Mumbai is one of the most diversified and vibrant Indian cities. It is a leading contributor to national income. It attracts the highest level of direct foreign investment and generates one third of the country‟s income taxes and 60 per cent of custom duties. It also houses the largest share of bank credits and deposit, and has the most active stock exchange. According to the United Nations World Urbanization Prospects Report 2013, Mumbai has become the fifth largest agglomeration in the world. But these distinctive facts and average educational and income statistics covert extreme inequality that prevails in the city.

At least 30 per cent of the city’s population remains below the poverty line (Vaquier, 2010). These urban poor are dwellers of slums, commonly referred to as jhopadpattis or squatter settlements in the local terminology. Slums have become an integral part of India’s urban landscape. As per recent census done in 2011, about 65.4 million people living in Indian slums constituted 17.37 per cent of total urban population. Slum is a widespread type of settlement in Mumbai and can be interpreted as an answer to the city‟s housing shortage that has been constantly increasing since the 1940s. According to the 2001 Census of India, Greater Mumbai encompassed 1959 slum pockets which housed 6.25 million citizens. Total slum population however decreased to 5.20 million citizens in 2011.