Since historic times cities are engines of economic growth and innovation. It is said that, cities, not nation-states, are the main players in macroeconomics. According to The Economic Survey, from 1991 to 2011, the percentage of India’s population that lives in cities and towns has increased from a quarter to a third and this segment produces more than three-fifths of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). India will be the third-largest economy by 2025 (HSBC 2018). Powering that growth is the country’s urbanisation, which is accelerating rapidly in absolute numbers, although not as fast if considering decadal growth rates. Urbanization acts as a two-edged sword, as it brings prosperity but also new challenges along with it.
- Over the last two decades, cities have emerged as the world’s economic platforms for production, innovation and trade.
- The rapid economic growth usually associated with urbanisation can be partially attributed to structural transformation, as labour moves from the agricultural sector to industry and services.
- Urban areas offer significant opportunities for both formal and informal employment, generating a sizeable share of new private sector jobs.
- Urbanization has helped millions escape poverty through increased productivity, employment opportunities, improved quality of life and large-scale investment in infrastructure and services.
- The transformative power of urbanization has in part, been facilitated by the rapid deployment of Information and Communications Technology.
- It can also be attributed to agglomeration and scale economies, as proximity and density reduce the per capita costs of providing infrastructure and service.
- Urbanization helps in creating knowledge spill-overs and specialisation that hugely enhance the productivity of urban residents.
- The sheer magnitude of the urban population, haphazard and unplanned growth of urban areas, and a desperate lack of infrastructure are the main causes of such a situation.
- Poverty, unemployment and under employment among the rural immigrants, beggary, thefts, dacoities, burglaries and other social evils are on rampage.
- Urban sprawl is rapidly encroaching the precious agricultural land.
- Overcrowding: The urban population of India had already crossed the 285 million mark by 2001. By 2030, more than 50 per cent of India’s population is expected to live in urban areas.
- Migration: Migration will continue as urban areas act as a center of economic growth. Problem of slums is about to increase and thus leading to health challenges for public health system.
- Unemployment: The problem of unemployment is no less serious than the problem of housing mentioned above. Urban unemployment in India is estimated at 15 to 25 per cent of the labour force. This percentage is even higher among the educated people.
- Poverty: Urban poverty has a very peculiar charact Street vendors and people in other informal sector, women, children and old age population will suffer most from the deteriorating urban ecology.
- The rapid growth of urban population both natural and through migration, has put heavy pressure on public utilities like housing, sanitation, transport, water, electricity, health, education and so on.
- Housing: It has been already observed now the cost of living is too high in metropolitan areas. Crumbling infrastructure in public services has to be managed on far footings.
- Slums and Squatter Settlements: The natural sequel of unchecked, unplanned and haphazard growth of urban areas is the growth and spread of slums and squatter settlements which present a striking feature in the ecological structure of Indian cities, especially of metropolitan centres.
- Urban Crime: Growing materialism, consumerism, competition in everyday life, selfishness, lavishness, appalling socio-economic disparities and rising unemployment and feeling of loneliness in the crowd are some of the primary causes responsible for alarming trends in urban crime.
- Not only the poor, deprived and slum dwellers take to crime; youngsters from well-to-do families also resort to crime in order to make fast buck and for meeting requirements of a lavish life. Occasional failures in life also drag youngsters to crime.
- Environmental challenges: growth in man-made and natural disasters is another challenge because of unplanned cities. Urban island effects have already been observed in urban setup. Ex: Chennai flood in 2015.
- Urban Pollution: With rapid pace of urbanisation, industries and transport systems grow rather out of proportion. These developments are primarily responsible for pollution of environment, particularly the urban environment.
- Service delivery: Urban local government will have to do a gigantic task of timely service delivery as there is paradigm shift in public administration towards new public management.
- Planning: The new challenge today is management of rural urban fringe as the expansion of urban fringes is taking place at rapid place. There is need of immediate long term planning for sustainable development of areas in fringes.
- Solid waste management: In case of waste management issue, nuclear, cyber and plastic waste will create a big challenge for clean and pollution free urban environment.
- Transport and communication: The future challenge will be linked with the urban transport facilities. Roads are congested; rail and metro network is inadequate resulting into movement within the city being slow and tiring.
- The first and foremost importance has to be given to the providing human face to urban development. Playgrounds, green belts, open spaces, footpaths, public gardens have to be deliberately created in order to create an environment of sustainability.
- Digital India program and Information technology solutions must be made available at affordable cost to all segments of society. Bridging the existing digital divide is priority for true democratic setup of urban areas. Harnessing the power of ICT, NeGP, NOFN etc.
- The recent policy proposal by government to focus on fringe areas is a welcoming step.
- Waste management has to be addressed at point of generation only. The case of Pune can provide some guideline in this case as it has a unique model of contractual system for efficient and segregation of urban waste.
- Infrastructure has to follow the green norms. Revival of tradition water structure can provide best solutions for water need of urban areas.
- The flagship schemes like the Smart Cities, AMRUT, Housing for All, HRIDAY and Swachh Bharat are aimed at not only addressing various deficits to provide better urban governance, but also seek to make Indian cities and towns hubs of growth and sustainable development.
- A series of reforms through incentives and disincentives have been put in place to achieve these goals. Incentives for universal housing, giving infrastructure status to affordable housing, allowing FDI and providing income tax exemption are among the important measures taken.
- Also, the government is promoting innovative measures like waste-to-energy, waste-to-compost and the reuse of construction and demolition waste as part of sustainable urbanisation.
- ‘Housing for All’ policy should be pursued with a vigorous annual review that ranks States on the basis of performance. The Centre should also take its own National Urban Transport Policy on developing cities around mobility networks seriously.
- Urban governance policies, although mainly in the domain of the States, must be aligned with national commitments on reduction of carbon emissions under the Paris Agreement, and to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 11.
- There is a need for a plan of action to achieve sustainable human settlements. It should ensure adequate shelter, water, energy, sanitation and solid waste management, along with other elements.
- There is a need for proper planning and various deficits relating to infrastructure, housing, slum upgradation, reduce pollution, employment, education and health in urban areas need to be through public and private participation.
