SPARCSociety for the Promotion of Area Resource Centres,

2nd Floor, Marathi Municipal School,1st Khetwadi Lane, Mumbai 400 004

Tel. +91 22 23858785, +91 22 23865053,sparc@sparcindia.org

www.sparcindia.org

KRVIAKamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute for Architectureand Environmental Studies,Vidyanidhi Marg, Off 10th Rd,Juhu Scheme, Mumbai 400 049Tel. +91 22 26700918, +91 22 26208539admin@krvia.ac.inwww.krvia.ac.in

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AcknowledgementsThis document has emerged from a partnership of disparate groups of concerned individuals and organizations who have been engaged with the issue of exploring sustainable housing solutions in the city of Mumbai. The Kamala Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute of Architecture (KRVIA), which has compiled this document, contributed its professional expertise to a collaborative endeavour with Society for Promotion of Area Resource Centres (SPARC), an NGO involved with urban poverty. The discussion is an attempt to create a new language of sustainable urbanism and architecture for this metropolis.

Thanks to the Dharavi Redevelopment Project (DRP) authorities for sharing all the drawings and information related to Dharavi. This project has been actively guided and supported by members of the National Slum Dwellers Federation (NSDF) and Dharavi Bachao Andolan: especially Jockin, John, Anand, Savita, Anjali, Raju Korde and residents’ associations who helped with on-site documentation and data collection, and also participated in the design process by giving regular inputs.

The project has evolved in stages during which different teams of researchers have contributed. Researchers and professionals of KRVIA’s Design Cell who worked on the Dharavi Redevelopment Project were Deepti Talpade, Ninad Pandit and Namrata Kapoor, in the first phase; Aditya Sawant and Namrata Rao in the second phase; and Sujay Kumarji, Kairavi Dua and Bindi Vasavada in the third phase. Thanks to all of them.

We express our gratitude to Sweden’s Royal University College of Fine Arts, Stockholm, (DHARAVI: Documenting Informalities ) and Kalpana Sharma (Rediscovering Dharavi ) as also Sundar Burra and Shirish Patel for permitting the use of their writings.

SPARC would like to thank those of its primary donors who support its work in Dharavi, including the production of this book, RE: Interpreting, Imagining, Developing DHARAVI. The donors are: International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) in the U.K.; Sir Dorabji Tata Trust in India; Katholishe Zentralstelle für Entwcklungshilfe e.V (MISEREOR) in Germany; and the Rockefeller Foundation in the U.S.A. We also thank Slum/Shack Dwellers Federation (SDI) which has consistently supported the process, including publication of this work.

Most of all, special thanks to the people of Dharavi who shared their experiences with us and helped with on-site data collection.

Aneerudha Paul, Director, KRVIASheela Patel, Director, SPARCNovember 2010, Mumbai

CreditsDesign: Abhinav ShawEditing: Rani Day Editorial Team: Sheela Patel, Aneerudha Paul, Sundar Burra, Bindi Vasavada, Sujay Kumarji and Kairavi Dua.Photographs: Abhinav Shaw, KRVIA & SPARC Archive.

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ContentsIntroduction: Building a World Class Model for Slum Redevelopment 06

Section one: dharavi StoryLocating Dharavi 10Land of High Returns City of Enterprise 14 Leather Textiles and Tailoring 18 Food-Making Pottery 22 Recycling Surgical Thread 26 Kite Factory Gold & Jewellery 26 PrintingHistory: Before Bombay there was Dharavi 28

Section two: makeover or takeover? Development For Whom? 36Process of Resistance Impact! 53

Section three: an alternative Strategy

Grouping Together: 60 Co-operative Housing Societies 61 Chawls & Nagars Ambiguous Clusters 63Existing Zones: Commercial & Residential 64SRA Buildings & Private Lands Public Toilets 66Roads & AlleysInstitutions 68Multi-Functional & Residential Open SpacesStrategy to Prepare a Master Plan 70Objectives of the Master PlanStrategy: 72 Strengthening of Roads

Strengthening of Open Spaces 74 FSI & Density Plans To Each its own Scenario 76 Scenario 1 Scenario 2 78

Afterwords: Working Together, Learning Together 80

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The truth is that the drive to redevelop Dharavi is propelled by the very largeprofits that developers and the State Government have their eyes on. Poor people in urban settlements have mostly been neglected in the global South, and there is an increasing gap between the planned, formal city and itsinformal shadow. The irony is that official cities draw heavily on the labour and vigour of slum or shanty residents but very rarely do cities support theseworkers.

To the State, Dharavi (like Kibera in Nairobi, one of Africa’s largest slums)represents a long-standing development nightmare – for which it has not beenable to develop any successful policies for upgradation and improvement on scale. To the global financial institutions, it is, briefly said, a gold mine.

But new policy is not forthcoming from city planners to reduce the risks oflending to the poor, nor is there enough money available to replace these self-built shelters. Global investors don’t have the knowledge or the will to managedecentralised, incremental investments which communities in Dharavi haveevolved into a fine art.

There are silver linings to the clouds, however. The Government of Maharashtra,originally in a state of denial about the discontent of the residents, now acceptsthe imperative to lend an ear to their voices. Of course, Dharavi residents anddissidents don’t want to block development or investment per se; they simply want to ensure that it will fuel progress for them as much as for the city at large.

Dharavi has a lot to teach us about how informal settlements generatesolutions for the demands of small businesses and housing. Flexible work schedules,home-based occupations, enterprises of various scales that interconnect with residences – this is the reality of how the poor not only survive, but thrive without handouts or charity.

The intention of this book is to suggest guidelines for future redevelopment of slums – a redevelopment that is not thrust upon the residents from outside, but one that is rooted in a local and participatory environment.

When I speak at workshops and conferences, there are many discussionsabout ‘world class’ cities. If we work it out right, Mumbai has the potential todevelop a ‘world class’ model for slum redevelopment through consensual andincremental upgrading. All the required ingredients are there. Only the politicalleadership must have the courage to go ahead. We believe it can be done.

IntroductionBuilding a world claSS model for Slum redevelopment

by Sheela Patel, Director, SPARC

The metropolis of Mumbai is often called Slumbai or Slumbay with probably the largest number of slum-dwellers in the world (over six milion). Dharavi – really an informal township within the metropolis – is one of the world’s 30 mega-slums and Asia’s largest. Spread over 525 acres, it presents a very vibrant mosaic of tens of thousands of small businesses and hundreds of thousands of residents of different religions, castes, languages, provinces, and ethnicities, dependent on one another and the city socially, culturally and economically. Its enterprising residents manufacture garments, leather goods, foods and pottery, besides running a flourishing – and unique – recycling business.

Dharavi has literally risen from the marshes. First the houses had stilts, thenthe land was reclaimed little by little, then built up brick by brick. In otherwords, it is a testament to the survival instincts of the poor – and the successof incremental development. Bit by bit, the poor developed the land, raisedfamilies and neighbourhoods, then a full-fledged township as generation aftergeneration went to work. Official support for these incremental processeswere signalled when the city provided urban infrastructure and services suchas clean piped water, sewage systems, roads and social services in the mid-eighties.

Dharavi was recently in the centre of a storm – with clouds of different development plans hovering overhead. Global capital investment companies, local real estate developers and the State Government have all been viewingDharavi as a privileged gateway to Mumbai’s transformation. The question is:Will these clouds disperse?

Current redevelopment proposals seem to view Dharavi as a green field onwhich fresh structures and thoroughfares are still to come up – ignoring the deeply-rooted habitat that already exists. If these proposals are left unchallenged, it could threaten the lives and businesses of many residents. Now, suddenly, outsiders are drawing up plans without the involvement of the residents of Dharavi, plans which seem to devalue everything the local residents do and have done and which do not take into account their long-term investments and overall interests .

dharavi StorySection one

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Locating Dharavi In relation to Mumbai, Dharavi is remarkably well located: a triangular land in the heart of the city, it is served by railway lines on two sides and bounded by the Mahim Creek and its mangroves on the third. The Mahim, Matunga and Sion train stations mark three corners; the arterial Western Express Highway passes along its northern border.

As Mumbai developed over the years and stretched northwards into the suburbs to accommodate the steadily growing population, Dharavi, which started out as a fishing village located on the northern tip of Parel island, wasinevitably drawn into the centre of the city.

Dharavi is in the neighbourhood of the important new business district, theBandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) – a counter-magnet to the old Central BusinessDistrict (CBD) in south Mumbai. The BKC is just south of the airport, so in manyways it is more convenient to reach than the CBD. That Dharavi rubs shoulderswith BKC, and that it is exceptionally well served by mass transport, makes it ofhuge interest to real estate promoters and developers…the small fishing villageof the 18th century has come a long way indeed!

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The Bandra-Kurla complex, the posh new business district in the neighbourhood of Dharavi, with its very high commercial real estate value has made Dharavi a ‘hot property’ indeed. Dharavi was once a fishing village on the backwaters of one of the seven islands of Mumbai…cleared and revamped, it would count among the most valuable real estate in the world!

To the global financial institutions, Dharavi is,briefly said, a GOLD MINE

Land of High Return$

commercial

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leather Most persons involved with the leather industry are UP Muslims or Muslims/Hindus from Tamilnadu. There are a number of Maharashtrians also making bags and wallets. A singular exception is the Parsi, Darab Pedar, who has set up his own tannery in Aurangabad. Hides are procured from Deonar, salted, then despatched to Aurangabad. He estimates the annual turnover in the raw leather business in Dharavi to be around Rs.60 crore. With tanneries banned on grounds of pollution, Dharavi’s main leather business today is of finished goods, there being about 30 large leather goods manufacturers and about 5,000 persons doing jobwork.

teXtileS & tailoring Smaller jobbers can make around Rs.7 lakh per year and the bigger ones on an average, double that amount. Workers, mainly from Bihar and some from Tamilnadu, are usually paid on a piece-rate basis and can earn upto Rs.150 per day, with a unit on an average producing 500 to 600 shirts per day. A single large unit can have a turnover of almost Rs.70 lakh a year. A rough estimate of people employed in textiles and tailoring in Dharavi is 500, with another 100 (mainly young boys from Bengal and Bihar ) doing hand embroidery or zardozi, and machine embroidery (done mainly by Bengalis).

food induStryThe all-India women’s organization called Shri Mahila Griha Udhyog Lijjat Papad is 40,000 members strong. In Mumbai, Lijjat has 8,000 registered members who roll out papads (cracker or flat bread) to earn extra money. Around 50 of them live in Dharavi, earning an average of Rs.50 to Rs.60 per day. Dharavi’s famous Mamu Bakery daily produces 150 kg of khari and 100 kg of butter biscuits which are in great demand. The best paid are those who tend the ovens and they earn Rs.80 per day. Next in line are the kneaders who make the dough, and lastly, the packers and cleaners who get paid around Rs.25 per day. When the first bakery was set up in 1952, there were only two others; today, there are over 25 bakeries in Dharavi.

recycling According to the NSDF survey, Dharavi’s plastic recycling industry is the largest in India employing over 5,000 people. The turnover in 1986 was an estimated Rs.60 lakh a year and should be many times higher now. Every day, at least 3,000 sacks of plastic leave this area. The recyclers are paid daily wages of Rs. 40 to Rs.45 per day for eleven hours of work. There are around 722 small and big establishments, of which 359 are licensed.

pottery There are around 2,000 families involved in pottery making. It takes about 4 hours to make around a 100 big garden pots, which are sold to a trader at a fixed price.

(based on extracts from ‘Rediscovering Dharavi’. Figures quoted in this section relate to an earlier time and would have undergone significant upward revision.)

City of Enterprise The atmosphere in Dharavi, even on a holiday, is like being on a treadmill. Everyone is busy – few people hang about. The streets are lined with hawkers selling everything from safety pins to fruits and suitcases. Behind them are a fascinating array of shops: Satkar Jewellers, Ration Shop, Bhupendra Steel, Husain Hotel, Swastik Electric & Hardware, Shreenath Jewellers and Mumbai Polyclinic – that is a typical collection on 90 Feet Road. Hindu, Muslim, south, north, food, jewellery, hardware, health care, all down one street!

If you want to eat the best gulab jamuns in town, buy the best chikki, acquire an export-quality leather handbag, order World Health Organization-certified sutures for surgery, see the latest design in ready-made garments made for export, get a new suitcase or an old one repaired, taste food from the north and the south, see traditional south Indian gold jewellery – there are few better places in all of Mumbai than Dharavi. Estimates of the daily turnover of Dharavi can only be guesstimates as few people will actually acknowledge how much they earn for fear that some official will descend upon them. Much of the production here is unregistered with any authority. But there is little doubt that it runs into crores of rupees. A rough back-of-the-envelope calculation by Dharavi residents added up to between Rs 1,500 crore and Rs 2,000 crore per year or at least Rs 5 crore a day! Dharavi is a ‘gold mine’ without even considering property prices! A 1986 survey of Dharavi by the National Slum Dwellers’ Federation (NSDF) counted 1,044 manufacturing units of all kinds, big and small. A later survey by the Society for Human and Environmental Development (SHED) noted 1,700 units. The actual number is likely to be larger as many smaller units, which work out of homes and lofts, would have fallen outside the scope of the surveys. The NSDF survey estimated there were 244 small-scale manufacturers employing from 5 to 10 persons each. The 43 big industries recorded in the survey were probably only medium-scale production units. According to the survey, there were 152 units making a variety of food items like chikki, papad and chana dal; 50 printing presses; 111 restaurants; 722 scrap and recycling units; 85 units working entirely for exports; and 25 bakeries.

Dharavi’s gullies have their share of success stories: illicit-booze brewers who have switched to baking bread, a one-time tea-boy who exports ready-mades to US malls, a one-time low level employee in a coal company who has moved way up in life – to a high-rise apartment! So no surprise that a 12-year old boy working on a 12-hour shift in a tailoring unit dares to dream,

“When I grow up, maybe I’ll also own a factory!”

16 17

LeatherLeather production was one of the first industries to be established in Dharavi. Muslim tanners migrated from Tamilnadu to Mumbai in the mid-1800s but had to shift to the swampy outskirts since leather manufacturing processes were considered unsuitable for the growing business centre in south Mumbai. Thus the first tannery came up in Dharavi in 1887. The business grew steadily as migrating workers moved into the metropolis in search of work.

Leather manufacturing processes include tanning or cleaning hides with chemicals, and dyeing before the leather is fashioned into the finished products showcased in Chamda (leather) Bazaar. Pollution of air and water by tanning led to a city ban on tanning in 1996. Although 27 out of the 39 tanneries were given alternative land near the abattoir in further-away Deonar, mainly the larger ones shifted. But the days of leather tanning are more or less over in Dharavi – though a few tanneries continue to operate despite the ban. The industry now buys its tanned hides from Deonar.

Damodar Kamble, who came at 15 to Dharavi because being a cobbler earned him little money, worked in a leather factory here for 15 years…Today, his is the only business making ‘uppers’ for shoes, to which soles are added elsewhere, then exported to Australia and Japan. He had no workers to start with; now he employs 20 people and his turnover is over a crore of rupees.

Today, finished leather goods have taken over as the main leather business. Many of the goods on display are either surplus or rejects from export orders placed with leather goods manufacturers in Dharavi. Customers from all over the city flock

here in increasing numbers – globally too, the leather industry is expanding. While these most beautifully finished and crafted leather goods sit in air-conditioned splendour, the men who labour over them work in cramped lofts or workshops, in bad light, poor ventilation and stifling heat. Tough conditions regardless, the leather business continues to be the dominant trade with which Dharavi is associated.

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There are many rags to riches stories in this business: Waqar, who used to sell bananas, now has twelve workers and three shops and sells shirts all over India, or Mustaqeem from UP who started out at 13 as a cleaner and tea-boy in a factory and today exports garments to the United States.The origins of the textile industry – another major business in Dharavi – can be traced back to the decline and fall of the textile industry in Bombay of the 1950s and 60s. This led to the development of an informal textile industry in Dharavi, with separate units (weaving, printing, tailoring, etc.) working on a collaborative basis to produce garments. Dharavi handles a lot of outsourced work from garment companies and jeans manufacturers the world over.

Besides, a number of people are involved in ancillary jobs such as hand embroidery or ‘zardosi’ and machine embroidery (mostly for the local market).

Textiles & Tailoring

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Chivda, boondi, sev, gathiyas…all tasty, savoury snacks made from rice flakes or chickpea flour are part of Dharavi’s food-making industry which is largely home-based. The sweet chikki, made of peanuts and jaggery, is a very popular item, not to forget the salty khari biscuits, the delicious butter biscuits, and fresh sliced-bread and buns made in Dharavi’s 25 bakeries. The making of papads (cracker or flat bread) relies on the usage of open spaces like courtyards or terraces for drying of the wet papads. But in crowded Dharavi, ingenious housewives manage to make the biggest use of the smallest of spaces.

The Punjabi Ghasitaram Halwai Karachiwala factory in Dharavi is the largest sweets factory in Mumbai and maybe in India. It is said to use 2,000 litres of buffalo milk and 800 litres of cow milk everyday. Very interestingly, workers from different regions produce the sweets of their region – so the Bengalis make chamchams and rosgollahs, the Punjabis make ladoos and gulab jamuns, the Maharashtrians make kaju katri and barfis and the bhaiyyas (migrants from Uttar Pradesh)make samosas.

20

Not so far away, at the crossroads, are the shops selling savouries and sweets manufactured in the homes just behind the shops. Ramaswamy is one of the 27 chikki-makers from Tamilnadu, whose leader is a Muslim and who is considered the father of their tribe. Ramaswamy’s wife speaks only Tamil, but their daughter is studying to be a chartered accountant. Thanks to the sweet profits from chikki!

The world’s most complex lunch distribution network operates in Mumbai: it’s an elaborate choreographing of the collection and delivery of more than 200,000 tin lunch boxes to office and other workers all across the city, and their return to source. So efficient is the system that according to a recent survey, there is only one mistake in every 16,000,000 deliveries. Dharavi runs a flourishing dabba kitchen too. The concept of the lunchbox courier (Dabbawala) originated in the 1880s when India was under British rule. Many Britishers opting for home-cooked rather than local food, used this service to have lunch brought to their worktables.

Food-Making

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Twelve and a half acres of prime property in Dharavi at the junction of the 90-60 Feet Roads is named after the migrant potters from Gujarat: ‘Kumbharwada’ (Potters’ Colony). Like many communities who came to seek their fortunes in the island city, they were shifted out of the then emergent city centre in south Bombay, and resettled in Dharavi.

250 potters’ families who live here have a special place in the community, their business being as old as Dharavi itself. Their houses, combining home and workplace, have an interesting design, narrow and long structures with two entrances: one opens onto the yard where production happens and where the shared bhatti or kiln is sited; the other entrance opens onto the street, where the finished goods are displayed and sold. Though, compared to other trades, the Kumbhars enjoy more space, their business has not seen a boom as some others since it caters to a localised clientele.

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First, the paper labels on the water bottles are torn off by hand and sent for further recycling into rough paper, then the blue caps get taken off. The bottles are next despatched to small workshops where the plastic is chopped into small flakes that can either be exported or melted into pellets for further use in the plastic industry. China is a big buyer of this kind of crude plastic.

New products are made for further export around the globe. Products we sit on, such as cushions and soft seats as well as blankets, use a stuffing made from these recycled bottles. Also, the popular material for warm clothing called ‘polyester fleece’ originates from these bottles. Did you know: Every 150 fleeces made from plastic bottles saves a barrel of oil (about 160 litres) and avoids about 500 kg. of toxic air pollution?

Not many know that Dharavi’s unique plastic recycling industry is the largest in India (National Slum Dwellers Federation survey). There are over 700 small and big establishments, employing over 5,000 people; the turnover in 1986 was an estimated Rs 60 lakh a year.

Most of the garbage generated by consumer-oriented Mumbaikars arrives at Dharavi in big bags or containers. Collected from all over the city, the garbage has already gone through some rough sorting by garbage pickers; now, a more careful sorting is done for further processing at the 13th Compound, where the 60 Feet Road meets the Mahim-Sion Link Road. This is the famed 13th Compound – where everything gets recycled. Oil cans, plastic drums, chemical drums, cotton scrap, iron scrap, empty tins, empty bottles and plastic drums, anything. Every day, at least 3,000 sacks of plastic leave this area. And what doesn’t get recycled gets cleaned and sold second-hand, such as chemical drums which serve as good water containers the second time round.

A worrisome question is: will the Recycling Compound go the way of the tanneries…so as to make way for yet more housing on prime real estate?

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Recycling

Dharavi is home and workplace to about 6,00,000 people who live and work here. So all kind of services are available here as in the formal city: hairdressers, laundries, restaurants, cobblers, craftsmen, entertainers and grocery shops.

You name it – Dharavi will produce it!27

Along narrow lanes hidden from the outside world are the workshops for gold refining, jewellery-making and polishing; fronting them on the main road are a line of glittering jewellery shops. In this trade, you will find a mix of people from a number of States – Maharashtra, Gujarat, Bengal and Tamilnadu and a combination of Hindus and Muslims too.

Proximity to Deonar also produced another trade – the making of sutures from goat intestines. Abdul Baqua, who came to Dharavi at age thirteen, tried various trades in various places, till he joined his friend in making sutures. From making sutures for big companies like Johnson & Johnson, Baqua went on to set up his own firm in Dharavi which exports to more than 100 countries.

Even if the outer setting is unattractive and interior arrangements may not look very high-tech, Baqua is very proud that his Dharavi lab is WHO-certified and as clean and hygienic as the hospital where the sutures will be used.

Recycled plastic, paper and cellophane from the Dharavi recycling business and wood from Kolkata are used to make kites, and also recycled file folders. The kites are not for export: they are made for the local market and particularly for festivals like Makar Sankranti and Diwali.

Kite strings – wielded to cut each other’s kites in kite fights – are also made locally and known as manja (a mix of ground glass and chemical glue coating the thread).

All departments of the printing industry are present in Dharavi – graphic designers, art directors, editors, printers, even paper suppliers and die cutters – catering to both national and international customers.

The units here range in scale from individuals working from their homes or small premises to produce material for use within Dharavi to large companies producing digitally-printed Bollywood posters and roadside advertisements stretching 20 metres wide. Also, there’s a wide range in the printing machinery employed, right from old-time pedal driven letterpress machines to screen printing studios and the latest digital printers.

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Surgical Thread

Kite Factory

Gold & Jewellery

Printing

All this and more...

1812 -16‘the island of Bombay’ map by capt. thomas

dickinson clearly shows the presence of a fishing

village (koliwada).

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Riwa FortHistoryBefore Bombay, there was Dharavi…In pre-colonial times, Dharavi, located on the northernmost tip of Parel island, was the home of the Koli fishing community – and the Mahim Creek, their source of fish and livelihood for centuries. Indeed, one of the Bombay Gazetteers mentions Dharavi as one of the ‘six great Koliwadas of Bombay’.

Further history could be broadly divided into three stages: - Colonial- Post-Independence - Post-1981 (when the Development Plan of Dharavi was proposed and later when the Dharavi Redevelopment Project was initiated).

colonial16th - 20th century

The Portugese were the first colonists to stake their claim to the seven islands of Bombay in the 16th century: they built a small fort and church at Bandra, on the opposite shore from Dharavi… the years passed, the Koli fishermen continued to fish in the Creek…

The Riwa (Rehwa) Fort at Dharavi, locally known as ‘Kala Qilla’, was built in 1737 by the second British governor of Bombay, Gerald Aungier, on the banks of the Mithi River. It was part of the larger British-built Bombay Castle.

Once upon a time, Riwa Fort served the British as a watchtower, guarding the territory against attacks from the Portuguese-held (and later Maratha-held) Salsette Island. Today, in decaying condition, it watches over a sea of huts and shops. At the beginning of the 18th century, some of the swamps and salt pans separating the islands of Bombay began to be reclaimed – joining all seven islands into one long tapering land mass. Thus began the makeover of Bombay...

Parel and Mahim were now positioned on the outskirts of the Island City. But in the process of reclamation, the Mahim Creek dried up, the fisherfolk were left stranded, and the newly-surfaced marshy land offered new space for new communities to move in.

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The story of Dharavi’s development is closely interwoven with the pattern of migration into Bombay. The first people to settle there did so because the land, mainly used as an informal rubbish dump, was free and unregulated. The marshy land slowly grew more solid but even till the mid-1900s, parts were so wet, people had to build foot-bridges to cross over.

The first migrations to Bombay were from Maharashtra and nearby areas like the Konkan and Gujarat. Communities first settled in south Bombay but, as the city grew, authorities pushed them to what was then the city’s edge. By end-1800s, the potters from Saurashtra were relocated here and set up their colony (Kumbharwada), as also the Muslim leather tanners from Tamilnadu (because of the proximity of the abattoir in Bandra). Artisans and embroidery workers from Uttar Pradesh started the ready-made garments trade, and Tamilians set up a flourishing business, making savouries and sweets. Dharavi thus became an amazing mosaic of villages and townships from all over India - different religions, languages, and entrepreneurs all surviving shoulder to shoulder.

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poSt-independenceBombay, an industrial city, was always in need of cheap labour. But evictions in the Island City from 1940 to post-Independence in the 1960s drove large numbers of slum dwellers and pavement dwellers, especially in the dock areas, to new areas beyond Dadar’s King Circle, the then boundary of Bombay.One of those areas was Dharavi. As long as Dharavi was on the edge of the city, the authorities could ignore its existence – send its ‘illegal’ squatters there, or ignore the brewing of illicit liquor. But as Bombay expanded northwards and its population grew with new industries, the pressure on land increased, and Dharavi was drawn into the heart of the city…

1971-74According to the Maharashtra Slum Areas Improvement, Clearance and Redevelopment Act, Dharavi was declared a slum in 1971, and its people provided with taps, toilets and electrical connections.The Sion-Mahim-Link road, the 60 Feet and 90 Feet roads, were all built around this time; sewer and water lines were laid down.Transit Camps were built to relocate people whose homes came in the way of new roads and other infrastructural projects.

1981 & after1981 A Development Plan was prepared for the whole city including Dharavi.

1985When Rajiv Gandhi earmarked Rs. 100 crores for the improvement of infrastructure and housing for the whole city of Bombay, a third of that sum was reserved for Dharavi. The Prime Minister’s Grant Project (PMGP) was initiated in 1987 and Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) declared the Special Planning Authority (SPA) for Dharavi.

in 1995,the Slum Rehabilitation Scheme was launched by the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party Government, promising free houses to all slum dwellers. (In 1996, Bombay was renamed ‘Mumbai’.) Over 85 new buildings were constructed in Dharavi in the period upto 2004. The majority of TDR (Transferred Development Rights) generated from the project were sold for use outside Dharavi.

2004In 2004, the Government of Maharashtra accepted the Dharavi Redevelopment Plan. The plan was to divide Dharavi into five sectors, invite bids from national/international players and provide free housing for eligible slum dwellers of Dharavi, as also free infrastructure. Concessions in terms of extra built-up area were to be given to the bidders to pay for the project by exploiting the value of the land.

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deveplopment plan 0f dharavi

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SECTION TWOMAKEOVER OR TAKEOVER?

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Development for Whom?Sundar Burra, Adviser, SPARC The late management guru, C.K. Prahalad, wrote a book titled The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid. The book became a best-seller because it brought out how the poor are a huge and relatively untapped market for industry. It advised companies to tailor their strategies keeping in mind the circumstances of the poor. For example, the success of selling small sachets of tea, sugar or shampoo lay in the realization that poor people can spend only small amounts at a time. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the original plan to redevelop Dharavi intended to make a fortune by exploiting the value of the land, which was the base of the pyramid of poor people's lives.

The Dharavi Redevelopment Project (DRP) plan, as originally conceived a few years ago, envisaged the division of Dharavi into 5 sectors. Bids were invited from consortia of international and national developers to provide free housing and infrastructure for the residents of Dharavi. The developers were to pay a premium to the Government and, in return, were to get incentive Floor Space Index (FSI) so that they could build more commercial and other structures to sell in the open market. A part of the profit was to cross-subsidize the free housing and infrastructure. Given the inflated land prices in the area, developers would have made windfall gains and Government would have earned substantial revenues. But the question that people ask is: should land be seen primarily as a source of revenue for developer and government? There are many objections to the mode of redevelopment of Dharavi originally proposed. For lack of space, we will focus upon a few of them. Perhaps the most important objection is that the entire plan was conceived without any community participation and is a classic example of top-down planning. Worse, the plan tried to explicitly do away with people's consent for the kind of development that was to take place. In earlier slum rehabilitation schemes, the consent of at least 70% of slum dwellers was mandatory and, even if this provision was improperly implemented, there was a democratic check on the designs of the developers. If the people are not consulted at all in the process of redevelopment, the question arises as to whose interests such redevelopment serves. The answer, unsurprisingly, is global capital and its local affiliates.

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1

STANdARdMASTER PlAN

5 SECTOR PlAN

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The question of community participation or democratic involvement is not just a theoretical or academic issue nor is it trivial - it goes to the heart of the idea of development. Turning your back on people's participation can be enormously damaging. For example, the kinds of urban form and design that the plan had envisaged would have meant the destruction of the livelihoods of the residents of Dharavi. The special feature of Dharavi is the intricate connection between residence and work-place since about 80% of its population both live and work there. Buildings of 30 storeys or 50 storeys would not allow the plethora of small businesses and enterprises to survive. If people's livelihoods were to be destroyed, they would no longer continue to live in the new Dharavi but rather, they would shift to a slum where they could continue earning a living. Given the shortage of housing in Mumbai at all levels, this newly-built housing would have rapidly changed hands and the area would have become gentrified. Dharavi would have become a huge housing and commercial complex but with no place for the poor.

It needs to be underlined that when the original plans were proposed, there was no baseline survey, there was no transport study, there was no environmental assessment and there was no mechanism to coordinate the proposed infrastructures in different sectors amongst themselves, and between them and the rest of the city’s infrastructure.

In a situation where water and electricity are in short supply, was there any attempt to assess whether these goods and services would be available in adequate quantity in the new Dharavi? In the absence of a survey, it was not known how many families would have to be resettled. Again, considering the fact that a majority of huts in Dharavi have one or two mezzanine floors, there had been no attempt to count them and consider the eligibility for rehabilitation of those persons and families living and working there. On the administrative side, no procedures were prescribed for grievance redressal or adjudication of conflicting interests. Another extraordinary aspect is that no Development Plan - as required by statute - was prepared for Dharavi!

For reasons not wholly clear, it appears that the original plan has been shelved - at least for the time being. The global financial crisis and the many uncertainties that bedevil the project have led to most of the foreign partners withdrawing from the fray. It may also be that resistance from the residents of Dharavi contributed to that outcome.

The National Slum Dwellers Federation has had a presence in Dharavi for many years through its local affiliate, the Dharavi Vikas Samiti (Dharavi Development Committee). Over the past few years, the residents of Dharavi have come together in a rainbow coalition of political parties, NGOs, different social formations and individuals to form the Dharavi Bachao Andolan or Save Dharavi Campaign. This grassroots group opposed the existing plans and started working with a group of professionals, retired bureaucrats, architects, planners and NGO representatives, later transformed into the Committee of Experts (CoE), to work on alternatives. The Kamala Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute of Architects (KRVIA) provided professional support and started to look at Dharavi through the eyes of its residents. So, for example, instead of drawing arbitrary lines across Dharavi to demarcate different areas, an effort was made to group together proposed housing cooperative societies, chawls and those living within common social boundaries. This work has been completed in one sector and some more time and effort are needed to flesh out a full-fledged alternative.

It must be said that the appointment of a sympathetic and empathetic administrator for the Dharavi Redevelopment Project in 2008 helped in sorting out many of the issues raised above. There were also some other senior bureaucrats at the State Government level, who had the interests of the poor at heart. It was also at this time that the CoE* was appointed by Government, to aid and advise the authorities.

It will be necessary to draw up a Master Plan in consultation with the residents of Dharavi, a plan that is responsive to the needs and circumstances of the poor. Small groups and sub-clusters have to be formed, who can hook into the overall plan, as and when they are prepared to do so. State agencies must assert themselves forcefully as champions of the poor, arbitrating disputes between and overseeing contractual obligations of the different stakeholders involved. The task before us is clear: how do we meet the aspirations of the people in a just and sustainable manner while enlisting their whole-hearted participation in the design and implementation of the redevelopment project?

* See pg.46 for list of CoE members

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process of resistance

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February 16, 2007‘All dhARAVI dOES NOT quAlIfy AS SluM’

D. M. Sukthankar, a former Chief Secretry and later member of the CoE, raises objections to the modifications of the Development Control Rules made to suit the redevelopment proposal, and writes the first of many letters to the then Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) I.S. Chahal. In his letter he states:

“..The Authority has been given the status of SPA for slum rehabilitation areas. However, this was not adequate in the case of Dharavi as the entire area is not a ‘slum’...”

May 9, 2007‘PEOPlE Of dhARAVI hAVE NO INfO ON gOVT. REhAb PlANS’

A letter to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, in accordance with previous letters, highlighted many issues:

..The ‘sector’ based approach completely ignores the established boundaries, while imposing new divisions within and between communities. The existing Nagar boundaries must be central to the planning process....The people of Dharavi have virtually no information about DRP (Dharavi Redevelopment Project), except that it is a sector plan. They do not know who is eligible for rehabilitation, what their entitlements are, the locations of the transit tenements, and where their permanent accommodations will be. They do not know what measures to take to protect their livelihoods and what types of housing will be provided. Furthermore, several residents have larger families, thereby making the 225sq.ft. space inadequate for their purposes.Has the government considered making additional area available to them, either as a profit-sharing mechanism with the developers or as additional purchasable property? Similarly, should not the residential development (as a ‘free-sale’ component) by private developers have a mandatory component of lower and middle income housing?...

March 14, 2007‘lOW RISE, hIgh-dENSITy MORE SuITAblE TO dhARAVI’

A letter was sent in March 2007 to Swadheen Kshatriya, Principal Secretary of the Housing Department of the Government of Maharashtra, by D.M. Sukthankar on behalf of the group of experts:

“The consensus is that, a low-rise, high-density model is more appropriately suited to the existing lifestyles in Dharavi compared to a high-rise high-density model. ”

June 18, 2007‘REdEV. PlAN IgNORES lIVINg/WORKINgCONdITIONS Of PEOPlE’ Black Flag Day on 18 June, 2007, highlighted the resentment the people of Dharavi had for the DRP when they marched on to the streets protesting the shortcomings of the proposal. The protest rally began at Dharavi T-junction and ended outside the MHADA office at Bandra (East). The agenda of the rally was to emphasize the rights of the residents as the plan did not involve them during its conception and formulation, and that it did not make provisions to safeguard their livelihoods in the redevelopment scheme.

flag

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July 19, 2007‘REdEV. PlAN WIll dESTROy lIVElIhOOdS Of ThOuSANdS’

Extracts from a letter to the Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh:

“It is feared that if DRP is implemented, the livelihood of thousands of people will be destroyed without any alternatives offered.”

June 29, 2007‘dhARAVI REdEVElOPMENT PROjECT uNdEMOCRATIC’ Extracts from a letter to the Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh:

“Local residents of Dharavi have virtually no information about the DRP.... It is profoundly undemocratic to do away with the requirement that at least 70% of the people must consent to any slum redevelopment scheme. This move strikes at the heart of the Constitutional mandate for democratic decentralization. There is no space for community participation.”

June 29, 2007‘PlANNEd hOuSINg dENSITIES MORE ThAN dOublE ANyWhERE ElSE’

Extracts from a letter to the media, banks and bidders:

“It is disturbing that the plan has no scope for community participation. Moreover, those who will be accommodated after the redevelopment will have to face unprecedented congestion as the housing densities envisaged in the plan are more than twice those found anywhere else in the world.”

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June 15, 2009‘fSI 4 WIll CAuSE uNVIAblE dENSITy ’ Extract of a letter to Johny Joseph, Chief Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra: “..Accommodating the free sale FSI up to a limit of 4 makes the resultant density in Dharavi unworkable, in the sense that the requirements of roads, open spaces, social amenities and facilities cannot be provided to ensure a minimally acceptable quality of life. Further, adequate distance between buildings necessary for basic minimum light and ventilation also cannot be ensured...”

“The detailed socio-economic survey carried out in Dharavi has revealed that there are about 57,000 households eligible for rehabilitation. However, in keeping with the current government policy, this survey has excluded the households living in the upper storeys, whether as tenants or members of extended families. We understand that...since under the present policy, such households are not eligible for rehabilitation, their exclusion will give rise to serious unrest right from the beginning of the project and threaten its very implementation.”

June 3, 2009‘AghAST TO fINd NO SuRVEyS/STudIES dONE’

Extract of a letter from CoE to Sitaram Kunte, Secretary, Housing Department:

“ The basic pre-requisites for a project of this magnitude and complexity were that it should have been preceded by a detailed socio-economic survey of Dharavi, besides a plane table and topographical survey, transportation studies, infrastructure and environmental assessment studies etc. We were appalled to find that no such surveys and studies had been done and the bids were invited probably on the false assurance of the consultants that these studies were either already conducted or were not necessary.”

February 2, 2009ExPERTS TEAM SET uP

In February 2009, a group of experts was formally appointed by the government of Maharashtra as the Committee of Experts advising the government on the process of redevelopment. The members were:

D.M. Sukthankar, IAS (Retd.), former Chief Secretary, GoM Shirish Patel, structural engineer and urban planner Vidhyadhar Phatak, urban planner Chandrashekhar Prabhu, architect and housing activist Arvind Adarkar, Director, Academy of Architecture Neera Adarkar, architect and social activist Aneerudha Paul, Director, Kamala Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute of Architecture A.Jockin, President, National Slum Dwellers FederationSheela Patel, Director, SPARC Sundar Burra, IAS (Retd.) and Adviser, SPARC

June 2008WORld ECON. CRISIS dETERS bIddERS

Unperturbed by the protests, the Government of Maharastra decided to proceed with the distribution of tenders and invited bids from various multinational corporations. Tenders were floated and pre-qualification bids were invited for the project.

A total of 19 bids were received. The bidders included Allied Real Estate of Bulgaria, a joint venture of Indiabulls and US Shia Homes, Runwal Group with Capital Land of Singapore, Emaar-MGF along with Dubai’s Expanse Constructions, a joint venture of Neptune Developers with Pacifica of US, and a Lanco-Sunray City (South Africa) alliance.

It was during this process of bidding when the global economic meltdown - the result of the collapse of the U.S. housing market - hit India. This global economic crisis forced the companies to opt out of the bidding process owing to the large initial investment for the project. The project was estimated to cost around Rs.15, 000 crores. The deposit to be paid by the winning bidders was around Rs. 500 crores. Most of the bidders withdrew in the face of risk and recession.

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July 7, 2009‘A SOPhISTICATEd lANd gRAb’

Extract of a letter to Ashok Chavan, Chief Minister of Maharashtra:

“The DRP is a sophisticated land grab. Over the years, residents from various parts of the city have been made to settle there by Government, while taking great care not to give them proper legal rights of occupancy. This legalisation is something that should have been part of the people’s rights when they were first settled there, and is something that was high-handedly denied to them at the time...”“They are now being offered in-situ free pucca housing in exchange for being shifted into less than half of the land they currently occupy. The rest of the land thus released from occupation will be commercially exploited and significant profits are expected to accrue both to Government and to the developers entrusted with the project. The project is being driven by personal greed rather than the welfare of the residents of Dharavi.”

July 30, 2009bIddINg SuSPENdEd

After the initial postponement of opening of bids from June 20, 2009, it was decided that final bids for the project would be opened on July 30. From among the initial bidders, only 14 remained. But the process for receiving and opening the bids was suspended indefinitely on July 30th morning. While there is much speculation, it is not clear why the indefinite suspension took place.

August 24, 2009‘CONSulTANT NOT EquIPPEd TO hANdlE SuCh A VAST PROjECT’

Extract of a letter to Sitaram Kunte, Housing Secretary:

“Our understanding is that the Cabinet decision was to appoint Shri Mukesh Mehta as Project Advisor. The Empowered Committee headed by the Chief Secretary went far beyond the Cabinet decision and decided to make him the Project Management Consultant, an entirely different and much expanded role...”“Our impression from meeting with the Consultant is that he was not competent enough to handle the project of this magnitude, to say the least. ”

November 4, 2009‘AlTERNATIVE APPROACh NEEdEd’

Extract of a letter to Ashok Chavan, Chief Minister of Maharashtra, highlighting key flaws in the formulation of the Dharavi Redevelopment Project:

i) Absence of people’s participation in the formulation and the conception of the DRP.ii) Limited competition and the need for revised bids.iii) Low percentage of Dharavi residents found eligible and the absence of entitlements for some groups.iv) Alternative approach needed towards redevelopment of Dharavi.

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January 16, 2010‘INfRASTRuCTuRE STIll lACKINg’ Extract from a letter to Swadheen Kshatriya, Municipal Commissioner, Mumbai:

“Since there is a possibility that the bidding process for DRP may be revived, I would urge you to ascertain whether the DRP has actually got sanctioned from the MCGM (Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai) all its proposals for infrastructure. I might mention here in passing that certain transit camps in Dharavi built about 20 years ago by MHADA still do not have water connections today and water is supplied by tankers. It should not be the case that tens of thousands of residential and commercial units are built under DRP without an assurance of the necessary infrastructure, more particularly water.”

March 23, 2010‘ObjECTIONS TO SRA NOTIfICATION

Gist of points made in a letter to Gautam Chatterjee, Officer on Special Duty, DRP:

No Development Plan has been prepared for Dharavi , which under Section 21 of the MRTP Act, SRA is required to prepare. The Development Plan needs to be accompanied by a report...which will explain the purpose of the Development Plan, whether it is for the benefit of the residents or to make a profit for developers and for Government. No such explanation has been provided. In the absence of a Development Plan, there is no basis for the framing of Development Control Regulations. The rationale for choosing FSI 4 is not explained...There is no consideration of the density of population that will be occupying the development...In schemes of Urban Renewal, 50-80% of rehab floor space is granted as an incentive. However, in the proposed Regulations this incentive has been increased to 133% which is unwarranted.The date of eligibility of inhabitants has been changed...All residents who were in Dharavi at time of biometric survey by Mashal shuld be rehabilitated here. Residents living on upper floors including mezzanines and lofts should also be accommodated here.

January 16, 2010‘TRANSPARENT PROCEduRES A MuST’

Extract of a letter to Shri Vinod Rai, Comptroller and Auditor General of India:

“The appointment of the consultant Shri Mukesh Mehta has been made without following transparent and standard procedures for such appointments.His lack of qualifications and experience apart, his performance has been unsatisfactory and his remuneration has been fixed in an arbitrary manner and at an unjustifiable scale.It is not at all clear what the basis of fixing the premium @Rs.450 sq. foot is when it has been argued that the market could afford 8 to 10 times that figure. Though we are against the idea of looking upon DRP as a milch-cow for Government revenues, if in fact such an approach is adopted, then there must be a fair, transparent and publicly declared mechanism for arriving at the premium figure. Also, how can such a figure remain static with changes in the market?”

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Impact!The process of people’s resistance and engagement had a distinct impact on the Dharavi Redevelopment Project. While there were many influences at work, the Committee of Experts’ close interaction at all levels of government also helped effect changes:

dRP AuThORITIES RECOgNIzEd ThE VAluE Of COMMuNITy PARTICIPATION.

ThE AuThORITIES COMMISSIONEd A PhySICAl ANd SOCIO-ECONOMIC SuRVEy Of dhARAVI.

fuRThER, ThEy COMMISSIONEd A STudy TO PREPARE A dETAIlEd TRANSPORT PlAN.

gOVERNMENT WAS MAdE AWARE Of ThE POTENTIAlly dISRuPTIVE CONSEquENCES Of lEAVINg OuT fAMIlIES lIVINg ON MEzzANINE flOORS fROM ThE AMbIT Of RESETTlEMENT ANd REhAbIlITATION.

POCKETS lIKE gAOThANS, KuMbhARWAdA, ANd PRIVATE lANdS WERE ExCludEd fROM ThE dRP.

SINCE ThE ORIgINAl PlAN WAS ANAlyzEd IN dEPTh ANd ITS ShORTCOMINgS METICulOuSly dOCuMENTEd, gOVERNMENT bEgAN TO CONSIdER AlTERNATIVE MOdAlITIES – INCludINg ThAT Of MhAdA ITSElf TAKINg uP ONE SECTOR.

ThE POTENTIAl fOR SluM COMMuNITIES TO WORK WITh PROfESSIONAlS ANd ACAdEMIC INSTITuTIONS WITh ThE gOAl Of SElf-dEVElOPMENT WAS ESTAblIShEd.

section tHReeAn ALteRnAtiVe stRAtegy

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An Alternative StrategyIf the process of resistance to the Dharavi Redevelopment Project was one aspect of the challenge, another equally compelling aspect was to initiate a process of engagement – that is, engagement towards devising an alternative strategy. This strategy, as compared to the governmental effort, developed documentation, analysis and design only after consulting local residents and their organizations. At the same time, it had to make do with severely constrained budgets of both time and resources. Reimagining Dharavi was also problematic for its thousands of residents who have been accustomed over generations to adapt to the harsh conditions of their habitat, upgrading it bit by little bit - but are quite unfamiliar with the challenges of envisioning the full picture of the future.

The smallest building block in this reimagined plan is the cooperative housing society whose residents wish to plot their own redevelopment. These housing cooperatives are aggregated into ‘nagars’ or neighbourhoods that have a distinct sense of identity based on factors such as religion, social origins or shared working conditions. The first step was to have the residents map their living and working conditions so as to obtain a clear picture of the ground reality. The following maps include informal organizational networks, industrial and commercial patterns, road and traffic networks, institutions, open spaces, and overall land use, as is, in Sector IV.

36m wide dRp RoAd

36m wide dRp RoAd45m wide dRp RoAd

30.40m wide dRp RoAd

30.40m wide dRp RoAd

27m wide dRp RoAd

sectoR iV pLAn witH dRp RoAds

Dharavi was divided into five principal sectors as per the decision of the Government of Maharashtra. These sectors were divided either by marking existing transport corridors of the city or new roads envisioned by the master plan. Sector IV is strategically located with the Bandra T-Junction to its north-west, 90 Feet Road to its south-east, and sharing its south-west and north-east boundaries with Sectors III and V respectively.

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sectoR demARcAtion Line existing RoAds

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SECTOR IV

SECTOR IV

SECTOR IV

Revised Sector Demarcation

Comparison

Original Sector Demarcation

pRoposedsectoR iV10577

It was decided to stay with the Sector Plan broadly but with significant variations which will be elaborated below. We selected Sector IV as the focus because of the complexities and problems it presented. Rather than choose the low-hanging fruit or quick gains by selecting an easier sector, it was thought that if we could address the many complicated issues raised by Sector IV, then it would become much easier to deal with the other sectors. However, the demarcation of Sector IV was revised on the basis of existing internal road patterns and not on an externally imposed boundary. The main aim was to preserve existing organizational patterns within the slum and respect boundaries of existing ‘nagars’.

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no. of tenementsResidentialIndustrial + CommercialResidential + CommercialTotal

85471979

5110577

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Grouping TogetherThere is an existing system evident within Dharavi where residents have organized themselves into groups so as to adopt a common rehabilitation program. These organizational clusters have been mapped in terms of proposed co-operative housing societies, chawls and nagars as they exist in Sector IV.

1. Janshakti Katta Boman Co-opArea: 2194.16 sq.mt.R = 136 C = 3

2. Ganesh Rahiwasi Sangh Co-opArea: 2309.23 sq.mt.R = 156 C = 8

3. Mahatma Gandhi Co-opArea: 1479.42 sq.mt.R = 77 C = 26

4. Indira Shakti Co-opArea: 1119.31 sq.mt.R = 75 C =18

5. Nausheman Co-op Area: 1265.70 sq.mt.R = 58 C = 19

6. New Maharashtra Nagar Co-opArea: 1141.15 sq.mt.R = 51 C = 24

7. Bharat S.R.A. Co-opArea: 1726.80 sq.mt.R = 111 C = 24

8. Jai Hind Co-op Area: 1212.68 sq.mt.R = 60 C = 23

9. Gopinath Nagar (A) Co-opArea: 2544.10 sq.mt.R = 32 C = 78

10. Panchsheel Co-opArea: 2433.44 sq.mt.R = 173 C = 12

11. Moreshwar Co-opArea: 1310.45 sq.mt. R = 78 C = 7

22. Sai Akruti Co-op Area: 1111.05 sq.mt.R = 83 C = 4

23. Shiv Shrusti Co-opArea: 1410.84 sq.mt.R = 73 C = 1

24. Trimurti Co-opArea: 1182.71 sq.mt.R = 86 C = 0

25. Parag Co-opArea: 1302.06 sq.mt. R = 44 C = 5

26. Magdhumia Co-opArea: 797.41 sq.mt.R = 47 C = 0

27. Bhartiyaar Co-opArea: 2326.80 sq.mt.R = 153 C = 5

28. Gopinath Nagar (B) Co-opArea: 952.47 sq.mt.R = 21 C = 29

29. Gopinath Nagar (C) Co-opArea: 1595.25 sq.mt.R = 41 C =

30. Navrang Co-opArea: 4769.59 sq.mt.R = 192 C = 52

31. Navrang 2 Co-opArea: 602.18 sq.mt.R = 30 C = 7

co-opeRAtiVe Housing societies12. Nityanand Co-opArea: 2294.95 sq.mt.R = 173 C = 4

13. Samrat Ashok Co-opArea: 2211.67 sq.mt.R = 153 C = 5

14. Ganesh Co-opArea: 1429.49 sq.mt.R = 75 C = 1

15. Sri Krupa Co-opArea: 1326.04 sq.mt.R = 56 C = 6

16. Laxmi Narayan Co-opArea: 3189.39 sq.mt.R = 101 C = 15

17. Navjeet Co-opArea: 2015.06 sq.mt.R = 64 C = 38

18. Veer Lahuji Co-opArea: 1236.52 sq.mt.R = 118 C = 2

19. Shiv Krupa Co-opArea: 1591.89 sq.mt.R = 46 C = 5

20. Jai Maharashtra Co-opArea: 2012.88 sq.mt.R = 59 C = 6

21. Prathishta Nagar Co-opArea: 3362.99 sq.mt.R = 154 C = 15

32. Shivaji Co-opArea: 3292.77 sq.mt.R = 96 C = 77

33. Shivaji 2 Co-op Area: 2307.56 sq.mt.R = 132 C = 22

34. Jivandhara Co-opArea: 942.50 sq.mt.R = 57 C = 8

35. Samata Co-opArea: 2845.68 sq.mt.R = 115 C = 40

36. Sarvodhaya Co-op Area: 548 sq.mt.R = 42 C = 4

37. Vishwakunj Co-opArea: 4576.85 sq.mt.R = 249 C = 27

38. Ujala Co-opArea: 2217.97 sq.mt.R = 20 C = 66

39. Satkarya Co-opArea: 1980.29 sq.mt. R = 88 C = 3

40. Mangal Murti Co-opArea: 5086.94 sq.mt.R = 201 C = 31

co-opeRAtiVe Housing societiescHAwLs

Ambiguous cLusteRssLum ReHAbiLitAtion AutHoRity (sRA) buiLdings

Proposed housing co-operative societies are the smallest units for residents to come together to plan their future. In the SRA policy, such projects were approved if 70% of families gave their consent. There are about 40 such co-op societies in Sector IV which are eminently suitable forums for community participation and mobilization. While some societies are more organized than others, it is at this level that the community produces and shares information about its own members. The map shows cluster demarcations of co-operative societies.

R: ResidentiALC: commeRciAL

sectoR iVpLAn of ALL AReAs combined

nAgARs

pRiVAte LAnds

123

45 6

7

89

10

111239

13

1518

38

14

3032

3335

27

37

23 2422

21

40

19 20

3436

26

25

3129 28

16

17

6160

( most of the base material used for this study is available in the public realm, and any details would require further verification on site )

Ambiguous cLusteRs

There were certain areas which could not be captured by the three groupings (co-op societies, chawls and nagars); these were termed as ‘ambiguous areas’. The map above shows the physical marking of the ambiguous clusters.

cHAwLs & nAgARs

Chawls were a form of housing built both by government agencies and private employers to accomodate migrant workers as the city began to industrialize in the early 1900s. They were made up of single room units in 3 or 4 storeyed structures, with wide common passages and shared toilets. Generally, chawls had better infrastructure than slums and were occupied by better-off residents in the city. Larger clusters form nagars - that have commonly accepted boundaries though not a defined organizational pattern. There are about 20 chawls and 4 big nagars mapped in Sector IV.

1. Bismillah ChawlArea: 1704.66 sq.mt.R = 114 C = 10

2. Nehru ChawlArea: 2353.97 sq.mt.R = 150 C = 31

3. Sanjay ChawlArea: 1555.50 sq.mt.R = 88 C = 19

4. Madina ChawlArea: 2102.43 sq.mt.R = 52 C =70

5. Anna Sheth Chawl Area: 1114.55 sq.mt.R = 43 C = 3

6. Shankar Kawade ChawlArea: 886.20 sq.mt.R = 19 C = 13

7. Dr. Zakhir Hussain ChawlArea: 2029.78 sq.mt.R = 76 C = 23

1. Bashweshwar NagarArea: 11813.19 sq.mt.R = 392 C = 82

2. Shiv ShaktiArea: 11110.25 sq.mt.R = 608 C = 26

3. Indira Gandhi NagarArea: 3334.56 sq.mt.R = 193 C = 13

4. Subhash NagarArea: 5355.67 sq.mt.R = 250 C =24

8. Mariamma ChawlArea: 2468.41 sq.mt. R = 118 C = 24

9. Rajiv Gandhi ChawlArea: 2692.38 sq.mt.R = 196 C = 8

10. Rajiv Gandhi - 2 ChawlArea: 1783.11 sq.mt.R = 101 C = 11

11. Ganesh ChawlArea: 828.85 sq.mt.R = 52 C = 4

12. Bharti -2 Chawl Area: 847.89 sq.mt.R = 57 C = 1

13. Bharti ChawlArea: 780.56 sq.mt.R = 44 C = 3

14. Sambhaji ChawlArea: 2873.05 sq.mt.R = 186 C = 13

15. Lal Patra ChawlArea: 850.66 sq.mt.R = 17 C = 12

16. Koli Jamat ChawlArea: 1018.34 sq.mt.R = 34 C = 14

17. B.M.C. ChawlArea: 5605.06 sq.mt.R = 108 C = 28

1. Ambiguous Cluster 1Area: 5408.22 sq.mt.R = 37 C = 86

2. Ambiguous Cluster 2Area: 16674.54 sq.mt.R = 241 C = 82

3. Ambiguous Cluster 3Area: 6448.22 sq.mt.R = 208 C = 49

4. Ambiguous Cluster 4Area: 1630.25 sq.mt.R = 3 C =1

5. Ambiguous Cluster 5Area: 4757.45 sq.mt.R = 154 C = 88

6. Ambiguous Cluster 6Area: 7771.77 sq.mt.R = 302 C = 91

7. Ambiguous Cluster 7Area: 1336.10 sq.mt.R = 47 C = 46

8. Ambiguous Cluster 8Area: 3717.69 sq.mt.R = 96 C = 77

9. Ambiguous Cluster 9Area: 7718.91 sq.mt.R = 452 C =86

10. Ambiguous Cluster 10Area: 3678.09 sq.mt.R = 60 C = 79

CHAWLS NAGARS

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7 8

9 10

141516

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existing commeRciAL Zone

existing ResidentiAL Zone

So as to facilitate customer traffic, commercial activities are mainly aligned along the 90 Feet Road and junctions of Sector IV’s primary roads. These commercial units include meat stores, eateries, grocery and mechanics’ shops, and tailoring, all for local markets. Textiles, leather goods and jari work are mainly export-oriented.

The commercial zone comprises 9% of the total area of Sector IV. Commercial units form predominant selling hubs located in clusters along the streets.

Large residential clusters lining the inner part of the main streets are linked with secondary and tertiary pedestrian street networks. Small and large open spaces that are strategically placed within the residential network provide breathing space within an otherwise dense fabric.

The residential zone comprises 30% of the total area of Sector IV. Some of these residential units also house commercial and domestic workplaces for broom-making, food-making, embroidery, etc. It is indeed difficult to clearly demarcate what is residential, commercial, industrial or home-based because some combination or mixed pattern of living and working conditions are found everywhere in Dharavi.

ResidentiAL

owned & LeAsed types of tenements

VARiAtions on tHe use of spAce

ResidentiAL + commeRciALcommeRciAL

House Types

Fully Leased

Fully Residential

Fully Residential

Single Family Double FamiliesSeparate Rent

Residents On Shared Rent Family Basis Shared Individual Basis

Part Leased Out for Residence

Part Leased Out for Home-Based Industry/Commerce

Part Residential - Part Home-Based Industry/Commerce

Part Residential - Part Home-Based Industry/Commerce

Part Residential - Part Leased Out

Fully Owned

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This map indicates the areas demarcated as SRA housing and private lands. The SRA & private lands together comprise 29% of the total area of Sector IV. Most of the SRA buildings concentrate on the residential component of the scheme since the commercial component is sold as TDR. Even so, these buildings reveal a high density configuration with poor lighting conditions, high maintenance costs, lack of proper infrastructure and facilities. Since 2004, when DRP was approved, SRA housing has been disallowed.

sRA buiLdings & pRiVAte LAnds RoAds & ALLeys

A

c

ef

d

b

RoAd Ab cd ef2wHeeLeR 33 77 29bicycLe / HAAtH-gAAdi 8 4 71Auto 16 2 cAR 16 13tRuck 23 2goods cARRiAge 4 2

tRAffic LoAding AVeRAge no. of VeHicLes/HouR

Ab cd ef

pubLic toiLets

Common toilets have been constructed under public programmes. On an average, a toilet seat is shared by close to a thousand residents.

Public toilets and amenities comprise 1% of the total area of Sector IV.

Pedestrian pathways throughout Dharavi are connected to vehicular roads that go on to connect to the main roads of the city. The vehicular roads (AB, CD, and EF) mainly carry heavy vehicular traffic throughout the day. Commercial and industrial tenements, shops and informal markets line both sides of these roads. The narrow alleys filter the traffic and restrict vehicular movement - making them predominantly pedestrian, and safe and usable for children and residents.

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institutions

ReLigious institutionseducAtionAL institutionsmedicAL institutions

muLti-functionAL community open spAcesResidentiAL open spAces

Religious InstitutionsThere are religious institutions from small and large shrines to mosques and churches spread all over the area, sharing common gathering spaces and some strategically located within multifunctional open spaces. All religious activities are well integrated within the physical fabric and allow for strong social interaction during religious festivals as well as in day-to-day life.

Educational InstitutionsThe kind of educational institutions that are found in Dharavi are not very high-end but comprise small balwadis, primary schools and very few higher secondary schools. Though there are higher-level educational institutions outside Dharavi but close-by, it is necessary to assess local needs in relation to existing supply.

Medical InstitutionsThere are small ayurvedic, homeopathic and allopathic clinics spread within the residential/commercial fabric, responding to local community needs. Sion Hospital located on the Sion-Mahim Link Road is the main medical insitution for the people of Dharavi.

The larger open areas allow for multiple activities such as celebrating festivals, sports, markets, other community gatherings and work-related activities. They constitute a very important socio-cultural space, strengthening the community spirit of the people of Dharavi.

The smaller open spaces are used for day-to-day activites like washing/drying clothes, cutting vegetables, small-scale embroidery, etc. These serve as pause spaces for informal gatherings and for children to play besides providing breathing space.

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objectiVes of tHe mAsteR pLAn

mAke suRe tHAt peopLe ARe consuLted At eVeRy 1. stAge of dAtA coLLection, design, foRmuLAtion And impLementAtion. guARAntee tHAt no one is eVicted fRom dHARAVi2. .bReAk down fiVe sectoRs into numeRous 3. smALLeR cLusteRs bAsed on existing nAtuRAL And sociAL boundARies, And tAke into Account tHe need to pRotect peopLe’s LiVeLiHoods.witH tHe consent of tHe Residents of dHARAVi, 4. deVeLop A fRAmewoRk foR RedeVeLopment tHAt diVides dHARAVi into cLusteRs of AppRopRiAte siZe And kind, foLLowing A tRAnspoRt pLAn dRiVen by consideRAtion foR pedestRiAns RAtHeR tHAn VeHicuLAR tRAffic.pRepARe A pLAn foR infRAstRuctuRe And 5. sociAL Amenities witH An oRientAtion towARds pedestRiAniZAtion, wHicH is sepARAteLy finAnced And impLemented by pubLic AutHoRities. enAbLe LocAL sub-sectoRs/cLusteRs to tAke up 6. RedeVeLopment wHen tHey ARe pRepARed to do so And in A mAnneR tHey cHoose but witHin A set of guideLines.tAp AVAiLAbLe goVeRnment gRAnts And 7. subsidies, And expLoRe ARRAngements foR institutionAL finAnce botH foR infRAstRuctuRe And foR Housing. Limit tHe use of fLooR spAce index (fsi) As 8. finAnciAL incentiVe onLy to tHe extent tHAt is AbsoLuteLy necessARy to mAke tHe pRoject ViAbLe.

Strategy to Prepare a Master PlanA bird’s eye view of Dharavi would show a sea of tin roofs, some buildings and industrial enterprises seemingly located in random fashion. The central element of the alternative strategy is to map residents’ associations (proposed housing co-operatives), chawls and occupational groupings and commercial units, SRA housing and private lands, institutions and roads and alleys. This visual representation helped uncover patterns, housing typologies and their linkages within Dharavi, with the city, and globally. The CoE when presented with these underlined patterns came up with a set of guidelines. These form the basis of the strategy upon which an alternative master plan was conceptualized. They also make up the framework of rules and regulations within which the aspirations of residents for incremental housing can be formulated and defined. These guidelines are yet to be negotiated with GoM.

activists

stRAtegies

people’sorganizations

professionalsacademics

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government

stRAtegy: stRengHtening of RoAds

The first step towards initiating the redevelopment process was to ensure that all the infrastructure and amenities were in place. That involved strengthening of the road network of Sector IV. There are two main roads running across Sector IV connecting the 90 Feet Road and the road edging the sector boundary. The strategy adopted towards strengthening the road network was not to create any new roads unless necessary but to strengthen the existing roads by widening them such that they could permit the movement of heavy vehicular traffic. These roads form the primary road network across the region.

Presently, apart from these two main roads, there are numerous alleys and lanes which are entirely pedestrian in nature. Retaining this essential characteristic of the lanes, a secondary network of roads was established which interlink all the interior areas of Sector IV to either the primary roads or the main peripheral roads. The secondary roads thus become a completely pedestrian interface drawn along the edges of the existing boundaries of co-operative societies, chawls and nagars. Overlaying the secondary roads over the region helps divide the area into numerous pockets which comprise one or more societies and chawls. Although pedestrian in nature, these roads are designed to be wide enough to allow passage of emergency vehicles like fire trucks or ambulances.

One challenge has been to balance the competing interests of pedestrianization and vehicular traffic, recognizing that in order to attract cross-subsidy there will have to be an increase in the latter.

pRimARy VeHicuLAR RoAds

secondARy VeHicuLAR RoAds

mAjoRLy pedestRiAn - pARtLy VeHicuLAR RoAds

pRimARy VeHicuLAR RoAdsThe existing 90 Ft. and the T-junction Sion Link Roads will act as the major vehicular transport roads.

secondARy VeHicuLAR RoAdsThese are proposed to be 18 mts. wide as per the development control regulations. Smaller transport like haath-gaadis, cars and rickshaws can be permitted to ply on these roads but not heavy vehicles.

mAjoRLy pedestRiAn - pARtLy VeHicuLAR RoAdsThese are proposed to be 12 mts. wide as per the development control regulations. These roads will act mostly as pedestrian roads and occasionally as vehicular in specific situations.

The strategy clearly aims to strengthen existing roads. They are proposed so as to interlink all the interior areas of Sector IV without disturbing or cutting through the existing organizations of houses at the levels of co-operatives, chawls and nagars.

mApped co-opeRAtiVes, cHAwLs And nAgARs (Refer pg. 60)

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fsi pLAn

REHAB FSI Less THAN 1.5

REHAB FSI GREATER THAN 1.5 BuT LESS THAN 2

REHAB FSI GREATER THAN 2 BuT LESS THAN 2.5

REHAB FSI GREATER THAN 2.5 BuT LESS THAN 3

REHAB FSI GREATER THAN 3

density Less tHAn 500 tenements peR HectARe

density gReAteR tHAn 500 but Less tHAn 750 tenements peR HectARe

density gReAteR tHAn 750 but Less tHAn 1000 tenements peR HectARe

density gReAteR tHAn 1000 tenements peR HectARe

density pLAn

stRAtegy: stRengtHening of open spAces

The existing regulations under the DRP say that 1.25 hectares of recreational ground shall be provided for Sector IV. Presently, the open spaces remain scattered across Dharavi, most of which do not have direct road access. These open spaces are generally around religious institutions and are used during festivities and religious celebrations. Rather than creating new open spaces which would disturb the present scenario, the design strategy attempts to strengthen and upgrade the existing open spaces. These smaller intimate spaces would be under the control of local neighbourhood communities. Educational institutions will be placed adjoining these spaces, so that the grounds can also be used as playgrounds.

The establishment of roads and the demarcation of the open spaces have resulted in the division of Sector IV into numerous small clusters. These clusters comprise one or more societies, chawls and nagars and can be redeveloped on site individually.

The map shows the existing Floor Space Index for different clusters generated by the density of tenements on site.

The map shows the existing densities for different clusters.

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PROPOSED OPEN SPACES

PROPOSED INSTITuTIONS AND AMENITIES

stRAtegy: to eAcH its own scenARio

The strategy for planning evolved out of creating manageable clusters in terms of societies/chawls/nagars that can participate in taking decisions on the future of their own development. The road networks, open space networks, and the organization of amenities have been planned taking these into consideration. The residents of each cluster can take decisions on their redevelopment approach according to its needs. If the residents of a predominantly residential cluster believe that they would benefit more from the SRA approach, then they could appoint their own builder/developer. Another approach might be that if the residents of a cluster where work activity is predominant feel that the present SRA model is not suitable for them, then they may choose a model where they could partially self-finance their redevelopment.

Scenarios for redevelopment are thus predicated upon choices available to slum dwellers. The challenge for professionals is to work with communities of the poor to explain the implications of different scenarios so that the latter are prepared in their negotiations with government and development finance institutions.

scenARio one

diVisions sHowing foRmAtion of six sub-sectoRs foR deVeLopment

This scenario is based on the conventional SRA scheme where the community invites a builder to negotiate possibilities where both parties benefit. The co-operative societies, chawls and nagars amalgamate to form 23 large clusters. These further combine to form 6 large sub-sectors each of which could be independently developed.

diVisions sHowing co-op societies, cHAwLs,nAgARs

diVisions sHowing RoAds And foRmAtion of 23 LARge cLusteRs

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Strengthening the existing roads by widening them such that they permit the movement of vehicular and pedestrian traffic along these roads.

Demolition of tenements less than 300 sq.ft. and others that are affected by the widening of the roads. Formation and clearance of the areas within the cluster for micro-level intervention.

Rehabilitating the demolished residential and commercial tenements within the same cluster, along with providing small and big open spaces for existing and rehabilitated tenements.

scenARio two This is a scenario which can be applied to ambiguous clusters with work activities, where only slum dwellers who have less then 300 sq ft. houses agree to participate in the redevelopment process. Also, it assumes that those hutments which are demolished during road widening will be provided with a 300 sq. ft. house. In this scenario, the government funds the project partially and the remaining funds are arranged by the residents.

pLAn sHowing Ambiguous cLusteRs

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For the CoE, the project has deepened its understanding of both ground reality and community dynamics. This will be very useful for its role as a bridge between an informal Dharavi and the formal apparatus of government. What is presented has helped CoE articulate more sharply both its critique of DRP as well as the contours of an alternative. A firm grasp of grassroots reality enables CoE to better legitimize the alternative in its negotiations with State agencies.

For the Government of Maharashtra and for governments elsewhere, the project has much to contribute by way of exploring alternative approaches to slum redevelopment within existing informal settlements. The most obvious insight is the need to develop institutional protocols to document existing neighbourhoods and the role played by local residents in producing and maintaining them.

Dharavi and similar large informal settlements make us aware of the price paid and the costs incurred as a result of long neglect. Redevelopment becomes that much harder when the people’s incremental process has moved too far ahead for it to be reconciled with the requirements of a formal master plan.

Finally, the Dharavi Redevelopment Project also demonstrates the uncomfortable truth that informal localities attract the keen attention of the State and of the real estate industry, when the value of the lands they occupy, begins to soar.

Sheela Patel, Director, SPARCAneerudha Paul, Director, KRVIANovember 2010Mumbai

AfterwordswoRking togetHeR, LeARning togetHeR

What are the reasons for large areas of the city remaining informal? For one thing, state institutions and developmental interventions neglect them for long periods and leave them to their own devices. And when formal processes waken to the needs of these areas and populations, they do not know how to recognize and value the collective investments that people have made in producing and maintaining their neighbourhoods. unfortunately, the automatic reflex of official agencies seems to be to demolish what people have painstakingly built up.

The strategy crafted to formulate a master plan has been the outcome of a collaborative process between the residents of Dharavi, their community-based organizations, an academic institution and professional experts in dialogue with the Government of Maharashtra. Consultation and transparency have been the guiding principles of this work. This is a plan whose formulation first documents and acknowledges what communities and neighbourhoods have done, and then builds upon that foundation to produce a plan. The plan then forms the basis of a much-needed dialogue between the government and the residents of Dharavi rather than produce an image of a Dharavi in which people cannot see their lives and their livelihoods reflected.

This project has produced a wide range of insights for all who have participated in its implementation as well as for those who have assisted and supported this process in different ways. For the residents and their organizations, the very act of documenting their present realities has initiated them and their leadership into understanding how planning takes place, and how different variables - such as infrastructure, density, transportation options, financing and other elements - impact design and how that design will affect their lives. For KRVIA, as an academic institution committed to exposing its students and professional staff to the challenges of city planning and design, this project has been a great source of learning in terms of sensitizing professionals to the dynamics of community processes.

For the alliance of SPARC, Mahila Milan and NSDF and the Dharavi-based organizations, Dharavi Bachao Andolan and Dharavi Vikas Samiti, the project has proved to be a powerful educational tool to help the people of Dharavi move from just protest against what they feared and opposed, to participating in developing alternatives. Exploring alternatives is always harder than simply fuelling protests – particularly in a context where people are accustomed to informal, incremental and cumulative activities of building of homes and neighbourhoods but are now required by the formal planning process to deliver a full-bloom product.

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SPARCSociety for the Promotion of Area Resource Centres,

2nd Floor, Marathi Municipal School,1st Khetwadi Lane, Mumbai 400 004

Tel. +91 22 23858785, +91 22 23865053,sparc@sparcindia.org

www.sparcindia.org

KRVIAKamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute for Architectureand Environmental Studies.Vidyanidhi Marg, Off 10th Rd, Juhu SchemeMumbai 400 049Tel. +91 22 26700918, +91 22 26208539admin@krvia.ac.inwww.krvia.ac.in

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