We the Invisible was a report based on a 1985 census of about 6000 households, funded and carried out by the Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centers

Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centers

-Introduction:The Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centers is one of the largest Indian NGOs working on housing and infrastructure issues for the urban poor...

, to ascertain the scale and nature of Mumbai

Mumbai

Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...

's pavement dwellers

Pavement dwellers

Pavement dwellers refers to Mumbai dwellings built on the footpaths/pavements of city streets, which use the walls or fences which separate building compounds from the pavement and street outside...

. Slum

Slum

A slum, as defined by United Nations agency UN-HABITAT, is a run-down area of a city characterized by substandard housing and squalor and lacking in tenure security. According to the United Nations, the percentage of urban dwellers living in slums decreased from 47 percent to 37 percent in the...

 dwellings had proliferated in the city, and the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai

Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai

The Brihanmumbai Mahanagar Palika is the civic body that governs the city of Mumbai and is India's richest municipal organisation. Its annual budget is even more than that of some of the small states of India. It is also known as Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai or the Brihanmumbai...

 had been granted permission to demolish pavement structures by a Supreme Court

Supreme Court of India

The Supreme Court of India is the highest judicial forum and final court of appeal as established by Part V, Chapter IV of the Constitution of India...

 ruling.

"We the Invisible" revealed that pavement dwellers were not transient populations, but people who had lived for over two decades in the city. It showed approximately half of the pavement dwellers to be from the poorest districts in the state of Maharashtra

Maharashtra

Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...

, with the other half came from the poorest parts of wider India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. Many came as victims of drought

Drought

A drought is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply. Generally, this occurs when a region receives consistently below average precipitation. It can have a substantial impact on the ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region...

, famine

Famine

A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including crop failure, overpopulation, or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompanied or followed by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality. Every continent in the world has...

, earthquakes or religious persecution

Religious persecution

Religious persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group of individuals as a response to their religious beliefs or affiliations or lack thereof....

or riots. Others came as a result of a complete breakdown in their livelihoods where they had been living.