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There are more poor people in Andheri than in Dharavi 'it comes as no surprise, blame it on the high cost of living'
Many upper middle class families live in Andheri and Malad. But Andheri has the second-most number of families who have claimed to be below the poverty line after Bhandup. Over 1 lakh families in Bhandup have claimed to be BPL. The corresponding figure in Malad is 75,510. Over 10.78 lakh families in the city have claimed to be in the BPL category in a survey carried out by BMC in coordination with the Worli-based Director of Municipal Administration. A few experts said the findings could be exaggerated, but many said the poverty levels could have shot up in Mumbai because of an increase in the cost of living. Navtej Nainan, an academician, whose article on poverty hotspots was recently published in Habitat International, said it was myth that poverty existed only in slums. "It exists in different communities and settlements like gaothans, chawls, and koliwadas," she said. Simpreet Singh, an activist with the National Alliance of People's Movement, which works extensively in slums in Mumbai, said, "Even as the survey figures are hard to digest, the figures of families falling in the BPL category is way above 27,331 declared in the previous survey." He added: "The economy boom has failed to reach the uneducated, unskilled person living in the slum. There are scores of families who find it difficult to win a daily bread for the family." Tiss director S Parshuram agreed. He blamed the high cost of living, healthcare and education in Mumbai for increase in poverty levels. In fact, Parshuram said that he would not be surprised if the figures revealed in the survey were true. "The recent National sample survey also found 25% population in urban cities to be below the poverty line," he said. |
