A little off the western corridor of the Outer Ring Road (ORR), which runs along the perimeter of Bengaluru, less than a kilometre away from Laggere bridge, stand hundreds of identical buildings along kachcha roads in stark contrast to the other sights along the arterial road. In these buildings, commonly called “slum quarters”, live thousands of people who were previously staying in small sheds or tents.
The Karnataka Slum Development Board (KSDB) has built over 16,000 houses on an expanse of 60 acres in this area. These housing units, each measuring roughly 300 sq. ft, are occupied by a variety of people such as construction labourers, domestic workers, garments unit workers, drivers, teachers, and their families. The average income of these families ranges between ₹10,000 and ₹15,000 a month.
There are three floors above the ground floor in every building and each floor has four houses. Although these buildings were handed over to the dwellers a little over a decade ago, they appear significantly older. In many houses, the concrete has chipped away so much that the steel reinforcement of the pillars is visible. One cannot ignore the stench, the buzz of insects, and the sight and smell of sewage flowing along these quarters.
A few men who were playing ‘chakkar’ (a folk game) stopped midway and accompanied this reporter to give a tour of their locality. “Look at the condition of this road. It is in a shambles. We have seen three or four motorists fall on this unlevelled road in the last few days alone,” says Naga Reddy, a construction worker. He is the in-house repairer of the roofs and walls of the buildings that get damaged due to seepage of rainwater.
The residents say the quarters provided by the Karnataka Slum Development Board at Laggere in Bengaluru lack basic facilities.
| Photo Credit:
Ravichandran N.
Lack of basic facilities
At the Laggere quarters, the residents say dilapidated roads and blocked sanitary chambers are their primary problems. “We pool resources from our own pockets, which might come up to a few thousand, to get these chambers cleaned. As the buildings are on different levels and because there are no restraining walls, sewage easily flows into low-lying areas, and when it rains, the roads get flooded, making it impossible for children to even access the government school in the locality,” says Aravind, who works in a private company.
The lack of law and order is another problem the residents flag. “If you are a stranger walking by on these roads after sunset, then there is a high chance that you will be mugged. The road that provides us access to the bus stop on the main road turns into an adda for some boys to consume alcohol and drugs at night. It is scary, especially for women and children, to walk on the roads,” a woman from Laggere housing quarters said.
The Laggere housing quarters for slum-dwellers are said to be the biggest in the city, and yet, the problems that haunt the area are too many. Similarly, in many other quarters in the city, be it at Nayandahalli, Kasavanahalli, Koramangala or those located on the city’s outskirts, the lack of even basic facilities overshadows the relief the slum-dwellers got by having concrete roofs over their heads.
Poor quality
Activists who work closely with slum-dwellers allege that the quality of the houses is below par. “According to the Central government norms, these houses should have an area of 330 sq. ft. But at many places, citing land ratio problems, the KSDB has provided houses with an area of just 270 sq. ft or 300 sq. ft. These houses are not fit for human beings. If you look at the 800 houses provided at Nayandahalli [in southwest Bengaluru], under the Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) or at Laggere under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), they look as if they are decades old because of poor quality of work,” A. Narasimhamurthy, State convener of Slum Janandolana Karnataka, says.
Housing quarters provided for slum-dwellers by the Karnataka Slum Development Board at Laggere in Bengaluru. There are over 16,000 houses on an expanse of 60 acres in the area.
| Photo Credit:
Ravichandran N.
The houses lack even the basic necessities — be it drinking water supply or drainage, says Jansi, programme coordinator of Slum Mahila Sanghatane. “Slum-dwellers have been allotted housing quarters mostly on the outskirts of the city. They get drinking water once in three days or they have to pay dealers under local politicians to get water every day. In some houses, the windows and doors have already been broken. The houses on the ground floor reek of sewage stench,” she says.
“KSDB authorities look at development only through the lens of constructing buildings, but they do not care about the condition of the people who will have to live in these buildings,” she says.
Officials from the Housing Department said that while the process of relocation of slum-dwellers, who were previously living along the rajakaluves (storm-water drains) and other unsuitable places, was done by the KSDB, the onus of maintenance of these quarters is largely on the urban local body (ULB). “After we hand over the houses, the respective ULBs that collect taxes are supposed to provide maintenance by utilising the slum cess. The residents of slum quarters can demand it from them. The Housing Department gets only meagre funds for maintenance and we chip in at places where the conditions are really bad,” says Naveen Raj Singh, Principal Secretary, Housing Department.
‘25,961 houses handed over’
During the recently concluded legislature session, B.Z. Zameer Ahmed Khan, Minister for Housing, Waqf, and Minority Affairs, said that under various schemes, a total of 25,961 houses have been handed over to slum-dwellers from select areas in the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) limits.
There are a total of 435 slums that come under the KSDB (in the BBMP limits), out of which, 410 have been “declared as slums while the other 25 have been identified”, the Minister said. “Under schemes such as JNNURM – BSUP, Rajiv Awas Yojana, and PM Awas Yojana, grants were approved since 2005 for the construction of 59,429 houses. Of them, construction of 25,961 houses has been completed and 7,313 houses are in the last stages of construction,” Khan told the Assembly.
Activists, however, allege that the government’s claim is far from reality. Many of those who have been allotted houses are still struggling to get the possession certificates, they say.
The Laggere housing quarters for slum-dwellers are said to be the biggest in Bengaluru, and yet, the problems that haunt the area are too many.
| Photo Credit:
Ravichandran N.
“The numbers the department provided in the Assembly are different from ground reality. There are 400 to 500 undeclared slums in Bengaluru. Housing schemes have been around since the 1980s and not since 2005, and the implementation should have been far better by now,” says Narasimhamurthy.
He adds, “AtUllala [in southwest Bengaluru], for example, three big slums have been shifted to New Colony and Ambedkar Nagar. As many as 150 dwelling units in these slums were demolished in 2013 under the RAY and the residents have made payments for their new houses under the scheme. Yet, construction of the houses has not started. There are many cases like this which are shown as ‘progress’ when these answers are provided [in the legislature]. Only 60% of what they claim might have been implemented.”
Activists say that the process of relocation of slums has brought to the fore several socio-economic problems as the allotment of houses under these schemes is often decided by political leaders and local MLAs.
Worries, uncertainties
For many relocated slum-dwellers, the eviction from their dwellings became a source of uncertainty as many of them have remained homeless for almost a decade now. “At the Vinoba slum in J.C. Nagar [in central Bengaluru], eviction notices were served to dwellers in 2014 and till today, they have not got their houses. It is the same problem for slum-dwellers from Kalasipalya. It is a difficult task to get these houses,” Jansi says.
After being shifted to a different place under the housing scheme, the relocated people often have no means of making a livelihood in the new areas. They usually travel to the areas where their previous settlements were located in search of jobs. “If they are relocated somewhere on the outskirts of the city, what jobs will they find there? Even those who are working as domestic workers near their previous settlements are rendered jobless after being relocated to the city’s outskirts. Some people travel 30 km to 40 km to earn a livelihood,” Jansi says.
When eviction notices come in the middle of the academic year, the relocation has also led to children dropping out of school, which has also allegedly given rise to cases of child labour and child marriages.
The relocation of slum-dwellers was aimed at improving the quality of their lives. But what the relocated people feel about it is best summed up by what a resident of the Laggere housing quarters said: “We shifted from tents to cement houses, but otherwise, not much has changed in our lives. We are still slum-dwellers and those who care about slum-dwellers are very few.”