Major Slums of India

The slum population of the country is constantly increasing and has doubled in the past two decades. India is known for its slum areas and the major slum areas in the top ten cities of India are:

1.Dharavi Slum, Mumbai:

Dharavi used to be the largest slum in Mumbai at one time, but as of now there are four slums in Mumbai larger than Dharavi. Dharavi is spread over 557 acres and houses about three lakh people. It is a city within a city with its unending stretch of narrow dirty lanes, open sewers and cramped huts.

As Dharavi is located between Mumbai's two main suburban rail lines, most people find it convenient to live here for work. It provides a cheap alternative as rents are low. The slum is also known to exports goods around the world.

 

2. Bhalswa Slum, Delhi:

About 24 percent of Delhi's population is said to live in slums. The Bhalswa slum dwellers come from various parts of Delhi. It has a population of about twenty two thousand. The slum also has one of the largest child labors. 

3. Nochikuppam Slum, Chennai: 

Chennai, “The city of flyovers” has Nochikuppam slum that has about 1,300 huts. It is home to around five thousand people who live below poverty line. The people here struggle to even have two meals a day.

 4. Rajendra Nagar Slum, Bangalore:

Bangalore alone holds 570 slums from a total of around 2000 slums in the State. It is estimated that about 20 percent of Bangalore population reside in slums. The families living in the slums refuse to move into the temporary shelters as they find it risky to live under a flyover.

5. Basanti Slum, Kolkata:

The city of joy, Kolkata has a slum area known as Basanti slum. It is one of the major slum areas. One third of Kolkata’s population lives these slums.

6. Indiramma Nagar, Hyderabad:

Hyderabad, the City of Nizam has about thousands of lakhs of people living in slums. There is very little land available to accommodate all the people in these slums.

7. Mehbullahpur Slum Lucknow:

Lucknow, the City of Nawabs has a population that includes large numbers of poor people, many of who live in slums. Many people migrate from the nearest district for daily wages. People, hence, illegally occupy land and create their own shelters, residing in the awful living conditions. The population in these areas increases at a faster rate than compared to the urban population as a whole.

8. Saroj Nagar Slum, Nagpur:

Nagpur, the Orange city has many slums areas and Sarojnagar is one among those many. Approximately 40 percent of the population in Nagpur is said to live in slums. These slums are home to about a lakh people and cover about 1,600 hectares of prime land. It makes for one of the largest slum areas in Maharashtra.