Survey Analysis

The survey, which was conducted under the supervision of the Urban Design Research Institute, covers every 24 wards in Mumbai. Although some wards are in number fewer representatives than others, the overall results give valuable and serious insights into the current socioeconomic situation of the households as well as whishes and suggestions which are expressed by the interviewees.In the following analysis we have selected some results which we think are relevant and revealing for politics as well as ordinary people.

GOVERNANCE

Are you aware of the development plan
for Mumbai?
/ Do you think there is a need for increased citizenparticipation in planning Mumbai?

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Accordingly to our graph, only 22% of the people are aware of the Development Plan for Mumbai. That means that more than 3/4 of the citizen have no or only a vague idea what the DP is and what he can do for the people. However, 66% of the people would like to be more involved/ aware of and even 76% think that there is a need for increased citizen participation in planning Mumbai in general. Obviously, the involvement and participation in the decision-making process for planning Mumbai is in the eyes of its citizen not adequate. The vast majority who claims for more involvement and participation must be taken seriously. Beside this, also the access to municipal information must be improved in order to make projects and decision-making processes more transparent.

HOUSING

Relation between Housing and Livelihood

Wards / A / B / C / D / E / F/N / F/S / G / H / K/E / K/W / L / M / N / P / R / S / T / Ø
% earning less than 20.000rs./ month / 42 / 40 / 31 / 43 / 53 / 47 / 24 / 35 / 32 / 54 / 35 / 50 / 20 / 18 / 63 / 20 / 14 / 24 / 31
% having more than 2 habitable rooms/ household / 27 / 17 / 33 / 41 / 11 / 29 / 55 / 23 / 41 / 34 / 41 / 33 / 54 / 25 / 25 / 41 / 39 / 50 / 34

When considering the relation between individuals per household and the number of habitable rooms per household, one would think that the number of rooms increases with the number of people living in the household. However, we found out that the number of habitable rooms stays almost the same in Mumbai even when the number of individuals per households increases. What does that mean? Obviously, Mumbai does not have adequate housing. But this does not count for everybody,because the correlation between income and habitable rooms shows, that the income significantly decides about the living space of people. Thus our first conclusion must be modified - Mumbai does not only lack adequate housing but also affordable housing. Especially the housing situation for the poorer people must be improved trough building more affordable housing instead of costly high-rise apartment buildings as it does bypass the needs and views of the cities majority.

Housing and Sanitary

In what type of housing do you live? / Do you have a toilet in your place of residence?
Do you have a bathing area in your place of residence? / What kind of public amenities should be developed?

Although 47% of the interviewees live in Apartment Buildings, almost 1/3 (32%) do not have a toilet and almost 1/5 (18%) do not have a bathing area in their place of residence. Obviously, the sanitary conditions in many households are not sufficient with respect to toilet and bathing area. This is also reflected in the results of the question about public amenities which people would like to see improved. For 28% of the people,investment in toilets has a priority over investments in other amenities.

EDUCATION

Relation between Education and Livelihood

Wards / A / B / C / D / E / F/N / F/ S / G / H / K/E / K/W / L / M / N / P / R / S / T / Ø
% earning more than 150.000rs./ month / 19 / 9 / 25 / 19 / 14 / 17 / 24 / 12 / 33 / 16 / 20 / 10 / 24 / 18 / 6 / 20 / 14 / 24 / 18
% Primary school as highest level of education / 12 / 29 / 19 / 12 / 27 / 21 / 19 / 8 / 14 / 25 / 11 / 21 / 7 / 23 / 0 / 11 / 14 / 12 / 16

The correlation between household income and level of education showed that people with a higher level of education are both better off in finding consistent work and earn more money than people with a lower educational degree. Consequently, the level of education decides both whether you are able to find consistent work and the salary you get for. What do these results mean for politics? In order to increase the chances of the citizens to find work on the labor market, it must be a political goal to improve the education system in quality and quantity. In order to increase the level of education our survey resultsshow an interesting possibility. According to the correlation we made between number of libraries near people’s residence and their level of education, we can found out that the more libraries people have near their residence the higher is their level of education. Obviously, supply creates demand and has an effect on people’s education. Therefore, one must point out that the goal of education policy should be to stimulate this demand in order to improve the education level of its citizen, what would simultaneously increase people’s chances on the labor market as mentioned above.

TRANSPORT

The majority of people (59%) travel distances within the city either by train or by bus. Simultaneously, train and bus service were mentioned as the two main methods of transport people would like to see improved. That means that especially those transports which are mostly used need an improvement. Therefore, the improvement of bus and train service in terms of further construction and the provision of higher quality standards should be addressed. What must be positively recognized is the fact that 65% of the people find public transport safe, and 19% somewhat safe.

WATER

Are you satisfied with the municipal water supply? / How many hours a day do you have access to water supply?

92% of the interviewees get their water from the Municipality and about 69% are satisfied with the municipal water supply. However, this level of satisfaction strongly varies from 18-88% between the wards. Although in some wards everybody has access to water, in others as e.g. in ward H or ward S, 7-9% of the people have no access to water, what is an unacceptably high number. Furthermore, 54% of the people have less than 5hours access to water supply which also far too much. Consequently, people are unequally provided with municipal water. A correlation between household income and water access supports this results, saying that the higher the income per household the better the access to water. However, thisshouldn’t be the case. The municipality should ensure that both high-income as well as low-income households are equally supplied with water.

HEALTH

Where do you go when a family member is unwell? / Is the cost of healthcare in private hospitals affordable to you?

64% and thus the majority of the interviewee use private health facilities (private doctor, private hospital and private consultant), while only 33% of them find the cost of private hospitals affordable.That means that the provision of public health facilities is apparently not adequate in terms of number and/ or quality as people prefer to go to private institutions although the cost are hardly affordable for them.

Wards / A / B / C / D / E / F/N / F/S / G / H / K/E / K/W / L / M / N / P / R / S / T / Ø
% who fell ill with malaria within the last three years / 15 / 18 / 13 / 6 / 19 / 7 / 28 / 13 / 0 / 13 / 15 / 13 / 9 / 14 / 13 / 12 / 16 / 10 / 13

According to our survey results, 13% of the interviewee haven fallen ill with malaria in the past three years. However, this number strongly varies between the different wards. While in ward D, F North, and H people felt hardly ill with malaria, people from F South, A, B, E and S are mostly concerned. Obviously, the place where people live in terms of area and living conditions are variables which determine how likely it is whether people are suffering from malaria or not. At the same time it is encouraging that 50% of the people have not fallen ill within the past 3 years.

URBAN FORM

Do you think Mumbai is too congested? / Do you think Mumbai needs to build taller buildings in order to provide more housing?

62% and thus 2/3 of the interviewee think that Mumbai needs to build taller buildings in order to provide more housing which emphasizes the unsatisfying housing situation mentioned above. Almost the whole sample population (87%) felt that the city is too congested. Furthermore the vast majority (78%) of people is interested in the preservation of heritage buildings in Mumbai what is a clear statement for the upkeep of older buildings and against the construction of new apartment buildings instead. From the survey, it becomes clear that people think that the urban form in Mumbai needs to be improved.

PUBLIC SPACE

Is there adequate public space near to your residence? / How often do you generally visit a public space?

According to our graph 39% of the people do nothave adequate public space near their residence while 40% do have. That means that more than 1/3 of the people are lacking of adequate public space close to their place of living.

The second figure shows that the visit of public spaces strongly varies among the citizen. What are the reasons for? An interesting correlation may give an explanation. We were correlating the income per household and the regularity of people visiting public space. The result showed, the higher the income per household the more often people visit public spaces. Since it is very unlikely that low income families are not interested in using public spaces, the cause for the difference must therefore result from the different levels of accessibility in terms of availability of time, affordability or proximity. We cannot say which one is the case, but obviously low-income families use public space less than high income families.

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