THE CONTEXT: From 1960 to 2021, the population of India increased from 450.55 million to 1.41 billion people. This is a growth of 212.4 per cent in 61 years. UN report estimated that India’s urban population is estimated to stand at 675 million in 2035, the second highest behind China’s one billion. Ironically India’s urban growth did not result in an increase in the good performance in Live ability Index. It can be corroborated by the fact that the National Capital, New Delhi, has been ranked 112th on the list of the Global Live ability Index 2022 released by EIU(Economist Intelligence Unit). This article traces the growth of the urban population with the economic growth and various reasons for the dismal status of city livability and suggests some way forward.
INDIA’S HIGH ECONOMIC GROWTH
At $2.3 trillion, the Indian economy has grown nearly 9 times since 1991. In 1991, India’s GDP stood at $266 billion. Agriculture, which accounted for nearly 30 per cent of the total GDP in 1991, now accounts for 17.4 per cent of the economy. The services sector contributes nearly 54 per cent to the domestic GDP (from 39 per cent in 1991), while the industry sector’s contribution to GDP stands at 29 per cent now against 30 in 1991. This economic growth was synchronous with the rise of the urban population.
INDIA’S URBAN LANDSCAPE
Presently, Indian cities are home to an estimated 377 million people or 31.16% of the country’s total population. There are over 4,400 statutory towns and cities in India with around 40 crores of inhabitants today. At the current rate of growth, the urban population in India is estimated to reach a staggering 60 crores by 2030 (WUP, 2018). According to 2011 Census, as many as 53 cities in India had a million plus population. It is projected that more than 50% of the country’s population will be urban by 2050 (WUP, 2018). By some estimates, India needs to build a Chicago every year and is expected to see an influx of population of the size of the entire USA into its cities over the next decade.
ISSUES WITH THE URBAN SPACE
SLUM DEVELOPMENT
According to the Census-2011, 17% of the urban population lives in Slum. Every sixth urban Indian life in slums unfit for human habitation. Slums, in fact, are so common that they are found in 65 per cent of Indian towns. Yet slum dwellers are the most overlooked section of society. Six out of 10 slum dwellers live close to unsanitary drains, and almost four of every 10 do not get treated water.
It has various problems like:
● It lacks basic hygiene facilities and is prone to unsanitary living conditions.
● Constant migration increases the population of slums, further increasing hygiene problems.
● Lack of basic needs and overcrowding.
ISSUES RELATED TO PLANNING
Fractured planning structures are incapable of integrated planning for land use, infrastructure planning, and finance across metropolitan areas.
TRANSPORT
Transport in urban faces various challenges, including inefficiency, roadway congestion, traffic accidents, lack of planning, overcrowding, noise, and a total lack of coordination of any kind.
URBAN CRIME IN INDIA
Urban areas has been spot for various crime like Murder/attempt to murder, Violent crime targetting property, Violent crime against women, Other crime against women.
Including Rape, Cruelty by husband or his relatives, Human trafficking, Attempt to commit rape, Assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty, and Insult to the modesty of women.
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
Urban space in India faces various environmental problems like:
● Felling of trees
● Encroachment on water bodies
● Concretization of the land causing urban heat issues
● Pollution including Ground Ozone problems
● Waste generation: Landfills are created
● Emission: urban constitutes about 3.1% of land but 78% of emission
SOCIAL ISSUES IN THE URBAN AREAS
● Class Barriers: India’s growing inequality of income is much more evident in urban areas than in rural areas because India’s rich live in the big metro cities and towns and not in villages. Their lifestyle is distinctly different from the lifestyle of the low-income and middle-income groups. Migrants from the villages are attracted by high wages in the cities and join the informal sector. Many are employed in the services of the urban rich.
● Child labour: The State of Child Workers in India report by UNICEF, based on the latest Indian census data, says the proportion of child workers in the 5-9 year age group jumped to 24.8 percent in 2011 from 14.6 per cent in 2001
● Migrant issues:
○ The majority of the male migrants and possibly a substantial portion of the women migrants to urban areas migrate to work and earn a livelihood.
○ A substantial portion of the rural-urban migrants is less educated, poor and come from agricultural backgrounds and belongs to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities.
○ Migrants lacks documentation, access to social security, and accessibility to the government schemes like food through the public distribution system.
○ Issue of homeless people in the urban areas
● Lack of social security: COVID-19 has exposed a major gap in social protection coverage, given the disproportionate impact of lockdowns on the livelihoods of the urban poor.
● Residential segregation: Caste-based residential segregation contributes to the widening of social and cognitive distances between caste groups. Social hierarchies are reinforced by spatial isolation and separation. The greater the segregation – voluntarily or involuntarily — lesser is the likelihood of interaction between communities. Muslims in Indian cities are a classic example of such isolation and ghettoization.
● Issues of Urban poverty and unemployment.
HEALTH ISSUES IN URBAN AREAS
Water-borne, water-washed (or water-scarce), airborne, food-borne, vector-borne, including some water-related vectors (e.g. Aedes mosquitoes breeding in water containers where households lack reliable piped supplies).
There is a lack of sanitation facilities for the poor and proper drinking water.
Urban services, including water & wastewater and solid waste, do not reach many residents, and those they do serve receive sporadic, unreliable services. And, in the case of non-notified slums, service providers are prohibited from serving residents.
HAZARD IN THE URBAN AREAS:
Issues of the Urban flood: Increasing trend of urban flooding is a universal phenomenon and poses a great challenge to urban planners.
● The hyderabad floods of 2020 were caused by depression and flash floods
● Kerala floods of 2018 and 2020 caused heavy landslides
● Bengaluru floods in 2022 due to inundation and non-connectivity of water bodies.
Urban Fire: India has witnessed many tragic fire incidents. Eg – Uphar cinema, New Delhi (1997); Kamala Mills, Mumbai (2017) and Taxila Coaching Centre, Surat (2019).
ABOUT THE EASE OF LIVING INDEX
● The Ease of living index is an assessment tool used by the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs to evaluate the quality of life and the impact of various initiatives for urban development in the city.
● It includes the availability of physical amenities like solid waste management, water supply, availability of parks and green spaces, etc.
It provides a comprehensive understanding of participating cities across India, based on various parameters like
● the quality of life,
● the economic ability of a city, and
● its sustainability and resilience.
These span over 13 categories like:
● Education,
● Health,
● Housing and Shelter,
● WASH and SWM,
● Mobility,
● Safety and Security,
● Environment,
● Recreation,
● Level of Economic Development,
● Economic Opportunities,
● Green Spaces, and Buildings,
● Energy Consumption, and
● City Resilience
These account for 70% of the overall outcome.
GOVERNMENT SCHEMES FOR IMPROVING URBAN LIVABILITY
Smart City Mission: Smart Cities Mission was launched by the Hon Prime Minister on 25 June 2015. The main objective of the Mission is to promote cities that provide core infrastructure, clean and sustainable environment and give a decent quality of life to their citizens through the application of ‘smart solutions’.
AMRUT Mission: The purpose of Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) is to:
- Ensure that every household has access to a tap with an assured supply of water and a sewerage connection.
- Increase the amenity value of cities by developing greenery and well-maintained open spaces (e.g. parks) and
- Reduce pollution by switching to public transport.
HRIDAY (Heritage City Development & Augmentation Yojana): The main objective of HRIDAY is to preserve the character of the soul of a heritage city and facilitate inclusive heritage-linked urban development by exploring various avenues including involving the private sector.
Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Urban (PMAY-U): It is a flagship Mission of the Government of India being implemented by Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), was launched on 25th June 2015. The Mission addresses urban housing shortage among the EWS/LIG and MIG categories including the slum dwellers by ensuring a pucca house to all eligible urban households by the year 2022, when Nation completes 75 years of its Independence
THE WAY FORWARD: MEASURES TO BE TAKEN TO INCREASE LIVABILITY IN CITIES:
- For Slums: Besides improving the living conditions in slums, the causes of slums creation should be addressed. Distributive development will serve the purpose and thereby, everyone can have a dignified and healthy life.
- Integrated Urban Planning: Integrated urban planning can be implemented at various scales, such as across municipal boundaries, city-region or watershed level, and in collaboration with national governments. This collaborative process aims to engage stakeholders that have not traditionally been involved in urban planning – the private sector, citizen groups and marginalized communities – to produce innovative solutions to interconnected challenges.
- Dealing with an Urban crime: Increasing the exchange of information, experience and technical assistance at international, regional and local levels can help in the development of strategies to prevent crime in mega-cities, and in cities with very high crime rates.
- Incease the social protection to the informal sector including migrants.
- Universal access to the social welfare schemes like PDS, Health and education schemes.
- Environmental considerations should be included in the Urban planning
- Promotion of Renewable energy and green transport in urban areas.
- Integrated and Multimodal transport need to be implemented
- Dedicated space for recreational activities, cultural programmes and green space.
THE CONCLUSION: There is a need to increase the city livability so that SDG-11 calls for making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.
Mains Question
- Urban centres are called the engine of growth; however, it is in a dismal state in the livability index. Analyse
- Suggest various measures to increase the livability index of the Urban areas.
