THE FUTURE OF WORLD RELIGIONS: POPULATION GROWTH PROJECTIONS, 2010-2050 - PEW Research Center

http://www.pewforum.org/2015/04/02/muslims/#change-in-countries-with-largest-muslim-populations




Religion & Public Life

APRIL 2, 2015

THE FUTURE OF WORLD RELIGIONS: POPULATION 

GROWTH PROJECTIONS, 2010-2050

Muslims

The number of Muslims around the world is projected to increase rapidly in the decades ahead, growing from about 1.6 billion in 2010 to nearly 2.8 billion in 2050.40 Muslims are expected to grow twice as fast as the overall global population. Consequently, Muslims are projected to rise from 23% of the world’s population in 2010 to 30% in 2050.41

This significant projected growth is largely due to the young age and high fertility rate of Muslims relative to other religious groups.

The annual growth rate of Muslims is expected to be considerably higher than the rate for the world as a whole. In 2010-2015, the expected Muslim growth rate is 1.8% while the rate for the world’s population is 1.1%. Both rates are expected to decline over time. In 2045-2050, for example, the annual growth rate of Muslims is projected to be about 1% while it will be 0.4% for the world.

Regional Change

Looking to the future, the Asia-Pacific region is expected to remain the home of a majority of the world’s Muslims. However, the share of the global Muslim population living in several Asian countries with large Muslim populations (such as Indonesia, Pakistan and Bangladesh) is anticipated to decline between 2010 and 2050. While 62% of the world’s Muslims lived in Asia and the Pacific in 2010, 53% are projected to live in the region in 2050.

The Middle East-North Africa region is predominantly Muslim, but as of 2010, only one-in-five Muslims lived in that part of the world. By 2050, about the same share of the global Muslim population is expected to live in the Middle East and North Africa (20%).

Sub-Saharan Africa is projected to have a significantly larger share of the world’s Muslims in 2050 compared with 2010. About 24% of the world’s Muslims are expected to live in sub-Saharan Africa in 2050, up from nearly 16% in 2010.

Muslim populations are expected to grow in absolute number in all regions of the world between 2010 and 2050. In the Asia-Pacific region, for instance, the Muslim population is expected to reach nearly 1.5 billion by 2050, up from roughly 1 billion in 2010. The number of Muslims in the Middle East-North Africa region is expected to increase from about 300 million in 2010 to more than 550 million in 2050. The Muslim population in sub-Saharan Africa is forecast to more than double, growing from about 250 million in 2010 to nearly 670 million in 2050. The absolute number of Muslims also is projected to increase in regions with smaller Muslim populations, including Europe and North America.

Although a smaller share of the world’s Muslims are projected to live in the Asia-Pacific region in 2050 compared with 2010, the share of the region’s population that is Muslim is expected to grow from 24% in 2010 to nearly 30% in 2050. In fact, Muslims are projected to surpass Hindus and become the largest religious group in the Asia-Pacific region by 2050.

The share of the population in sub-Saharan Africa that is Muslim also is expected to grow in the coming decades, from about 30% in 2010 to 35% in 2050. Meanwhile, the overwhelming majority of the population in the Middle East and North Africa is projected to remain Muslim – increasing from about 93% of the region’s population in 2010 to 94% in 2050.

As a share of Europe’s population, Muslims are expected to nearly double, growing from about 6% in 2010 to about 10% in 2050. In North America, the share of the population identifying with Islam is expected to grow from 1% to 2% in the coming decades.

Between 2010 and 2050, the most rapid Muslim population growth in percentage terms is projected to occur in North America (197%) — more than seven times the expected increase in the region’s overall population (26%). The Muslim population in sub-Saharan Africa also is anticipated to grow more than in the region as a whole (170% vs. 131%).

With the bulk of the Middle East-North Africa region’s population being Muslim, the overall growth for Muslims there (74%) is expected to be about the same as the region overall (73%).

The Muslim population in Europe is expected to grow by 63% between 2010 and 2050, while Europe’s overall population is expected to decrease in size (minus 6%). During this period, the Muslim population in the Asia-Pacific region is expected to increase by 48% while the region’s population as a whole increases by 22%.
The relatively small population of Muslims in Latin America and the Caribbean is anticipated to increase by 13% between 2010 and 2050, while the region’s overall population is expected to grow 27%.

Change in Countries With Largest Muslim Populations

Collectively, the 10 countries with the largest Muslim populations in 2010 are expected to account for roughly the same share of the world’s total population in coming decades (35% in 2050, compared with about 32% in 2010). In most cases, little change is expected in each country’s share of the global population. The one exception is Nigeria, where about 4% of the world’s population is expected to reside in 2050 (up from about 2% in 2010).

In eight of the 10 countries, the share of the population that is Muslim is expected to remain about the same. However, the Muslim share of the population is expected to increase in India and Nigeria. Muslims made up 14% of India’s population in 2010; they are expected to rise to 18% in 2050. Less than half of Nigeria’s population (49%) was Muslim in 2010, but Muslims are expected to make up a majority of the population (59%) in 2050.

As of 2010, Indonesia had the largest number of Muslims (about 209 million Muslims, or about 13% of the world’s Muslims), followed by India (176 million, or about 11%), Pakistan (167 million, 10%) and Bangladesh (134 million, 8%). Nigeria, Egypt, Iran and Turkey each also had more than 70 million Muslims in 2010.

With the exception of India, where Muslims are a minority religious group, and Nigeria, where Muslims made up nearly half the population, the other eight countries on the list each had a large Muslim majority in 2010.
India is projected to have the world’s largest Muslim population in 2050 (311 million), while Pakistan is expected to have the second-most Muslims (273 million). Indonesia – the country with the largest number of Muslims in 2010 – is expected to fall to third place by 2050, with 257 million Muslims. Nigeria is forecast to rank fourth, with about 231 million Muslims at mid-century.

By 2050, Iraq and Afghanistan are expected to join the list of countries with the 10 largest Muslim populations. All told, more than six-in-ten of the world’s Muslims (62%) are projected to live in the 10 countries with the most Muslims in 2050, slightly smaller than the share of the world’s Muslims that lived in the top 10 countries in 2010 (66%).

Demographic Characteristics of Muslims That Will Shape Their Future

Fertility

With a Total Fertility Rate (TFR) of 3.1 children per woman, Muslims have higher fertility levels than the world’s overall population between 2010 and 2015 (2.5). High fertility is a major driver of projected Muslim population growth around the world and in particular regions. In every region for which data were available, the TFR for Muslims is at or above the replacement level of 2.1 children per woman (the number needed to maintain a stable population, all else being equal).

In every region except the Middle East and North Africa, Muslim fertility is higher than the rate for the region as a whole. Muslim women in sub-Saharan Africa, for example, have nearly one more child on average than women in the region overall between 2010 and 2015.

The countries with the highest Muslim fertility in the 2010-2015 period are concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa, including Niger (6.9), Nigeria (6.5), Somalia (6.3), Mali (6.1), Rwanda (6.0) and Malawi (6.0). The Muslim fertility rate in India (3.2) is around the same as the global rate for Muslims (3.1); in part because Muslims in Indonesia are having fewer children (2.0), India is expected to pass Indonesia and become the country with the world’s largest Muslim population by 2050. While Muslim fertility is well above replacement level in many countries, it is below replacement level in Iran (1.6) and in much of Eastern Europe, including Romania (1.5) and Russia (1.6).

Age Structure

Globally, Muslims were younger (median age of 23) than the overall population (median age of 28) as of 2010. Indeed, of all the religious groups included in this study, Muslims had the youngest median age as of 2010. The percentage of the population younger than 15 is another indication of the relative youth of a population. In 2010, 34% of the global Muslim population was under age 15, compared with 27% of the overall world population.

In the Asia-Pacific region, where about six-in-ten of the world’s Muslims live, the median age of Muslims (24) was five years younger than the median age of the region as a whole (29). Mostly owing to a high number of young immigrants and their children, Muslims in Europe (median age of 32) and North America (median age of 26) also were considerably younger than the general populations in these regions as of 2010.

Muslims in sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East-North Africa region were similar in age to those regions’ general populations in 2010.

Religious Switching

In the Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East and North Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean, the projected Muslim share of the population in 2050 is about the same whether or not religious switching is taken into account in the population projections.

Religious switching only marginally changes the projected Muslim share of the population in North America, where the Muslim population is expected to be 0.2% smaller when religious switching is included in the projection scenario. This means that a small net loss of Muslims is occurring in North America through religious switching.

Meanwhile, net gains of Muslims through religious switching appear to be happening in sub-Saharan Africa and Europe. But again, they are not anticipated to significantly change the projected Muslim populations in these regions.

Migration

About 3.6 million Muslims are expected to move to a new region between 2010 and 2015, mostly coming from majority-Muslim countries in the Asia-Pacific and Middle East-North Africa regions. More than 1 million are forecast to move to Europe, including 600,000 from Asia and the Pacific and an additional 470,000 from the Middle East and North Africa.

At the same time, about 170,000 Muslims from the Asia-Pacific region and 120,000 from the Middle East-North Africa region are forecast to move to North America between 2010 and 2015. And more than 1 million Muslim migrants are expected to move from the Asia-Pacific region to the Middle East-North Africa region during this time period. These migration patterns are projected to continue in the decades ahead. (See the Methodology for more information on how migration flows were estimated.)

As Muslim migrants leave the Asia-Pacific and Middle East-North Africa regions, their movements are projected to decrease slightly the shares of those regions that are Muslim while increasing the Muslim shares of Europe and North America.

When migration is factored into the projection models, Muslims are expected to make up 10% of Europe’s population in 2050; without migration, the figure would be about 8%. For North America, when migration is considered in the projection models, the expected share of the region’s 2050 population that is Muslim is about one percentage point higher than it would be without migration (2% vs. 1%).

40. For more information about Islam and its major branches (Sunni and Shia), see “Defining the Religious Groups.” ↩
41. Some projections for Muslims included in this report may differ from those in the Pew Research Center’s January 2011 report “The Future of the Global Muslim Population.” http://www.pewforum.org/2011/01/27/the-future-of-the-global-muslim-population/. This report uses more recent demographic information than the earlier report on the global Muslim population. ↩

Mumbai by-election: MIM holds the key - The Hindu

Mumbai by-election: MIM holds the key - The Hindu

Arvind Kejriwal Latest Sting (AUDIO) - BY Umesh Singh - FULL HINDI GALLI...

NYT Publishes Call to Bomb Iran - By Robert Parry -

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/03/29/nyt-publishes-call-bomb-iran

Published on

Sunday, March 29, 2015

by

Consortium News

NYT Publishes Call to Bomb Iran

by

Robert Parry

 23 Comments

An Iranian man holding a photo of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. (Iranian government photo)

If two major newspapers in, say, Russia published major articles openly advocating the unprovoked bombing of a country, say, Israel, the U.S. government and news media would be aflame with denunciations about “aggression,” “criminality,” “madness,” and “behavior not fitting the Twenty-first Century.”

But when the newspapers are American – the New York Times and the Washington Post – and the target country is Iran, no one in the U.S. government and media bats an eye. These inflammatory articles – these incitements to murder and violation of international law – are considered just normal discussion in the Land of Exceptionalism.

On Thursday, the New York Times printed an op-ed that urged the bombing of Iran as an alternative to reaching a diplomatic agreement that would sharply curtail Iran’s nuclear program and ensure that it was used only for peaceful purposes. The Post published a similar “we-must-bomb-Iran” op-ed two weeks ago.

The Times’ article by John Bolton, a neocon scholar from the American Enterprise Institute, was entitled “To Stop Iran’s Bomb, Bomb Iran.” It followed the Post’s op-ed by Joshua Muravchik, formerly at AEI and now a fellow at the neocon-dominated School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins. [For more on that piece, see Consortiumnews.com’s “Neocon Admits Plan to Bomb Iran.”]

Both articles called on the United States to mount a sustained bombing campaign against Iran to destroy its nuclear facilities and to promote “regime change” in Tehran. Ironically, these “scholars” rationalized their calls for unprovoked aggression against Iran under the theory that Iran is an aggressive state, although Iran has not invaded another country for centuries.

Bolton, who served as President George W. Bush’s ambassador to the United Nations, based his call for war on the possibility that if Iran did develop a nuclear bomb – which Iran denies seeking and which the U.S. intelligence community agrees Iran is not building – such a hypothetical event could touch off an arms race in the Middle East.

Curiously, Bolton acknowledged that Israel already has developed an undeclared nuclear weapons arsenal outside international controls, but he didn’t call for bombing Israel. He wrote blithely that “Ironically perhaps, Israel’s nuclear weapons have not triggered an arms race. Other states in the region understood — even if they couldn’t admit it publicly — that Israel’s nukes were intended as a deterrent, not as an offensive measure.”

How Bolton manages to read the minds of Israel’s neighbors who have been at the receiving end of Israeli invasions and other cross-border attacks is not explained. Nor does he address the possibility that Israel’s possession of some 200 nuclear bombs might be at the back of the minds of Iran’s leaders if they do press ahead for a nuclear weapon.

Nor does Bolton explain his assumption that if Iran were to build one or two bombs that it would use them aggressively, rather than hold them as a deterrent. He simply asserts: “Iran is a different story. Extensive progress in uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing reveal its ambitions.”

Pulling Back on Refinement

But is that correct? In its refinement of uranium, Iran has not progressed toward the level required for a nuclear weapon since its 2013 interim agreement with the global powers known as “the p-5 plus one” – for the permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany. Instead, Iran has dialed back the level of refinement to below 5 percent (what’s needed for generating electricity) from its earlier level of 20 percent (needed for medical research) — compared with the 90-plus percent purity to build a nuclear weapon.

In other words, rather than challenging the “red line” of uranium refinement that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu drew during a United Nations speech in 2012, the Iranians have gone in the opposite direction – and they have agreed to continue those constraints if a permanent agreement is reached with the p-5-plus-1.

However, instead of supporting such an agreement, American neocons – echoing Israeli hardliners – are demanding war, followed by U.S. subversion of Iran’s government through the financing of an internal opposition for a coup or a “colored revolution.”

Bolton wrote: “An attack need not destroy all of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, but by breaking key links in the nuclear-fuel cycle, it could set back its program by three to five years. The United States could do a thorough job of destruction, but Israel alone can do what’s necessary. Such action should be combined with vigorous American support for Iran’s opposition, aimed at regime change in Tehran.”

But one should remember that neocon schemes – drawn up at their think tanks and laid out on op-ed pages – don’t always unfold as planned. Since the 1990s, the neocons have maintained a list of countries considered troublesome for Israel and thus targeted for “regime change,” including Iraq, Syria and Iran. In 2003, the neocons got their chance to invade Iraq, but the easy victory that they predicted didn’t exactly pan out.

Still, the neocons never revise their hit list. They just keep coming up with more plans that, in total, have thrown much of the Middle East, northern Africa and now Ukraine into bloodshed and chaos. In effect, the neocons have joined Israel in its de facto alliance with Saudi Arabia for a Sunni sectarian conflict against the Shiites and their allies. Much like the Saudis, Israeli officials rant against the so-called “Shiite crescent” from Tehran through Baghdad and Damascus to Beirut. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “Congress Cheers Netanyahu’s Hatred of Iran.”]

Since Iran is considered the most powerful Shiite nation and is allied with Syria, which is governed by Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, both countries have remained in the neocons’ crosshairs. But the neocons don’t actually pull the trigger themselves. Their main role is to provide the emotional and political arguments to get the American people to hand over their tax money and their children to fight these wars.

The neocons are so confident in their skills at manipulating the U.S. decision-making process that some have gone so far as to suggest Americans should side with al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front in Syria or the even more brutal Islamic State, because those groups love killing Shiites and thus are considered the most effective fighters against Iran’s allies. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “The Secret Saudi Ties to Terrorism.”]

Friedman’s Madness

The New York Times’ star neocon columnist Thomas L. Friedman ventured to the edge of madness as he floated the idea of the U.S. arming the head-chopping Islamic State, writing this month: “Now I despise ISIS as much as anyone, but let me just toss out a different question: Should we be arming ISIS?”

I realize the New York Times and Washington Post are protected by the First Amendment and can theoretically publish whatever they want. But the truth is that the newspapers are extremely restrictive in what they print. Their op-ed pages are not just free-for-alls for all sorts of opinions.

For instance, neither newspaper would publish a story that urged the United States to launch a bombing campaign to destroy Israel’s actual nuclear arsenal as a step toward creating a nuclear-free Middle East. That would be considered outside responsible thought and reasonable debate.

However, when it comes to advocating a bombing campaign against Iran’s peaceful nuclear program, the two newspapers are quite happy to publish such advocacy. The Times doesn’t even blush when one of its most celebrated columnists mulls over the idea of sending weapons to the terrorists in ISIS – all presumably because Israel has identified “the Shiite crescent” as its current chief enemy and the Islamic State is on the other side.

But beyond the hypocrisy and, arguably, the criminality of these propaganda pieces, there is also the neocon record of miscalculation. Remember how the invasion of Iraq was supposed to end with Iraqis tossing rose petals at the American soldiers instead of planting “improvised explosive devices” – and how the new Iraq was to become a model pluralistic democracy?

Well, why does one assume that the same geniuses who were so wrong about Iraq will end up being right about Iran? What if the bombing and the subversion don’t lead to nirvana in Iran? Isn’t it just as likely, if not more so, that Iran would react to this aggression by deciding that it needed nuclear bombs to deter further aggression and to protect its sovereignty and its people?

In other words, might the scheming by Bolton and Muravchik — as published by the New York Times and the Washington Post — produce exactly the result that they say they want to prevent? But don’t worry. If the neocons’ new schemes don’t pan out, they’ll just come up with more.

© 2014 Consortium News

Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book, Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush, was written with two of his sons, Sam and Nat. His two previous books are Secrecy & Privilege: The Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq and Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & 'Project Truth'.

Third National Coucil Meeting Arvind Kejriwal Speech

It has power looms, it powers the e-commerce boom, yet Bhiwandi remains a backwater - By Zeeshan Shaikh - The Indian Express

http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/it-has-power-looms-it-powers-the-e-commerce-boom-yet-bhiwandi-remains-a-backwater/99/

The Indian EXPRESS

It has power looms, it powers the e-commerce boom, yet Bhiwandi remains a backwater

  0  0 Google +0

• Comments (0)
• Email
• Print

A Home in Mumbai in 9999?

It's true! Pay Rs.9,999* save upto   7.5 lacs on 1, 2 & 3 BHK in Mulund onemumbai.co.in/New-launch-Mulund

Ads by Google

A worker at a power loom (Source: Express photo)

Written by Zeeshan Shaikh | Bhiwandi | Published on:March 26, 2015 2:55 am

Track an order placed on an e-commerce site and in most cases, your package would have left a warehouse in Bhiwandi.

The city that lies 50 km on the northern fringe of Mumbai has 10 lakh power looms that weave nearly a third of the cloth that the country wears, and has 7 crore sq ft of warehouse space — the largest cluster in Asia — that powers the e-commerce boom.

But walk through Bhiwandi, and there is little to show on the ground. Barring a lone flyover and numerous real estate billboards promising a 1 BHK flat for Rs 25 lakh, itappears to be virtually untouched by the exponential infrastructural growth of other cities, even neighbours like Thane.

RELATED

• Bhiwandi Looms On Indefinite Strike Over Power Tariff Hike
• 8 Lakh-Odd Powerlooms In Bhiwandi Silent For 10 Days Now
• ‘Ending Water Shortage Key To Ending Migration Of Bhiwandi’S Tribal Population’

Bhiwandi lies at the crossroads of two majornational highways – the NH-3 and NH-8. This Muslim-dominated city has a population of 7 lakh, and a floating population of an equal number.

Its strategic positioning has thrown it up on the radar of both the Central and the state governments, which plan to transform this crumbling sprawl into a smart city complete with efficient utilities and public Wi-Fi. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is keen that the area should be transformed into a logistics hub.

The last time Bhiwandi reaped a public spending windfall was when the Centralgovernment allocated Rs 70 crore in the Union Budget 2008 for the development of a power loom mega cluster.

Bhiwandi lies at the crossroads of two major national highways – the NH-3 and NH-8.

Eight years later, Faizan Azmi, the septuagenarian head of the Maharashtra Powerloom Federation, the umbrella body of the power loom owners says he is still wondering where and how that fund was spent.

“The government has neglected this sector and this town. Its policies are flawed for the simple reason that rather than providing financial help to those who do no not have access to credit they are designed to provide help to bigger players who have easy access to money. These policies are pushing smaller and marginal people out ofbusiness,” says Azmi.

CAUGHT INTO A TIME WARP

Bhiwandi’s textile industry was promoted by migrant Muslim weavers from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar fleeing the wrath of the British after the 1857 uprising.

Nothing much has changed in the way this age-old craft is practised apart from the industry making the transition from handlooms to power looms.

Yarn here is spun into a cloth of a rough hew which is called “Grey” in trade parlance. In the 150-odd years that the trade has been in existence in the city, no effort has been made towards vertical integration so that this Grey can be processed and dyed into fabric sold to the end-user.

Grey from Bhiwandi, even today, is sent to other centres for further processing into finished fabric. “We sell the cloth for anything as low between Rs 10 to 25 per metre. After processing which happens outside of Bhiwandi, the same cloth can be sold for anything upward of Rs 150 per metre. In the last 150 years there have been no concrete steps or government help in processing this cloth in the city itself,” Azmi says.

Bhiwandi was once able to produce cloth at very cheap prices with a complete disregard for legality as it had a large and cheap labour force and massive power thefts.

The city was once the bane of the state’s electricity board with power thefts as high as 65 per cent. But now it has been hit badly by imports, the privatisation of power supply and competition from other textile centres. Higher operational costs and lack of modernisation have also hurt the industry.

Seeing the spinning looms, the dire state of the industry is not evident. The number of power looms touches 10 lakh today, from 6.5 lakh in 2008, but margins are declining.

ON THE FRINGES

The power loom industry employs nearly five lakh workers, who put in anywhere from 12 to 16 hours a day and are paid measly salaries of less than Rs 9,000 a month without any benefits. Zameeruddin Ansari, 56, has been working as a power loom operator for the past 40 years. He draws a monthly salary of Rs 9,000 after shuttling between six power looms for 12 hours non-stop.

There are no fans in the cauldron-like environs of the factory, which continuously dispenses small specks of cotton that eventually ends up clogging the lungs of many textile workers.

“It is not something that I like to do but there is nothing else that I can do in this phase of my life,” says Ansari.
The only bright spot is the extra Rs 80 Haq Mazdoori that he gets every month which is deemed as bonus granted by the employer. One of Ansari’s two sons has followed him into the profession while another has been packed off to a religious seminary for abetter life.

The succour that religion provides to the oppressed and the weak is evident in Bhiwandi going by the glaring symbols of religiosity on display in the poorer parts of the city like Shanti Nagar where Ansari resides.

Inspiration and heroes who provide hope are Islamic warriors such as Salahuddin Ayyubi — better known as Saladin the Egyptian Sultan — who successfully led an opposition against the European Crusaders in the 11th century. A tribute to him comes in the form of schools named after him. Shanti Nagar, a slum of two lakh migrants which has come up on forest land is one of the 27 slum pockets of Bhiwandi, home to labourers and migrants.

The frustration is more evident on the faces of migrant workers who are called “Chaddias” by the locals. Having left behind their families, these bachelors like 32-year-old Dilshad Ahmed stay in 80 sq ft hovels along with dozens of others putting in 16 to 19 hours a day. “There is no work back there. That is why I am trying my luck in Bhiwandi,” says Ahmed.

ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT

This frustration of the workers seems to pervade the political class as well who feel that the city has been made to miss the development bus.

Despite its strategic advantage, Bhiwandi is yet to be included under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) had unveiled a development plan for over 50 villages outside Bhiwandi. The only impact of this plan seems to be a towering 30-storey building on the outskirts. The interior of the city, meanwhile, is cramped and filthy.

Javed Dalvi, Leader of the Opposition in the Bhiwandi-Nizampur Municipal Corporation and a former mayor compares the journey of Bhiwandi with Pimpri-Chinchwad to drive home the point of how both cities have moved in opposite directions on development.

“The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation and the Bhiwandi-Nizampur Municipal Corporation were set up almost at the same time. Look at where Pimpri-Chinchwad is and where Bhiwandi stands. Inspite of this city’s importance we still do not have an IAS officer to head the corporation. None of the major works or infrastructure that were taken up in the last decade were completed,” says Dalvi.

MARKET INITIATIVE

The emergence of Bhiwandi as a logistics hub has more to do with private sector initiative rather than state-led effort.

The state government had for the first time in 1983 approved the setting up of warehouses in Bhiwandi. A decade later, businessmen sensed an opportunity with economic liberalisation, giving a boost to business.

The political situation too presented an opportunity. Bhiwandi had gained infamy as a communal cauldron, which led to depressed land prices. Companies created huge depots to stock their goods.

This laid the foundations of a transhipment point that gained traction with the entry of professional logistics companies.

Powerloom owners like Vinod Malde, 44, saw that the future lies in the logisticsbusiness, and invested heavily in buying land in the early part of this decade. He now owns 300 acres, which house warehouses. His Arham Logiparc provides services to a premium global whitegoods brand.

Every order for a new television or computer made in Mumbai is routed through Malde’s park which packs and dispenses the product to its destination.

Malde claims that there would be nearly 10,000 big or small warehouses in the area which would be serving entire Western India supplying everything from toothpaste to computer parts.

“If Bhiwandi stops functioning for a day entire Mumbai will get crippled. We are treated like porters of this economy. Necessary for its functioning but unseen and unthought about when it comes to providing any kind of benefits,” says Malde.

SMART MOVE

Architect K K Durraj who designed nearly half the major warehouses in Bhiwandi persuaded the Devendra Fadnavis government to regularise some of the illegal ones and provide a commitment to turn the region into a logistics hub.

Interestingly the present Floor Space Index that the government has allowed for warehouses is 0.1 which means that on a 100 sq ft plot a developer can build only 10 sq ft of space. Inspite of the insistence of local developers that the proposal should be eased the state government which wants to develop the area as a logistics hub is still dilly-dallying.

“The Chief Minister has promised to look into the issues of the cities development. However what can you say about the state’s commitment to the city when you see that a city which provides so much revenue to the exchequer still does not have direct rail connectivity to Mumbai,” K K Durraj CMD of KK and Associates said.

Inspite of the government’s visible neglect, Bhiwandi and its outskirts seem to be teeming with people ferried in hundreds of buses to the local warehouses to pack and ship goods.

Many of these warehouses have impromptu fruit and vegetable markets set up outside the warehouses to cater to the largely women workers who work in eight-hour shifts and come as far away as Lonavala and Vasai.

With the proliferation of these warehouses, working conditions are poor. Huge trucks ferrying goods jostle for space on crumbling roads with workers coming in and out of warehouses.

“It is scary some at times travelling within the warehouse with trucks travelling on patchy roads. We have heard that the government is planning to develop these areas. We hope it does before someone loses their life,”says Vandana Pawar a resident of Vashi who works in one of the warehouses.