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)