Assessment of Slum Rehabilitation Scheme a Case Study of Pune, Maharashtra

Abstract

Maharashtra, the second most urbanised state of India (Planning Commission Report, 2012) suffers from the paradoxical situation where affluence and poverty exists side by side. This is proved by the fact Maharashtra also has the second highest incidence of population below poverty line. With more than 55% of the total population of Mumbai living in the slums, it becomes very important for the government to opt for schemes and policies that would push the state towards a slum free state. Dharavi, Asia’s largest slum, has posed biggest hurdle for policymakers and the Government for several decades.

With the aim to make Mumbai, and then gradually Maharashtra, slum free, the Government of Maharashtra launched the Slum Rehabilitation Scheme in December 1995. The Scheme invites private developers to invest in rehabilitation projects in return of extra Floor Square Index (FSIs) and hence, requires no investment on the part of the Government. The Scheme is currently operating in three cities of Maharashtra- Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur. The paper focuses on the impact of the Scheme in Mumbai and Pune. The study aims at assessing how different this Scheme is from the other programmes by the Central Government and whether the Scheme had been able to achieve its desired outcome. In order to portray the real picture of the Scheme, Pune has been taken up a case study. With the results obtained from the primary study, various inferences have been drawn with respect to the Scheme. A major issue is the lack of Community Participation, which has turned the completed projects into concrete slums in a span of 2 to 5 years. Several promises made and not fulfilled by the developers in different aspects have been revealed during the interviews. Also, there has been a lack of adequate involvement by the SRA personnel and most of the interactions take place between the developers and the slum dwellers. As a result, very often, the slum dwellers have been subjected to various unjust measures of the developers. In short, the paper assess the Scheme in the light of the completed sites and in the words of the beneficiaries.The paper ends with policy regulations that would augment the effectiveness of the Scheme in the context of Pune and could be incorporated while launching the programme in the rest of the State as well as the country.