Kevin Mccloud presents a documentary called ‘slumming it’ which illustrates a clear picture of the extreme conditions of the urban environment in Mumbai, Dharavi. To assess the demerits and benefits of staying in some of the densely populated regions on earth, Kevin decides living in the designated area and goes ahead to secure an occupation to investigate the prospects of staying in such an environment. Moreover, he presents the man who takes part in the planning and development of the entire Dharavi with the initiative to establish an environment for housing towers, learning institutions (Slumming It – DocuWiki, 2017). In this article, the importance of housing towers, especially in slums is evaluated with the help of Nozick and Rawls theories.
Rawls theory manifests on the distributive theory of justice. This theory proposes two justice principles namely social justice and political justice that guarantee a moral and acceptable society. Political justice supports the initiative that every individual is assigned to equal rights in the community while in social justice, the main concern is the equality on social and economic factors which addresses fair conditions and opportunities to all persons (Corlett, 2016). More specifically, Rawls used the Maximin rule to illustrate that those people who make decisions should focus on the terms of uncertainty. This means relying on those actions whose worst or maximum loss is better when compared to least or minimum losses of other possible courses of action. For Rawl justice is not preferential or prejudiced. His perception is based on the Original Position or in simple terms, the natural state of man which argues that all members present in the society are equal. This means that all people are entitled to the same freedom such that holding a specific position in an office is designated for all people. Apart from the concept of the original position he comes up with the veil of ignorance which argues that the only way a person can create a fair law is by not considering the characteristics of the individual. This means that assuming one's situation will help in the implementation of rules that do not benefit one person over another.
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On a similar occasion, Nozick reduces the question of justice with an issue of rights violations. In entitlement theory, he uses three principles to explain the concept of human rights. The policy of acquisition, transfer of property and redress injustice. The policy of acquisition suggests that those properties that do not belong to anyone are termed as appropriate objects (Allingham, 2014). In principle transfer of property it is necessary for all people to trade, keep or either way issue out its property. The third policy of redress injustice focuses on correct inequities that result from the initial two principles. For Nozick, the concept of distributive justice should manifest on people’s lives by correcting inequalities. As a result, the act of sacrificing individuals’ rights is accomplished through the name of the company as well as its balance. Since life generally seems unfair, according to Nozick the only way to thwart such fate is through violating human dignity.
Considering such principles, to come up with a strategic plan for replacing Dharavi with compact housing, it is evident that this community needs to adopt the initiative of improving infrastructure in the area to support social and economic equality. Building towers blocks at least in each region will offer other amenities such as proper toileting. Moreover, residents will be concentrated in the tower blocks which provide a low and affordable housing thus some spaces will be left free for luxury, an initiative that will favour huge returns (Sunikka-Blank, Bardhan & Haque, 2019). The plan should also involve the establishment of learning institutions as well as creating parks for residents.
References
Allingham, M. (2014). Distributive justice. Routledge.
Corlett, J. A. (Ed.). (2016). Equality and liberty: analyzing Rawls and Nozick. Springer.
Sunikka-Blank, M., Bardhan, R., & Haque, A. N. (2019). Gender, domestic energy and design of inclusive low-income habitats: A case of slum rehabilitation housing in Mumbai, India. Energy Research & Social Science, 49, 53-67.
