Dharavi : A City Within A SuperCity

Mumbai, originally a group of seven marshy islands on the west coast of India and a fishing village until the 16th century, was ceded by the Mughals to the Portuguese in the 1630's. The city gained its momentum of development with the establishment of rail connectivity with the cotton producing areas in the latter half of the 19^th century. By 1864, the city’s population was around 820,000. With the growing manufacturing units of the cotton textile industries, Mumbai became the second largest commercial center in India after Calcutta. After 1947, the growth of the port, the emergence of financial services, the development of national and international trade and setting up of various educational institutions has only empowered its growth and share in the Global economy.

While the commercial capital of India was writing history with its infrastructural and land developments, a small island known for its mangrove swamp areas – Koliwada (by the name of Koli fishermen residing the area earlier) – turned into one of the largest and densest slum of Asia - Dharavi. First the houses had stilts, and then the land was reclaimed little by little, and then built up brick by brick. In other words, it is a testament to the survival instincts of the poor – and the success of incremental development.

It has an area of around 550 acres – less than a sq. Mile, A 1986 survey by the National Slum Dwellers Federation (NSDF) counted 530,225 people (106,045 households) living in 80,518 structures. These numbers have almost certainly increased as Mumbai currently takes in an estimated 230 newcomers a day. Dharavi, as one of the biggest affordable residential and economic centers, is likely to have absorbed a sizable proportion of that incoming migration. In a city where house rents are among the highest in the world, Dharavi provides a cheap and affordable option to those who move to Mumbai to earn their living.

Dharavi has an active informal economy in which numerous household enterprises employ many of the slum residents. It exports goods around the world. Leather, textiles and pottery products are among the goods made inside Dharavi by the slum residents. The total annual turnover has been estimated at over US$500 million.

There have been a number of redevelopment policies initiated for the improvement in the living conditions of the people which all failed to get implemented due to the various differences among the inhabitants of Dharavi and the political will. In 2004, the Maharashtra state government accepted a $3-billion proposal submitted by Mr. Mukesh Mehta for the redevelopment of Dharavi.

The story of human settlements of this kind of organic development is generally very interesting as it’s the outcome of the fight against survival in this accelerated phase of urbanisation. There have been various reforms, policies and acts to address this urban issue but they all generally deals with the removal of them which isn’t just a process of giving branded clothes to the poor, but a process in the shift in culture, economy and social behaviour. Mumbai was the one of first city to get its municipal corporation in India in 1890’s. It has been more than a century now and the problem doesn’t seem better. It may be the negative attitude of the authority and the planners to wake up when the issue becomes far more difficult to curb. 

There are two aspects of the slum formation and its redevelopment. There is yet a long journey to be made in the process of urbanization especially by the developing nations (Central Republic of Africa has only around 5% of its population living in urban centres). Now, firstly, there will be a lot more cities to be developed in the coming decades and if they aren’t planned learning from the earlier mistakes – there will be a situation when the developing world will found itself engaged in curbing the urban issues and problems rather than focusing on the national/state development. Therefore, it’s pretty important to focus on unwelcoming any slum situation in the cities which are under the pipeline of development – and it could be managed at the planning level if its scope of study is widen among different disciplines. Secondly, the redevelopment kind of things also leaves a bad impression on the minds of future migrants and they also focus to grab a piece of land in less-serviced areas may be with an illegal possession because they have been guided by the previous cases of redevelopment processes after a period of time following the existence of these areas.

In a period where concerns for social equity is far more discussed, the authorities and the other departments would have to focus on city planning based on their structural and transitional behaviour, human behaviour and his basic living values and most importantly, the predictions are to be made looking in the wider aspects. The possibilities of rising slums should be foreseen at the time of initialising the master planning in a specific area – we may only redevelop those which are built with so much of human effort, but we have to curb the frequency of slum occurrence to build a sustainable future of the human settlements.

Image from The Times, Tampabay and Wordpress

Shrinking Cities : Twin Effect of Globalization and Urbanization

Shrinking Cities are an increasing international, ‘end of era’ phenomenon. Over recent decades, globalization has been concentrating resources, key infrastructure and intellectual assets in ‘global cities’, which act as magnets for population and skills. The gradual shift towards a new global economic order has resulted in a new system of global production, manufacturing, distribution and consumption that has led to new urban forms made possible by the logistic and new technology revolution. Simultaneously, other towns, cities and entire regions are experiencing the outflow of capital and human resources, and are suffering from a lack of entrepreneurship and low levels of innovation and intellectual engagement. Cities whose development were based on a single industry, or on the concentration of an activity in a single sector, have been particularly affected by these globalization processes and, as a result of increasing competition on an ever-wider scale, certain cities are losing out. The development and decline of cities and city centres have, since the Chicago School of Urban Sociology, been viewed as a natural process whereby urban change results from a lifecycle that ends in inevitable decline.(IJURR – Shrinking Cities : urban challenges of Globalization).

There are currently about 7.1 billion people living on the planet. In 2009, the number of people living in urban areas (3.42 billion) surpassed the number living in rural areas (3.41 billion) and since then the world has become more urban than rural. This is currently the first time ever that the majority of the world's population lives in a city. Cities are continuing to attract residents, though some continue to lose residents at varying rates, such as Detroit, Michigan and Cleveland, Ohio. Global cities theory forecasts the urban "winners" and "losers": the winners being those cities with agglomerated financial and specialized services and the losers being those with outdated industrial infrastructure and manufacturing economies.

With the increasing twin phenomenon of urbanization and globalization, cities will face this issue of shrinking population and economy at more frequent rate. The city authorities have to work in such a way that it provides zeal and liveliness to its inhabitants and not just for the purpose of earning and survival.

For instance, Delhi is being developed at a rapid pace and that too in all directions. There has been a lot of public and private investment in the last few decades in the city developments. But, if the city fails to provide in with the living values, a human being deserves, the population will slowly start vacating their place of inhabitation over a period of time, say the next generation and the population will start shrinking. It has many aspects related with it. Firstly, the level of opportunities and the quality of life of the other cities play an important role in the whole process. For instance, if Jaipur or say Lucknow starts providing fair amount of opportunities and facilities plus the quality of life is also better comparatively, then the population living in Delhi will have an option to go with.  Secondly, level of awareness amongst the population also plays a significant role in the entire phenomenon. If they really don’t know or care about the quality of life they live in, then they will continue doing so. There are many other factors related with it as well.

The disappearance of skills, knowledge and innovation as those more able leave for the more prosperous cities acts as a silent killer and the local knowledge base which was responsible for innovations in science and technology starts becoming unknown. This has been a phenomenon happening especially in the developing nation’s population and the respective governments and authorities have to start looking into the matter deeply.

The precautions which can be taken to curb out its effect – the vision has to be long and distributed well among the factors involved in the planning and development of the urban settlements. One has to look within the disciplines to create this vision a success. For instance, hyping a specific city and over burdening its entire system – as in case of Delhi should be carefully looked within. The self-sustenance of the cities should be discussed widely. Shrinking cities have their economic cost and it affects the nation’s economy at large.

Image from rediff