Slums in India – How do we move forward?

Kolkata, the City of Joy, is also home to some of the largest slums in Asia with up to 40 percent of the city’s 13 million residents living in slums.

Slums in Kolkata are both registered (also known as Bustees) and unregistered.

The inhabitants of the slums in Kolkata range from groups who have been living in the slums for upto even 150 years to the rural to urban migrants. Thought Kolkata is already highly populated numbers, slums keep increasing.

The rest of India is much the same – some better, some worse.

Mumbai, the world’s most populated city. Residents complain that slums are “vote banks” of political parties and that most inhabitants of slums have ration cards & voting cards – along with water, electricity and most amenities – without having to pay any taxes!

Many times slums dwellers are relocated but it has also been reported that slum dwellers rent out these government flats & move back into their slums.

It seems a rather vicious circle with desperate poverty stricken people at one end and greedy politicians at the other.

What are your views on how we should tackle this problem in India