Different strokes for different folks. Free sale residents live in the freshly painted building, while slum dwellers make do with the drab one         The maidservant can be a slum dweller.         The driver can be a slum dweller.         The dhobi can be a slum dweller.         But the neighbour cannot be a slum dweller. Nobody wants to live next to a slum dweller, because slum dwellers are dirty, they play loud music, they have many children, they fight all the time, they tease women and spit everywhere. These are some of the reasons that flat purchasers give builders who construct buildings under the much-touted slum rehabilitation programme. This is one of the reasons that the state government’s slum rehabilitation scheme is making sluggish progress in Mumbai. In the last six years, only about 900-odd rehab schemes have been underway. According to the Slum Rehabilitation Development (SRD) scheme, a builder willing to build under this programme, provides free housing to slum dwellers and uses the extra FSI to build and sell in the open market. This extra FSI can either be in the form of a separate building in the complex or away from it. There may even be extra floors atop a building. This means you get slum dwellers either as neighbours or in the same building or in the adjoining one. “People from the middle class or the upper middle class who like to avail of such housing definitely do not like to stay in the same building as the slum dwellers. They expect accommodation away from them,” said architect Ranjit Naik who has implemented the largest number of slum rehab schemes in Mumbai. Former MHADA chief U P S Madan corroborates the same. “It’s a fact that people who buy in the free sale component do not want slum dwellers too close to them. This is one of the reasons why the scheme is not taking off well,” said Madan. At Shivai Cooperative Housing Society at Santacruz, the rehab and free sale building though separate, are joined by a wall. Jagdeep Shah, who has bought a flat in the free sale building says that the division is not enough. “There will be problems between us and the slum dwellers. We have paid heavily for the flat. There is a big issue with maintenance charges. What do we do?” Given this response, builders have now begun to build some kind of partition between the slum rehab and free sale buildings.  Take the case of Kalachowkie’s Shraddha Society (rehab buildings) and Girnar Towers. The builder has not only built an iron gate between the buildings, but has also painted them differently and provided different amenities. “When I bought this flat, I made sure that there was a gate between the two buildings. Otherwise, I’d have to reflect over the purchase,” said Jayantilal Jain Desuri, a resident of Girnar Towers.

The SRD scheme at a glance (approximate figures) • Schemes being implemented — 900 • Proposals come in to  SRA — 1,100 • Proposals accepted by SRA currently — 240 • Proposals pending — 242 • Plots sanctioned — 16,00,00 plus

Case history Former slum dwellers, Tikaram Jadhav and his family, live in the same society but got the flat free of cost •Chikoowadi Co-operative Housing Society at Govandi (rehab building) Price per square foot: Nil “I was living in a slum before. This is heaven. We got this flat free of charge. Imagine having our own toilet and water tap in the bathroom,” said Tikaram Jadhav (65). Sucharita and Vasant Shetty with their children in their free sale apartment at Chikoowadi Co-operative Housing Society, Govandi. They bought the flat at Rs 1,500 per sq ft •Chikoowadi Co-operative Housing Society (free sale component) Price per square foot:  Rs 1,500 “So far, there are no problems between us and the slum dwellers. We do not interfere with them and vice versa. "I shifted here because I used to live in the vicinity and found this a viable option,” said Vasant Shetty who stays in the free sale building. Shetty was earlier working with BARC.

The fact that people do not like to stay with slum dwellers is one of the reasons the slum rehab scheme hasn’t taken off. The other reasons are that the projects are not viable when the builder cannot cut costs as he’s building free for one set and charging the others. Also better finance options should be made available for such schemes. - Ujwal Uke, CEO of  SRA