Mumbai Research Project

Mumbai is classed as a megacity due to its

population of 12.5million people (in 2011).
A megacity is one with a population of over
10million people. Mumbai is in a very
advantageous place which helped it grow to
becoming a megacity. It is on the coast
which gives it key trade links and is also
linked to other cities like Chennai and New
Delhi by the road and railway system. These
also provide easy access for the movement
of goods and people around the country
and into Mumbai.

Mumbai’s port area is naturally deep

allowing many larger container ships to
harbour there. Mumbai’s docks are the
largest in India and handle around 25% of
all India’s international trade. In the 1800s,
Britain imported lots of cotton from India but later built cotton factories in
Mumbai to save transporting fees and boost production. By the late 1900s
those factories were declining but other industrial business was taking off all
around the city.

Mumbai is located on the Mumbai

peninsula but as the city grew rapidly
due to readily available work, the area
soon became overcrowded and
unsafe. Then, in 1970, the
government decided to create a new
area on the mainland right next to the
Mumbai peninsula which allowed
space for more houses and buildings
such as schools, offices and hospitals
to be built.
In Mumbai’s Central Business District, located at
the south of the peninsula, there is the Bank of
India and the Bank of America and also businesses
such as Microsoft India, Tata, Volkswagen and
Cadbury India. Housing in the CBD is high-rise
apartment blocks but also features some terraced
housing a little further out. The port area also has
around 25000 living in slums and working nearby.

Go a little further out into the Inner

suburbs and you find the old textile
mill area developed to house
workers. However, some of these
areas have become squatter
settlements such as Dharavi.

Once into the outer suburbs there are more

high-rise small apartments, of a different size
to the in the CBD. The suburbs were built
along the edge of the railway lines allowing
very easy access and accessible commutes to
those working in the CBD. However, in New
Mumbai, land is cheaper and more readily
available which attracts factories and
companies to create business locations near
the workers.

The rural-urban fringe is hard to

find although there are sometimes
places where building would be
impossible or not be worth it such
as on a river estuary or in a national
park.
Mumbai’s population has increased by more than 12 times in the last 100
years. There are two main factors, rates of natural increase and national and
international migration. People in rural India are more likely to have more
children due to the higher infant mortality rate. However, as we move further
through the 21st Century, medicines are becoming better and more readily
available which could reduce the infant mortality rate. This then leaves families
with many children in one generation, who move into cities like Mumbai and
fuel population increase.

The population density in Mumbai as a whole is around 20,692 people per km2.
Such high densities cause a massive strain on space, services and housing
which drives house prices up and services like hospitals to suffer. Some rural to
urban migrants cannot afford housing and food, so go to live in slums like
Dharavi. The population densities here are extremely high as many small
houses are packed in to fit as many people into the area as possible.

There are many push and pull factors to Mumbai’s population change. People
may leave the more rural parts of India due to the fact that making a living
from farming is hard and there are fewer services in rural India. Also, newer
farming techniques are putting farmers out of work. However, Mumbai’s rapid
growth in size and economy make it an attractive place to seek work and
shelter. In Mumbai, there is an ever-present need for both low and high skilled
labourers. Both jobs pay well no matter what skill level is required. Also, if
families move in towards Mumbai there is a much better education system
than in rural India.
During the 20th century there were many work opportunities for those living in
Mumbai such as jobs in cotton manufacturing and car production. Late into the
20th century, however, there was a decline in secondary sector jobs and
employment but an increase in tertiary sector employment in jobs such as
finance and IT. There was also a need for ‘Mumbaikars’, those that provide a
service to the rest of Mumbai’s population such as hairdressers and
mechanics.

Dharavi is Asia’s biggest and most populated slum settlement which means
that there are a lot of people there that require jobs. It has a population
density of around 1million+ people per km2. Within Dharavi’s walls, there are
around 5000 small-scale businesses and around 15000 single room factories. It
is estimated that together, they are worth around £350million per year. There
are also many people who work in recycling Mumbai’s waste of which about
85% ends up in Dharavi to be sorted and recycled.

These businesses make lots of money but there are still many problems and
challenges faced when living in Mumbai. These include the rapid expansion,
traffic congestion, housing issues, slum settlements and working conditions.
There is a massive problem due to the rapid expansion and overcrowding
within Mumbai and the infrastructure and services are struggling to keep up
with the demands. There are also massive pollution problems due to the fact
that there is no governmental waste disposal system and it is left for small
businesses with small work forces to sort and dispose rubbish. Much of this
gets thrown into the Mithi River along with around 800 million tonnes of
untreated sewage, batteries, metals and industrial waste. This overcrowding
also creates a problem as there are roughly 1.8million cars in Mumbai and
when combined with the bullock carts and pedestrians, the road system
frequently becomes gridlocked. Most Mumbaikars take the train into Mumbai
which also puts a huge strain on the Indian railway system as every day, an
estimated 8million people use the system coming from the suburbs into the
centre.

Mumbai is situated on a peninsula, meaning there is little space for expansion

which causes house prices to rise. Chawls are old buildings that are so crowded
inside that conditions are often as bad as, or even worse than inside slums like
Dharavi. They also are not maintained which frequently makes them unsafe
and gives them a possible danger of collapsing on the many people inside.
Squatter settlements arise when people put up makeshift huts on land
belonging to others or the government.
People living in the slums often do not have to pay much to live there and they
are close to work. Dharavi has problems and rules such as problems with the
water supply. As there are no mains water pipes, around 1 million people use
the same few standpipes at 5:30am for a period of 2 hours. There are also
problems with sanitation as often raw sewage flows down inside a ditch at the
side of a street. Also, there are few toilets so often 1 toilet is used by about
500 people. Also, due to the lack of water, many people clean their clothes and
dishes in the same streams that the raw sewage is poured into. The working
conditions in places like Mumbai are often bad. Lots of workers have no
protection, work for too long and work in small, dark hot rooms with little to
no ventilation for toxic fumes. Pay is extremely low due to the fact that if
someone wants higher pay, there are so many people who would take that job
at a lower price.

In Mumbai, the quality of life varies based on different factors such as levels of
water and air pollution, access to services like healthcare and schools and
income. The government in Mumbai are very inefficient and it takes a long
time for infrastructure to improve. This can lead to newer housing areas being
devoid of essentials like water and sanitation. Also, rent prices are capped
which stops landlords from improving because they will get the same rent if
the house is new or old, which would lose them money if they regenerated the
house. Corruption is also high in places that were redeveloped but then only
rich people could afford, leading to gentrification.

There are many reasons for this varied quality as property developers know
they can earn a lot more by building expensive apartments than houses for
richer Mumbaikars. Also, services like the police force would have to be
improved in order to make sure that laws were being followed on improving
work conditions.

There are also many economic and

political challenges involved in
managing Mumbai. Many people in
slum and squatter settlements want
their facilities improved whereas the
government and landowners would
like the land close to the cities as it is
expensive land. This causes problems
as it is very expensive to move an
entire settlement and the costs often
outweigh the benefits. This is also seen
with the traffic congestion. As good as
it would be to reduce it, it would be a
very expensive investment that may
not bring in enough money to pay it off.

There are some top-down development strategies that could help maintain
and improve Mumbai such as the Gorai Garbage Site Closure Project and the
Mumbai Monorail. The GGSCP (Gorai Garbage Site Closure Project) was
designed to reduce the environmental impacts of the landfill. From 1972 to
2007, 1200 tonnes of Mumbai’s solid waste as left at the landfill. This 27m
deep landfill emitted lots of methane and toxic run-off into a nearby creek. In
2007 Mumbai’s supreme court demanded that the area must be improved for
nearby residents. Soon after, a regeneration project covered the landfill in
lining to stop leaching and covered the area with grass to create a 19-hectare
park. The methane given off was also used to generate energy and power. This
change has seen the area’s air pollution decrease and created a popular park.

The Mumbai Monorail was designed to go into parts of Mumbai where only
buses and cars could go. This would decrease the strain on the Indian rail
network and hopefully create more jobs further out as trade could be easier.
The first nine kilometre section was supposed to open in 2011, but it opened in
2014.
Bottom up strategies like SPARC, the Hamara Foundation and Agora
Microfinance India also help residents of Mumbai. SPARC and community
toilet blocks replaced ones provided by the government and that charged
individual fees for each use which were too expensive for the majority of
Mumbai’s population. SPARC works with communities to build more accessible
toilets with running water and correct sewage disposal. It is sustainable
because the NGO SPARC charge 25rupees (about 25p) for a town to use them
unlimited for a month. This is affordable to those who couldn’t afford the
governments toilet blocks.

The Hamara Foundation has provided social work services for the estimated
200,000 children who have dropped out of Mumbai’s education system. They
also help these children to go to school and for those older to get vocational
training for 16-18yr olds in computing, mechanics and hospitality.

Agora Microfinance India allows

people in squatter settlements to
get a bank account and get loans
to help people improve their
homes or invest in their business.
Education loans are also available
to allow those who would like to
take further education. This is
sustainable as it costs the
company little but allows the
Mumbai squatters to improve
their quality of life.

These 3 organisations are trying to stop the government from selling the land
in return for modern flats because there could be an increase in things like
crime, which would put more of a strain on the already stretched police force.
Instead, they are trying to get the people of Dharavi the rights to the land in
order to allow them to improve things such as water, electricity and sanitation.
Also, these 3 strategies are available to almost everyone in Dharavi and
beyond and can improve the HDI in the area.
 Essay Question

There isn’t
money to put
towards moving
City traffic is Services such as police and poor people
heavily congested hospitals have a real problem somewhere else. People often
and pollution is seeing patients quickly due to earn quite little
really high due to the sheer number of them. when working in
the huge number the primary and
of cars within the secondary sector.
city centre.
Overcrowding Poverty

Workers housing
Reasons for is often small and
Pay in sweatshops and variations in has bad access to
factories is significantly quality of life water, electricity
lower than pay in other in Mumbai and sanitation.
tertiary sector jobs.

Investment and Geography of the city

Government interest

Areas closer to
the CBD have
Areas further
more apartment
away have longer
blocks and slums
commutes to
Mumbai Monorail would allow Areas like than terraces.
CBD so towns are
people to live in currently less Dharavi would be normally on
accessible places but still come so expensive to railway lines.
into the CBD. This would invest in.
reduce the amount of people
crammed close to the centre.
Detailed plan – Mumbai.

P1 – Social Good impacts

(Brings workers, possibly more diverse areas)

P2 – Social Bad impacts

(Overcrowding, house prices rise, more pollution from cars, services struggle)

P3 – Economical Good impacts

(Workers bring money to government, more tax revenue, diversity attracts
FDI)

P4 – Economical Bad impacts

(Services don’t receive enough funding to deal with overcrowding, inflation
may happen as more money may have to be produced (with a slight possibility
of hyperinflation))

P5 – Conclusion.
(Workers allow for a more varied skill force but overcrowding quickly becomes
a problem. More people means more tax revenue for the government to
spend on maintaining and improving areas, services may struggle.)
- Overall, I think It is good that rapid population growth has happened in
Mumbai as there are more people available to work in many jobs but I
think there could be some changes as tax revenue doesn’t seem to be
spent improving the right areas (Dharavi’s sanitation)
 For a named megacity in a developing or emerging country,
evaluate whether bottom-up solutions can improve quality of life
for residents. [12]

In Mumbai, they have used bottom up solutions such as SPARC and community
toilet blocks, the Hamara Foundation and Agora Microfinance India to improve
the quality of life for residents by improving certain areas like sanitation and
money that people may struggle with.

Bottom up solutions work due to the fact that they are run by NGOs (non-
government organisations) who work with the people to help them with what
they need. This is crucial because a government may see that a new road
system is needed in an area whereas the people in that area may have limited
access to clean water. They can improve the quality of life for residents by
removing the risk of illnesses, extreme poverty leading to death in the worst
cases, and others like homelessness and lack of education. The NGOs can listen
to the people and hopefully deliver on their needs.

However, they have disadvantages such as a lack of funding which could create
a less widespread approach and education of issues and also the NGOs could
not have enough money to help everyone. In this case, it would be seen as
unfair to those who hadn’t received help yet whereas others had. Some
disadvantages actually can worsen the living quality in areas because loan
services like Agora Microfinance can allow people to get a loan of around £300
but has a very high interest rate of 25%. This means that lots must be repayed
and people taking out a loan to do things like improve their home, are often
too poor to repay which creates a backlog of debt.

In my opinion, bottom up solutions can improve the quality of life for residents
if they are monitored and applied correctly but it is also important to have top
down strategies as there is lots of money that can be spent towards a goal or
project.