A case-study of slums: an informal housing for people below poverty line (BPL) in India

Abstract

In the present scenario, with the growth in the population, one out of every five Indians are ‘below poverty line’ which means that their income is below $1.9 per day. Slums are highly populated residential areas in the urban settlements with low incomes. As a consequence of their low incomes, they are compelled to reside in the slum areas faced with adverse conditions like lack of sanitation, availability of clean drinking water, lack of connectivity, and improper area distribution. The analysis draws on field observations of people living in such areas acquired by conducting interviews and focus group discussions. Further, using a temperature and RH meter, a digital anemometer and a lux meter, the readings of temperature, relative humidity (RH), wind speed, and light intensity were recorded. Also, the street dimensions, distance between roads and houses, dimensions of rooms are measured using laser distance meter. In this paper, the characteristics of the slum areas like the space occupation of each house, street connectivity, kinds of common spaces, distances between two houses, and materials used for construction is analysed. Improper zoning as a product of abrupt planning and narrowly defined goals of development produce a disparity in the occupancy ratio, that is the amount of space utilized by a single person is less than that of the standardized units, which in turn leads to lack of privacy. This study helps to identify spatio-temporal vectors responsible for creation of slums and tries to provide socio-economic policy-level solutions to improve their living standards, thus leading to a sustainable and inclusive society.