Citation de lanard
Most people tend to be overwhelmed by the poor living conditions that prevail in Indian slums. The usual reaction is to treat this as a housing problem. Over the decades, we have seen many well-meaning slum re—development projects that have attempted to resettle Slum-dwellers into purpose—built housing blocks (often on the outskirts of the city). Yet, almost all these efforts have failed. More often than not, the former slum-dwellers sell, rent out or abandon the new housing blocks and move back into a slum. The problem is that these
schemes view slums as a static housing problem whereas slums are really evolving ecosystems that include informal
jobs inside the slum, information about jobs outside the slum, social networks, security and so on. Thus, slums play an
important role as 'routers’ in the urbanization process. They absorb poor migrants from the rural hinterland and naturalize them into the urban landscape. In doing so, they provide the urban economy with the armies of blue-collar workers—— maids, drivers, factory-workers—who are essential to the
functioning of any vibrant city. As we have seen, slums existed in Harappan Dholavira, Mughal Delhi and in colonial Bombay.
Slums are not unique to India. The slums of New York and London were legendary in the nineteenth and early twentieth
century. We need to distinguish here between urban decay and slums. Urban decay describes the condition of blight and abandonment that one sees in Detroit, New Jersey, and northern England. In contrast, as writers like Jeb Brugmann have pointed out, Indian slums are full of enterprise and energy,“ Indeed, Indian slums are remarkable in how safe and cohesive they are. Most readers of this book will be able to walk through the average Indian slum even at night without fear of being harmed. This cohesion comes from the fact that migrants do not view slum life as a static state of deprivation but as a foothold into the modern, urban economy. Life may be hard but, in a rapidly grong economy, there is enough socio-economic mobility to keep slum-dwellers hardworking, enterprising and law-abiding. I am not glorifying slums or arguing that they do not need help. Clearly, we need to provide the urban poor with better sanitation, public health, education and so on. The point I am making is that real slums are not the places of static hopelessness portrayed in popular movies like Slumdog Millionaire.
schemes view slums as a static housing problem whereas slums are really evolving ecosystems that include informal
jobs inside the slum, information about jobs outside the slum, social networks, security and so on. Thus, slums play an
important role as 'routers’ in the urbanization process. They absorb poor migrants from the rural hinterland and naturalize them into the urban landscape. In doing so, they provide the urban economy with the armies of blue-collar workers—— maids, drivers, factory-workers—who are essential to the
functioning of any vibrant city. As we have seen, slums existed in Harappan Dholavira, Mughal Delhi and in colonial Bombay.
Slums are not unique to India. The slums of New York and London were legendary in the nineteenth and early twentieth
century. We need to distinguish here between urban decay and slums. Urban decay describes the condition of blight and abandonment that one sees in Detroit, New Jersey, and northern England. In contrast, as writers like Jeb Brugmann have pointed out, Indian slums are full of enterprise and energy,“ Indeed, Indian slums are remarkable in how safe and cohesive they are. Most readers of this book will be able to walk through the average Indian slum even at night without fear of being harmed. This cohesion comes from the fact that migrants do not view slum life as a static state of deprivation but as a foothold into the modern, urban economy. Life may be hard but, in a rapidly grong economy, there is enough socio-economic mobility to keep slum-dwellers hardworking, enterprising and law-abiding. I am not glorifying slums or arguing that they do not need help. Clearly, we need to provide the urban poor with better sanitation, public health, education and so on. The point I am making is that real slums are not the places of static hopelessness portrayed in popular movies like Slumdog Millionaire.