For the first time, the total number of slums existing in all the cities of the country will be enumerated in the current census exercise.
In 2001, the slum census was carried out for only those cities in which the population was 50,000 or more.
Also, this time even small precincts, which do not officially qualify as slums but have “slum-like characteristics”, will be taken into account.
Talking to this newspaper, Census Commissioner and Registrar General of India, Dr C. Chandramouli, said that as against the 2001 census, this time the slums in all the cities, irrespective of population size, will be counted.
Slum census itself was taken up for the first time in the 2001 exercise.
In the earlier scheme of things, “notified slums”, the “recognised but non-notified slums” and “non-notified and non-recognised but identified slums” were taken into consideration for the purposes of enumeration.
The third category generally pertained to a cluster of 60 to 70 households with a population of about 300. These slums were not formally recognised by the local authority but were enumerated for the census purpose.
However, the ministry of housing and poverty alleviation (HUPA) wanted a detailed idea of slums all across the country which could be factored into the schemes for affordable housing and other basic services to the urban poor, particularly the Rajiv Awas Yojana, which aims at making India slum free in the next five years.
The minister for housing and poverty alleviation, Ms Kumari Selja, had earlier requested the census authorities to carry out a detailed census for the purpose.
The ministry had wanted the census officials to adopt the National Sample Survey Office standard of taking 20 hutments as one slum cluster.
But the census officials had expressed inability to count all the slums having less than 60 or 70 hutments as it would have added a huge volume to their work. It was then decided to “mark” those areas where people lived in small settlements with slum-like characteristics.
“We will mark these areas and pass on the information to the ministry concerned,” said Dr Chandramouli.