According to the report, the estimated slum population for the year 2011 would be 93.06 million.
Maharashtra tops the chart with 1.81 crore people living in slums, followed by Uttar Pradesh (1.08 crore), Tamil Nadu (86.4 lakh) and West Bengal (85.4 lakh).
The committee headed by Pranab Sen, Principal Advisor to the Planning Commission recommended replacing the existing norms in the Census to identify the slums. The 2001 census included only the notified slums across 1,764 towns and hence the slum population was underestimated.
The committee was appointed by the ministry to study the slum definition, estimate the number of slum population and come out with effective measures to implement the Central Government’s scheme Rajiv Awaz Yojana (RAY).
RAY aims at creating a slum-free India in five years. The scheme extends financial support to states that are willing to assign property rights to people living in slums under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). The existing schemes for affordable housing will be dovetailed into the RAY to make it a pilot project on affordable housing for urban poor.
