Slum Demolitions in Bombay

Jorge Reverter

The inmigration is always a sad story, but at the same time brings an encouraging future for the poor people who have a black future in the horizon.

Unfortunately, the answer is very often in the speculator offices and not blowing on the wind.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4222525.stm :

Karma Queen

wow that's terribly sad. i feel awful for all the people left homeless. something radical does need to be done about these slums, but it's a difficult situation to resolve, which makes me feel even sadder.

Merchant

Such demolitions in Bombay have been happening for about 30 years . . .

Karma Queen

have they really? where do these people go? on the streets?

Merchant

Politicians occasionally send in the bulldozers. There are actually government panels called Slum Clearance Boards. After the houses (shacks) are destroyed, people move to some other marginal area, and new folks squat on the site that was just cleared. Slums encroach the rail lines often and are razed, but they reappear almost overnight.

Developers get the government to clear out some big area to build high-rise apartments. Sometimes the original occupants are compensated or relocated. Most often they are not.

Before Bill Clinton arrived in New Delhi in 1998, vast encroachments (the Indian name for informal housing) were bulldozed. Vajpayee and the mayor of New Delhi wanted to spiff the place up.

machadinha

Check out Rohinton Mistry's /A Fine Balance/ too for some insights into slum life in Mumbai among many other things. It's not a happy book but it's a good read.

snowcrab

Here is one Indian's take on this. Warning, pretty harsh assessment.

http://www.counterpunch.org/sainath02052005.html