IMPACT ON LIVELIHOOD OF SLUM DWELLERS IN LUCKNOW: FROM SLUM SETTLEMENT TO RESETTLEMENT COLONY

Slums are universally perceived as an impediment and the worst place to live in; though, its inhabitants consider these slums as a solution to their problems of housing, basic amenities and livelihood in urban areas. Government initiatives to facilitate better housing grants security of tenancy to slum dwellers transited to resettlement colonies and apparently seen a rise in the status of their livings, both in relative and absolute terms. But relatively better housing has failed to bring about substantial change in the livelihood of urban poor who face displacement from their place of employment. The author examines the impact of resettlement with a single case study Ahibaranpurwa slum rehabilitated in the public housing colony of Lucknow with a specificity of the local and global context. While the continuous pressure on the government is to tackle the fastest growing slum population living in deteriorated physical and environmental conditions to resettlement colonies, the casualization on allocating location of such colonies had led to the marginalization of the poor residing in the resettlement colony. The paper closes with an analysis of factors which seems to pull down livelihood opportunity of urban poor in rehabilitated colonies of urban areas.