Urbanisation and issues related to Urbanisation

Urbanisation and Issues related to Urbanisation

"Urbanisation is inevitable outcome of the processes of the growth and the processes of modernisation"

★  Concept & Statistics

★  Types of Urbanisation

1. Over Urbanisation
2. Sub-Urbanisation
3. Counter Urbanisation

★  Problems associated with Urbanisation

1. Housing problems
2. Socio-Cultural problems
3. Issues wrt physical infrastructure

★  Way forward 

Urbanisation - It is defined as the movement of people from rural to urban areas. However, it is not only involves the movement and change in nature of occupation of people but also a change in attitude, beliefs and values.

According to the survey by United Nation (UN) State of World Population report, by 2030, 41% of Indian population will reside in urban areas (As per census 2011, 31.18% people of India are living in urban areas).

According to World's Cities Report 2022, India's urban population is expected to reach 675 Million (43.2%) in 2035.

Cities contribute approximately 70% to India's GDP.

According to C. Rangarajan Committee expert group on poverty

• 26.4% of urban population is below poverty line.
• 17% of urban population lives in slum.
• 13% of urban households do not have toilet facilities.
• 30% of urban households do not have access to clean drinking water.

According to NCRB (2015-16), there was an increase of crime rate of 7.3% in urban areas (i.e., urban crime rate increased by 7.3%).

Urbanism - It refers to a way of life. It refers to organisation of society in terms of complex division of labour, high level of technology, high mobility, economic interdependence and impersonality in social relations.

Types of Urbanisation -

1. Over Urbanisation
2. Sub-Urbanisation
3. Counter Urbanisation

Over Urbanisation - When the level of urbanisation surpasses the level of industrialisation.

i.e., Urbanisation >> Industrialisation

It creates the demand and supply deficit as the resources is not sufficient to absorb the growing population which resulted into -

• Increase in cost of living
• Development of mass-transit system (Mass Transportation)
• Work from home culture emerges as due to high cost of living, people move to the fringe area where cost of living is comparatively low. It led to the development of cities at fringe areas, which is known as Sub-Urbanisation. 

Sub-Urbanisation - When the cost of living is high and the public transport is available to provide accessibility then there is expansion of population to the fringes of the big cities, which is known as Sub-Urbanisation.

For Example - Development of Thane, Pune, Nagpur, etc aroung Mumbai.

Counter Urbanisation - It is a demographic as well as social process whereby people from urban areas started moving back t the rural areas because of pollution, overcrowding, low standard of living, poor quality of life, etc. It is known as Counter Urbanisation.

Counter Urbanisation is a demographic and Social process whereby people not only move from urban to rural areas but also adopted their old rural way of life.

Problems associated with Urbanisation 

1.   Housing problems 

→ Statistics

• 17% of Urban population is residing in slums (Slums are those residential dwellings which are considered unfit for human habitation because of poorly ventilated area, overcrowding, congestion and lack of basic resources required for survival).
• i.e., Slums lacks WASH (WA means - Safe water, S means Sanitation & H means Hygiene) which is required for survival.
• It is often considered that the Migration is the most important factors for the emergence of slums. However, the expert groups on urban poverty and slum said that it is the failure of housing policy of the state which is responsible for the emergence of slums.

→ Problems related to housing

1. Improper city planning (For example - heritage of past construction)
2. Lack of integrated planning
• We usually focus entirely on land use without taking note on transportation, socio-economic needs, environmental issues, etc.
3. Private developers are not interested in affordable housing as it is less profit yielding.
4. The concept of gated communities has also reduced the availability of land (Community park, fields, club, malls, etc used lots of land. But these facilities are used only by those who live in that gated community and they are just a handful of people).
5. Failure of state government to implement NUHHP-2007 (National Urban Housing and Habitat Policy)
• As per this every year 15% of the land will be allocated for social housing (for poor and low income people).
6. It was perceived that slums are transitional however now they have become a permanent structural problem.

Example of Lack of integrated planning 

Now this counter shifting to slum area can be solved if the following things are kept in mind while shifting them to residential areas.

1. Availability of work opportunity nearby.
2. If not available then provide easy and cheap transportation facility, etc.

Why slums in India are not transitional rather become permanent 

Primary factors -

1. High scale of migration
2. Lack of inclusive planning
3. Lack of proper infrastructure
4. Lack of development in source region

Other reasons -

1. Informalisation of work → no minimum wage, social security benefits, etc → can't afford high cost of living → slum prolification
2. Sub-Culture of poverty - It refers to the condition whereby the poor people became habituated to their condition (i.e., slum dwellers are habituated to live/remain in slums). They don't feel relatively deprived, so they do not want to come out of the slum.
3. Vote bank politics
4. Majority of informal economy thrives on slums
5. Lack of political will
6. They become Resilience (i.e., able and survive without basic resource)
7. Lack of proper implementation of resettlement and re-habitation policies.
8. Lack of integrated planning while relocating, etc

Way forward 

1. Tackling rural-urban migration
2. Developing social security net for slum dwellers
3. Sustainable urban development (For example - Smart City Mission)
4. Employment generation and skill development of the migrants
5. Capacity building in urban local bodies
6. Affordable housing, etc.

2.   Problems wrt Physical infrastructure 

• Physical infrastructure includes transportation, water supply, drainage, etc.
• Over Urbanisation leads to degradation of core infrastructure (transportation, water supply, drainage, sanitation, power supply, etc)

3.   Socio-Cultural issues 

• The residential areas in cities, all over the world are segregated on the basis of primordial identities (i.e., based on race, caste, ethnicity, religion, etc). This segregation causes tension and give rise to spatial pattern of communal violence.
• There are increase incidences of crime due to inadequate social infrastructure with respect to education, employment, skill development, etc.
• Unplanned urbanisation has led to rise of slums which is socially isolated from the society. As a result there are increase incidences of pathological behaviours/deviant behaviours (like drug abuse, theft, goonism, vandanism, etc)
• This social isolation impacts the cognitive development of the children.
• Resource competition breeds regionalism. Hence, it might lead to social conflicts or son of soil policy.
• Corruption of value system has aggravated the vulnerability of marginalised section (for example - Women, Children, Old age people, Transgenders, etc)
• Feeling of relative deprivation in the absence of basic amenities has also resulted in increase in crime rate.
• Politicisation on the basis of caste, teligion, ethnicity, etc has become the new normal in the context of urban areas.

Way Forward 

1. Inclusive Cities - The poor and low income group should be mainstreamed. The planning should include the needs of marginalised, i.e.,  residence, transportation, health facilities, etc should be provided at affordable price.
2. Integrated Planning - It includes both vertical as well as horizontal integration. It includes integration of various urban development program to develop a sustainable city both horizontally and vertically.
• Vertical level - National, State, District, Panchayats (Local bodies)
• Horizontal level - to resolve the problems associated with urbanisation, we also have to focus on transportation, sanitation, housing, green space, etc.
3. Financing - Several sources of funding needs to be tapped/explored.
• For Example - Monetisation of land assets, PPP model, Municipality bond, etc.
4. Cascaded planning structure - Along with short term/immediately target, we should also have long term vision.
• For Example - 2/5/10/15/20 years planning
• One needs to have plans for long terms vision along with immediate target.
• Secondly, linking public transportation with zoning for affordable houses for low income group people.
5. Local Capacity building - Development of expertise in urban local bodies, development of professional managers, new cadre for city administration, etc.
6. Encourage & regulate rental housing 
• National Rental Policy (draft) - where beyond a certain limit rent can't be charged.
7. New model of urban development should be encouraged.
• For Example - Transport oriented development (ToD), Hub and Spoke model/Star Model of development (eg. Delhi)
8. Decentralised Development
• Reason for the failure of local bodies - lack of 3Fs (funds, functions and functionaries).

Question for practice 

Critically examine the impact of urbanisation on individual.

The Surges in Urban crime is a grim remainder of rapid urbanisation in India. Discuss. Also suggest few steps to tackle the issue of urban crimes.

While on one hand, urbanisation is creating potential for social integration and economic development, on the other hand it is leading to socio-economic exclusion. Explain the paradox.

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Note - This is my Vision IAS Notes (Vision IAS Class Notes) and Ashutosh Pandey Sir's Public Administration Class notes. I've also added some of the information on my own. 

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