Dinesh Kamath's Editorial (Builders have become politicians) that was published in Newsband

Builders have become politicians

There is quite a huge population of slum dwellers in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai. The root causes of this issue are three-fold. First is the unmitigated flow of population to this premier city, second is the lack of affordable housing for the poor and the third and the most important reason is that the Maharashtra politics is dominated by builders lobby. In all the major cities of Maharashtra, builders have become politicians and vice versa and this is true across all political parties. However, one may not misconstrue that all slum-dwellers are below-poverty line people. In fact many of them are quite industrious and economically well off. It is just that land is simply not available here and whatever was available has been grabbed by the politician-builder community. What is needed is the greater spread of the city with faster and efficient transport system, so that population can shift and commute faster.

Slum development is an important issue. But what is being sought to be done is on the platter of slum development, we give a lot of undue benefit to builders and developers and instead of rehabilitating the slumdwellers, there is a lot of population migration in the area concerned. This is a very sensitive subject.

Free houses for the poor are okay on paper but what is the reality? If slum dwellers are accommodated in the vicinity of high rise buildings, most of them are likely to sell their dwellings and move to another slum. This is because basically most of them are so poor that they cannot afford to pay the high monthly maintenance expenses of their new dwellings. Secondly, it is unwise to think of any housing plan for the poor without planning for its funding. A faulty funding plan would invariably jeopardize any housing scheme for the poor.

A foreigner called India a land of slums. It seems we are too much fascinated with this image of ours after 'Slumdog millionaire' got Oscar. Soon we will be one step ahead with an image 'India is a land of plunderers' with corruption malady rampant in every other field.  Corruption is a plague and we need to handle each patient with similar attention and care. The issue of corruption and issue relating to slum problems are both connected.

The problem relating to slums directly relates to public infrastructure and the ability to work and earn money. How can these slum dwellers be rehabilitated.  Help deal with their social grievances, increase public and private spending on infrastructure and get them permanent sustainable jobs; they will find a house for themselves. Is it asking for too much?