URBAN INFORMALITY
Engaging with socio-political and built-form issues surrounding informal urban communities through a variety of perspectives and processes.
The Production of Informality
Investigating the causes and catalysts for the the production of informal settlements in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region
Project done under the purview of Building Inclusive Urban Communities (BInuCom) which is a European Union Erasmus+ funded program to design an online open course-ware for design and planning professionals interested in informality and inclusive design. In association with Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute of Architecture, Mumbai.
Streets of Majiwade Settlement, Thane
Abstract
Informal settlements, commonly known as ‘Slums’ are a deep rooted and complexly interwoven part of the urban fabric of Indian Metropolises. As the country’s commercial capital, Mumbai is a hub for migration, and owing to the city’s inability to meet the extreme housing stock, home to 52 lakh slum dwellers (census 2011).With the onset of the new government and the ‘Housing for all’ scheme, a lot of the self-built settlements in Mumbai are facing rehabilitation in the name of development, caused by insensitive and exclusive policy making leading to inhumane treatment of slum dwellers.
The extent of this informality has spread to the entire MMR and beyond, and hence it is important to study the Region as whole to gain a deeper understanding of the causes, catalysts, and symptoms of the informal condition.
The inferences from this study could be used to drive sensitive policy making and better design decisions for dealing with informality.
Aim
This study aims to understand the causes, catalysts and symptoms, to describe the intangible processes of informal housing in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region and trace its stages of growth, from formation to legitimization of informal settlements.
Population Density analysis, Mumbai Metropolitan Region
Hillshade Analysis of sties studied in the MMR
Relationship between geography and informal settling
Research Problem
Mumbai Metropolitan Region is one of the country’s most populated areas, with more than 65% of the demographic living in informal housing. Formal housing is largely inaccessible and unaffordable for the EWS and LIG sectors. With the advent of the ‘Housing for all’ scheme by 2022, the formal housing sector is unable to meet the huge housing demand, even with public-private-participation schemes such as the SRS. Numerous informal settlements have been rehabilitated and SRA schemes built in place (1514 till date) but it is nothing compared to the demand. New migrants to the city access housing through the informal sector, which functions parallel to the formal sector, and is largely undocumented.
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It is pertinent to investigate the processes by which this informal housing sector functions to gain a comprehensive understanding of the inner workings of the sector - namely the stakeholders involved, issues of land and tenancy, systems of occupation and the relationships between them.
Shivajinagar, Deonar, Mumbai
Research Questions
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What are the specific conditions that make the environment conducive for informal housing in the MMR?
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What is the process by which migrants and urban poor (LIG,EWS) gain access to informal housing in the MMR?
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What are the stages of growth of informal settlements, from formation to legitimization?
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What is the relationship between occupational systems and informal settling?
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Who are the actors involved in the process of accessing informal housing and what is their relationship?
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How do the processes of gaining access vary from each other?
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How do the residents gain access to basic amenities like water supply, electricity, sanitation and waste management?
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What role does vote banking play in the formation and formalization of informal settlements?
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How do evictions affect the growth of informal settlements?
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What are the indicators of the 'rootedness' of an informal settlement?
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Bainganwadi, Deonar, Mumbai
Informal
Settlements
Land
Availability
Type of
Occupation
Settling
Mechanism
Government
Policy
Factors Affecting Informal settling
Methodology for carrying out study
Settlement Documentation
A rigorous documentation of 30 informal settlements in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region was conducted. The sites were located in different municipalities and urban governing bodies of the MMR, and had varying geographies. Individual sites were studied on the following factors:
1. Geography of site
2. Land ownership
3. Occupational Pull factor
4. Timeline of site growth, through infancy, consolidation and saturation
5. Built form and materials
6. Social Amenities (community space, religious buildings, schools,hospitals,)
7. Services (sanitation, water supply, electricity, drainage)
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Informality Grid
The sites were studied through the lens of the above mentioned factors, and were compared on an 'informality grid'. The objective of the grid is to give a comprehensive picture of the causes of informal settling and how those factors have manifested in the geography, built form, services and socio-politics of the settlement.
Each site has a corresponding diagram (seen here) that encapsulates the entirety of the settlement relevant to the study. The diagrams were then compared on the grid to show the trends, similarities and variations between the informal settlements in the MMR
Tracking growth of the site on the informality grid
Sample documentation of Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Nagar, Kalwa, located in Thane Municipal corporation
Exhibition of initial research and process at Kamla Raheja Institute of Architecture, Mumbai - December 2016
Resilience Mapping in Deonar, Mumbai
Freelance mapping done for a research project on the health resilience of Baiganwadi and Kamala Nagar, Deonar. The site was initially planned as a site and services scheme under the Rajiv Awas Yojana, but is currently classified as informal due to the adjacent settling over the years. The site is particularly vulnerable because of its close proximity to the Deonar Dumping Ground, which is abutting the site.
Mapping of Circulation, services and enivronmental hazards to the health of residents
Health Post Mapping in M-Ward, Mumbai
Freelance mapping done for Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. The project included representing cases of tuberculosis in M ward for a study on the health risks and the requisite health infrastructure in the administrative ward. The maps also contextualize the transport and stakeholders in the region, for easy comprehension by communities and local authorities.
Mapping transport Infrastructure
Location of Health Posts in M ward
Tuberculosis Prevalence in M Ward
