Nearly one-fourth of the urban population in India lives in slums and around 80 percent of urban workers are employed in the informal economy. Informal housing and workplaces do not find a place in the outdated model of spatial planning followed and implemented in India.
The master planning model implemented in India is rooted in the 1947 Town and Country Planning Act of the United Kingdom. The UK changed its planning paradigm in 1968. However, India continues to follow it in the original form. This model is not linked to the income distribution structure of cities and ignores the fact that a large segment of the population in cities belongs to the poor and low-income groups. It also does not integrate inclusion into planning, financing, and governance in cities. It fails to plan for “informal city” and recognizes only the formal sector.
The city master plans have failed to provide adequate space for the poor to live, work and vend. The land allocation process adopted by the Government planning agencies ignores the needs of the urban poor for housing and informal activities carried out in non-conventional workplaces. While the master plans have invariably allocated space for shopping malls and high-end commercial activities, they have failed to allocate space for informal markets and vending zones.
The master plans have also neglected mixed landuse zoning, which is appropriate for Indian conditions, with large numbers engaged in home-based work and street vending. The lack of legal recognition to the informal sector urban planning has led to frequent evictions of the urban poor from homes and workplaces in the name of master plan enforcement and world-class city.
Master Plans in India conceive a grand vision and end-state spatial form, unrelated to the real urban economy. The technocratic master plans rely on a non-participatory process. They treat areas with similar characteristics as ‘conforming’ for the high and middle-income segments while regarding slums in the same area as ‘nonconforming’ and ‘illegal’.