BETWEEN SHANTIES AND SKYSCRAPERS: Evaluating Public-Private Partnership in Mumbai Slum Redevelopment

Abstract

Since liberalization in the 90s, India has seen massive economic growth and rapid urbanization. While a macroeconomic triumph in many ways, this urbanization, coupled with the resultant population growth and exponentially increasing property values, has resulted in a dire deficit in affordable housing stock across Indian cities. As a result, despite India’s economic success, nearly half of the population of mega-cities like Mumbai live in large informal settlements or slums described as “unfit for human habitation.”

The World Bank proposes public-private partnerships (PPPs) and enabling neoliberal housing development as a solution to both unlocking the land value of centrally-located slum regions and improving slum resident welfare. Indian city governments have endorsed this strategy with enthusiasm. In Mumbai, these ideas are enacted through the SRS - the Slum Redevelopment Scheme. This approach has the state take a backseat in development as, instead, it acts as a facilitator for the private sector to redevelop slum buildings on a cross-subsidy compensation basis.

This study qualitatively assesses the impacts of value-based, capital-led development under Mumbai’s Slum Redevelopment Scheme from the perspective of the dwellers of redeveloped high-rises. Specifically, it considers if welfare objectives have been sufficiently protected alongside economic objectives in PPP-led slum redevelopment. Using semi-structured interviews, I asked each resident how they perceive the challenges and advantages of public-private slum redevelopment and their satisfaction with their housing arrangements. My findings suggest that while many residents broadly support development and believe in capital-led development as a solution, there are significant gaps in resident welfare in SRS units, such as subpar physical and social conditions, economic disruption, and concerns about future housing security. Further, in some cases, these welfare gaps cumulatively build to people moving out of redeveloped units and to informal settlements elsewhere due to unaffordability. My findings also suggest deep differences in satisfaction between residents of on-site and off-site rehabilitation. Drawing from these findings, I present policy considerations from which legislators can draw to inform their future actions on market-based slum redevelopment and inclusive growth at large, especially as the city of Mumbai moves away from the SRS-era strategy and into a new era of private capital-led slum redevelopment in the wake of the Adani acquisition of Dharavi.