Low-Income Housing in Mumbai, India - Essay Example

PLANNING AND HOUSING IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES Provision of Land for Low-Income Housing in Mumbai, India In developing countries over the last few decades, there has been a rapid increase in population and urbanisation concurrent with changing socio-economic patterns. These factors have led to an increasing demand for housing, and related requirement for land, infrastructure and services for residential development. In developing countries the informal market is growing and becoming more diverse and increasingly commercialised. Though informal settlements vary in extent in different regions, they account for 20 to 80 percent of the growth in urban areas and between 15 percent and 85 percent of the urban population in developing countries (Sivam 2002). The city of Mumbai, India, is a busy metropolis, with hundreds of people migrating to the city every day from other parts of the country. Mumbai, the capital of Maharashtra is a long, narrow peninsula in the Arabian Sea on the west coast of India, with an area of 69 square kilometres. The region is low lying but not flat; the climate is hot and humid, and heavy rains in the monsoons average about 2000 mm per annum (Risbud 2003). Thesis Statement: The purpose of this paper is to investigate planning and housing in developing countries, with a special focus on the city of Mumbai, India. The change in provision of land for low income housing in recent years, and the interplay of informal settlements with formal developments and master plans will be examined. Urban Land Management and Spatial Planning in Developing Countries “Planning implies the identification of problems, the exploration and analysis of alternative courses of action, and the making of decisions” (Rakodi 2001, p.209). Spatial planning has traditionally involved land use planners using master plans as a tool. The blueprint plans indicate a specific and desired pattern of urban development fifteen to twenty years ahead. The preparation of such plans is seen as a technocratic process, undertaken by professionals. Modernist planning is based on public and political decisions and uses social science knowledge and methods. The preparation of master plans is based on planning as a project directed by the government which has an agenda for development; planning is carried out in the public interest, and planners operate in a neutral way taking competing interests into consideration (Sandercock 1998). Urban or town planning is concerned with land use and the development of the built environment with the help of resources. The western system of town planning has had a powerful impact on the Indian planning system because of India’s colonial past. A limitation caused by the western system is that in developing countries plans were aimed at isolating activities and social groups, and to benefit colonial communities. Since India’s independence, town planning and implementation has remained strongly influenced by the colonial legacy, functioning towards the benefit of the social and political elite, and to the disadvantage of the indigenous urban poor and incoming migrants who are unable to conform to the official norms and standards (Payne 2000). Master planning is the system by which “projected requirements are spatially distributed within differentiated zones for residential, commercial, industrial and recreational or institutional uses” (Payne 2000, p.2). The purpose of masterplans is to align long-term policy objectives with the planned and efficient use of land, and provide a guidance for using private capital. Provision of land for low-income housing at the planning stage should help to cater for the needs of a large section of urban dwellers. A limitation inherent in master plans is that they are prepared independently of the financial resources required to implement them, and are not affected by changes in the economic environment. Further, land-owners in areas where potential profits are considered to be less than anticipated, may sell to a developer who will develop the area for more profitable use (Payne 2000). Often in developing countries the resources devoted to creating masterplans is disproportionate to the resources allocated to their implementation. Without adequate investment to realize development proposals and enforce development regulation, masterplans have remained as plans while informal urban development has continued largely unregulated. In recent years the importance of matching planning and management activities with political imperatives and concerns has become more widely acknowledged. “Political legitimacy is an essential condition of effective urban planning and management” (Rakodi 2001, p.221). Land use planning in developing countries, with western approaches have resulted in the production of ‘paper plans’ which are not implemented. Inappropriate policies, standards and the problems of enforcement have resulted in the extent of illegal development being more than that of legal development. Further, where regulations have been enforced, they are seen as having introduced distortions into land and housing markets, which result in higher costs (Rakodi 2001). It is believed that traditional land use planning has been disregarded, which is one of the reasons for illegal development and inadequate service provision. The outcomes for local government include inadequate revenue, and more significantly, a lack of legitimacy in the eyes of urban institutions. The decreased legitimacy causes the vicious circle of inefficiency and ineffectiveness to continue. It is believed that rather than devoting resources to improving the quality of urban spatial plans and regulations pertaining to development, urban managers should concentrate on governance (Rakodi 2001). Traditional approaches to spatial planning being ineffective, currently relevant and appropriate methods for improving planning procedures, tools and methods are reviewed by Rakodi (2001). Since it is unlikely that such improvements will produce more effective planning than in the past, the author argues that issues of power, politics, decision making and legitimacy need more attention in analysis, policy and practice. That is, they are vital tools to devise better governance procedures, and for improving land availability for low-income housing. The ability of the public sector to control development has had limited success and has often been counter-productive. To overcome these limitations, structure plans have been used, which provide a strategic framework. Local proposals for use of land, including low-income housing can respond to changing needs and resources through action planning or participatory planning approaches. These integrated approaches help to strengthen good urban governance through the active involvement of civil society in decisions regarding urban development (Payne 2000). Low-Income Housing in Mumbai A national overview of India’s urban population reveals that there is a 31.2 percent growth rate every decade; in 2001, the urban population constituted nearly 30 percent of the total. The level of urbanisation is higher than in 1991 by more than 2 percent. The density of population has increased steadily, and urban agglomerates or cities with a population of more than one million have risen from 22 to 35 cities in the decade between 1991 to 2001, with Greater Mumbai being the largest at 16.4 million. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region is the largest urban agglomeration in the country. According to the 2001 census, the total slum population in the country is 40.3 million comprising 22.5 percent of the total urban population of the towns which reported slums. The State of Maharashtra has registered the largest slum population, and approximately 6 percent of Maharashtra’s population lives in the slums of the state capital, Greater Mumbai (Risbud 2003). According to the Indian Constitution, land and housing, urban development and provison of civic infrastructure fall within the domain of state governments “who are legally empowered to formulate and execute related policies” (Risbud 2003, p.4). A significant role played by the Central Government is through the devolution of resources to state governments within the framework of National Five Year Plans. The Town Planning Department, Urban Development Authority, urban water supply and sewerage are under the charge of the state urban development department. The Housing and Special Assistance Department is responsible for housing policy, land ceilings, rent control, slum upgrading and supervision of foreign aid projects. Statutory bodies in Mumbai include the Greater Mumbai Municipal Corporation (GMMC), which is one of the most efficient and affluent local bodies in the country; and it is responsible for the Master Plan of the city and enforcement of development control regulations. However, it is not directly involved in public housing or slum improvement. “However, in a significant move towards decentralisation, the 74th Amendment of the Constitution of India has empowered urban local self-government by devolution of functions like urban planning, slum improvement and poverty alleviation as well as other responsibilities” (Risbud 2003, p. 4). Further, the Mumbai Metropolitan Development Authority (MMDA) is responsible for regional planning, coordinating and supervising development efforts in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. The Maharashtra government has outlined various strategies for providing land for the housing of low-income and economically weaker sections including slum dwellers in and around cities, towns and rural areas. These are inclusionary zoning provisions for Low Income Group (LIG) housing in private layouts; ensuring integrated and planned development of peri-urban areas to promote affordable housing; and efficient use of land through higher Floor Space Index (FSI) for Low Income Group (LIG) housing (HD 2006). Further, tenure-based redevelopment of slums and market oriented redevelopment of dilapidated buildings is planned, so that 80% of the citizens of Mumbai will be able to avail of bigger and better housing facility. This is part of the policy reforms towards inclusive economic growth plan to transform Mumbai into a world class city with quality infrastructure and a vibrant, sustainable economy (SP 2004). Current Approaches to Managing Slum Settlements in Mumbai Informal settlements such as slums and dwellings of pavement squatters, encroach on land allocated for formal development in master plans. The Government of Maharashtra has appointed the ‘Slum Rehabilitation Authority’ (SRA) which is granted the status of the Planning Authority for Redevelopment Schemes. The Authority is responsible for reviewing the slum situation, planning and implementing the Slum Rehabilitation Scheme. Private builders and developers play a very significant role in developing land, providing housing and in slum rehabilitation. NG0s have acted as pressure groups against eviction of squatters and pavement dwellers and for provision of better facilities in slums (Risbud 2003). Besides builders’ associations, the Practicing Engineers, Architects and Planners Association (PEATA) forms another vocal and important pressure group, specially for relaxation of development control norms and for repealing of Urban Land Ceiling Act. The State Government encourages formal community organisations such as the National Slum Dwellers Federation (NSDF) whose main access to strategic resources is through political parties and politicians, rather than any other routes. There are nearly 2000 slum settlements in Greater Mumbai with a total population of 6.25 million (Census of India 2001) which forms 54 percent of the total population of the city. Slums were built on private lands reserved for public facilities in the Development Plan. There was a wide variance in the density of slum dwellings, and generally 10 to 15 percent of residents worked in the settlements themselves. According to Sharma (2000), there are large slums like Dharavi which occupies around 175 hectares of mixed ownership land, and has a population of 0.35 million (Risbud 2003). Similar to low-income housing, slum improvement programmes in Mumbai have also been implemented through cooperatives. In slum upgradation, cooperatives have been used to identify community groups, demarcate boundaries of slums for regularization, and for collective action to provide services and facilities such as roads, water supply, drainage systems, children’s centres or balwadis and so on. The main purpose of forming cooperatives was to prevent the misuse of capital gains, that is, speculative selling by slum dwellers (Sukumar 2001). In recent Slum Rehabilitation and Development (SRD) schemes, cooperatives have been used to form collectives of slum dwellers. Cooperatives are given incentives, including “priority in obtaining sanctions, escort services for registration and building permissions, enhanced commercial area, and other factors” (Patel 1999, p.1047). Housing Cooperatives for Low-Income Households in India In the context of housing, cooperatives perform a wide range of functions including land development, building construction, housing management, and provision of housing finance. Sukumar (2000) analyzed the institutional potential of housing cooperatives to fulfill housing objectives of low-income households, in three cities including Mumbai and New Delhi. The author found that there were two dimensions affecting the potential: the internal organizational features of the cooperative, and external institutional context. At the organizational level, although cooperatives have certain inherent benefits for low-income households, they are confronted with collective action problems that need to be overcome. Potential benefits vary with the form of cooperatives. At the institutional level, evolution of cooperatives is based on both the local housing market and the local institutional framework. By raising or lowering transaction costs of formation and functioning of cooperatives, the institutional framework could help or hinder in realizing the potential benefits in a particular housing market. In India, the national institutional context promoted cooperatives as a means for low-income houselholds. However, in Mumbai and Delhi low-income households have benefited to different degrees. Cooperatives have been most effective in Mumbai, and less effective in New Delhi and other places such as Chennai. From a comparative examination of the three cities, the author Sukumar (2000), found three lessons for housing policy: First, both local housing market and institutional framework have influenced the form and functioning of housing cooperatives. The second lesson is that minimal state controls aid cooperatives to perform multifarious functions. The third lesson is that “development of an institutional structure supporting cooperatives lowers the transaction costs of their formation and functioningj, which is to the benefit of low-income households” (Sukumar 2000, p.147). The extensive growth of housing cooperatives has also fuelled their use by public housing agencies who have used cooperatives as a collective means of housing provision for low-income households and for resettling slum and pavement dwellers. For example, housing units developed by Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) have been leased to tenants on a cooperative tenure basis. In Navi Mumbai or New Bombay as it was known earlier, the local housing and development authority, City Industry and Development Corporation (CIDCO) owns all the land, and residential land has been leased only to cooperatives. In the private sector around 80 percent of tenements constructed have been through cooperatives. Low income households have been cross-subsidized by charging an additional percentage fee to high income households (Sukumar 2001). CONCLUSION This paper has examined planning and housing in developing countries, with a special focus on the city of Mumbai, India. The change in provision of land for low income housing in recent years, and the dynamics of informal settlements with formal developments and master plans were examined. Increasing recognition of the capacity of informal land delivery systems to respond to public need in terms of prices, procedures and locations has led to broad support for a “hybrid” approach. Instead of opposing informal housing market, governments in developing countries have begun to legitimise it by linking it to formal arrangements to provide security and affordable infrastructure and services. Appropriate revision of standards, policies, controls and regulations are required. These should be city and nation-specific, taking into consideration “local culture, affordability and the socio-economic conditions of the city” (Sivam 2002, p.535). ------------------------------------- BIBLIOGRAPHY HD (Housing Department). (2006). Draft: State housing policy. Government of Maharashtra. Retrieved on 11th May, 2009 from: http://www.visionmumbai.org/images/projects/draft%20housing%20policy.pdf Rakodi, C. (2001). Forget planning, put politics first? Priorities for urban management in developing countries. Planning and Politcs in Urban Management. JAG, 3(3): 209- 223. Risbud, M. (2003). Urban slum report: The case of Mumbai, India. Understanding slums: Case studies for the global report on human settlements. Retrieved on 11th May, 2009 from: http://www.archidev.org/IMG/pdf/Mumbai_DPU_.pdf Patel, S.B. (1999). Slum rehabilitation in Mumbai: Possible if done differently. Economic and Political Weekly, XXXI(18): 1047-1050. Payne, G. (2000). International conference on land policy. Jakarta, 25-27 July, 2000. Retrieved on 11th May, 2009 from: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/dpu-projects/drivers_urb_change/urb_infrastructure/pdf_city_planning/Payne2000_BestPractices_Spatial_Planning.pdf Sandercock, L. (1998). Towards Cosmopolis: planning for multicultural cities. 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