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Transforming the slum: The case of Mumbai’s M-Ward

 

Mumbai, India’s largest and wealthiest city, is a study in contrasts: it is rich and poor, modern and ancient, orderly and chaotic. Home to the national stock exchange and one of the world’s largest film industries, Mumbai is also a vista of sprawling slums and pockets of severe poverty.

Perched on the city’s heavily-polluted eastern waterfront, M-Ward is the most underprivileged municipal ward in Mumbai. Since the 1970s, M-Ward has been at the receiving end of waves of slum dwellers evicted by development across the city. At first tolerated by authorities, since the 2000s, it has been targeted for state resettlement schemes in partnership with private sector developers.

This case study argues that the recent approach to redevelopment amounts to exploitation. It documents the experiences of slum dwellers, the forms of violence generated by the redevelopment regime, and residents’ struggle for justice. Its conclusions highlight the dangers of state corruption and collusion with private sector developers.

Read the case study “Transforming the Slum through Creation of Property Market: A Case Study of M-Ward in Mumbai” (PDF, 1.24 MB).

Learn more about this research at Urban Resources Knowledges.

Explore the IDRC-supported project People, places and infrastructure: Countering urban violence and promoting justice in Mumbai, Rio, and Durban.

Learn more about IDRC’s research support to make cities safer through the Safe and Inclusive Cities partnership with the UK’s Department for International Development.