights and
Entitlement to Children
1. The Guardian and Wards Act, 1890
2. The Reformatory Schools Act, 1897
3. The prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006
4. The Apprentices Act, 1961
5. The Children (Pledging of Labour) Act, 1933
6. The Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, 1956
7. The Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Ac, 1956
8. The Immoral Traffic prevention Act, 1956
9. The Women‘s and Children‘s Institutions (Licensing) Act, 1956
10. The Young Person‘s harmful Publication‘s Act, 1956
11. The Probation of Offender‘s Act, 1958
12. Orphanages and Other Charitable Homes (Supervision and Control) Act,
1960
13. The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986
14. The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000, repealed
the Juvenile Justice Act 1986. The 2000 act also has been amended in 2006
and 2010
15. The Infant Milk Substitutes, Feeding bottles and Infant Foods (Regulation of
Production, Supply Distribution) Act, 1992 and its amendment of 2003
16. The Pre- conception & Pre-natal Diagnostic Technique (Regulation,
Prevention and Misuse) Act, 1994 and its amendment of 2002
17. The Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and
Full Participation) Act, 1995
18. The factories Act 1948
19. The Commissions for Protection of Child Rights Act, 2005

5.4 Appendix – 4) Map of Kolkata Metropolitan Area

5.5.1 Appendix – 5) Map of Kolkata Municipal Corporation Wards
5.5.2 Appendix – 6) Map of Kolkata Municipal corporation showing the
percentage of distribution of Slum Population 34
34
http://censusindia.gov.in/maps/Town_maps/Kolata_muni_slum_pop.html

6. References
Key words: - Urban Poor / Slums / Eviction / Kolkata / Migration / Development
of urban poor …
Serial 6.1 Resources available Online
1. Access to Land for Housing the Urban Poor Opportunities & Challenges
2. A Portrait of Black Town in Calcutta, 1791-1804
3. Basic Services for the Urban Poor (BSUP), Kolkata 2012
4. Children in India 2012
5. Effect of Urban Sprawl on Human Habitation in Urban Fringe and Peri-
Urban Areas in Kolkata Metropolitan Area
6. Effect of mother‘s education on child‘s nutritional status in the slums of
Nairobi
7. Eviction or Inclusion [The Politics of Resettlement in Calcutta's Squatter
Settlements]
8. Homelessness in the cities and Towns of India and Action taken by
Government
9. Homelessness: An Outcome of Structural Cruelty
10 Introducing KMA [Annual Report], 2010
11. Involuntary Resettlement Safeguards
12. India, Report on employment and unemployment survey 2011-12, Vol. I
13. India, Report on employment and unemployment survey 2011-12, Vol. II
14. India's Urban Demographic Transition, 2001-2011
15. Kolkata [Slums 1981-2001]
16. Learning about Children in Urban Slums: a Rapid Ethnographic Study in
two Urban Slums in Mombasa of community-based Child Protection
Mechanisms and their linkage with the Kenyan National Child Protection
System
17. Magnitude of Child Labour in India An Analysis
18. Maternal and neonatal health expenditure in Mumbai slums (India) A cross

sectional study
19. Mapping Calcutta
20. Migration in India, 1961-2011
21. Planet of Slums
22. Pregnant Women's and Community Health Workers' Perceptions of Root
Causes of Malnutrition Among Infants and Young Children in the Slums
of Dhaka, Bangladesh
23. Report on Indian Urban Infrastructure and Services: The High Powered
Expert Committee (HPEC) for Estimating the Investment Requirements
for Urban Infrastructure Services
24. Risks and Rights: The Causes, Consequences, and Challenges of
Development-Induced Displacement
25. Report of the Expert Group to review the Methodology for Estimation of
Poverty
26. Report on the Committee on Slum Statistics / Census
27. Regional Disparities of Slums, 2013 – An Overview with special emphasis
to Kolkata
28. Roundtable on Urban Living Environment Research (RULER)
29. Research Study on Slum Typology and Grading for Improvement Inputs
30. Reclaiming Childhood
31. Slum Population in India
32. Slum Diversity in Kolkata
33. Status Report on RAY (Rajiv Awas Yojana), 31 March 2013
34. Slum Health From Understanding to Action
35. The White Town of Calcutta under the Rule of the East India Company
36. The Far from Complete Spatial Transformation of Calcutta, [Kolkata]
37. The Seven Myths of ‗Slums‘
38. The 2005 census and mapping of slums in Bangladesh design, select
results and application
39. The Private School Revolution in Bihar
40. Typology of Slums and Tenure in Indian Cities, 2012

41. Understanding Slums, The case of Kolkata, India
42. 2012 UNICEF The state of Worlds Children 2012 - Children in an Urban
World
Serial 6.2 Resources available as Published Material
1. Action Plan for Strengthening KMCP School, © Institute of
Psychological & Educational Research (IPER), supported by United Way
of Kolkata
2. Anthropological Profile of the Muslims of Calcutta, © Anthropological
Survey of India Ministry of Human Resource Development Department
of Culture, Government of India
3. Beggars ok Kalighat Calcutta, © Anthropological Survey of India
Ministry of Human Resource Development Department of Culture,
Government of India
4. Problems and prospects regarding formation of SHGs among rag pickers
in East Kolkata, © SEED (Society for Socio-Economic & Ecological
Development), sponsored by CARE – West Bengal
The author: Shanto Baksi, is associated with development / humanitarian aid
related work for more than 12 years, since year 2000, and has worked for the rights
of the Children of Sexworkers and minor Sexworkers, and also for the Children
living in the slums of Kolkata, for the Children of migrant brickfield workers in
different places of West Bengal, for the Children of Fishworkers in different places
in Orissa, for alternative livelihoods for the traditional Fishworkers of Orissa and
Andhra Pradesh, also for income enhancement program in West Bengal for the
rural poor. Additionally he has conducted trainings about Project Cycle
Management and evaluation of various organizations in West Bengal, Orissa,
Andhra Pradesh, the Andaman Islands and, Gujarat.
September 17, 2013, Kolkata, India: For communication, shantob@gmail.com

The Slums of Kolkata

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