India: Bombay Slum Dwellers Priced Out As Shacks Sell For £50k

1:31am UK, Tuesday December 13, 2011
Alex Rossi, India correspondent
India's poor are being priced out of slum areas in Mumbai with some shacks being sold for more than £50,000 ($78,091.10).

The Dharavi slum, which is home to more than one million people, used to be on the edge of India's richest city.
But as Mumbai expanded it now enjoys a prime centrally-located position.
Residents of Dharavi can get anywhere in the traffic choked-city relatively quickly.
We were shown around one dwelling by Raju. His house is tiny but he shares it with his wife, children and parents.

There is a vibrant community life in Dharavi slum

Its size though has not stopped him getting an offer of £53,000 for the property even though he does not own the land underneath the building.
"There is great interest here," he explains. "There is a commercial complex next door and that complex wants to expand so my house is now very valuable."
Mumbai's shanties began life as clusters of illegal dwellings on public property, including parks, roads and pavements. Politicians realising the number of votes on hand made them a permanent feature of the landscape by providing electricity and water.
The Dharavi slum is also home to many flourishing businesses and has a unique economy worth hundreds of millions of pounds.
As the rag shops, metal factories and food kitchens have become richer so have their owners.
Sheik Yusuf, a builder, can afford to leave but says moving out is not an option in a city where the average commute is measured in hours not minutes.
But the slum which started as a place for the economically destitute is now out of reach for many.
Rajendra, a local politician, fights for the rights of the poor. He says many people now have no chance of ever finding a home.
"Land costs more, nobody can afford it. It means the person struggling for the livelihood for their day-to-day livelihood is not in a position to come here. It is unaffordable."
It does of course create questions. With India's population continuing to grow and many people migrating from the countryside to cities like Mumbai, where will all these extra people live?

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