MUMBAI, July 5 -- "Garbage came to Govandi first," says Simpreet Singh, a researcher associated with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), referring to the Deonar dumping ground, set up here in 1927. "In the same spirit, the state has kept dumping people here every time it clears slums in other parts of the city." The latest will be thousands of slum residents from Dharavi, one of Mumbai's largest slum redevelopment projects. Govandi-Mankhurd, which largely makes up M/East ward, has been shaped by a history of neglect and dispossession, a place where people have long been discarded. Life here is a daily struggle in a region defined by overflowing landfills, toxic air, and decades of forced displacement. Twenty years after the last mass resettlement, history is repeating itself in this vast area on the eastern fringes of the city. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), as part of its move to redevelop 64 slum pockets across Mumbai, has marked 18 slum colonies for redevelopment in Govandi. But the prospect of redevelopment comes with a rider: the slum-dwellers' consent is not required, nor do they have a say in any aspect of the plan. There's a colossal 400,000sq m up for redevelopment, as well as Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) -gold-plated FSI generated through slum schemes that builders can use in projects elsewhere in the city. And they're looking to mine it in Govandi. Excluded from the redevelopment process, slum residents from the 18 clusters fear that developers will "take over" their homes. One thing is certain, more displacement is inevitable - this time, from larger homes, albeit often with illegal additions, to homes that will squeeze entire families into a few square feet of space. "We are 11 people in our family, including three kids, living in three small rooms, one on top of the other," says Noor Shama, a resident of Kamla Raman Nagar in Govandi. She moved here in the 1980s, into a bamboo hut, and remade it out of tin after it was demolished. It eventually gave way to a three-tier structure. "After redevelopment, we will be allotted one single, small unit. At least, now we can breathe," says Shama, who ironically lives in one of Mumbai's most polluted, and most densely populated, neighbourhoods. "Attempts at slum clearance in Mumbai began in the 1950s, under the Greater Bombay Scheme. The city limits were being extended from Mahim and Sion to Jogeshwari and Bhandup. And to keep Bombay's population in check, slum and pavement dwellers from the island city were evicted to places such as Manbadruk in Trombay, near Govandi, and Majaz Colony in Jogeshwari," said Singh. It set the tone for future waves of slum-dwellers to be cast into Govandi-Mankhurd over the decades. In the early years, the land was marshy, desolate and wild. "It was a terrifying place; we were even afraid of the wind in the dead of night," recalls Umar Sheikh, who moved to Mandala on the margins of Mankhurd, in the 1990s. "We had to walk 3km to Shivaji Nagar and Cheeta Camp to buy cans of water," says Sheikh. Families resettled here by the state in the 1950s were given allotment letters for handkerchief-size pieces of land, at nominal rents. Around 7,450 families set up Janta Colony in Trombay, the earliest slum settlement in Govandi. The only other inhabitants in the general vicinity were conservancy workers at the Deonar dumping yard, in nearby Chembur. That same decade saw the stirrings of a second wave of resettlement, thanks to the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in Trombay. "With Dr Homi Bhabha bringing premiers from other countries to visit the nuclear research centre, he wrote to (prime minister) Jawaharlal Nehru, saying they had to pass through shabby slums, and asked that they be shifted," says Singh. "So Janta Colony started getting notices to clear out." In the late '60s and '70s, another spate of demolitions and displacements in Mumbai saw the first settlers in Lotus Colony, Shivaji Nagar and Bainganwadi arrive. The displaced came from the island city, and suburbs such as Bandra, Juhu and Andheri, which were developing into upscale neighbourhoods. "My family was shifted here from Lotus Cinema in Worli, which gave this colony its name," says Shabbir Sheikh, 61. "We paid Rs.10 per month as rent, now Rs.100-110. I remember farms growing vegetables then, including brinjal farms. Hence, Bainganwadi." Slums around the golf course in Chembur were added to the mix, in a settlement called Nimoni Baug, recounts Singh. "Anna Bhau Sathe Nagar was set up in the 1970s by people of the Matang community, who came walking from Marathwada after a drought there," he adds. The shifting of Bandra's slaughter house to Deonar in 1971 brought another group of settlers, among them Nafis Ansari's family. "My family bought a home in Lotus Colony for Rs.3,400, which was expensive back then," says Ansari, 52. "The area was not entirely unplanned; there were lanes demarcated, housing blocks, two toilet blocks, and a common water tap. This part was better than others. The area was called 'KD Colony', for the 'Kurla Deonar' train that came here," says Ansari. Indira Gandhi's Emergency saw the first in-situ displacement - the demolition of Govandi's first formal slum settlement, Janta Colony, in 1976. Around 7,000 homes were demolished to make way for Anushakti Nagar, "to build 700 lavish flats and amenities for the officers of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE)," says a 2019 report on M/East ward commissioned by the Maharashtra State Human Rights Commission (MSHRC). "The displaced residents once again were allotted plots of half the size in an inter-tidal swamp a few miles away, now known as Cheeta Camp," the report adds. Over the years, as more slum-dwellers were resettled here, Govandi-Mankhurd began to change. Residents began to fill up swamps, helped along by tons of construction debris that arrived by the truckload as the rest of Mumbai developed. The early 1990s were a turning point for the region. As Mumbai's population swelled and migrants continued to pour into the city, Govandi-Mankhurd too began to experience a growth spurt. "People started coming to live here by choice," recounts Ansari. "By now, it was well connected by train and bus. People built homes here and even began to sell them." The neighbourhood began to transform in a big way. Small-scale industries, of embroidery, jewellery making and leather, started to open here, offering employment, says Ansari. And even the Deonar dumping ground offered work. To accommodate the ever-growing population, residents here did the next obvious thing: build upwards. So what if the additions were unauthorised? Also, water problems began to ease, and residents started taking illegal water connections straight to their homes. Most of them also built toilets. The next wave of displacement to hit Govandi came in 2004-05, although it was not restricted to this region. "The central government, MMRDA, supported by the World Bank and civil society organisations, aimed to transform Mumbai into an international finance centre on the lines of Shanghai. Slums were deemed unaesthetic, but they were also where the land was," says Singh, then working on his PhD thesis at TISS. "Around 80,000 slum homes were razed all over Mumbai, in over 40 pockets, of which 15,000 were located in Govandi-Mankhurd." Protests followed, celebrities spoke out, and cases were filed in the courts. The Ghar Bachao Ghar Banao Andolan was established, with Singh as one of its founding members. Since the state had carried out the demolitions without due process, it was forced to abandon its grandiose plan. Most of the wrecked homes were rebuilt. Many who were displaced chose either Mandala in Mankhurd or Ambujwadi in Malad to resettle. Now, as the slum redevelopment juggernaut rolls into Govandi, a ripple of nervousness has begun to trickle into every home. This expanse holds one of Mumbai's largest land banks, a dream for developers currently being offered a raft of incentives by the state. Singh remarks, "The state may be offering them proper housing, but it will not be enough. More displacement is on the cards."...