Open Forum
New Delhi, 6 October 2015
Urbanization Ideas
‘SMART’ BUT MESSY
PERFORMANCE
By Dr S Saraswathi
(Former Director,
ICSSR, New Delhi
When India
is proudly announcing its project of building 100 smart cities, and States are
eagerly competing in the race for selection of the cities, a related finding of
an important international body strikes a blow to our pride.
A report released by the World Bank is rather strongly
critical of the urbanizing process going on in India and neighbouring countries as
“slow, messy, and hidden”. The process itself is seen as “tortuous” causing
problems of “livability and congestion”.
Urbanization, expected to be an attraction for rural people,
is depicted as “unattractive” – a picture provoking serious re-consideration of
planned action to arrest unplanned growth. Of course, identifying defects is easier
than rectifying these. Even construction of planned city like Chandigarh has gone away from the original
plan, thus displaying our capacity to grow far beyond our capacity to manage both
in speed and contents.
For traditional sociologists, the terms “urbanization”,
“urban growth”, and “urbanism” have distinctly different meanings. They viewed
urbanization as a social process which symbolizes gradual modernization of cultural,
economic, and political domains of a society. It is not simple shifting of
people from rural areas to urban, or moving away from agriculture-based
occupations to other activities centred around manufacture, trade, government
service, etc. It involves more and more basic changes in the behaviour of
people and the values they cherish.
However, the technical distinctions between “urban area”,
“urbanization”, “urban agglomeration”, and “urbanism” have lost significance in
our race for building “smart cities”.
The border line where a city or town ends and that of a village starts
is getting blurred in the growth of towns. Cities are expanding beyond the
suburbs. In addition, India
is now planning to construct “smart villages” also.
Today, India
has the second largest urban population after China. In 1901, in the undivided India, India had only 10.84% of total
population in urban areas. In 1951, it went up to 17.29% of the total and
reached 31.15% in 2011. India
ranks second in this respect. China
holds the first place with 50% of urban population in the total.
Decadal change in absolute number has been for the first
time more in urban than in rural population in 2011 in India. Natural increase, rural to urban migration,
re-classification of villages into towns and absorption of suburban villages in
towns has resulted in increase in the
size of urban population. Between 2001 and 2011, re-classification contributed
to 30% hike in urban population.
A noteworthy feature is that greater addition to urban
population (90.99 million) was registered than to rural (90.97 million). UN
estimates put urban population at 814 million by 2050 which would be half the
total population. India
has 53 cities with million plus population. The North-East region records the
biggest rural to urban migration of the population due mainly to local reasons.
Among other States, Gujarat has recorded
largest internal migration (25.9%) followed by Tamil Nadu (23.3%).
Presently, urbanization is viewed as a development strategy
that provides many opportunities to a country to transform their economies to
join the ranks of richer countries. Such an important social process deserves
planned handling and cannot be left to unplanned population movements which are
caused by “push” factors.
The World Bank remarks that the pressure on basic services –
infrastructure, land, housing, and environment – results in messy urbanization
and nullifies its benefits. “Urban chaos” – a metaphor frequently used in
literature and discussions on urbanization is indeed a metaphor signifying
physical as well as emotional and cultural confusion of urban people.
The report estimates that urban population of India will
increase by 497 million between 2010 and 2050 and that nearly $650 billion will
be needed to provide essential needs of water, sanitation, and roads. Urban
population in India
contributes over 60% of its GDP and is expected to increase by another 10% in
15 years – a factor emphasizing the economic significance of urbanization.
But, urbanization is not an unmixed blessing in India.
Deficiencies in the execution of smart ideas lead to urban chaos. First of all,
traffic congestion and road accidents have become part of urban life due mainly
to enormous increase in vehicular traffic much beyond the capacity of roads. India’s road
network has grown at an annual rate of 4% during 1951-2011, but the vehicle
population has increased nearly 11% leading to traffic jam, accidents, and
pollution.
Another less talked about but serious in nuisance value is the
permanent occupation of roads by parking of private vehicles, repair workshops,
and commercial vehicles besides roadside shops. True, the tertiary sector
occupations are all patronized by the well-to-do and middle class who want all
kinds of services in the reach of their hands. Even narrow roads have become
virtually car sheds.
Proliferation of slums is essentially an urban menace. According
to Census 2011, about 65 million people live in urban slums. There can be no
betterment of cities without eradication of slums and relocation of slum
dwellers in pucca houses equipped
with basic amenities. In some metropolitan cities like Chennai, canals running
through the city are polluted by slum dwellers using them as drain pipes. These
people provide the lifeline of cities and mechanical shifting of the population
is no solution.
Urban future is inextricably linked with success in
controlling pollution. A year ago, the Central Pollution Control Board listed over
70 cities that are violating ambient air quality. WHO’s “Urban Air Quality
Database” reported in 2014 that only 12% of the people living in cities for
which air quality data were available were breathing “safe” air while the rest
88% “unsafe air”. Rapid increase in the number of private vehicles takes away
the gain in introducing fuel efficiency vehicles.
Pollution control is linked with the question of waste
management and disposal. It has already grown as the biggest problem caused by
unplanned urbanization. Swachch Bharat campaign has created awareness; but it
is not sufficient to create a systematic mechanism and popular mindset to
maintain clean environment which is the first casualty in over-urbanization.
Counter-urbanization is a new process started in right
earnest in the US
in 1970s which was also a process of “re-birth” of rural areas. In Europe, it
started in Great Britain. Spain started residential
re-distribution in some areas. But, to campaign for “back to village” in India is unjust
given their condition. Former President, Abdul Kalam advocated PURA – Provision
of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas – which, if executed, will stem the tide of
purposeless urban-ward movement, and improve rural life. Without PURA, we have
no right to preach against migrations for any reason, which is a basic right of
every citizen.
Decades ago, Periyar EVR made a strong plea to abolish
villages – meaning abolition of rural-urban differences in public amenities and
establishment educational and health institutions everywhere
Keeping this background in mind, the smart city concept must
be designed for the benefit of all and not restricted to a few rich and the
educated. It should not become another divider in the divided society. The temptation to concentrate on building
posh residential colonies and IT complexes excluding the labour classes which
sustain maintenance of these elitist structures will be suicidal. Smart city
must be for all.
Good governance is a basic requirement for rural-urban
coordinated growth. It must start with empowering local governments and
communities, improving fiscal relations, and by infusing a spirit of healthy competition
among local bodies to excel in performance. ---INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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