Relationship between availability of basic amenities and proportion of Slum population in Maharashtra

Abstract

The urban centers offering diverse employment opportunities and means of livelihood are the main centers of attraction for migration. But the availability of infrastructure is low to accommodate the invariably growing population. The access to basic amenities like electricity, drinking water, toilet facility, wastewater outlet and clean fuel are critical determinants of quality of urbanization. And if it lacks, then it would facilitates the growth of slum.  In this paper it being tried to capture the interdependent relationship between basic amenities and slum population residing in the class I towns in Maharashtra; largest slum populated state of India. As the slum is all about the situation or condition in which the people of medium and lower strata are living.

A detailed analysis of proportion of slum population and availability of amenities which includes good housing condition, treated tap water as the source of drinking water, electricity as the source of lightning, households having latrine and bathing facility within the premises, waste water outlet connected to closed drainage, and households availing the banking facilities. This may be a limitation of the study that only these indicators have been taken to assess the availability of amenities and to calculate the amenity index of class I towns of the state of Maharashtra.

To achieve the sustainable development goal (Sustainable cities and communities), we have to control the growth of slum population and to combat the formation of slum; we have to analyze the situation of basic infrastructure provided in urban centers. Amenities and slum population has policy implications as to reduce the slum population, provide basic amenities to the households which will improve their standard of living and ultimately lead to reduction in growth of slum and check the future slum formation.