Slums will keep the cities running

If you invest in community housing for the poor, the Gross Domestic Product will double itself.

A city means slums are an integral part of it. If there is no slum, there is no city. The city survives because of its labour force. Imagine a day when the vegetables don't go to say MHADA colony. Or let's go to Churchgate. Or Malabar Hills. In any of these places, the workforce is the slum-dwellers. They are an integral part of the city, even though their living conditions are deplorable. But they are able to survive.

These trains that run in Mumbai: Who are the people travelling in them? Eighty per cent of the people are from slums. You cannot say this is an eyesore, I cannot live with these people. They keep the city's economy running. Look at all the cars going to Malabar Hills. Where do the drivers live? If the maid-servant doesn't go to work, a Tata Sierra goes out for a replacement. She can't take more than a day's leave because the school-going children get affected.

Look at Thailand. Half of Bangkok lives in slums. You see the skyscrapers there, but not  the slums. The UN has realised that slums cannot be wished away. The millennium development goals say that by 2020 at least 100 million slum-dwellers should get land titles and basic amenities. So this is the present situation: we have to co-exist, live together.

All our intellectuals, they talk and write beautifully. Look at our Prime Minister. He's talking so nicely about NURM (National Urban Renewal Mission). By the time it takes off, I'm 100 percent sure my Prime Minister will not be there. We'll have a new Prime minister and a new team will come. Like Vajpayee spoke about connecting the rivers. Not even the naalas are connected. He is gone. Manmohan Singh has come. He will also go. How many billions of rupees are going like this? Nothing happens. We have good thinking, good talking. It is very enjoyable to go to Washington and talk at a meeting. Whenever I fire them, I get two more invitations. This is the greatest exploitation. I don't know whether I should go and talk or I should keep my mouth shut. If I keep my mouth shut, even the right thinking doesn't start. This is my dilemma.

I remember at the world development forum in Vancouver, I asked them: You have set up the millennium development goals, but where is the goal-post? Why don't you take one city and say this is how we will improve it?

I have been advocating community land titles all over the world, like what we are doing with cooperative housing societies. I just had a meeting with this minister in Bangkok, who is in charge of housing and social justice. He is an economist and he said if you invest in community housing for the poor, the GDP will double itself.

(As told to Sruthijith KK)