Addressing the Prevalence of Urban Poverty in Bangalore, India

Problem Statement

Increased rural migration to the city of Bangalore has resulted in its largest population of slum dwellers ever. A slum that is officially recognized by the KSDB receives basic infrastructure and services from the KSDB. These services allow the slum to move out of poverty. However, the KSDB’s lack of a policy to aggressively recognize slums on an official level prevents the KSDB from scaling its antipoverty interventions. As a result, hundreds of thousands of Bangalore’s slum dwellers are unnecessarily forced to live in slum poverty.

KSDB interventions do alleviate slum poverty. The KSDB alleviates slum poverty by providing a slum’s inhabitants with voter registration, electricity, sanitation, roads, drains, schools and eligibility for public housing projects. The ‘slums’ listed in the KSDB’s slum registry are actually well integrated urban neighborhoods not in poverty. This trend affirms that the slums receiving government services have moved out of poverty.

KSDB does not officially recognize the existence of most slums. Bangalore has hundreds of slums that are not officially recognized by the KSDB and do not receive KSDB aid. Because the KSDB has limited resources, it cannot provide extensive antipoverty services to all slums. As a result, only officially recognized slums receive KSDB aid. This procedure prevents the KSDB from recognizing and providing minimum aid packages to the rest of Bangalore’s slums.