Slum Population in the Country

The Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja has said that the first five States having largest slum population in the country as per Census 2001, are as follows:-

Sl. No.	State/UTs	Slum Population in 2001
1.	Maharashtra	11975943
2.	Andhra Pradesh	6268945
3.	Uttar Pradesh	5756004
4.	West Bengal	4663806
5.	Tamil Nadu	4240931

In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today she said, the five metros having largest slum population in the country as per Census 2001, are as follows:-

Sl. No.	Name of the Metro	Slum Population in 2001
1.	Greater Mumbai	6475440
2.	Delhi	1851231
3.	Kolkata	1485309
4.	Chennai	819873
5.	Nagpur	737219

She said, as the Census 2011 slum figures are not available, it is not possible to indicate the growth in the slum population.

The Minister said, the existing urban planning models and urban land policies are one of the key reasons for growth of slums. The other major reasons are :-

(i)          Increased urbanization leading to pressure on the available land and infrastructure, especially for the poor.

(ii)   Natural increase in the population of urban poor and migration from rural areas and small towns to larger cities.

(iii)  Sky-rocketing land prices due to increasing demand for land and constraints on supply of land.    

(iv)  Absence of programmes of affordable housing for the urban poor in most States.

(v)    Lack of availability of credit for low income housing.

(vi)   Increasing cost of construction.

Kumari Selja said, in pursuance of the Government’s vision of creating a Slum-free India, a new scheme ‘Rajiv Awas Yojana’ (RAY) has been launched on 02.06.2011 with a budget of Rs.5,000 crores. The Scheme is expected to initially cover about 250 cities, across the entire country by the end of 12th Plan (2017). The selection of the cities will be done in consultation with the Centre. Under the Scheme, Fifty percent (50 %) of the cost of provision of basic civic and social infrastructure and amenities and of housing, including rental housing,  and transit housing for in-situ redevelopment – in slums would be borne by the Centre, including operation & maintenance of assets created under this scheme. For the North Eastern and Special Category States the share of the Centre would be 90% including the cost of land acquisition, if required.