Urban settlements in India consist of Statutory towns, Census towns, Cities, Metropolitan cities, Urban agglomerations and Outgrowth.
Metropolitan Cities:
Cities with a population of at least 10 lakh (1 million).
Cities:
‘Urban areas’ with a population of atleast one lakh (0.1 million). Others are termed as Towns.
Census Town:
Places with a minimum population of 5,000 with atleast 75% of male working population engaged in non-agricultural pursuits and a population density of atleast 400 people per sq km.
Statutary Towns:
All places with a municipality, corporation, cantonment board or notified town area committee as declared by the state law.
Urban Agglomeration
Continous urban spreads constituting one or more towns and its adjoining urban outgrowths. A UA must consists of at least one statutory town, and its total population of all constituents put together should not be less than 20,000 as enumerated in the Census of 2001.
Types of urban settlements in India:
The maps here represent the distribution of different types of urban settlements across states and union territories (UT), on the basis of
Size class classification
Type of governing body
Distribution of urban settlement sizes in states is not uniform across the country. For example the share of class I settlements was largest in Kerala (28%) whereas in West Bengal 52% of the settlements were class V towns.
In case of urban governance structure, 88% of the settlements in West Bengal were governed as Census Towns. On the other hand, Sikkim had the highest number of settlements governed as Municipal Corporations.
It is a demographic and social process whereby people move from urban areas to rural areas. It
first took place as a reaction to inner-city deprivation and overcrowding. Counter urbanization
occurs when some large cities reach a point where they stop growing further or actually begin
to decrease in size as their population start moving into suburban areas or smaller cities
thereby leapfrogging the rural-urban fringe. There are instances which show that the
phenomenon of counter urbanization is occurring in India.
It is closely related to over-urbanization of a city. Over a period of time, people from the OverUrbanized area start moving towards the fringe area around the cities. Such areas around the
cities gradually start developing asan urban area. This phenomenon is known as Sub
Urbanisation.
There are several factors which leads to the process of Sub-urbanisation such as :
1. High cost of living in over urbanized area,
2. Development of transport facility around the horizons of over urbanized area,
3. New Work culture that does not necessitate the physical presence on every day.
4. inclusion of surrounding areas of towns within its municipal limits.
Delhi is a typical example; wherein the all the above mentioned factors have led to the
development of sub urbanized area. E.g. Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Meerut etc.
Over-urbanization is a phenomenon wherein the level of urbanization surpasses the level of
industrialization. In an over urbanized area, population growth outstrips its job market and the
capacity of its infrastructure. This phenomenon can also be referred as Urbanisation without
Industrialisation. E.g. Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi are some of the over urbanized cities.
Urban fire occurs in cities or towns with the potential to rapidly spread to adjoining structures. These fires
damage and destroy homes, schools, commercial buildings and vehicles.
Fire safety regulations in India:
Fire service is a state subject and comes
under the Twelfth Schedule of the
Constitution of India, under the
provisions of Article 243W of the
Constitution.
✓ The National Building Code (NBC) is the
basic model code in India on matters
relating to building construction and fire
safety.
✓ Bureau of Indian Standards has formulated more than 150 standards on fire safety in buildings and
firefighting equipment & systems.
As per The Model Building ByeLaws, 2003:
✓ The Chief Fire Officer issues the ‘No Objection Certificate’ from the view point of fire safety and means
of escape.
✓This is done after ensuring that all the fire protection measures have been implemented and are
functional as per approved plans.
Reasons for Urban Fires:
✓ Unplanned urban growth and high congestion: With rise in population residential and commercial buildings
are witnessing expansion and densification over time.
✓ Poor compliance of norms: Issues such as non-compliant construction; lack of precautionary maintenance
like the upkeep of extinguishers, fire doors, fire exits and their markings and assembly areas are common.
✓ Lack of adequate resources with the municipal corporations and local bodies which are responsible for
providing fire services in many states.
✓ Lack of manpower for inspection as well as lack of investment in modern technology has made it difficult to
track vulnerable zones.
✓ Low awareness among public regarding fire safety.
Measures needed to tackle Urban fire:
Enactment of a Fire Act in every state: It is of utmost importance that every state enacts its own Fire Act so
that fire vulnerabilities in the state are adequately dealt with and unacceptable loss of life and property is
prevented. Through a legislation, cities should reserve physical spaces for fire stations, fire hydrants, and fire
lanes/parking spots.
Preparation of a comprehensive plan: Every state is to prepare a complete plan and work out the total
requirements of manpower and equipment for the entire state. There is a need to upgrade fire services
delivery capacity of local bodies by:
o Providing them adequate funds
o Recruitment and training of workers to check non-compliant constructions and for dispersal of NOCs in a
timely manner.
Adopting modern technologies: Investing in technologies such as LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) based
technologies to aerially track the fire.
Fire safety audits: It can be made mandatory via Third Party Agencies.
Awareness: Building awareness among citizens about fire prevention and protection measures is also of
paramount importance. Organising firefighting workshop once in six months in localities/mohallas/schools with the involvement
of local councellor/elected representatives is one way to achieve awareness.
NBC guidelines related to Fire safety:
The Part 4 (Fire and Life Safety) of NBC contains the fire safety
norms through detailed provisions on fire prevention, life safety and
fire protection.
✓It gives guidance by specifying the standards for construction,
plumbing, active and passive fire protection systems etc.
✓ It mentions the restrictions on buildings in each fire zone and
classifies height-width parameters
✓ It provides for other restrictions and requirements necessary to
minimise danger to life from fire, smoke, fumes or panic before
the building can be evacuated.
According to the National Lake Conservation Plan (NLCP), a water body having a minimum depth of three
meters, spread over more than 10 hectares, and having no or very little aquatic vegetation, is considered as
a lake.
✓ Urban lakes are those lakes which are located entirely within city limits (census town) and directly
surrounded by urban developments, with some recreational facilities limited to the shoreline area
(parks, playgrounds).
Importance of Urban Lakes:
Historically, cities were built along waterways or lakes which influence the development of urban areas. They
play a major role in providing environmental, social and economic services.
✓They can ease the impact of floods and droughts by the means of storage.
✓ They also help in replenishing groundwater level as they are essential receptors for groundwater recharge,
positively influencing water quality of downstream watercourses and preserving the biodiversity and habitat
of the surrounding area.
✓Lakes are cooling agents and are essential to the urban microclimate.
✓ They provide prime opportunities for recreation, tourism and domestic purposes.
✓ They constitute a primary source of water supply in many places.
Threats to Urban lakes:
Pollution: Explosive increase in the urban population has resulted into disposing of untreated local sewage
and solid waste in to urban lakes and in many cases these water bodies have been ultimately turned into
landfills.
Eutrophication: The entry of nutrients through raw sewage cause various destructive changes in the lakes
such as prolific growth of aquatic weeds in lakes and ponds that ultimately disturb and kill the ecology of the
waterbody.
Encroachment: Due to rapid economic development even a small piece of land in urban areas has a high
economic value. Hence, these urban water bodies are no more acknowledged for their ecosystem services
but as real estate leading to high scale encroachment.
Illegal Mining Activities: Illegal mining for building material such as sand and stones on the catchment and
the bed of the lake also have extremely damaging impacts on the waterbody.
Unplanned Tourism Activities: Lack of systematic planning and regulation and absence of garbage disposal
facilities has contributed to the degradation of many water bodies especially at the high-altitude lakes, for
example- Dal Lake in Srinagar.
Cultural Misuse: The misuse of these water bodies by local communities for their cultural or religious
festivals such as the immersion of idols are particularly a source of serious pollution in lakes.
Institutional Arrangements for the Protection of Lakes in India:
Government Institutions: In urban areas, water bodies are owned by land owning agencies. However, their
survival and protection depend on the role of a number of other institutions /agencies such as Ministry of
Water Resources, Ministry of Environment and Forests, Agriculture Ministry, Fisheries Ministry and other
local authorities, i.e., Municipal Corporations, Development Authorities, Tourism Department, Water Supply
Boards, etc. Ministry of Environment and Forests implements the National Lake Conservation Plan (NCLP), a Centrally
Sponsored Scheme, aiming at restoration of water quality and ecology of the lakes in the country.
Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs): for lake management and conservation have also been set up in many parts
of the country, such as, Bhoj Wetland Authority for the restoration and management of Bhoj wetlands in
Madhya Pradesh, Chilka Development Authority in Orissa for the Chilka Lake.
Non-Government Organizations: A number of national and international non-government organizations
such as WWF, UNDP, UNEP, ADB, World Bank and many other small local organizations/Citizen Groups such
as Neela Hauz Citizen Group in Delhi and Save Urban Lakes in Bangalore, are also involved in lake
conservation and restoration.
Judiciary and Legal Mechanisms: In the last few decades a number of Public Interest Litigations (PILs) have
been filled by various citizen groups that have successfully seeked mandamus for many highly polluted and
environmentally degraded lakes. Some of these significant battles of lake protection include Powai and
Charkop lakes in Mumbai against encroachment.
Way Forward:
✓ Focus should be on a Lake Management Plan which:
✓ Encourages partnerships between concerned citizens, special interest groups, government body and
water resources management practitioners
✓ Identifies the concerns regarding the catchment/watershed of the lake
✓ Sets realistic goals, objectives, and (short, medium and long-term) actions
✓ Identifies needed funds and personnel.
✓ Planning process should focus on resource utilization while keeping future sustainability of the lake in
account.
✓ Roles and responsibilities of different stakeholders along with Centre, state and urban local bodies should be
specified.
✓ An integrated and multidisciplinary approach with a common regulatory framework may result into
conservation of Lakes and wetlands.
It is now universally recognised that the progress
of man depends upon social planning. Families, cities,
economic development, education, in fact, every important
phase of social life must be planned to ensure perfect
harmony between man and his total environment. It was
believed at one time that the human race cannot control
and shape its destiny and that men make matters worse by
interfering with the natural order of things and the natural
scheme of social evolution. Today, this belief is utterly
discredited. Already a great deal has been done to adapt
the physical environment to man’s needs and to overcome
the difficulties created by floods, drought, deserts, hostile
climate, niggardliness of nature, vagaries of the weather,
fuel shortage and paucity of industrial raw materials. The
world today is rapidly changing, more rapidly changing
than most of us imagine and are intellectually and morally
prepared for. We must learn to plan the change or at
least to anticipate the effects of the change and to plan
adjustments to them. Till comparatively recently, men lived
in village communities, and their culture, mode of living, food
and social organisation were adjusted to their surroundings.
Modern urban life has produced a new environment, creating
new problems of adaptation. Unfortunately, most modern
cities are a haphazard growth ; the effects of living in huge
cities have not been fully anticipated ; the social, economic
and psychological consequences of industrialisation and
urbanization have not been fully considered ; and the steps
which should have been taken to bring about an adjustment
between man and his new environment have not been
forthcoming in ample measure. This is particularly true in
the case of underdeveloped regions.
The old controversy between town and village life is
puerile. Much has been written against urbanization, but the
objection really is not to urbanization but to the unplanned
drift to the towns from the countryside and to centralisation
in industry and administration which has created so many
problems of a baffling nature. The critics of urban civilization
regard it as representing social decay. They deplore its
artificiality, its sophistication, its intellectualism and loss of
instinctive activity, its denial of family life and blood ties, its
loss of vitality and of the will to live manifested in the decline
in birth rate and in the high rate of suicides. They also point
to the growing evils of urbanization-juvenile delinquency,
prostitution, addiction to alcohol and drugs of the most
injurious kind, slums, crimes and suicides. This indictment
of urban civilisation is manifestly highly exaggerated on
many points and wholly unwarranted on many others. For
a balanced view on this question we must take note of two
fundamental points. There is no biological or sociological
evidence to support the theory of decay. Most of the evils to
which the critics of urban civilisation draw attention are not
inherent in it but are the result of a lack of social planning
and foresight. Urbanization has undoubtedly created many
grave social and psychological problems, but it has also
many outstanding achievements to its credit.
Life in villages is simple and unostentatious. The luxury of
the towns, as seen in the dresses of the people, in the hotels
and restaurants, in the various modes of entertainment, in
the social ceremonies and in expensive dwellings, provides
a sharp contrast to the simplicity, frugality and austerity of
village life. People in the countryside are strictly bound by
their customs and traditions and by family and communal
codes of morality. Individualism is deprecated and deviations
from prescribed behaviour are severely frowned upon.
The force of custom and tradition is not so strong in the
cities and departure from them is quite common. Villagers
are generally religious-minded and superstitious because their occupations, such as agriculture and fishing, bring
them into intimate relations with Nature and with what they
regard as the supernatural phenomenon. The urban people
largely living in the man-made environment and, more or
less, independent of the vagaries of the weather are less
superstitious and less aroused by the religious emotion of
awe and fear. They have more confidence in themselves
and in the ability of man to shape his environment and
mould his destiny. Since the villagers live in a small compact
community and generally know one another, their relations
are direct, intimate and personal, whereas city-dwellers live
in bigger communities and various associations and their
relations are impersonal, indirect and lacking in intimacy.
The members of a trade union are bound to one another
by the ties of a common cause rather than by those of
friendship and neighbourhood. In villages social regulation
is much easier because of the rigidity of the social mores
and the strength of family influence, whereas in towns and
cities the impersonal authority of the law and the moral
codes of the various associations constitute the restraining
influence.
Many factors have contributed to the rapid growth of
cities and towns. The most important factor, of course, is
economic. In this country agriculture which till recently was
organised on primitive lines and is still undergoing a process
of rationalisation cannot absorb all available labour. The
pressure of manpower on land is very heavy so that most
people depending on agriculture for their livelihood can
hardly make both ends meet. They are either petty peasantproprietors or tenants or agricultural labourers with only
seasonal work and inadequate wages or members of the
scheduled castes whose destitution and pitiable plight are
hard to imagine. Unemployment and under-employment
in rural areas have assumed staggering proportions.
Individuals and families migrate to near or distant towns
in search of employment and swell their numbers. Had the
alien rulers not destroyed the country’s cottage industries
and handicrafts, had our system of land tenure not been
landlord dominated and had the Government assisted
the farmers in making agricultural production scientific,
migration of the country people might not have been on
such a big scale. Today, the village economy is undergoing
rapid development and conditions are being created in
which rural pursuits will become viable, but so rapidly is
population expanding and so readily are our well-to-do
agriculturists taking to agricultural machines and electric
power that there is little possibility of rural unemployment
being reduced to any appreciable extent save through
migration to towns. Cities and towns are centres of trade
and commerce. Factories employing thousands of workers
are set up in them. It is in cities and towns that courts
and universities and colleges are established, films are
produced, newspapers are published, radio stations are
built, Government offices employing thousands of men
and women function, restaurants and hotels are started
and thousands of persons cater to the tastes of men and
women of fashion. Men of taste who patronise works of art,
lawyers, doctors, teachers, artists and intellectuals live in
metropolitan or other big cities. Ambitious men determined
to make their mark in life make towns and cities the seat of
their activity. Migration from towns to villages is insignificant
partly because those who are used to the amenities of
urban life are reluctant, despite attractive Government
offers to induce educated classes to go back to village, to
settle in the countryside where civic amenities and modes
of entertainment are of a very limited character.
Rapid urbanization has created a very large number of
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highly complex problems, particularly in underdeveloped or
developing countries. A critic has expressed the view that
the underdeveloped areas are over-urbanized in the sense
that the stage of their economic development does not
warrant such urbanization. The paramount need in these
areas is that their limited financial resources should be
utilised to the maximum possible advantage. If the trend
towards urbanization persists, the funds badly needed
for investment in productive enterprises may have partly
to be diverted to social investment, that is, the provision
of civic amenities-water, sewerage, schools, hospitals,
houses etc. In a democratic State social investment
cannot long be postponed. It is highly desirable that
industrialisation should not be highly centralised in the
existing big towns. We should aim at a balanced regional
development. Of course, in determining the location
of industries consideration will have to be paid to the
availability of raw materials, labour and power, but unless
some areas are to remain permanently depressed, centres
of industrial production will have to be widely dispersed.
The developing nations have one great advantage over the
industrialised States. The latter did not plan their industrial
growth, and urbanization took place in them haphazardly,
creating innumerable social and economic problems for
the Government, industry and labour. The former are in a
position to plan the growth of industrial towns. The new
towns situated in rural surroundings and providing all civic
amenities can become ideal places, with plenty of fresh
air, open spaces, hygienic conditions of work, adequate
housing facilities, short distances, well-equipped schools
and healthy entertainments.
The most noticeable evil associated with over-urbanization
is market deterioration in the environment of the city and
the appearance of slums. Cities in developing countries
become overcrowded partly as a result of the natural
increase in population over the decades and partly as a
result of the migration of persons from the countryside and
small towns where opportunities for gainful employment
are wholly inadequate. Large-scale house construction
to accommodate the poor worker or the petty tradesman
is not possible because he cannot pay high rents which
a housing entrepreneur expects. The poor are driven by
necessity to living on footpaths or in slums under most
intolerable conditions. They have to face the inclemencies
of the weather like storms and monsoons or live amidst
incredible squalor, dirt and disease. “Mobility from slum
to non-slum housing”, as the editors of the book, “ Slums
and Urbanization “ Point out in their general introduction,
“becomes almost impossible because of the continuing
gap between the rent they can afford and the rent that is
determined by market conditions”. Had industrialisation
been well-planned and had it been obligatory on the part of
the employers to build houses for their employees or had
the Government acquired land for house construction and
set up housing co-operatives for the benefit of the poor,
the present intolerable situation would not have arisen. In
the new industrial towns which are springing up there is
no problem of slum clearance which is so acute in our big
cities like Bombay, Madras and Delhi. Slums are a disgrace
to the community. They are unfit for human habitation.
Urbanization consequent upon industrialisation in
developing nations has not only created slums but also
denied to a large section of the people even elementary
civic amenities-pure drinking water, underground drainage,
hospitals and dispensaries, well-built and well-run schools
and pucca roads. Our municipalities alone are not to blame
for the present state of affairs. Where over-crowding is
already a serious problem, any large addition to population
is bound to complicate matters. The law cannot prevent
migrations to already overpopulated cities. Article 19 of
our Constitution gives every citizen the right to move freely
throughout the entire territory and to reside and settle in
any part of the country. But the municipal corporations and
the Government cannot remain passive spectators of the
scene and allow the creation or maintenance of slums and
inadequate municipal services and civic amenities. When
epidemics like cholera, typhus and malaria break out in a
most vicious form, it is not only the slum-dweller but the
entire community which suffers. These epidemics spring
from slum squalor and over-crowding and poor municipal
services. Rural people migrating to big cities find themselves
in a wholly alien atmosphere. Before they migrated to large
urban areas, they lived in fairly homogeneous groups, had
their traditional codes of personal and social behaviour,
participated in open-air entertainments, lived amidst their
families and were bound by the constraints of convention.
In big urban areas, living generally in slums and engaged
in occupations of a tedious and dreary character and
perpetually haunted by the spectre of unemployment and
starvation, the migrants forget their moral or social code,
throw away all the restraints which they had hitherto
observed and take to crime, drink and prostitution. Not all
the efforts to enforce prohibition and abolish prostitution
have been able to make any significant impact because no
other means of relieving boredom and giving some colour
to a drab life exist.
Urbanization has created another vital problem, that
of pollution of the environment. According to a biologist,
the price of pollution could be the death of man. Pollution
is the direct outcome of the application of science and
technology to human problems. Man has learnt to turn
deserts into fertile lands, harness the forces of Nature for
his benefit, add immensely to production in all spheres so
that the rapidly growing population may be well-fed, wellclothed, well-entertained and well-provided with all sorts
of luxuries and comforts and overcome the gravitational
pull of the earth and conquer space. But he has not yet
learnt to live in peace with Nature and preserve the balance
which has made life possible and given it such richness.
We all know that a full-fledged thermo-nuclear war would
destroy our civilisation and imperil the very existence of
the human race. But we continue to add to the mounting
stockpiles of these weapons of mass annihilation and
stage atomic tests despite repeated warnings by scientists
that these tests would contaminate the atmosphere and
make this planet unfit for human habitation, especially most
densely populated cities. The increasing use of science
and technology in industry and agriculture is playing
havoc with both urban and rural environments, but the
urban environment is affected much more because most
industries are located in the cities and more urban people
use cars and other power-driven inventions. The former
U. S. President, Nixon, had raised the question of pollution
of the environment in a most pointed manner. “The great
question of the 70s”, he had asked, “ is: Shall we surrender
to our surroundings or shall we make our peace with nature
and begin to make reparations for the damage we have
done to our air, to our land and to our water. “ The air is
being polluted by all kinds of poisonous gases and fumes
from industrial plants and automobile exhausts.
We are passing through a period of acute international
anarchy when the great powers are vying with each other
to build up huge stockpiles of thermonuclear weapons
and other engines of mass annihilation. It may be that
the instinct of self-preservation will prevail over suicidal
tendencies and mankind will destroy these dangerous
weapons ; but there is also the possibility of thermonuclear
weapons being employed and the nations having to face
catastrophic consequences of their folly.
The constitution of India has included the Land reform in State subjects. The Entry 18 of the State List is related to land and rights over the land. The state governments are given the power to enact laws over matters related to land.
Part IV of the Directive Principles of State Policy also indirectly mandates the government to take measures for land reforms to achieve an egalitarian society.
The Entry 20 in the concurrent list also mandates the Central Government to fulfil its role in Social and Economic Planning. The Planning Commission was established for suggestion of measures for land reforms in the country. The specific articles of the constitution that pertain to land reforms are as follows:
✓Article 23 under fundamental rights abolished Begar or forced unpaid labour in India.
✓Article 38 under Directive principles directed the state to minimize inequality of income, status and opportunities.
✓Article 39 under the Directive Principles directed the state to work for equitable distribution of the material resources of the community for common good.
✓Article 48 directed the state to organize agriculture and animal husbandry on modern-scientific lines.
Further, immediately after the independence, the state government enacted laws to abolish the Zamindari, Jotedari, Ryotwari etc. systems. But soon, these laws were dragged into the court on the basis that they violated the fundamental rights to property of the Zamindars under article 19 and 31. Consequently, the first amendment of the constitution was passed that amended the constitution and secured the constitutional validity of zamindari abolition laws passed by states.
Telangana government announced a one of its
kind “Cool Roof Policy” for buildings, to make them heat
resilient, besides reducing energy consumption.
✓ Telangana became the first state to introduce a cool
roof policy
✓ It was made mandatory for all government, nonresidential and commercial buildings irrespective of
the size of the area they are built in.
✓ It has been kept optional or voluntary for buildings
with a plot area of less than 600 square yards.
✓ Three different types of material could be used for cool
roofs.
✓ In the first type, roofs can be coated with a material
or paint having high reflectivity. These are liquid applied coatings made of simple materials such as
lime wash, an acrylic polymer, or white plastic
coating.
✓ In the second type, prefabricated materials such
as polyvinyl chloride (PVC) membranes or bitumen based sheeting can be used to cover an existing roof
to increase the roof surface’s solar reflectance and
thermal emittance.
✓ The third type of cool roof involves the application
of high albedo, ceramic mosaic tiles, or shingles on
top of an existing roof or to a new roof.
India has been the fastest growing major economy in the world, with an average growth of 7% from 2017-18 to 2018-19, and a consistently increasing share in the world’s GDP. It is the world’s seventh largest economy by nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the third largest by purchasing power parity (PPP). As per the Ministry of Finance, India aspires to become a USD 5-trillion economy by 2024 and a USD 10-trillion economy by 2030.
There are over 4,400 statutory towns and cities in India with around 40 crores inhabitants today. At the current rate of growth, urban population in India is estimated to reach a staggering 60 crores by 2030. According to Census 2011, 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. 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.
Urban Challenge:
The hypothesis that urbanization is necessarily beneficial for economic growth cannot be taken for granted. Our cities have to overcome a number of challenges in order to realize their potential as engines of growth. At present, 34% of India’s population lives in urban areas, with a growth rate of 2.4% in the 2010-18 period (World Urbanization Prospects, WUP, 2018). The level of urbanization in India is low as compared to the BRICS economies such as Brazil (86.6%), South Africa (66.4%) and China (59.2%) (WUP 2018). The level of urbanization across states is asymmetric. As per 2011 census, Tamil Nadu (48.4%) was the most urbanized among major states, followed by Kerala (47.7%), Maharashtra (45.2%) and Gujarat (42.6%). These four states together contributed to around one-third of the total urban population of India in 2011. States with low levels of urbanization were Himachal Pradesh (10%), Bihar (11.3%), Assam (14%), and Odisha (16.7%). 70 percent of the urban population is concentrated in close to 12% of its cities.
Indian cities suffer from inefficiencies of service delivery and severe stress on infrastructure. As India continues on its trajectory of growth, the quality of its urbanization will become paramount to ensure that this growth is sustainable and equitable. This requires a shift from business as usual to a long-term, integrated approach towards economic growth and urbanization.
About 11% of the total global urban population is living in Indian cities. With 450million+ people, India’s urban population exceeds the total population of the US; (2) According to the World Bank, proportion of India’s urban population has increased from 28% in 2000 to 35% in 2020; (3) The UN estimates that around 416 million people will be added as urban dwellers in India between 2018 and 2050, and the country will be more than 50% urban by 2050.
Challenges associated with urbanization in India:
(1) Classification: The urban system of India consists of 7,933 settlements, comprising statutory and census towns. There are 3,892 census towns which are classified as urban in the census. However, they continue to be governed as villages and do not have urban local bodies. It is estimated that another 2,231 census towns have come up between 2011-2021 census. These census towns account for almost 72 million ‘urban’ population and remain under the ambit of ‘uncatered’ or ‘ignored’ urbanisation.
(2) Master Plans: Almost 50% of India’s statutory towns are expanding in an unplanned and unscientific manner. None of the census towns has a master plan to guide their growth. This is leading to haphazard growth with piecemeal interventions leading to urban sprawl;
(3) Low Floor Space Index (FSI): The maximum Floor Space Index (FSI) is 25 in Singapore, 20 in Tokyo and 15 in New York. In contrast, it is only 3.5 in Delhi, 2 in Ahmedabad, 1.33 in Mumbai and 1.25 in Pune. Low FSI has several negative impacts: (a) Distorts the land market; (b) Pushes development to the peri-urban areas; (c) Reduces availability of serviced land within cities, particularly for low-income groups; (d) Increases commuting distances and their environmental costs;
(4) Water Scarcity: Rapid urbanization has resulted in fast depletion of resources in these regions especially water. Water scarcity has become a perennial problem in Indian cities. It is expected to worsen in the coming times with depleting water tables and encroachment of lakes and other water bodies.
How can sustainable Urbanisation be ensured:
(1) Creating Master Plans: Scientific master plans must be developed for all statutory towns that should govern and regulate the urbanization process. Census towns should also have planning bodies to create the plans;
(2) Transit Oriented Development (TOD): Master Plans must focus on TOD. Planned development along the mode of a rapid transit network has multi-fold benefits: (a) Reduces the need for private vehicles for commutation; (b) Increases walkability and bike-ability; (c) Brings people and offices closer to each other through compact and vertical development. This leads to agglomeration and enhanced productivity. Urban planning must support Bus Rapid Transit (BRTS), Light Rapid Transit, Mass Rapid Transit (MRTS) and Non-motorised Transit Systems like cycling and walking;
(3) Increase FSI: There is a need to densify the cities and build them vertically. It will help reap agglomeration benefits of enhanced economic productivity and lower transaction costs. FSI should be corrected to global standards;
(4) Sustainable management of water: There is need for cities to collect, treat and reuse used water on a vast scale. Cities also need to be fully sewered to collect all used water. Thus there is a need to: (a) Construct separate drainage and sewerage systems to facilitate water reuse; (b) Rational and pragmatic policy for pricing water. The pricing mechanism should be based on ‘pay as you use’ with direct benefit transfer of a subsidy for those who cannot afford to pay;
(5) Strengthen urban governance: States need to build up a cadre of professional urban managers and create an ecosystem of optimal regulations, reform building bye-laws and use technologies like geospatial systems. Moreover, states need to provide greater financial autonomy and administrative freedom to cities.
Land pooling and readjustment approach is found to be better as it involves
public participation. In this method, the public planning agency or development
authority temporarily brings together a group of land owners for the purposes of
planning under the aegis of the state-level town or urban planning act. There is
no acquisition or transfer of ownership involved, and there is no case for paying
compensation.
Land acquisition means the acquisition of land for some public purpose of a
government agency for individual landowners as authorized by the law after
paying compensation fixed by government to cover losses incurred by land owners
from surrender of their lands to a government agency. The land acquisition
process can be undertaken by the state for itself or for the private sector.
Benefits of urban planning are generally
unevenly distributed among areas and populations
within cities. The articulate classes (richer and
middle income groups) are able to benefit more
from planning efforts involving provision of
housing and utilities. The luxurious mansions and
moderately constructed high income habitats not
only contrast between them, there is even greater
contrast between higher income habitats and
lower incomes residential areas. Slums and
squatters therefore are never far away from rich
and middle class habitats. Physical proximity
however is no guarantee of spatial integration of
these areas. On the contrary, physical proximity
accentuates segregation because of unbridgeable
economic, social and physical differences.
However, inclusive urban planning intends to
spread the net wider and promotes inclusion of
the groups such as ‘urban poor’ by installing
processes, which are capable of bringing about
social transformations in terms of institutions and
outcomes. Here interventions in the built
environment are intended to benefit all citizens
but with a focus that each household among the
urban poor are provided with a bundle of ‘primary
goods’ above a certain minimum threshold so that
everyone could live a dignified life. While inclusive
planning practice accepts a certain level of
inequality in the distribution of land and properties among the city dwellers, it intends to close this
gap in the medium and long run.
The primary feature of inclusive urban planning is
that it involves democratization of planning
practice invoking principles of empowerment and
emancipation of all citizens of a settlement or
region. Needless to say that democratization
warrants participation. But participation in planning
decisions without empowerment is tokenism
because of the very inability of such practices to
bring about social transformations permitting
changes in the nature of decisions benefiting
intended groups, particularly the excluded groups.
Apart from its egalitarian nature, inclusive urban
planning is also aimed at addressing the issues of
understanding the questions of distribution of
power within the society, planning organizations
and the public policies. It presumes that power
could reside in institutions; dominant ideologies
only reinforce these norms. It is expected that
inclusive urban planning does not allow any
particular ideology to dominate the planning
practice. Therefore, it tries to overcome the
dualism between neoliberalism and socialism by
keeping a check on dominant ideologies. Equity
among social classes is promoted but the first
concern remains with achieving provision at a
certain level of threshold for all social classes.
Justice remains pivotal concern of inclusive urban
planning. Needs of the poor citizens have priority
over neoliberal capital accumulation without
getting into the debate whether capitalism is
superior to socialism. State may help the private
sector but local governments would let the people
know what is being offered by the private sector
to the city and citizens in return. For example,
urban renewal projects may be good for the city,
but the citizens (particularly poor) must benefit
from such projects in the form of employment,
housing, new shopping areas, enhanced
accessibility, etc.
By taking inclusive turn, planning practice also
becomes more concerned with the issues of
identity based on gender, caste, ethnicity and
religion. How policies on built environment promote
integration of different social classes remains one
of the chief concerns of inclusive planning. Exclusionary master plan and zonal plan policies
are not encouraged at all. Efforts are made that
criminalization does not get associated with certain
kind of people living in certain kind of areas. Slums
and squatters become more than ‘physical
improvement exercises’ for the urban planners.
Inclusive cities may be vulnerable to various
human and natural disasters, but these cities are
not scared because the built environment in these
cities is not divisive. Fewer gated communities and
squatters dot such cities. Inclusive urban planning
practice is at peace with itself and its citizens are
peaceful.
