Govandi: Born of exile, shaped by displacement

"Garbage came to Govandi first," says Simpreet Singh, a researcher associated with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), referring to the Deonar dumping ground, set up here in 1927. "In the same spirit, the state has kept dumping people here every time it clears slums in other parts of the city." The latest will be thousands of slum residents from Dharavi, one of Mumbai's largest slum redevelopment projects.

- Sabah Virani

Govandi-Mankhurd, which largely makes up M/East ward, has been shaped by a history of neglect and dispossession, a place where people have long been discarded. Life here is a daily struggle in a region defined by overflowing landfills, toxic air, and decades of forced displacement.

Twenty years after the last mass resettlement, history is repeating itself in this vast area on the eastern fringes of the city. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), as part of its move to redevelop 64 slum pockets across Mumbai, has marked 18 slum colonies for redevelopment in Govandi. But the prospect of redevelopment comes with a rider: the slum-dwellers' consent is not required, nor do they have a say in any aspect of the plan.

There's a colossal 400,000sq m up for redevelopment, as well as Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) -gold-plated FSI generated through slum schemes that builders can use in projects elsewhere in the city. And they're looking to mine it in Govandi.

Excluded from the redevelopment process, slum residents from the 18 clusters fear that developers will “take over” their homes. One thing is certain, more displacement is inevitable - this time, from larger homes, albeit often with illegal additions, to homes that will squeeze entire families into a few square feet of space.

“We are 1l people in our family, including three kids, living in three small rooms, one on top of the other,” says Noor Shama, a resident of Kamla Raman Nagar in Govandi. She moved here in the 1980s, into a bamboo hut, and remade it out of tin after it was demolished. It eventually gave way to a three-tier structure. “After redevelopment, we will be allotted one single, small unit. At least, now we can breathe,” says Shama, who ironically lives in one of Mumbai's most polluted, and most densely populated, neighbourhoods.

The first settlers