The residents of Mumbai's slums struggle even for basic amenities.
Nearly 50 per cent of Mumbai's population lives on eight per cent of its land - such is the story of the city's slum dwellers. Garbage disposal, drainage systems, health and hygiene in these slums is almost non-existent with Maharashtra Nagar and Kamla Nagar being stark examples of the harsh reality.
Both the settlements with a combined population of nearly 50,000 people are struggling for even basic amenities. Maharashtra Nagar, for example, has only one toilet seat per 100 residents, and Kamla Nagar fares even worse with one seat for nearly 300 residents.
"There are so many mosquitos. The toilet is broken, the lock is broken. There is no light. It's so unsafe for women, we have to use a torch in the night," said Shakuntala Shinde, a resident of Maharashtra Nagar.
Water too, is hard to come by. It is available only for four hours a day between 11:30 AM to 3:30 PM.
"We don't get water. There is a huge problem with drainage. Gutters lie open, mosquitoes breed and children fall sick" said Dhuri, another resident who has been living in Maharashtra Nagar for the last 35 years.
But Mumbai's municipal body and a city-based NGO, the Mumbai Environmental Social Network (MESN), have embarked on a project to transform these slums. Concretised lanes, more and better toilets, drainage systems and open spaces for children to play in are among the major promises.
"We have done detailed mapping of all passages, water supply, drainage, number of toilet seats available per person, per capita open spaces. These are the issues we can definitely fix. All this while, money was being spent in an ad hoc manner. The objective is to have a systematic approach", said Trupti Vaitla, CEO of the NGO driving the initiative.
While the project is being done in collaboration with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), top sources in the BMC indicate a certain amount of hesitance.
"The idea of upgrading existing slums is in conflict with the vision of a slum-free Mumbai", a top official said.
Experts however point out, that a slum-free Mumbai will take years and it is important to provide a better quality of life to residents at the earliest.
"We have worked out a budget. We need about 8,000 crore to improve the condition of 11 lakh households. The Government's budget to rehabilitate the same number is 66,000 crore," MESN CEO Trupti Vaitla told NDTV.
Shiv Sena MP, Rahul Shevale who pushed the project in Maharashtra Nagar, said, "Crores of rupees have been spent in the last 15 years on slum improvement, but you don't see any change on the ground. This is an attempt to improve slums systematically. The Corporation will provide adequate funds."
The initiative is inspired from a project that turned Colombia's second-largest city, Medellin, from the world's murder capital into a model of urban regeneration.