Like it or not, unauthorized colonies are an urban reality that cannot be wished away. Besides providing viable housing for the poor, these settlements ensure that the wheels of the city are in constant motion.
It takes all kinds of people to run a city. Sanitation workers, hawkers, small businessmen, health services, and transport staff are just as important to the functioning of a city as doctors, professors, and engineers. It is unrealistic to imagine a city without these workers, many of whom come from smaller towns and villages in pursuit of an urban dream.
It's a different story that the city often exploits them and turns them into cogs in the giant wheels that our urban centers resemble today.
These unrecognized, faceless workers ensure the smooth functioning of the city while providing critical services for paltry sums they earn as wages. It is unfair to extract services from this workforce and treat its presence as a blemish on the urban aesthetic at the same time.
Like it or not, this workforce too has needs and aspirations—needs that are often left unattended by urban planners, and aspirations that are rarely fulfilled by the powers that be.It is only natural for this fairly large chunk of the urban population to look elsewhere for fulfillment. The desire often leads them to developers, builders, and colonizers who cater to this end of the market.The result is shanties and unauthorized colonies, where slum lords and developers deftly place themselves in the gap between the aspirations of the workforce and government housing policy.
Recently, the state government spoke of a quarterly revision of land value. The step will definitely curb involvement of the parallel economy in real estate, and thus add to tax revenues, but it will also push urban housing out of the reach of most people, especially the working class.
In a nutshell, the move will only inflate the number of people looking for affordable housing alternatives. Little wonder then that unauthorized colonies are springing up by the day despite the city administration's resolve to act against them.Unauthorized colonies have existed since the very inception of urban centers, often coming up on the edges of the city.
These developments slowly integrate into the formal urban fabric. Governments and administrations worldwide have developed programs and policies to foster the merging of these settlements while planning urban expansions.
Besides providing affordable, inclusive housing, unauthorized colonies also bring prosperity to residents as they sell at a profit when the city decides to integrate them into the larger urban landscape.By bringing in more players to the real estate game, they also keep the real estate markets from stagnating and prevent the sector from being monopolized by big-ticket developers.At a time when the city administration is digging up roads and destroying infrastructure in unauthorized settlements, one cannot help but wonder if the city can provide affordable housing to its residents or if it even has a coherent policy for the purpose.
