When he moved to the bustling Indian city of Ahmedabad from his rural village two decades ago, Babubhai Marathe invested Rs100,000 to buy a tiny room in a slum near the textile factory where he works as a mechanical fitter.
While the room had coveted amenities like a private toilet, the slum was rough with lots of drunken brawls, and flooded during the yearly monsoon rains. A few months ago, Mr Marathe, 53, who earns about Rs11,000 ($185) a month working 12 hours a day, six days a week, received a notice that the settlement was to be demolished.
Rather than fight the threat of eviction, Mr Marathe chose to move. This month, he took possession of a 290 sq ft home in a new complex built by DBS Communities, one of a clutch of private developers now starting to tackle the huge pent-up demand for affordable, legal housing for the country’s urban workers.