Impact of Migration on Mumbai

8/13/2019 Impact of Migration on Mumbai

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Bombay Then

Bombay was originally a cluster of seven Koli islands called "Seven Little Islands".The sevenIslands which were woven into one city were:

(i) Colaba (ii) Old Woman's Island (iii) Mumbai (iv) Mazagaon (v) Worli (vi) Matunga & (vii) Mahim.Earlier These islands were a part of Gujarat. When the Muslim ruler Sultan Muhamed Begada capturedthe islands, Bombay was till then inhabited by the Hindus Stone age implements have been found atseveral sites in these islands. Later, around the third century BC, the coastal regions, and presumablythe islands, were part of the Magadhan empire ruled by the emperor Ashok. The empire ebbed,leaving behind some Buddhist monks and the deep-sea fishermen called "Kolis", whose stone goddess,"Mumbadevi", gave her name to the modern metropolis.

Bombay changed hands many times. The oldest structures in the archipelago--- the caves atElephanta, and part of the Walkeshwar temple complex probably date from this time. Modern sourcesidentify a 13th century Raja Bhimdev who had his capital in Mahikawati-- present-day Mahim, andPrabhadevi. Presumably the first merchants and agriculturists settled in Mumbai at this time. In 1343the island of Salsette, and eventually the whole archipelago, passed to the Sultan of Gujarat. Themosque in Mahim dates from this period.

Bombay soon reformed into an important trading port. Development and reclamation started and thethen Governor Gerald Aungier (1672-1677) encouraged businessmen from all over to come and settle.Historians have given him the title of "Father of Bombay"because it was in this period Bombayboomed. to become a prime commercial centre..

By 1862 the seven islands had joined together to form one huge mass of land. With the opening of theSuez Canal in 1869 Bombay prospered as an International port, and reinforced its position as a majorcommercial and industrial center in India.

In 1947 Bombay became the capital of Bombay State. In 1960 Bombay state was dissolved and thestate of Maharashtra came into being, with Bombay as its state capital. In 1995 Bombay changed itsname to Mumbai. The name Mumbai is derived from "Mumbadevi" the patron goddess of the Kolifisher folks, the earliest known inhabitants.

Mumbai Now

Mumbai or originally Bombay- the Island city has come a long way welcoming people from differentstates and religion by offering gamut of social or financial opportunities to these "visitors". In face ofoffering these opportunities openhandedly the city has neglected the implication of this on itsresources natural and unnatural ad especially -the Carrying Capacity of the city!

YearNet Migration (in

mn)

Net Migration as %

of decade increase

1951 0.95 79.7

1961 0.60 51.8


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1971 0.89 48.7

1981 1.07 47.0

1991 0.28 16.8

Share of Migrants* from Major States to Mumbai (%)

States Year 1981 Year 1991 Rural Urban Total Rural UrbanTotalMaharashtra

48.84 31.66 43.51 47.02 30.58 42.10

Uttar

Pradesh 18.49 11.69 16.38 22.25 13.73 19.7

Gujarat11.82 18.38 13.86 10.53 15.87 12.13

Karnataka5.44 11.78 7.41 5.19 10.21 6.69

Tamil Nadu2.58 5.38 3.45 2.57 5.83 3.54

Over the years migration from different states has contributed 17 percent increase in population therehas been substantial increase in influx of people to Mumbai since 1951 which has caused variousproblems especially depletion of the natural resources of the area, such as

v Natural resource depletion

v Food security

v Social disruptions

v The land use changes as related to population pressure, land degradation and

available linkages to a market economy.

Effects of migration and population pressure on Natural resources

HOUSING PROBLEM


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The housing situation in the city since long continues to be critical. Currently more than 50percent ofcitys population is estimated to be living in sub-human living environment. Many areas of thecity have experienced extremely high densities. These problems of Bombay city have drawn theattention of state/town planners as long back as 1950. They diagnosed that most of Bombays ills were the product of excessive concentration of population in the southern part ofBombay Island and proposed various decentralization strategies to relieve excessive pressure on basicinfrastructure and reducing congestion in the Island city.

UNEMPLOYMENT

YearTotal unemployed

(in '000s)*

1981 292.8

1991 674.4

1998 743.8

Urbanization

Urbanization has a deleterious effect on mangroves. Mangroves, forests of salt-tolerant trees andshrubs that grow in the shallow tidal waters of estuaries and coastal areas in tropical regions

INFRASTRUCTURE IN MUMBAI NOW:

Transportation in Mumbai

Is a huge problem, especially due to the geography of the island. There is a large concentration of all thecommercial and administrative functions on the southern end of the island due to the fact that the fort waslocated there and has since developed into a modern Central Business District. The only highways that exist inMumbai are the East and West Highways that run north/south along the eastern and western coasts of theisland. The city's system was modeled after the London transportation system with the exception of theUnderground Metro. Mumbai's lack of a subway system has been severely detrimental to the commutingcongestion and times that the city experiences.

Mumbai has several different bus systems, all owned by private companies. The largest is the BEST bussystem with 3031 buses which carry an average of 5 million people per day. The road network consists of1431 kilometers of thoroughfares which handle an average of 6.2 million people per day. However, the mostused mode of transportation is rail. The main railroads follow the same paths of the highways and terminateat Victoria Terminus on the east and Bombay Central Station on the west. The number of commuters usingrailroads has increased five fold between 1959 and 1989. Problems of Mumbai Today


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Today one of the major problems in Mumbai is traveling distances. The average distance traveled perpassenger of mass transportation is 6 kilometers, nearly one-third the length of the island of Mumbai.Because of the overcrowding on the mass transit system, many people are switching to scooters ormopeds. This is problematic because it does not help with the pollution problem that Mumbai faces.

Also non-transportation uses of roads, such as squatting, slums and haphazard parking has not helpedthe situation much either. However, one of the major problems that Mumbai has with itstransportation system is that it is not run by one governing body. All of the different modes of

transportation are owned by different groups, both private and governmental. If they were able toforma city transportation agency, then perhaps progress towards better modes of mass transit, suchas a subway, would be possible.

Is Mumbai dying?

The power and water shortage in the city has made life even more miserable and there seems to beno way out. In the latest directive from the municipality, newly-constructed multi-plexes, buildings,malls, etc. will get only a limited amount of water just as the older buildings will face shortage forever. Quite a way to attract investors to the state. And in the midst of all this was the attempt tochange the transport system to give it an international look.

The train services are getting worse everyday. The millennium rake introduced in the suburbanservices is nothing but a scandal. The coaches are the same, there is no emphasis on the comfort ofthe passengers, what with wooden seats, no air-conditioning and a pathetic audio system to giveinformation to passengers. At least Mumbaikars had expected something akin to the metro coaches inDelhi and Kolkata which are swanky and cool.

The majority of the buses are still old which look as if they have been made by cottage industry. Theroad transport service in Mumbai is creaking under the load and with inadequate road infrastructure.

Social Insecurity!!!!

Internationalization has meant increased freedom of movement of capital and those who possess it,labour mobility is not an intrinsic characteristic of the present system. For most workers and for theunemployed, globalization means hardly more than the old notion of international division of labour:capital "shopping" for cheaper wages in various national markets and relocating there as a function oflower costs. It is much more likely that the affluent go south than that those in the periphery visit thecentre, other than through the fortuitous routes of illegal immigration and exile. A myriad ofeconomic, political, legal, regulatory, and security factors militates against their doing so.

Population Growth

Migration

Refugee Flows

Hyperurbanization

The Decline of Communities

MUMBAI VS OTHER METROS

CDP: City Development Plan A REMEDY


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OBJECTIVES OF CITY DEVELOPMENT PLAN

Enhancing City Productivity Reducing Poverty Improving Urban Governance and Enhancing Financial Sustainability

SCOPE OF CITY DEVELOPMENT PLAN

The CDP outlines the strategic policy and investment interventions to achieve the vision of

Assess the existing situation with regards to demographic and economic growth, infrastructureservices, municipal finances, etc.

Identify the gaps in service delivery

Outline the issues faced by the Citys poor

Prepare a vision and sectoral strategic framework outlining the goals, strategies,

interventions/projects to achieve the vision and

Formulate a city investment plan with appropriate financing strategies and an

implementation action plan.

Focus on the reforms to be carried out at the state and local level in consonance

with the vision and strategic plan outlined to sustain the planned interventions.

HOW TO ACHIVE CDP

The CDP presents the city development issues, deficiency analysis and a management frameworkoutlining strategies and guidelines for future growth. The plan provides a distinctive thrust forintroducing enabling rather than restrictive regulatory mechanisms through realistic planning andmanagement interventions within the overall regulatory and institutional framework. A development

implementation action plan comprising of implementation schedule, role of stakeholders, regulationsand institutional strengthening mechanisms are formulated, with special emphasis on institutionalisingthe monitoring mechanisms.

The CDP - considered as an inter-sectoral exercise - took into account the existing situation includingassessing the current status of municipal services, its fiscal status, operational and managementprocedures.

The CDP also took into consideration the works and plans of other government and quasi- government

agencies contributing towards the growth and development of the city and was prepared byundertaking the following tasks:

Visioning Exercise Situation Analysis Formulation of Goals & Strategies Capital Investment Plan & Project Scheduling Stakeholder Workshop


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strategies and action plans required in key sectoral areas viz.,

v Governance

v Poverty Alleviation

v Economic Development

v Environment

v Water and Sanitation

v Solid Waste Management

v Traffic and Transportation

v Health and Education

v Municipal Finance

G I S- Technology comes to help !

To compound woes, it was found that the BMC, which rules over a city that's arguably the richest inthe country and rated amongst leading cities in the world, did not have a Geographic InformationSystem(GIS).This computer mapping and simulation facility is, in fact, available with several city-based private companies.

Town planners are convinced that had BMC utilised GIS and computer simulation models on July 26and the ensuing days, it could have given a fairly correct picture of the deluge and the potentialdanger areas. GIS in recent years has emerged as a valuable forecasting tool especially because of itsability to create complex digital maps with voluminous data.

"We should have had a detailed plan of all the waterways in the city, with details of cross-section,longitudinal profile, drainage basin and catchments areas of each of the gutters, creeks and rivers, notnecessarily in that order. It is unfortunate that BMC does not even have a detailed drainage map of

Mumbai city," says Phatak.

And to compound the drainage problems, the Mithi river, which is one of the biggest carrier ofrainwater from the hills of Powai, rose to record levels of flooding. The river has been blocked atvarious points along its 15-km course through the eastern suburbs, mainly to accommodate theMumbai airport runway and the financial hub at the Bandra Kurla Complex, not to mention theextensive choking at the river mouth.

Little wonder that environmentalists compared this to a coronary thrombosis when almost all the low-lying areas along the river route got flooded.

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Impact of Migration on Mumbai