At the very outset of a workshop on improvement of slums organised today, the participants made one thing very clear: ``If cities cannot take care of their slums, the slums will take over the city.'' Based on the ground rule that slums can no longer be wished away, town planners discussed ways and means of ``Community Based Environmental Improvement of Slums''. Organised by the Delhi chapter of the Institute of Town Planners (India), participants at the workshop debated the issue of slums and what to do with them.

First the facts were put in place. Today there are around 1,500 jhuggi-jhopri clusters according to the Delhi Development Authority (DDA). The projected urban population in Delhi by the year 2001 is 121.73 lakh and the population outside the ``urbanisable limits'' is 6.37 lakh. The number of squatters and slum-dwellers is only going to rise and unless their needs are taken care of, the socio-economic fabric of the city will degenerate. The planners clarified that there was no option but for people to co-exist with slums.

Criticising the lack of planning during the construction of new colonies, chairman and managing director of HUDCO, V. Suresh said: ``Each time a colony is planned, amenities for `the informal sector' that will also move into that area has also to be created. Colonies like Vasant Kunj are examples of hasty planning. There was no planning for the sweepers, maids and other workers who moved in with the other residents of the colony.''

The result of this unplanned development is a jhuggi cluster near every other high-rise building. But the solution panelists said was not about removing slums. It was about upgrading them.

Rattling off a series of projects the DDA wanted to do, additional commissioner (planning) A.K. Jain said: ``A number of plans and proposals have not gotten underway because of political intervention. Land has to be a state subject, if things are to move on. The new settlements like Rohini and Dwaraka Pappankalan have been modelled keeping in mind the informal sector also to some extent.''

Highlighting the fact that slum development work in the city was frequently re-done, the forum emphasised the need to ensure better monitoring units for every project that is undertaken. Also demanding better legal backing, planners said that with just the Slum Act of 1956 in place, a lot of work in these areas was not progressing because of court intervention.

With the final touches being given to the National Slum Policy, the forum decided to be more pro-active and to scrutinise the policy. The emphasis of the recommendations suggested by the various speakers to the Delhi administration was on the need for a community approach to improve slums and not just engineering solutions.