(Re)-reading forced evictions in Mumbai's slums: Narratives from slums on Central

Government land

Slums are representative of poverty and marginalization in India. Among the metro cities, Mumbai
has the highest proportion of slum households. Their size and concentration point to the fact that
slums are more a result of structural marginalization than simplistic poverty arguments.
The fate of a slum is often determined by its land ownership. Ownership determines its ability to
improve, upgrade and even exist. Through this paper I attempt to delineate the peculiar case of slums
located on land owned by the Central Government. These slums have been at the periphery of the
slum discourse in Mumbai. They are 'more' disadvantaged and marginalized within the spectrum of
informality; restrictive laws and policies have left these slums in a state of limbo. Since 2014 there
has been a spate of forced evictions in these slums. Using these evictions as a lens to theorize
marginality and state led violence, I posit that renewed interest in urban land markets since the 2000s
has lead to an exclusivist discourse chain, supported by urban planning mechanisms and (non) state
institutions that have led to evictions on a large scale. Through this paper I argue that evictions are not
a one-time calamity but a continuous and systematic process involving multiple actors and agencies.
The paper attempts to comprehend other subtler forms of state led violence and mechanisms operating
in the communities; and means by which people cope with the same. The paper draws from primary
field observations and narratives from three communities on central government land in three
disparate geographies of Mumbai (Bandra, Darukhana and Malvani). These cases will be compared
and contrasted for further reading into how different communities have reacted to varied situations
and their successes and failures.

Author Aravind Unni

Affiliation Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action (YUVA)
Address Unit no. 9, Parmar Industrial Estate, Kale Road, Bail Bazaar, Kurla West. Mumbai 70
Email aravind.u@yuvaindia.org, aravindunni85@gmail.com