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Abstract
This paper examines the concept of structural violence through the lens of slum redevelopment policies in Mumbai. While slum redevelopment is often seen as a welfare policy that gives free houses to slum dwellers, the article argues that it is actually a form of ongoing structural violence that began as a scheme, but over time, has emerged as a regime of socio- spatial control that perpetuates dependence on speculative markets and creates new forms of exclusion. Additionally, the regime based on the unlocking of land values represents a violent social order that slowly changes the narrative and practices of informal settling and strikes at the heart of the political agency and voice of the basti residents. While the outcomes of this order are devastating, they are perpetuated through a facade of rehabilitation and a delegitimization of occupancy urbanism.
Acknowledgements
The author acknowledges the patient discussions and valuable inputs of the editors and the reviewers of the paper. Their comments and inputs have considerably enriched the paper.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 The first version or avatar of the Slum Redevelopment Scheme (SRS) was conceived as a five-year scheme for building homes for four million slum dwellers to make Mumbai slum-free (Patel Citation1995).
2 I borrow the term basti from Bhan (Citation2017) to emphasise the organic nature of the settlement form and to shift away from the legal-juridical concept of slum.
3 This is an important claim, given that in several Indian cities, informal settlements have been able to claim even lesser land. For eg: Delhi which 0.6% of total land area under bastis (Bhan et al. Citation2020) or Ahmedabad which has 1.16% of land occupied by bastis (CEPT 2014).
4 This was a mixed-methods study of all the slum rehabilitation schemes implemented till 2002.
5 This was a comparative mixed-methods study of three large infrastructure projects in which resettlement was executed using the SRA framework and implemented in combination with SRA schemes.
6 This inquiry involved an extensive study of all official documents, testimonies of affected residents, interviews with developers and state institutions, and extensive field visits of seven large slum-rehabilitation schemes.
7 See (Bhide Citation2020) for a review of People Participation Programs (PPP) in the housing sector in India.
8 The Bloomberg Affordability index estimated that housing in Mumbai costs 283.5% of average monthly pay in 2017.
9 Floor Area Ratio (FAR) is a mathematical ratio that represents the vertical development to the land in which construction is to take place. It thus is a marker of the ‘construction’ or development potential of a land parcel.
10 There is no precise definition of ‘difficult area’; it is a discretionary application to areas where development potential may be constrained by the terrain or surrounding slums or other planning regulations.
11 Transfer of Development Rights is a certificate issued by a relevant government authority that states the unutilised development potential on a land parcel. This can then be utilised in other land parcels, contingent upon particular rules. TDR enables developers to utilise development potential in high value lands to extract maximum profit.
12 The aspiration of Mumbai to model itself after Shanghai is most clearly articulated in a report titled ‘Mumbai Vision’ (2003).
13 SRS has been applied with some success in Pune and with variable success in Thane and Nagpur.
14 While jurisprudence in early years of SRS favoured the implementation of consent as the numbers of court cases disputing consent began to rise, the courts have been shifting their stance arguing that there should be no dispute as long as entitlement of rehabilitation tenement was being given.
15 The stated objective of SRS is to improve ‘living conditions, environment and hygiene of slums and surrounding areas’ (Afzalpurkar Citation1995).
16 The developer is expected to pay a sum equivalent to $ 272 per rehabilitation tenement to the SRA which retains it as a deposit and pays a fixed sum to the cooperative society for maintenance.
17 Public services and amenities are unequal in their spatial distribution in Mumbai with a high concentration in the city wards, and few in the peripheral suburbs.
18 As per the 2011 census, roughly 41 percent of Mumbai’s population lives in slums, a proportion that was about the same in 1991 when the redevelopment policy was initiated.
19 As per recent estimates, the price of a pre-2001 house in a basti would range between 1361$ and 5000$.
20 The judgement referred to above (suo moto litigation 1 of 2020) further declares: ‘Awarding a free tenement to encroachers … is tantamount to nullifying public trust doctrine.’
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Amita Bhide
Amita Bhide is Professor at the Centre for Urban Policy and Governance at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. Email: [email protected]