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.
What is the primary cause of creation of urban slums?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Non-availability of affordable decent housing for migrants in urban areas
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.”
So they build shanties on whatever land they find. The lack of affordable housing is what turns migrants into slum dwellers.
Option (1) Forced migration — Incorrect. Migration brings people to the city, but it does not by itself create slums. If cheap, decent houses were available, migrants would live in them.
Option (2) Non-availability of affordable decent housing for migrants in urban areas — Correct. High rent and high cost of land keep proper houses out of reach of poor migrants, so they settle in slums.
Option (3) Environmental degradation — Incorrect. Slums occupy environmentally degraded areas. This is where slums come up, not why.
Option (4) Social exclusion — Incorrect. Social exclusion is a result of slum life: “The poverty makes them vulnerable to drug abuse, alcoholism, crime and ultimately social exclusion.”