Bombay's poor unmoved by promise of homes

Some months back, during the Indian national census, this booming city on the Arabian Sea passed a dubious milestone. In April, Bombay's slum population passed the 6.8 million mark - a staggering 55 percent of the city's population.

That Bombay has a problem with slums, of course, is nothing new. In the '60s, then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi called for "slum eradication," saying that all the shanties and lean-tos were destroying the ambience of the commercial capital. It proved easier said than done.

But this month, a new law has come into force that may finally give the city some control over its burgeoning slums. Under the law, all slum-dwellers with photo identification proving residence since Jan. 1, 1995 will be provided with alternative housing. Those who arrived afterward are subject to eviction.

Now, all of Mumbai, as the city is now known locally - from slum-dwellers to the rich and middle-class families who employ them - is waiting to see if this rule will be enforced.

"I think Mumbai requires that 200,000 people should be relocated immediately, with 25,000 from sidewalks alone," says Nawab Malik, state housing minister for Maharashtra. But even "immediate" relocations will take 10 years, he admits. And each day, 400 new homeless arrive. "Everyone is migrating to better opportunity. But if you don't make planning for poor people's housing, you will always have this problem."

Like many Indian metro areas, Bombay has focused more on developing housing for its rich and middle class than for its poor. In a society where even middle-class families have servants, the lack of affordable housing simply forced this group to make homes on their own, or to rent illegal huts where they could find them.

At a time when the Indian government is struggling to create jobs, and build schools and amenities to keep its rural citizens in their home villages, leaders in major metro areas are faced with a dilemma: Enforce the law, and risk appearing harsh, losing the votes of slum-dwellers. Or ignore the law, and watch the slums grow.

"Whoever planned this city, they were only looking out for the middle class; they never planned for the servants, the drivers, the maids," says Joachim Aruptham, director of the Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centers, a nonprofit group that aids slum-dwellers. Rents have gotten so expensive in Bombay that even white-collar workers live in slums. "Now the middle class is living in the slums. You have salaried clerks, bank tellers, and policemen living in slums, because real estate is so expensive."

Even slums are expensive. Shopkeeper Kasim Khan bought his slum shack 12 years ago for 70,000 rupees, about three month's salary for a government official. Since then, he has torn down the old shack and spent 300,000 rupees (about $6,400) building a concrete-walled two-story, four-room home with a kitchen and an indoor toilet.

Technically, the Khan family home is illegal, built on city land without a deed, and government officials have occasionally talked of tearing down this slum and replacing it with low-cost apartments for slum-dwellers. But Mr. Khan says he and his family - which includes three married brothers, their mother, and several younger sisters - would never give up the home they have built.

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