Slum clearance in India

Slum clearance in India is used as an urban renewal approach to redevelop and transform poor and low income settlements into new developments or housing.

Reasons for wanting to clear slums vary, although land value when sold to developers is higher due to the communities that had settled and built their own homes.

Occasionally, slums can encroach on areas deemed a safety concern, such as near to railway tracks or on land desired for expansion, such as with Mumbai international airport.

[3] In 2017, around a third of India's then 1.25 billion population lived in cities, with numbers increasing by tens of thousands annually as people migrated away from villages seeking better opportunities, with many ending up in overcrowded slums or on the streets.

Section 3K was added to the act in 1999, although remained unused until nearly 1 decade later to approve a scheme at Golibar in Santa Cruz, involving the redevelopment of 123 acres (50 ha) in August 2008.

Despite legal challenges by slum dwellers, the Bombay High Court cleared the development which saw violent protests and residents blocking access to a demolition squad.

In slums, there is a sense of community, with residents holding jobs and a degree of dignity, yet once relocated may find themselves jobless and without knowledge of their neighbours, in what one person described as being "dumped here like orphans with no help".

One of the newer resettlement sites is in Perumbakkam, built by the Tamil Nadu state over a period of 20 years to house people displaced by slum clearance, as well as those made homeless by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami and the 2015 Chennai floods.

The clearance scheme, which would have required around 88,000 families to be relocated, was opposed by residents, some of whom were not eligible for new housing, while others who were did not want to be separated from their community, jobs and education.

[5] The scheme, which involved constructing a third terminal and expanding the existing runway on 276 acres (112 ha) of the airport's land, was cancelled in 2014 as relocation of residents and clearance of the slums could not be achieved within the allotted time permitted.

Food, such as vegetables and rice can cost around double the price than near slum settlements, while reduced transport links make it harder for people to travel, particularly for work.