The Hindu Business Line : Divided realities in world-class cities

We need a change in mindset to recognise the poor and the urban informal sector as assets, not burdens, as they contribute at least 45 per cent of a city’s GDP.

Broad roads and high-rises alone do not make world-class cities, it is important that each citizen has a toilet, drinking water and a roof over his/her head. — Paul Noronha

Renana Jhabvala

On Independence Day, the Prime Minister spelt out his vision of inclusive growth and the government’s commitment to the aam aadmi. But we have only to look at our rapidly changing urban areas to find increasingly divided urban areas and a neglect of the poor in urban planning.

A 15-storey office building of chrome and glass designed by an avant-garde architect, and a-back street overflowing with sewage and used as a toilet every morning. Pranav, a young manager, earning Rs 1 lakh a month, and Renuka, a domestic worker, earning Rs 1,500. Restaurants with world-class cuisine advertised in gleaming lights, and the local chola-kulchha-vala being driven away by the police from a spot he has sold at for the last 30 years. A picture of a world-class city with an aching underbelly.

Broad roads, smooth flowing traffic, and tall well-kept buildings alone do not make world-class cities, it is equally important that each citizen has a toilet, drinking water and a roof over his/her head.

World-class cities are concerned about ensuring employment for their citizens and provide social security during periods of unemployment; they even have street markets and cheap local foods that are often tourist attractions. A divided world-class city will not work, as those deprived of its benefits will be discontented and perhaps turn to crime. And dirt and disease in one part of city will surely spread throughout.

No dearth of funds

There seems to be no dearth of funds for infrastructure in our cities. The Central Government has allocated Rs 55,000 crore for 63 cities to be spent over a five-year period. Private resources are generally much higher, with the top real estate and infrastructure companies often recording turnovers of over Rs 3,000 crore. The question is: How much of this huge expenditure reaches the poor?

Today, almost 30-40 per cent of India’s urban population lives in slums. The World Bank estimates that about 62 per cent of this population does not have access to proper toilets and 25 per cent has no access to water. The Asian Development Bank (2007) estimates that India’s housing shortage is about 40 million units, suggesting that more than 200 million people are living in chronically poor housing conditions.

The urban poor women in these areas are especially vulnerable, both as slum dwellers and as workers. Since it is generally women who have to fill the water for the household, they spend much of their time and energy at water pumps, in water queues or walking to other colonies looking for water.

Worse is the lack of toilets. Poor women are forced to defecate in public places, such as railway tracks, parks, open spaces or even pavements. Not only do they feel shamed by this, it is a serious health hazard too, as they can only use these public spaces in the dark. Also, they face the risk of being molested or attacked. Notwithstanding all the talk of inclusiveness, the discourse in the law, media and municipalities portrays the urban poor as “encroachers”, “anti-development” and “illegal users of public space”. For these reasons, slums are removed, houses of the poor are demolished and their livelihoods are banned.

In 2005, in Mumbai, for example, over one lakh dwellings were demolished to make way for infrastructure development with no attempts at relocation. In fact, most of the people who live in these slums had paid for their houses. A study in Ahmedabad found that slum dwellers had paid up to Rs 30,000 for their land/dwellings.

The same elitist perceptions ensure that urban poor workers are often deprived of their livelihoods.

Anti-street vendor drives have now become common in all towns and cities, so much so that vendors have been committing suicide, often burning themselves in public, out of desperation. This, in spite of a National Policy on Street Vendors, which provides for their recognition and regulation.

There is, however, no real reason to continue this divide. The growth of urban infrastructure can benefit the poor as well as the middle- and higher-income groups, if policies are made more inclusive.

We need a change in mindset to recognise the poor and the urban informal sector as assets, not burdens, as they contribute at least 45 per cent of a city’s GDP. The accent has to be on increasing their productivity and their earnings to help them get out of poverty.

Our approach needs to be not just removal and demolition, but rather ways to upgrade these slums with minimum decent living conditions.

Experience has shown that slum upgrading — ‘in situ’ development of slums, rather than slum relocation is a more effective way to alleviate urban poverty.

In Ahmedabad, for instance, under the slum-networking scheme of the Municipal Corporation, it was found that people were ready to contribute Rs 2,000 each and participate actively in the provision of basic services.

Within a year of receiving these services, their incidences of sickness came down by over 60 per cent, and their incomes went up by an average of 35 per cent. Eventually, such slums converted into residential neighbourhoods, with people investing in upgrading their houses.

Extending housing finance to the poor

Above all, housing finance must be extended to the poor, at the scale at which today it is available to the middle-income groups. Credit for housing is almost impossible to come by for the poor and they have to depend on their own savings or on incremental improvement of their homes.

The micro-finance movement has shown that credit without collateral is indeed possible and similar systems need to be devised for longer-term housing loans. This requires changes in land tenure policies as well as changes in norms for mortgages. In particular, it requires that more loans go to the women and the houses be in their names.

Inclusive growth must enhance rather than destroy the employment of the poor. Our cities can have hawking areas, where street vendors sell their goods, as also weekly and special vendor markets. Municipalities can promote small home-based enterprises so that women can earn more. It is the poor in the cities who clean up and recycle its waste. They can be involved in large-scale cleaning up of the cities to collect and process garbage.

Divided cities will not make the world-class grade. Our policy-makers must recognise the need to include the poor and create a unique model of Indian world-class cities, full of life and colour, integrating all sections of society.

(The author is National Co-ordinator, SEWA.)

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