In the wake of the Registrar General of India and National Sample Survey Organisation’s conflicting estimates of the country’s slum population, the Ministry of Home Affairs has made it known that the RGI figure was more reliable since it was based on three types of slums that existed in the country whereas the NSSO only considered two types of slums.
As per the Registrar General of India ’s 2011 census,the slum population came to around 6.5 crore. However, according to the NSSO, which comes under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, the slum population totalled only 4.1 crore.
“There was a huge difference of 2.1 crore because the NSSO covered only two types of slums – notified and non-notified – while the census data is based on notified, recognised and identified slums,” a source said.
The huge difference in the population estimate has been mainly attributed to the absence of recognised slums data in the NSSO sample.
Officials said even the definition of the slums for census and NSSO are different, though, both employ various checks and balances for processing the data.
According to the RGI, all areas recognised as ‘slums’ by the states, Union Territories, local government as well as Housing and Slum Boards may have not been formally notified as slums.