Read the given paragraph and answer the following questions.
Both rural and urban settlements are different in their functions, although sometimes, complementing each other. Apart from these, rural and urban areas have also emerged into two separate cultural, political, economic and technological divide. India has predominantly rural population (approximately 69%). Rural areas are performing primary activities existing as an appendix to the core population urban centre forming its hinterland. This may give an impression that urban centres exist as undifferentiated homogeneous entities in opposition to rural areas. On the contrary, urban centres are more differentiated in terms of socio-economic, politico-cultural and other indicators of development than any other areas.
At the top, there are farm houses and high income group localities characterised by well-developed urban infrastructures and on the other extreme are slums, jhuggi-jhopari clusters and colonies of shanty structures. These are inhabited by those people who were forced to migrate from rural areas to these urban areas in search of livelihood but could not afford proper housing due to high rent and high cost of land. They occupy environmentally incompatible and degraded areas. Slum dwellers work in low-paid, high-risk prone, unorganised sector of the urban economy. Consequently, they are under-nourished, uneducated and prone to diseases. The poverty makes them vulnerable to drug abuse, alcoholism, crime and ultimately social exclusion. The Swachh Bharat Mission is part of urban renewal mission launched by the Government of India to improve the quality of life in urban areas.
Which of the following is the characteristic of slums?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → Slums are inhabited by people who cannot afford decent housing due to high rent and high cost of land in an urban area.
The passage states: “These are inhabited by those people who were forced to migrate from rural areas to these urban areas in search of livelihood but could not afford proper housing due to high rent and high cost of land.”
Option (1) Slums are inhabited by people who cannot afford decent housing due to high rent and high cost of land in an urban area. — Correct. Slums are home to migrants who could not afford proper housing because rent and land are costly in cities.
Option (2) The slums are characterised by well-developed infrastructures and provision of safety, security and privacy. — Incorrect. The “well-developed urban infrastructures” belong to the “high income group localities”, the other extreme from slums.
Option (3) The Swachh Bharat Mission aims to improve the vegetation cover in slum areas. — Incorrect. “The Swachh Bharat Mission is part of urban renewal mission launched by the Government of India to improve the quality of life in urban areas.” Vegetation cover is not its aim.
Option (4) The slum population faces poverty and social inclusion. — Incorrect. “The poverty makes them vulnerable to drug abuse, alcoholism, crime and ultimately social exclusion.” Slum dwellers face exclusion, not inclusion. NTA changed one word of the book and the passage, and a true line became false. Read every word before you mark the answer.