Mike Davis discusses the prevalence of slums that has occurred since the 1800’s in Planet of Slums. However in the last 40 years they have become more relevant and prominent.  “Urban inequality in Third World is visible even from space,” Davis says (p.95). As the World Bank stated in the 1990’s “urban poverty would become the most significant, and politically explosive, problem in the next century” (2006) .Davis examines slum living conditions, growth of slums, shelter strategies, ”real-estate” within the slums, etc. Moreover, he specifies four different terms which explain why people chose to reside in the area (Inner city poverty, Pirate Urbanization, Renters, and Pariah edge). Overall Davis describes a world of slums that extends across the landscapes of massive cities. Poverty, exploitation, dictatorship, and lack of resources all seem to be the common denominator within these cities.

    In many countries there is a stark contrast of wealth and poverty occupying the same space. Mumbai does not fall behind in this problem. In Shirish Patel’s “Housing policies for Mumbai”, it is clear that there is a host of problems pertaining to housing the poor (slum dwellers) and the not-so-poor (middle class/elite). In the case of Mumbai’s slums, more than half of the population struggles to live on its pavements, swamps, railway tracks, water pipelines, and on every bit of vacant land, as mentioned in Kalpana Sharma’s “GODDESS OF WEALTH: Citizen Lakshami on the footpath of Mumbai.” Furthermore, the middle and upper classes have demanded a disenfranchisement of the poor to deny them their right to vote.. Sharma explains how the middle class believes the problem of slums will be solved as “politicians will pay no attention to the poor if they cannot vote and therefore will ensure that they are removed” (2005). Sharma concludes that those who the middle class want to disenfranchise have names, histories, and are more committed to a democratic system than the people who take their shelter for granted.

Moreover, rights to the city has been an ongoing struggle amongst slum dwellers in Mumbai. As stated in Judy Whitehead’s and Nittin More’s “Revanchisim in Mumbai,” “Manufacturing units are increasingly relocated to the suburbs and the working classes and the poor cleansed from the high-end business and financial districts as the state is increasingly subordinate to the economy in the liberalization era (2429).” Conflicts between developers and slum dwellers have been unfolding across the city for more than a decade, as many slum dwellers do not agree with the current redevelopment projects. These projects are designed to pull 60% of Mumbai's population out of harsh living conditions. This rehabilitation policy will enable developers to retrieve the land for commercial development in exchange for building free houses for slum dweller (Nittin More & Whitehead 2007). Most slum dwellers are comfortable in their shanty towns as 80% of people are self-employed in the slum's core businesses (leather, recycling, garments and pottery). Furthermore, contrary to popular belief among the city’s middle and upper classes, living in the slums is not cheap, as a plot big enough for a tent in an established slum averages at 370,000 (US$10,000), more than double the average annual household income in Mumbai. 

During the last two decades migration from villages and small towns to urban areas has increased tremendously in India. This lead to the degradation of urban environment by growth of slums especially in the metropolitan locations like Dharavi, Mumbai (Mumbai’s biggest slum). The growing demand for housing and relatively high property rate has resulted in worse conditions for the poor people in terms of ability to obtain a proper shelter. Unaffordability has compelled them to live in unauthorized, congested and unhygienic conditions referred to as slums or shanty towns. As stated in Raunak Prasad and Niruti Gupta’s “Problems and Prospects of Slums in India”, “Today urban areas face major challenge in terms of providing basic infrastructure, health and safety for the people living in Slums” (69). One of the most common problems is clean water. The absence of water from the Municipal Corporation gives water mafias an opportunity to exploit slum dwellers by charging water on higher rates. The water mafias are also responsible for making leakages in the water supply line and sell the same water in slums (Prasad & Gupta 2016). Alhough, the marginalized individuals that reside in these shanty towns face many injustices, they still continue to fight for their rights.