IIPS-Envis Center on Environment and Population

Published in IIPS Mumbai, ENVIS center, Volume 3, No. 1, March 2006

Slum Population In Mumbai : Part I

By Dr.D.P.Singh

Introduction:

According to latest census of India 2001, Mumbai (earlier known as Bombay) is a place where more than half of its inhabitants(54.5%) live in slum areas. Mumbai slum dwellers form the largest group of people among the metropolitan areas of India.Calcutta which also houses a large number of slum dwellers stands second with 32.48% of it’s population dwelling in slums.Given the magnitude of this problem , an attempt is made to examine Demographic environmental aspects of slum population in Mumbai and their opinion about living condition in slums. This study mainly based on 2001 census data. Opinion about environmental conditions reflecting housing ,sanitation etc.,

information collected from National Sample Survey data available from 49th and 58th rounds conducted during 1993 and 2002.

Definition of Slum:

According to 2001 census,slum is classified as a compact area with 300 residents or which had 60-70% households that were poorly built congested tenements with inadequate infrastructure (lack of proper sanitary and drinking water facilities), and located in a congested environment. These areas are also termed as slums by the states/local Governments.

According to National Sample Survey, a compact area is considered as slum with a collection of poorly built tenements mostly of temporary nature, crowded together usually with inadequate sanitary and drinking water facilities in unhygienic conditions. Such an area was considered as ‘undeclare slum’ if at least 20 households live in that area. Certain areas are declare as slum by municipalities, corporation or local bodies are considered as declared slum.

Slum Population in Million Plus cities:

According to census of India 2001, Mumbai is the most populated district inhabited by the highest percentage (54.06%) of slum dwellers in comparison to other metropolitan cities.Table 1 presents most populated (million plus) cities in the country in 2001. Twenty four per cent of total population of 26 million plus cities of the country live in slum areas.

Sex Ratio:

The sex ratio (number of female per thousand males) in slum shows lower than non-slum households.The results of census 2001 (Table 1) shows that the sex ratio in Mumbai slum was 770 compared to non-slum areas as 859 per thousand females per thousand males which may be attributed to sex selective migration to urban areas.The result of previous census shows very different results.The population of slum was extremely undercounted in previous censuses probably due to definitional problems.

Similarly the slum dwellers may also differ from their poor counterparts in the rural areas.Majority of slum dwellers in urban India are constituted by urban migrants.The most powerful attraction to the urban areas are perception of better livelihood compared to living conditions of the poor landless labourers in villages.Further difference in sex ratio may be due to selective group migration to the cities and single male migration.

Table 1: Total and Slum Population of Million Plus Cities in India, Census 2001

Million Plus cities	T. Popn. (in ’000)	Slum Popn. (in ’000)	%of Slum to T. Popn.	Sex Ratio in Non-Slum areas	Sex Ratio in Slum areas
Greater Mumbai	11,978	6,475	54.06	859	770
Delhi M. Corp.	9,879	1,851	18.74	836	780
Kolkata	4,573	1,485	32.48	841	805
Banglore*	4,301	431	10.02	915	947
Chennai*	4,344	820	18.88	953	974
Ahmedabad	3,637	474	13.46	891	850
Hyderabad*	3,520	627	17.23	930	938
Kanpur	2,551	368	14.42	857	857
Pune	2,538	492	19.39	920	928
Surat	2,433	508	20.89	794	701
All India	73,346	17,697	24.13	874	820

*Million Cities of South India

*Reader,Dept. of Research Methodology,Tata Institute of Social Sciences,Mumbai – 400 088

However, an interesting observation can be made from the selected cities of North (Delhi,Kolkata,Kanpur) and South (Bangalore,Chennai,Hyderabad) India. The cities of north and western showed lower sex ratio in the slum area in comparison to three million population cities of south India.This different pattern in sex ratio needs further explanation including migration differential.

Slum Population and Distribution in Greater Mumbai (1981-1991):

According to the published list of census of 1981 and 1991, 619 slums in 1981 and 1065 slums in 1991 were identified. Census registers only slums which are given legal status by the municipal corporation. According to census of 1991, about 23.5 per cent of total population of Greater Mumbai lived in slums and 54.06 during 2001. The figure of 1991 census found to be estimated as per a survey conducted by Tata Institute of Social Sciences(2000),which indicate that the percentage of slum is about 55 per cent. During the decade 1981-91, number of slums increased by 72 per cent while population of slums increased by only 2.2 per cent compared to 20 per cent increase in total population of Greater Mumbai. Table 2 shows number of slums and slum population in 1981 and 1991.Slum population by wards for 2001 is given in table 3,4.

Table 2: Number of Slums and Population by city and suburbs of Greater Mumbai in 1981 and 1991 census.

City/suburb	No. of Slums 1981	Slum Popn. 1981	No. of Slums 1991	Slum Popn. 1991	% of slum Popn. 1981 to Total Popn.	% of slum Popn. 1991 to Total Popn
City Proper	208	701204	281	695031	21.35	21.35
Western Suburb	171	626222	328	745210	21.91	17.39
Eastern suburb	208	924348	328	855231	44.01	34.62
Ward not reported	7	31825	33	37665	3.86	0.38
Population not reported	25	N.A	95	N.A	---	----
Total	619	2283599	1065	2333137	27.70	23.51

The eastern suburbs recorded higher percentage of slums and population compared to western suburbs and city (Table 2).It seems the census figure underestimated number of slums considering notified slums and ignored undeclared slums.

Slum Population Distribution in Mumbai Wards:

The total area of Greater Mumbai is 603 square kilometer, according survey of India, of Mumbai is divided into 24 wards and further into 88 sections. In late nineties, some of the wards were divided into east and west or north and south side. Table 3 shows the total number of persons enumerated in each ward of Greater Mumbai. The city proper was inhabited by 27.9 per cent of total population in its 9 wards, while in western suburbs 42.8 per cent and in eastern suburbs 29.3 per cent people live in. About 83 per cent of total slum population of Mumbai live in the wards of eastern and western suburbs. The eastern and western side of Mumbai has recorded fastest population growth since independence. Increase in population was noticed in almost all wards. The growth of population was accompanied by increasing population living in slum areas. The wards of city proper (Ward A, B, D, E, F/S, and G/S) show below 36 per cent of population live in slum area. While two wards of city F/N and G/N recorded about 58 per cent of slum population. Out of 9 wards in the western suburbs ward H/W recorded highest (78.79%) and lowest in ward R/C (33.75%).

In wards H/E, K/W, P/S and R/N slum population varied between 41 to 48 per cent while higher slum population was enumerated in ward P/N (63.65%) and ward R/S (55.3%). The wards of Mumbai in eastern side are inhabited most of slum population (about 74 per cent people live in slum). Five out of six wards of eastern suburbs recorded about 68 to 85 per cent of slum population, except T ward (35.21%). No slum population was enumerated in Ward C of proper city.

Sex Ratio in Mumbai Slum Wards (2001):

The sex ratio was recorded higher in non-slum (859) population than slum population (770). Interestingly it can be observed that almost all the wards of Mumbai recorded higher sex ratio in non-slum population compared to slum population.

Table 3: Percentage population of slum and non-slum area of Mumbai,2001 Census.

Area (constituent wards)	% of T. Popn. To G. Mumbai Popn.	% of slum Popn. to total respective area popn.	Sex Ratio
			Total	Slum	Non-Slum
City Proper (Ward A, B,C, D, E, F/S, F/N G/N and G/S)	27.87	32.73	777	736	798
Western suburbs (Wards H/W,H/E, K/W, K/E, P/S, P/N, R/S, R/C and R/N)	42.85	54.02	826	765	903
Eastern Suburbs (Wards L, M/W, M/E, N, S and T)	29.29	74.41	817	789	904
Total	11,978,450	54.06	809	770	859

Note: T. Popn.“Total Population”

Table4: Ward wise percentage of slum population to Total Population in Greater Mumbai by Sex in 2001

Ward	Slum Population			Sex Ratio
	Male	Female	Person
A	28.01	30.06	28.88	787
B	14.11	12.26	13.32	638
C	-	-	-	-
D	10.65	9.12	9.94	740
E	12.76	10.66	11.86	631
F/S	36.61	34.73	35.75	788
F/N	60.08	55.51	58.06	731
G/N	60.24	54.77	57.81	727
G/S	34.09	32.95	33.59	747
H/W	79.82	77.48	78.78	777
H/E	43.28	38.58	41.06	797
K/W	47.32	42.49	45.10	761
K/E	58.94	57.52	58.29	817
P/S	50.46	45.09	48.09	707
P/N	65.21	61.73	63.65	775
R/S	57.71	52.13	55.30	687
R/C	35.47	31.81	33.74	800
R/N	48.66	44.16	46.63	745
L	85.16	83.43	84.67	741
M/W	78.24	76.67	77.54	785
M/E	69.97	66.68	68.48	790
N	71.34	68.88	70.21	826
S	86.32	85.23	85.83	811
T	36.42	33.84	35.20	830
Total	55.27	52.55	54.05	770

Note: Slum Population Distribution in Mumbai Wards ‘*’ No Notified Slum

Source: Census of India , 2001,Slum in India, Series –1,India.

Some of wards like F/N, G/N, H/E, K/W, P/S and R/S recorded difference in sex ratio of slum than to non-slum population. The difference in sex ratio was between 100 to 150 in the wards of B, D, E, H/W, P/N, R/C, R/N, L, M/E, N and T in favour of non-slum population. The wards F/S, G/S, K/W, M/W and S recorded difference less than 100 female per 1000 male. Only ward A recorded higher sex ratio in slum population compared to non-slum population.

Map: Greater Mumbai Ward and Sections Boundaries

This research article by Dr.D.P.Singh, TISS,Mumbai,written in two parts ,Part 1,published in this issue covers slum population by wards in Greater Mumbai during 1981-2001.Part 2 covers reasons for settling Mumbai slums and their household environmental conditions derived from NSS 49^th,58^th rounds,which is going to be published in the next issue.The researcher who is interested to get fullpaper can write to the editor.