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CONDITIONS OF URBAN SLUMS AND ITS QUALITY OF LIFE IN INDIA: A

REGIONAL ANALYSIS

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 Journal of Regional Development and Planning, Vol. 7, No.1, 2018 71

CONDITIONS OF URBAN SLUMS AND ITS QUALITY OF LIFE IN INDIA: A

REGIONAL ANALYSIS

Donald R Mawkhlieng1, Solomon Debbarma2

Slums are those areas which have the highest concentration of people under the worst shelter,
physical and environmental conditions in urban region. This study attempts to understand the
conditions and the quality of life in the urban slums of six different regions in India using the
urban slums 69th round national sample survey data. Bivariate analysis was used to examine the
conditions and composite index, and standard deviation technique was used to understand the
quality of life.
INTRODUCTION
With faster urbanization rate, Asia and Africa is expected to experience a drastic population shift
in the coming decades. It is estimated that vast majority of the increase in urban population world-
wide will confine in Asian and African countries. According to United Nation, World urbanization
prospects (2014), India alone is expected to add 404 million urban dwellers to the world’s urban
population between 2014 and 2050. Urban cities are basically hub for economic activities where
trade and commerce takes place, location of government offices, educational institutions,
industries, availability of improve transport and communication facilities, healthcare, accessibility
to better opportunities, socially diverse environment and many others. The share of urban
population in India grew from 28% in 2001 to 31% in 2011 as per Census India data, urban cities
of India today have more than 377 million population and is increasing over time. The push and
pull factors has driven many people to migrate to urban cities and eventually resulted in rapid and
unplanned urbanization. The rise in unplanned urbanization stimulated by fast growing population
density is quite alarming as it threatens the sustainable development of urban cities. UN Habitat,
world cities report (2016) has highlighted that mounting number of slum dwellers and in other
informal settlements in urban cities particularly in the developing world have been one of the
constant cause of concern for policy makers in the last 20 years. Slum and poverty go hand in
hand (D’souza, 1979) and the severity of slums problem is the reflection of static development
level and wide inequality in the income and wealth of the citizens. India’s economy has grown by
an average of 8 percent annually over the past few years, and yet a quarter of its population of 1.1
billion still lives on less than a dollar per day.
Rural to urban population flow accompanied with the lack of preparedness by the government in
its urban planning vision has left many poor families with no choice but to live in low cost
housing and to compromise with insufficient, overcrowding and dilapidated spaces. UN-Habitat
recognized areas with lack of durable housing, insufficient living space, unavailability of adequate
drinking water, sanitation and lack of security of tenure as slums. However, the definition of slums
varies from country to country, region to region and by different competent and authoritative
bodies. Government of India in its Improvement and Clearance of Slum Areas Act of 1956
specified slums as the areas that are in any respect unfit for human habitation or are by reason of
dilapidation, overcrowding, faulty arrangement and design of such buildings, narrowness or faulty
arrangement of streets, lack of ventilation, light or sanitation facilities, or any combination of these
factors, are detrimental to safety, health or morals.
72 JOURNAL OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING

Registrar General of India in Census India data of 2011 too uses the same definition as the
Government of India, Improvement and Clearance of Slum Areas Act of 1956 and categorize
slums into three main types (i) notified (ii) recognized and (iii) identified slums. This study uses
the National Sample Survey Office, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation,
Government of India definition of Slums where in its 69th NSS round of 2012 have identified
slums as (i) notified slums meaning those slums notified by the respective municipalities,
corporations, local bodies or development authorities and (ii) non notified, cluster of 20
households with pre-defining criteria as crowding, inadequate access to sanitation and drinking
water and unhygienic conditions. Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (MoHUPA)
recently in 2016 defined slum as a compact area of at least 300 people or about 60-70 households
of poorly built tenements in an unhygienic environment with inadequate infrastructure and lacking
basic facilities. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in its Sustainable Development
Goals has emphasized through Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities to ensure
accessibility to safe and affordable housing and up-gradation of slums in urban spaces of the
world.
Recognizing that people have a fundamental right to live with basic dignity and in decent
conditions, Government of India has implemented a number housing related policies at different
points of time incorporating slum rehabilitation in cities development framework. Government of
India in 2005 instituted an ambitious project- “Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission
(JNNURM)” under Basic Services to the Urban Poor (BSUP) and Integrated Housing and Slum
Development Programme (IHSDP) where it introduced provisions towards making housing
available for the urban poor through fund allocation. Likewise government undertook others
ventures like National Urban Livelihoods Mission, Rajiv Rinn Yojana etc. refinancing schemes
such as Urban Housing Fund Refinance Scheme, Special Refinance Scheme for Low Income
housing, Refinance Scheme for Construction Finance for Affordable Housing. Indian government
again initiated a scheme called “Rajiv Awas Yojana” in 2011 with the aim to curb the slum
problem across the country by providing the slum dwellers a decent shelter, basic amenities and a
dignified life. The government in jointly in collaboration with the state governments and private
players envisaged through this scheme to accommodate urban poor through affordable housing in
its effort to build a slum-free cities in India. Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation
(MoHUPA) started a new scheme named Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) in 2015 with the
prospect to achieve a slum-free India by 2022 in its vision of “housing for all” expedition. Studies
have shown that the number of slums are reducing in India where it reduced to 33510 slums in
2012 from 51688 in the year 2002 (MoSPI NSS report 2015). The reason for the declining number
of slums and the comparatively low growth rate of urban slum population as compared to the
urban population could be accredited to the government policies in the slum-free campaign and
another explanation for this is the low domestic migration rates among the economically weak
population (Kumar, 2010).
Census India reveals that slums households in India were around 13 million in 2011 and India’s
slum population has increased to over 65 million in 2011 from 52 million in 2001. The slum
population is estimated to have reach 104 million by 2017 and this pose as a challenge for urban
planners towards achieving sustainable urban development and to provide even a minimum
quality of life for the urban population. It is generally known that slums lacks basic amenities and
 Journal of Regional Development and Planning, Vol. 7, No.1, 2018 73

services like proper housing, safe drinking water and sanitation, healthcare, education among
others which have direct or indirect effects on the health status and quality of life of the slum
dwellers. Many studies have emphasized on the linkage between the health conditions of people
residing in the urban slums against a backdrop of unfit living conditions in the urban slums
exposure to unhygienic living environment, economic burden are some of the major reasons for
widespread chronic diseases in urban slums around the world. 86-90% of the slum households in
Mumbai reported to respiratory problems like cough, cold, breathing problem, fever and other
allergies. Malaria is also rampant, more than two-fifth of the households complained having
digestive problems like diarrhea, heartburn, constipation and around 38 percent of the slum
dwellers reported having aches and pains in the body (IIPS, 2016). Adane et al. (2017) explains
that poor hygienic state of sanitation facilities in the slum were the high risk factor for developing
acute diarrheal problems among children. One plausible reason for low health condition in urban
slums of India could be because of low utilization of modern scientific healthcare as study found
that most of the people in slums around Mumbai opted for traditional healers and public hospitals
are geographically remoteness to the slums (IIPS, 2016). Better health is the outcome of having
greater access to healthcare facilities and it is this irregularity of healthcare utilization which cause
uneven gap in the health status of different slums. Agarwal and Taneja (2005) pointed that there
exist disparity in health conditions of children among different urban slums of India. Study found
that slums with low accessibility to services like providing adequate water electricity, drainage etc.
were found to be in much poorer child health condition as compared to the slums with better
accessibility to such services. Usmani and Ahmad (2018) in their study illustrated that the urban
poor slum population were more vulnerable to diseases and have high infant and child under
nutrition as compared even to rural population. Another important finding in the study was the low
prevalence of healthcare utilization among the slum residents with less access to healthcare
facilities as immunization, antenatal care, delivery by health professionals etc. Studies also
elucidate that lifestyle related diseases is more common among the slum population for instance
hypertension, atherosclerosis, heart diseases, diabetes, stroke and other non -communicable
diseases were found to have high prevalence in urban slums of India (Anand et al., 2007;
Karthikeyan, 2016). The general explanation to the high non-communicable situation in such areas
can be relate to the high prevalence of tobacco, alcohol consumption, lack of physical activities,
unhealthy diet intake etc.
World Health Organisation defines Quality of Life as individual’s perception of their position in
life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals,
expectations, standards and concerns. It is a broad ranging concept affected in a complex way by
the person's physical health, psychological state, level of independence, social relationships,
personal beliefs and their relationship to salient features of their environment (WHO, 1997).
Quality of life is multidimensional and that coverage may be categorised within five dimensions:
physical wellbeing, material wellbeing, social wellbeing, emotional wellbeing, and development
and activity (Felce & Perry, 1995). Though urbanization is said to be the sign of progress and
development but the reality is, poverty is growing faster in urban areas then in rural areas which
could be accounted to high cost of living. The high concentration of poverty driven migrants in
urban centres pushes them to settle in worse living condition with extremely poor hygiene and
unsafe environment eventually leads to degradation of quality of life and formation of slums.
74 JOURNAL OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING

Numerous studies have highlighted that slum residents are more at risk for decline in the quality of
life, Izutsu et al. (2006) in a comparative study between the adolescents from slum and non-slum
areas of Dhaka found that adolescents from slum areas reported to have lower quality of life and
worse physical condition. Similarly, Sundari (2003) studied the quality of life of migrant
household living in slums of Coimbatore, a city located in South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The
study found that the conditions of household in the slums were deplorable with insufficiency in a
basic necessities and is unfit for health with women and children the worse sufferers. The study
concluded that the household of migrant slum dwellers have very low quality of life after
considering the different aspects of living conditions surrounding the slums. ElFouly and El Aziz
(2017) in their study to understand the immediate indicators needed to enhance the quality of life
in the unsafe slums of Egypt is the better provision in making necessary arrangement for cheap
water supply, improved sanitation and proper waste management. Literature basically emphasized
that deteriorating conditions of slums is having degrading effect on the quality of life of slum
dwellers, but it is a known fact that all slums are not alike and varies from region to region or
place to place. Whether much improved slums are concentrated only on areas where socio-
economic conditions are much developed or vice-versa, whether the place effect determine the
level of quality of life of slum is another is dimension which is not much explored. Only a dearth
number of studies have attempted to understand the variations in the quality of life in India for
instance Jha and Tripathi (2014) have attempted to identify the slums with different levels of
Quality of Life using the composite Index and Standard deviation techniques. They found that
Varanasi city has slums which are categorized as very low and low categories based on quality of
life using the different indicators of well-being. India is a diverse country with varying culture,
traditions and socio-economic development among the regions, it is important to understand the
differentials of quality of life of slums located at different regions of the country.
Although India is progressing in its effort to expunge slum problems but the pursuit to achieve
slum-free nation and furthermore having a sustainable development in urban areas has still a long
way to go. With the enormity of India’s population, United Nations Millennium Development
Goals report, 2014 reported that in 2010, one third of the world’s 1.2 billion extreme poor lived in
India alone which is obvious that India will be having more slums if urban population is left
unchecked and urgent response is not given. According to U.N.'s ‘2014 Revision of the World
Urbanisation Prospects report, India will add 404 million urban dwellers between 2014 and 2050,
therefore comprehensive, idealistic and systematic urban planning is the need of the hour to usher
sustainable urban growth in Indian cities. India’s slum population at present is more than the
population of Italy or UK (Salve, 2015) and the seriousness of their plight can be understood by
the fact that slum dwellers who accounts for around 27 percent of the country’s population
occupy only 5 percent of the urban land area (Swani, 2017). With the present slum scenario,
government is left with an uphill task of not only in eradicating the existing slums but to prevent
its further development as it likely that slum problems will proliferate into sleepy towns and semi-
rural areas (Dash, 2013). Different regions or states of India have different socio-economic
development which is commonly associated with population growth and urbanization, urban slum
and informal settlements occur mostly in regions or states which are socially and economically
developed as these places attracts more of the poor population. Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh
have the largest slum population as per census India 2011, however in contrary to this, in a recent
 Journal of Regional Development and Planning, Vol. 7, No.1, 2018 75

state wise study on slum-like households in India it was revealed that states with the highest slum-
like households are Chhattisgarh (18%), Odisha (17%), Jharkhand (14%), Tamil Nadu (11%) and
Bihar (10%) as in 2008-09 (Chopra, 2017). The reason to this variation as mentioned could be
because of the different operational definitions used in Census and Survey data, the other could be
the different points of time. Another possible reason which need further probe is the conditions of
slums; whether the improvement in slum conditions of some states or region is faster than the
other is another rationalization to understand the variation. As great strides have been made by the
government towards slum free campaign through national mission, but evidence have suggests
that slum problem is not homogeneous, different regions responds differently towards slum issues,
therefore a comparative study of slum pertaining to development of slum conditions and its quality
of life based on regional level is very relevant for urban planner to realize the goal of sustainable
urban development. Moreover, there are dearth number of studies which highlights the regional
variation in the condition and quality of life among the urban slums of India. This paper is
intended to study the improvement of conditions of urban slums in different regions of India and
to examine the regional level quality of life of urban slums in India and lastly to compare the
quality of life of urban slums of different regions of India.
DATA AND METHODOLOGY
The National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) conducted all India Survey on urban slums and
slum households in the 69th round from July to December 2012. The information collected on
this survey included information on drinking water, sanitation, hygiene and housing condition of
urban households and urban slums. The slums sample were taken using the random sampling
technique from the urban blocks of the whole country and overall the survey multi-stage stratified
sampling were done in the survey study. It is the fifth survey done for collecting information from
slums in India. The survey captured many slums characteristics such as proportions of slums
without electricity, drainage facility available, major source of drinking water, latrine facility,
garbage disposal, household structure etc. and information were taken relating to slums which are
notified and not notified. Total sample surveyed is 881 throughout the country. In this paper, an
attempt was made to merge the states according to their region such as Northern, eastern, western,
central, southern and North-eastern regions of India. Descriptive statistics and Composite Index
and Standard Deviation Technique using relevant indicators were used to reach the objectives of
the study.
For operational purposes, NSSO, 69th round defined slums were as follows:
 Areas notified as slums by the concerned municipalities, corporations, local bodies or
development authorities were termed notified slums.
 Also, any compact settlement with a collection of poorly built tenements, mostly of
temporary nature, crowded together, usually with inadequate sanitary and drinking water
facilities in unhygienic conditions, was considered a slum by the survey, provided at least
20 households lived there. Such a settlement, if not a notified slum, was called a non-
notified slum. (Note that while a non-notified slum had to consist of at least 20
households, no such restriction was imposed in case of notified slums.)
 Slums: The word “slum” covered both notified slums and non-notified slums.
76 JOURNAL OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Educational Facility
Educational facilities in urban slums are unevenly distributed in the regions. At aggregate level 60
per cent slums have shown no change, about 28 per cent have shown improvement. Still 12 per
cent slums do not have educational facilities. These shares are similar across the regions except
that improvement is relatively more in northeast region followed by eastern.
Drainage facility
Only about one-third of slums across the country have witnessed improvement in drainage
facilities while more than 45 per cent shows no change. In northeast India drainage facilities do
not exist in half the slums while the remaining half shows no change in situation. Improvement is
relatively more in southern region.
Figure 1
Change in Condition of Educational Facility of Urban Slums in last five years

Source: Source: Author’s calculation based on NSSO 69th round.

Figure 2
Change in Condition of Drainage Facility of Urban Slums in last five years

Source: Author’s calculation based on NSSO 69th round.

 Journal of Regional Development and Planning, Vol. 7, No.1, 2018 77

Medical Facilities
In 20 per cent slums across the country medical facilities do not exist. There has been no change in
situation in 60 per cent of slums while in the remaining one-fifth there has been improvement.
Non-existence is relatively more in northeastern region, followed by central India. However,
improvement has also been relatively more in northeastern region, followed by eastern India. In
other regions, the pattern is almost similar.
Road Approaching the Slum
Approach roads are existent in almost all the slums. There is an overall improvement in the
situation in all the regions, especially in northern India, followed by central and southern India.
Situation has not changed in Further in case of no change northeast is sharing highest percentage
i.e. 66.7 percent and 52.1 in western India; 44.6 percent in eastern India; 43.1 southern India.
Figure 3
Change in Condition of Medical Facility of Urban Slums in last five years

Source: Author’s calculation based on NSSO 69th round.

Figure 4
Change in Condition of Approach Roads of Urban Slums in last five years

Road approaching to slums

80
70
60
50
40
Percent

30
20
10
0
Northern Northeast Eastern Central Western Southern
Total
India India India India India India
Improvement 64.8 33.3 51.1 62.5 44.5 53.7 53.6
No change 29.6 66.7 44.6 33.3 52.1 43.1 42.5
Deterioration 4.2 0.0 3.3 2.1 0.7 2.4 2.3
Doesn't exist 1.4 0.0 1.1 2.1 2.7 0.8 1.7
Source: Author’s calculation based on NSSO 69th round.
78 JOURNAL OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING

Road within the Slum

Central India has seen the most significant improvement in availability of roads within slums
followed by Southern India. Western and North-eastern states have witnessed the least
improvement. Even then, there are slums where no roads exist till now.
Water Supply condition
Water supply condition has seen substantial improvement in all the regions, especially in Southern
states. However, water supply still does not exist in one-third of the slums in north-eastern India.
In northern India more than 10 per cent of slums have witnessed deterioration in water availability.
Figure 5
Change in Condition of Roads within Urban Slums in last five years

Source: Author’s calculation based on NSSO 69th round.

Figure 6
Change in Water Supply Facility within Urban Slums in last five years

Source: Author’s calculation based on NSSO 69th round.

 Journal of Regional Development and Planning, Vol. 7, No.1, 2018 79

Street lighting
It is observed that in about 12 per cent of the slums street light facility does not exist. This
proportion is extremely high in north-eastern India where just one-third of the slums have street
lighting and where the situation has not improved in any slums over the last five years. At the
aggregate level and also in the other regions, situations of street lighting has improved in around
40 per cent of the slums.
Electricity
Electricity facilities in the slums have improved dramatically in the northern and the north-eastern
states. Non-availability of electricity is highest in eastern region followed by central region.
Figure 7
Change in Condition of Street Lighting in Urban Slums in last five years

Street light condition

80
70
60
50
Percent

40
30
20
10
0
Northern Northeast Eastern Central Western Southern
Total
India India India India India India
Improvement 43.7 0.0 45.1 42.7 38.4 46.3 42.4
No change 43.7 33.3 29.7 36.5 52.7 49.6 43.7
Deterioration 0.0 0.0 2.2 2.1 2.1 0.8 1.5
Doesn't exist 12.7 66.7 23.1 18.8 6.9 3.3 12.4

Source: Author’s calculation based on NSSO 69th round.

Figure 8
Change in Electricity Facility in Urban Slums in last five years

Electricity facility
70
60
50
Percent

40
30
20
10
0
Northern Northeast Eastern Central Western Southern
Total
India India India India India India
Improvement 53.5 50.0 48.4 42.7 34.9 33.3 40.9
No change 43.7 50.0 44.0 52.1 61.0 64.2 54.8
Deterioration 1.4 0.0 1.1 1.0 0.7 1.6 1.1
Doesn't exist 1.4 0.0 6.6 4.2 3.4 0.8 3.2

Source: Author’s calculation based on NSSO 69th round.

80 JOURNAL OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING

Latrine facilities
Latrine facilities is perhaps the most critical lacunae with close to one-fifth of the slums not having
this facility and have to resort to open defecation. Situation is particularly poor in central India. In
about one-third of the slums situation has improved in the last five years, though the pace of
progress is slowest in northern region.
Sewerage condition
Sewerage facility is also equally poor and in more than one-third of the slums this facility is non-
existent, especially so in central and eastern states. While in more than half of the slums there has
been no change in last five years, in about one-fifth there has been some improvement over this
period.
Figure 9
Change in Latrine Facility in Urban Slums in last five years

Source: Author’s calculation based on NSSO 69th round.

Figure 10
Change in Sewerage Facility in Urban Slums in last five years

Source: Author’s calculation based on NSSO 69th round.

 Journal of Regional Development and Planning, Vol. 7, No.1, 2018 81

Garbage collection & disposal facility

Garbage collection and disposal is another area of concern as its absence directly affects health
and environment. In more than 17 per cent of slums there is no garbage collection facility, more so
in north-eastern and eastern India. Situation has improved substantially in southern regions,
followed by western states.
Figure 10
Change in Sewerage Facility in Urban Slums in last five years

Garbage facility
70
60
50
40
30
Percent

20
10
0
Northern Northeast Eastern Central Western Southern
Tota
India India India India India India
Improvement 25.4 16.7 27.5 34.0 40.7 57.7 38.9
No change 56.3 50.0 42.9 45.7 37.9 33.3 41.7
Deterioration 0.0 0.0 4.4 1.1 2.1 1.6 1.9
Source: Author’s
Doesn't existcalculation based on NSSO
18.3 33.369th round.25.3 19.2 19.3 7.3 17.6
QUALITY OF LIFE
In the present study altogether 12 variables are considered for the measuring the quality of life in
the urban slum of different region of India (Table 1). These are: Source of Drinking Water(X1),
Sources of Electricity (X2), Garbage Disposal (X3), Latrine facility (X4), Drainage facility (X5),
Whether Waterlogged during Rainy season(X6), House Types (X7), Physical Location of Slum
(X8), Type of area surrounding the slum (X9), Road Approach to the Slum (X10), Distance of the
Government Primary School (X11), and Distant of Government Hospital (X12). For all these
indicators, a scaling method was adopted where the best possible option for a particular facility
was provided higher score compared to the worst possible option (see Table 1 for details).
After calculating the composite score, we notice that apart from southern India the quality of life
in urban slums is still poor (Table 2). As the analysis shows that people in North-eastern and
Eastern India still don’t have the basics need like good sources of water. And when we talk in
terms of garbage management which has to do with health and hygiene than the study shows that
54 percent slums in eastern India still don’t have any kind of management for garbage disposal,
while 63 percent of the urban slums still do not have any kind of toilet facilities. Drainage system
is poor in all the regions but more so in northeastern India, followed by eastern India. Water
logging after rains is also a serious issue as 40-50 percent urban slums still face this problem every
year. About 30 percent of the houses are still kutcha in northeastern and northern India. Settlement
of slums are mostly near drain/river bank in all the regions. Schools are sources of human capital
formation and may bring in change the conditions of life to the children of slums dwellers. But we
find that still about 30 percent of the schools are located more than 1 km away from the slums area
in northeastern India. Similar figures are noted for hospitals too.
82 JOURNAL OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING

Table 1
Selected Variables for Quality of Life in urban slums of India and their X Values
Variable Parameters Indicators Score
Tap 3
Major Source of
X1 Tube Well/Borehole 2
Drinking Water
Well 1
Neither HH Nor Street 1
Whether Slum has
X2 Either HH Or Street Light 2
Electricity
HH & Street Lights 3
No Arrangement 1
X3 Garbage Disposal Residents 2
Municipality/Corporate 3
No Latrine 1
X4 Latrine Facility Dry Pit 2
Flush 3
No Drainage 1
X5 Drainage Type Open Drainage 2
Covered Drainage 3
Whether Water- Yes 2
X6 logged During
No 1
Rainfall
Katcha 1
X7 Type of Structure
Pucca 2
Drain/River Bank 1
Physical Location Railway Line 2
X8
of the Slum Hilly Terrain 3
Park/Open Space 4
Slums 3
Area surrounding
X9 Industrial/Commercial 2
the Slum
Residential 1
Approach Road to Katcha 1
X10
the Slum Pucca 2
More Than 1km 1
Distance of Govt.
X11 0.5-1km 2
Primary School
Less Than 0.5km 3
More Than 1km 1
Distance of Govt.
X12 0.5-1km 2
Hospital
Less Than 0.5km 3

Table 2
Composite Score for Urban Slums of India
X1 X2 X3 X4 X5 X6 X7 X8 X9 X10 X11 X12 Aggregate
Northern India 2.8 2.6 1.9 2.0 1.7 1.5 1.8 2.4 1.7 1.8 2.4 1.6 24.0
NE India 2.2 2.3 2.2 2.6 1.5 1.5 1.7 2.2 1.0 1.7 2.3 2.0 23.1
Eastern India 2.4 2.5 1.9 1.7 1.6 1.5 1.8 1.6 1.4 1.8 2.6 1.5 22.2
Central India 2.6 2.7 2.2 2.0 1.7 1.4 1.9 2.3 1.6 1.9 2.3 1.5 24.1
Western India 2.8 2.7 2.3 2.2 2.1 1.4 1.9 2.5 1.6 1.8 2.4 1.7 25.3
Southern India 2.9 2.9 2.6 2.5 2.1 1.4 1.9 2.0 1.8 1.8 2.7 1.8 26.4
Source: Author’s calculation based on NSSO 69th round.
 Journal of Regional Development and Planning, Vol. 7, No.1, 2018 83

CONCLUSION
According to Census of India, increase in slum population from 2001 to 2011 across the country is
2.1 times of overall urban population and increase in slum households is 1.5 times of all urban
households. Average household size in slum areas is also higher than that in overall urban areas.
The slum dilemma still lingers and is rampant in the mega cities of India. If slum growth is
uncontrolled and not contained effectively, it would be an imminent peril to the quality of life and
sustainability of urban cities in general and the slum dwellers in particular. This study, using a
composite score based on indicators of quality of life in urban slums, clearly brings out that urban
slums located in Southern India are doing much better in terms of quality of life, followed by
Western India. The slums in North-eastern and Eastern regions are lagging far behind. This
hierarchy loosely reflects the order of socio-economic development of the regions in India. A
factor that could pose as a conundrum towards ‘Slum Free India’ campaign is this regional
disparity among them, which is widening over time. Among several reasons for disparities in
regional development, one plausible reason is the sluggish economic growth, especially industrial
development. This is pushing un-absorbed surplus primary sector labour into the cities, increasing
the slum-density. Naturally the pressure and problems are more in the relatively lagging regions of
the country. Degrading slum condition and poor quality of life underlines the need to have
regional based contextual urban planning in India, especially in the lagging regions.
__________________________

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