GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

MINISTRY OF HOUSING AND URBAN POVERTY ALLEVIATION

LOK SABHA

UNSTARREDQUESTION NO: 1780

ANSWERED ON: 19.11.2010

COMMITTEE ON SLUMS 

(a) Whether in order to have a reliable data of slum dwellers to ensure better implementation of the Rajiv Awaas Yojana (RAY), the Government has appointed a Committee under the Chairmanship of Pranab Sen; 

(b) if so, the details thereof; 

(c) whether the Committee has since submitted its report to the Government; 

(d) if so, the detailed findings and the recommendations made by the Committee; and 

(e) the follow-up action taken by the Government thereon? 

ANSWER

MINISTER OF HOUSING AND URBAN POVERTY ALLEVIATION(KUMARI SELJA) 

 (a) & (b) : The Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation set up a Committee to look into various aspects of Slum Statistics / Census and issues regarding conduct of slum census 2011.  The terms of reference of the Committee were:   

(i) Examine City-wise slum population figures arrived at by the RGI in two spells with respect to methodology and coverage. 

 (ii) Suggest adjustments required, if any, to arrive at State-wise urban slum population and for the country as a whole.

(iii) Develop state-wise and all India urban slum population estimates duly correcting the anomalies observed, if any.   

(iv) Suggest changes/improvement in all aspects of slum census including the definition, methodology, coverage etc. 

 (v) Make suggestions to Registrar General of India regarding the effective conduct of slum census 2011 covering definition, methodology and other aspects. 

 (vi) Guide the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation in evolving sustainable and viable methodology for conducting slum and other surveys between successive censuses.

   (vii) Suggest measures to build a robust Urban Information Management System on slums and urban poverty, housing and construction duly taking into account the data collected by different agencies like NSSO and RGI etc.

   (viii) Any other items considered relevant. 

(c) & (d) : The Committee has submitted its report to the Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation on 30th August, 2010.The salient findings/recommendations of the Committee are:- 

 1. The Committee has estimated Slum Population in the country in 2001 as 75.26 million and the projected slum population in the country for the year 2011 at 93.06 million. 

2. For the Slum Census 2011, the Committee has recommended that for policy formulation purposes it is absolutely essential to count the slum population even in cities having less than 20,000 population. For the purpose of planning for Rajiv Awas Yojana and Slum-free India it would be necessary to count the population of slums in all statutory towns in the country in 2011. 

3. The Committee has suggested a different definition for slum than the definition adopted by the Census of India 2001 and the States. The Committee has recommended a normative definition of slum as : 

 “ a compact settlement of at least 20 households with a collection of poorly built tenements, mostly of temporary nature, crowded together usually with inadequate sanitary and drinking water facilities in unhygienic conditions”   4. The committee has, based on the pilot studies carried out by the Registrar General of India suggested adoption of the following as slum-like characteristics for the purpose of identification of slum areas and enumeration of population of area with 20-25 Households in and Enumeration Block in 2011 Census:- 

(i)Predominant roof material: any material other than concrete (RBC/ RCC) 

 (ii)Availability of drinking water source: not within premises of the census house 

 (iii)Availability of latrine: not within premises of the census house 

 (iv)Drainage facility: no drainage or open drainage   

The Committee has recommended that once the lay out maps are prepared after identification of Enumeration Block and house listing operation, a contiguous area with 20-25 Household having slum-like characteristics be counted as slum. These households and the households in slum

Enumerations Blocks would together give the slum population of the country. The Committee has further recommended that the RGI would share the layout maps with marking of the contiguous areas having slum-like characteristics with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation before the general Census in 2011 for it to use for planning purpose and as an aid to slum surveys.

  (e) : Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation has written to all States/UTs to work together with census officials to accurately identify the slums and count the slum population residing therein accurately in the 2011 Census.