Dear 'enlightened' GT readers,

What happens when something is limited in supply but very highly prized and in great demand? There is a Great Grab amongst competing interests and if you don’t plan carefully and rigorously implement rules of efficient and equitable distribution — there is a free for all. The big, powerful and corrupt grab all and the poor and weak get crumbs and are pushed into the margins. That’s exactly what is happening to urban land in our cities. This year, October 6, the World Habitat Day, went by unnoticed by our national media. Strange, given that by 2025 more than half of India’s people will be living in cities — of which the majority will be poor slum-dwellers. Many regard these migrants as having ‘encroached’ on ‘our’ city space. Yet, only a handful of us can claim to be ‘original inhabitants’ of our towns and cities. In this issue of GT, we decided to take a close look at what many regard as ‘eyesores’ — slums in our cities. We hope to change the way we view our cities and therefore the lives of people who live in them.

— Pandit Gobar Ganesh
E-mail: panditji@cseindia.org