ISSN (Print) - 0012-9976 | ISSN (Online) - 2349-8846

Articles by Amita BhideSubscribe to Amita Bhide

Colonising the Slum

Significant continuities and critical shifts in the forms, intensity, sources and instruments of violence have taken place since the 1990s when a number of changes were brought about in land markets of Mumbai. This paper views the impact of these shifts and the violence/s embedded therein along the state–market axis. Intense everyday violence enhances insecurity among residents, women and young girls in particular in highly complex ways. However, far from being passive victims of this violence/s they are engaged in highly creative struggles to confront the multi-institutional injustices experienced by them.

The Regularising State

This article discusses a form of informality widely prevalent in small and medium cities in Maharashtra, called gunthewari. It is an examination of the practice of regularisation of these gunthewaris, and its relationship to other domains of urban governance. It argues that regularisation is an attempt to create a constant state of exception. Regularisation enables the abdication of state responsibility for public housing and planning, while engaging in tokenistic exercises of welfare.

World Bank Funded Slum Sanitation Programme in Mumbai

Mumbai's Slum Sanitation Programme that seeks community responsibility and its involvement in the setting up of sanitation facilities in living areas holds out important lessons for similar collaborative endeavours between the government, funding agencies, civil society organisations and the affected community. While such a broadly participatory approach ensures the accrual of benefits to the beneficiaries, it can only function effectively if methods of implementation are transparent and key members play a facilitating role.

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