Kolkata: Slum Rehabilitation

Redevelopment Efforts in the Slums of Kolkata: Impact on Slum Dwellers

Introduction

According to the national Census held in 2011 in India, metropolitan Kolkata is home to over 14 million people. Once the capital city of India, today over 30% of the city’s inhabitants are slum dwellers (Haque et al., 2019). In Kolkata, lack of affordable housing in the city has pushed many to informal settlements called ‘bastis.’ Migrant labourers and low-income families often settle in slums, where they live in highly unhygienic and overcrowded conditions. While they provide access to the city’s centre, and perhaps even to an income, they lack in basic provisions such as adequate sanitary facilities, clean and potable water, and electricity. 

Over the years, both central and state governments have launched multiple programmes and policies to facilitate slum redevelopment in India. This has often taken place through two methods, either through infrastructure development in existing slums, or by rehabilitating slum dwellers to multiple-storeyed apartments (Chakraborty and Bose, 2017). The case of Kolkata is no different.  Improvement of informal settlements are desirable for policy makers and the State, but development of real estate on ‘basti’ land in prime locations is a builder’s dream. Rehabilitation and development however, may or may not lead to welfare of slum dwellers. Many prefer to continue living in slums, close to job opportunities. On the other hand, with the city’s growing population, infrastructure development may not be adequate. Transparency and corruption in governance and policy implementation is another issue which often crops up. These issues have made it imperative to explore redevelopment in India’s slums.

Rehabilitation is not always beneficial for slum residents, and may even be undesirable. To better understand the redevelopment scenario in Kolkata, this segment explores the impact of redevelopment efforts on the slum dwellers of Kolkata. The evidence found after investigating redevelopment of slums in Kolkata points towards the argument that have experience both positive and negative impacts of slum rehabilitation. More specifically, while off-site rehabilitation has been highly undesirable, in-situ rehabilitation has had some positive impacts. The blog explores data for both off-site and in-situ rehabilitation in Kolkata, revealing resident satisfaction was present for in-situ rehabilitation in cases of short-term resettlement, but long term and off-site rehabilitation was met with dissatisfaction.

Negative Impact of Slum Rehabilitation: Cases of Dissatisfaction amongst Slum Dwellers

Redevelopment in Kolkata has, in the past, revolved around eviction with inadequate efforts of rehabilitation. When rehabilitation is present, it often consists barriers for many. Many of the city’s slum dwellers are migrant labourers, who often do not have documents proving citizenship, which proves to be an obstacle during the rehabilitation process.  In her article for The Telegraph, Chakraborty (2018) writes about the plight of slum dwellers of Central Park, who were evicted overnight from their slums. Around 1,200 families were residing in the slum, and after eviction, only 128 families, who could provide proof of citizenship, were housed. The rest had to disperse, taking shelter under bridges and other slums.

The rehabilitated families were not given apartments of formal housing, but rather rehoused tin huts with shared toilets, built by the government on empty plots. The shift to these tin huts caused distress amongst the residents. Previously, the residents had stable access to electricity, although it was illegally sourced. Now, they were left without electricity as the government did not provide power. Residents also complained of the tap water in the new residence being smelly and dirty, and many preferred walking back to the old slum area for water.

In Kolkata, politics and controversies have long dictated redevelopment policies and have marred implementation. Chakraborty (2021), in his article for The Leaflet, presents the life of slum dwellers in Kolkata, who are not only dealing with controversies revolving real estate developers, but also a politicized conflict with the current state government. In a conversation with Sukharanjan Dey, who is the secretary of the Paschimbanga Basti Unnayan Samity (PBUS), or the West Bengal Slum Dwellers Organisation, Chakraborty sheds light on the conflict between the Left leaning PBUS and the TMC (Trinamool Congress) led State Government.

Under the Left Front government, The Thika Praja Act (1981) was passed, which gave land ownership rights to slum dwellers, which empowered slum dwellers to deal with issues and upgrade the quality of slums. Ever since, the PBUS has been supportive of the Left Front party, and has had a conflict of ideas with the ruling party, which has led to hindrance in redevelopment and rehabilitation. Now, due to interest of developers and lack of security from the municipality, slum dwellers in prime locations such as the Rammohan Mullick Lane or Baghbazaar are fearing evictions from areas they have called home for decades.

Positive Impacts: Rehabilitation under Central Government Schemes Witness Some success

Rehabilitation and redevelopment throughout the Indian state of West Bengal has been advocated, but often not successfully executed. On several occasions, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (MoHUPA) has allocated funds for slum redevelopment and rehabilitation in Kolkata, as well as in other districts in the state. However, much of these projects have ended up getting cancelled, curtailed, or dropped. In 2011, the Kolkata Municipality Corporation implemented the Basic Services to Urban Poor (BSUP) mission, which aimed at providing better housing and facilities to urban poor in Kolkata. The BSUP mission is part of the larger Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) which aims to provide basic amenities and necessities to low-income urban dwellers in 63 Indian cities. BSU projects around the country have aimed to provide urban informal residents with formal housing, social security benefits, clean water supply, sanitation, and education. Many redevelopments and rehabilitation projects were undertaken under this project, but many remain incomplete. A document from Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation addressed to the Principal Secretary of Housing of  West Bengal, elucidating on Additional Central Assistance (ACA) for BSUP projects shows that redevelopment and poverty alleviation schemes in West Bengal have been initiated, but have been cancelled after 4 to 6 years of its approval.

Cases of In Situ and Off Site Rehabilitation: Role of Central and State Governments 

The Sen Pally redevelopment project is one of the few completed redevelopment projects in Kolkata. The residents of Sardar Basti were moved to five storey buildings near the basti land. Land near the basti was owned by Kolkata Municipality Corporation (KMC), and was used to construct the new homes (KMC, 2013). While the buildings were not built in the basti land, empty land very close to the slums were used, which allowed the inhabitants to continue living in the same locality, and keep their jobs. Rehabilitation in this situation can be classified as in-situ. A report by National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA,2015) mentions that facilities such as availability of clean water supply, separate sanitation facilities, street lights and solid waste disposal were all presented in Development Project Reports for the Sen Pally project by KMC. The report also mentioned that the rehabilitation project provided security of tenure. After implementation, the residents of Sena Pally slum had access sanitation and stable water supply, enabling a more formal lifestyle. The project also facilitated residents to access social security schemes such as Antyodaya Anna Yojana and National Family Benefit Scheme (NFBS), which contributed to a sense of security amongst residents.

Much of the success, and positive impact on residents of this project is due to the in-situ rehabilitation nature of the project. In-situ rehabilitation, as understood from review of literature, is preferred over off-site rehabilitation. Ability to continue at old workplaces, sense of community and identity, and awareness about the built environment, add to the success of rehabilitation projects. However, it is also important to note that the impact of rehabilitation at Sen Pully is based on short-term observation and analysis. The project was completed 9 years ago, and data on the residents experience of living in the rehabilitation buildings is not available for this paper’s investigation. There is a need to explore the long-term impacts of rehabilitation in India, as most rehabilitated buildings face the issues of maintenance. A study involving primary data collection from the residents themselves would provide clearer understanding of the situation, but is beyond the scope of this paper. 

Beyond Kolkata, other cities in West Bengal have also witnessed completion of rehabilitation projects. In 2018, Ananda Bazaar Patrika, a renowned Bengali newspaper reported that in Rampurhaat, a city 200 kms from Kolkata, successful rehabilitation programs had taken place.

Conversation with a slum resident revealed that residents of a slum along Dhuladanga road had previously been living in mud houses and tents, and did not have access to sanitation or clean water supply. Their desolateness only increased in monsoon, when storms and heavy rain destroyed their make-shift houses, leaving families in the slum homeless. However, under orders by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, four-storey buildings were built along Dhuladanga road, to provide housing for slum dwellers. The article reported that the Mayor of Rampurhaat, Ashwini Tiwari, had come to a negotiation with the State government to allocate funds to build housing facilities for the homeless. Funds were then directed from Central Government aid to the project. The article reveals political actors play an essential role in the rehabilitation process. The Mayor’s involvement in the projects enabled in-situ rehabilitation for residents of Dhuladanga slums, which is more desired than off-site rehabilitation. 

The project authorized construction of high quality affordable housing. According to the Rampurhaat municipality, each house is 270 square feet, and consists of a bedroom, kitchen, and en-suite bathrooms, clean water supply was also provided to the new residents. This was accompanied with individual electricity meter, and each resident is responsible for the electricity bill for each unit.  From tin and mud huts with no electricity and water, this is indeed an upgrade for most beneficiaries. The newspaper reported that the beneficiaries were satisfied with the rehabilitation process and outcomes.

In another newspaper article for Millenium Post (2022), it was reported that West Bengal’s State Urban Development and Municipal Affairs minister Firhad Hakim handed over the keys for 48 flats to informal residents of Rakhal Das Auddy Road in Kolkata’s Chetla neighbourhood.  Residential buildings were built under the Banglar Bari Scheme, which is under the Housing for All (HFA) scheme by the National Government. The Banglar Bari mission aimed at providing in-situ rehabilitation for slum residents in West Bengal. Development under this scheme has been funded by combined efforts of the Central Government and State Government.

In Chetla, in-situ rehabilitation enabled construction of four storey buildings, with one-bedroom flats and personal bathrooms and kitchens. Residents are required to maintain the buildings and pay for electricity. Due to in-situ rehabilitation, beneficiaries were satisfied with the arrangement, as they did not lose their jobs and were not separated from their families.

While previous analysis showed that slum rehabilitation has been unsatisfactory in Kolkata, further investigation into more recent cases showed that specific rehabilitation projects have seen some success. When it comes to rehabilitation, different projects have led to different outcomes. Some of the offsite and on-site projects in Kolkata have been undesirable by informal residents. Maintenance costs, and dilapidated housing has caused many to move back into slums they previously occupied. Other cases, such as that of Sen Pally, Chetla and Rampurhaat, have witnessed desirable impact of rehabilitation in a short-term period.

Various factors could have contributed instances of successful rehabilitation. One of the reasons for project failure could be the assumption that slum dwellers fall under a homogenous group. Difference in income, religion, caste and migration status can affect rehabilitation process. Rehabilitation is usually aimed towards Economically Weaker Sectios (EWS), but without conversation with slum dwellers, and taking into account their lived experiences, may cause dissatisfaction. Not all slum dwellers may fall under EWS category, or have formalized proof to show for EWS status, which leads to separation of family and community, leading to distress after rehabilitation has been completed. Situations such as these lead many to go back to give up on formal housing and live in slums.

Additionally, in all three cases, rehabilitation was done under schemes funded and initiated by the central government. Additional Central Assistance (ACA) was provided to the State government for the projects, which facilitated project completion as well as in-situ rehabilitation. As discussed earlier, off-site rehabilitation can often lead to distress amongst slum residents, leading to project failure. Involvement of Central funds also keeps the State government accountable, and requires the projects to be completed within certain time frames, and abandonment of project requires State governments to refund funds with interest, which provides incentives for municipalities to complete projects.

ACA also allowed for construction of better-quality housing, and access to social security schemes through BSUP and Banglar Baari projects contributed to higher satisfaction from slum dwellers. Without Central funds, rehabilitation projects tend to be curtailed. The Indian Express in 2022 reported that the Banglar Bari scheme will be discontinued, as the centre had stopped issuing funds.  ‘The Centre makes a list of the number of houses to be built under the Banglar Bari housing project every year but it was not done this time,’ Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee claimed at an administrative meeting. Political disagreements amongst the state and centre can be harmful for such projects, and add to the mechanism of failure when in comes to slum rehabilitation. Lack of co-operation between Centre and State government has caused the rehabilitation scheme to be curtailed for now, which has once again put many slum dwellers in perilous positions.

Another alternative reasoning for negative impact of redevelopment is off-site rehabilitation. Most slum-dwellers do not prefer relocation for formal housing, and choose to stay back in slums. In Sen Pally, Rampurhat and Chetla, the schemes were aimed at in-situ rehabilitation, which led to slum residents willing to leave slums and move to formal housing. Positive impact of redevelopment is possible with in-situ rehabilitation which provides quality housing, takes into consideration needs of slum dwellers, and combines social security schemes with rehabilitation process.

Conclusion

Analysis of the existing literature and evidence from newspaper clippings establish that redevelopment effort in Kolkata have been largely unsuccessful. It is evident that slum dwellers in the city have to deal with political disagreements, controversies, and poor implementation. Offsite rehabilitation is more prevalent, but is highly undesirable by slum inhabitants. It also does not lead to redevelopment as inhabitants tend to return to informal settlements. Rehabilitation also comes with conflict from formal residents, which leads to building new settlements outside the metropolitan area. Higher cost of living, unemployment due to change in location, especially for female workers, and separation from family are a few factors which deter slum inhabitants from choosing off-site rehabilitation.

On the other hand, in-situ development can be expensive. Basti settlements in Kolkata are mostly situated around prime locations, and are always wanted by real estate developers. While there are some cases of positive impacts of in-situ redevelopment, without aid from Central government, in-situ development projects are being curtailed. Positive impact from clean water supply, sanitation facility and employment schemes have been beneficial to a certain extent, but are of rare instances. There also exists lack of information on completed rehabilitation projects in the city, which has added to ambiguity. In Kolkata, there has been a severe lack of in-situ redevelopment, and growth in gentrification. Redevelopment efforts in Kolkata have been inefficient, and long-term analysis of rehabilitation have showed that there have been negative impacts on slum dwellers.