Fighting Health Hazards in Slums of Pune

Over the last three decades, Pune has grown into a major industrial centre and is now emerging as a hub of many information technology companies. Due to rapid industrialisation, people from different parts of Maharashtra and other Indian states migrated to this metropolis for livelihood. Their low income level and high real estate cost in Pune forced these migrants to live in squatter settlements across the city, contributing to the increase in its slums. As per provisional figures of Census 2011, nearly 22% of Pune’s total population of 3.1 million live in slums; however, recent studies suggest that its current slum population is at least 1 million (i.e. 40%).

As per Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) reports, there are 353 declared and 211 undeclared slums in the city. A major percentage of these slums suffer from degraded physical environment due to lack of basic civic amenities like proper housing, sewage and sanitation, toilets, drainage system, garbage disposal and safe drinking water. Such deplorable living conditions, along with factors like poor hygiene and lack of education, make these slums a hotbed of communicable and vector borne diseases like typhoid, malaria, dengue and tuberculosis. Poor economic status of slum dwellers, working as labourers in service or construction industries, makes it onerous for them to spend their meagre earnings on healthcare solutions.