STUDY OF CHAWLS

COLLEGE PROJECT
COMPILED BY : SEM 4 & 6
 HISTORY OF CHAWLS
• At the end of 19th century, during the
period of industrialization, lot of people
migrated from Gujarat and neighbouring
places to work under textile mills
developing in Bombay.

• Chawls were a response to the urgent need

to house these migrant workers.

• These migrant workers started living in

thatched huts, tin sheds, barracks and a growing
number of chawls.

Source : www.google/images.com
 THE BRITISH AND CHAWLS
• The Bombay Development Directorate(BDD)
Chawls were built by the British.
• These buildings were meant to be prisons.
However, later, a certain British man started
using it for his employees, such as the
conservancy workers, peons, and others, thus
transforming it into a residential area.
• Initially, people were reluctant to move there,
because they were averse to the idea of staying
in a former prison. So, modifications were
made to the structures; kitchens were added,
etc, and people gradually started moving in.
• When the mill workers started migrating to
the city, they needed a place to stay and the
BDD chawls were the best option available. Source : www.google/images.com

• The population there mostly comprises North

Indians, Telegus, and Maharashtrians, mostly
from the Konkan region and western
Maharashtra.
 • The BIT and BDD chawls were built in the areas of
Worli and Parel, with a focus on coming up with the
most affordable solution to housing. Thus, the
cheapest materials and technology were deployed to
create more one-room tenements.

• Facilities such as water, sewage and electricity were

not accounted for and only retrospectively provided
for, leading to a long-lasting trend of poor basic
facilities in these chawls, and residents mobilizing to
demand their rights.

Source : www.google/images.com

SPREAD OF TEXTILE MILLS

Source : www.wikipedia.com
 HOUSING TYPOLOGY

• The chawl can be described as a typology comprising of several single

units of a multipurpose space with a kitchen facility and a wash area
(mori), all strung along one common access corridor also leading in to
the shared toilet.

• The building construction is generally load bearing type with wooden

frames and pitched roofs. Some later chawls were also constructed with
reinforced concrete frames.
 BAITHI CHAWL
• It is also called as sitting chawl.
• It is the one-storey chawl
buildings that hug the ground and
are laid out in several rows.
• These rows have fronts and backs.

Baithi chawl
BAR CHAWL
• It is a multi-storied chawl
• It usually has two corridors, one in front and
the other at the rear.
• The corridor, which has the main entrances of
the houses generally, faces a street.
• The toilet is generally at one end and the
staircase that allows vertical circulation is at
the other.
• One of the primary characteristics that shapes
urban life.
Bar chawl
COURTYARD CHAWL
• It is an open-to-sky space.

• Front doors and the rear doors of houses are

kept open.

• The British government found these spaces a

source of disease, so the narrow in-between
spaces became the corridors and the courtyard
became the space between the buildings, which
was now very large.

• These double-loaded-corridor chawls were

developed by the Bombay Development Courtyard chawl
Department.
 CHAWLS CHAWL CULTURE

CARING & SHARING GOSSIPS

A 2-4 STOREY BUILDING COMPRISES

OF “खोली” IN A SINGLE ROW WITH A UNITY FESTIVALS
COMMON VERANDAH AND TOILET
ARCHITECTURE
• Mumbai BDD chawls were built in
the 1920s for mill workers. Low-cost
housing for migrant laborers.

• The rooms, measuring 160 sq ft (15

sq meter) each.

• Chawls are typically ground plus

three / four storey structures.

• Building has 10-15 rooms each on

Source : www.google/images.com
both side of the corridor.
• Toilet blocks, separate or combined • Each room has a 'nahani' and a
for women and men kitchen area with storage loft.
• Toilets are present on one end of the
corridor or in the centre. The main
staircase is located in the middle of
the building.
 Source : www.squareone.blog
Source : www.squareone.blog

• There is a shared open courtyard • There is a shared open

where children play and festivals courtyard where kitchen
and weddings are celebrated. In the and a toilet as their
corridors, washing is hung and means improved.
children's bicycles parked.