Investigating the built-environment and behavioural prerequisites for occupant satisfaction within the low-income settlements of Mumbai, India

In response to the social and physical infrastructure pressure that the rural-to-urban migration in slums of developing nations imposes on the existing city fabric, the city authorities make attempts to deliver living standards to the slum dwellers through either ‘slum improvement’ strategies by the provision of in-situ basic services or ‘resettlement’ approach where the slum dwellers are rehabilitated to nearby affordable mass-housing. Cities in the global south have adopted a rehabilitation approach where slum families have been shifted to mass housing with the provision of secured tenancy, 250 sq. ft apartments with individual-level water supply connection, and sanitation facilities. Nevertheless, the question remains whether these policy-driven infrastructural upgrades have positively impacted occupants’ satisfaction?

This study, hence, aims to critically analyse whether the ‘prescriptive list of desirable capabilities’ are adequate for overall satisfaction with living conditions and decent living, taking an ethnographic case study of the low-income settlements of the megacity of Mumbai. Taking cues from Rao’s theory on decent living standards, it investigates the impact of contextual built-environment and occupant behavioural parameters on their satisfaction.

Literature established decent living indicators, including cooking and nutrition, habitable space and shelter design variables, self-reported health condition of occupants, indoor living conditions including dust, dirt, and dampness in the room, indoor environmental quality, including presence or absence of airflow, heat-based reported discomfort were considered in this study. A transverse methodology involving on-field observation and questionnaire survey was conducted across 643 households within various slums and slum rehabilitation housing in Mumbai. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) were performed to investigate the causal relationship between occupants’ food intake, nutrition levels, health status, habitable space conditions, outdoor and indoor environment, and satisfaction levels.

The results estimated that households with more kitchen appliances and meals had a positive and significant relationship with satisfaction. The households with fewer rooms, low electricity consumption and per-capita space, and higher health discomfort expressed a negative and significant relationship with satisfaction. The results also estimated that outdoor thermal discomfort and the presence of excess moisture, dust, and smell in the space-constrained tenements had substantial and negative impacts on their satisfaction levels. The study concludes that despite being equipped with basic infrastructure and nutrition, environment-insensitive built-environment design leading to poor IAQ and degrading health has negatively impacted their well-being. It frames a path toward identifying the context-specific indicators that could offer satisfaction to the low-income population.