Uneven development in different parts of the country leads to migration to few urban centres causing pressure of population on their infrastructure.
Rapid growth of population and poverty force poor people to live in slums leading to their expansion.
High prices of land and high rent in urban areas creates dearth of affordable housing forcing people to move to slums.
Lack of urban planning is a major factor in development of slums.
Challenges
Inadequate Provision of Necessary Amenities: Slums lack basic amenities like access to clean drinking water, sanitation, waste collection systems, sewerage and electricity, etc.
Overcrowding and High Density: Overcrowding has been linked to low space per person, high occupancy rates, different families living together, and a lot of one-room units.
Substandard Housing/Illegal and Inadequate Building Structures: Slum areas have a high number of substandard housing structures (non-compliant with building standards), often built with non-permanent materials.
Insecure Tenure: Slum-dwellers lack ownership title to the land they reside. They are under perennial risk of evacuation including harassment by land-mafia.
Poverty and Social Exclusion: Slums are considered as social exclusion areas that are often perceived to have high levels of crime and other social dislocation measures
Vulnerability of Weaker Sections: Slum-dwelling women and children are at a higher risk of falling victim to social ills such as prostitution, beggary and trafficking.
Government Initiatives
Slum Areas (Improvement and Clearance) Act, (1956): The Act is intended to provide for the improvement and clearance of slum areas in certain Union Territories and for the protection of tenants in such areas from eviction.
National Slum Development Programme (NSDP): It was initiated in 1996. It provided both loans and subsidies to States for slum rehabilitation projects on the basis of their urban slum population.
Valmiki Ambedkar Malina Basti Awas Yojana (VAMBAY): It was introduced in 2001. It was focused on shelter for the urban poor, with 20% of total allocation for community sanitation facilities under the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA) program.
Basic Services to the Urban Poor (BSUP): BSUP was an important component of Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). BSUP aimed to provide basic services to urban poor in 63 largest cities in India by population.
