Small cities must get their act together

In the final run-up to India’s general elections, we note that the manifestos of most political parties include urban development. Central to this debate is the prediction that the future of urban growth in developing countries is going to occur in smaller and mid-tier cities, not in the metropolitan areas.

Hence, we study mid-tier cities of India, which were selected such that they represent all the geographic regions of the country. We compared four mid-tier cities in different parts of the country, one each from Gujarat (Surat), Andhra Pradesh (Visakhapatnam/Vizag), Bihar (Patna) and Madhya Pradesh (Bhopal).

We tried to understand crucial urban indicators covering many areas, including governance, finance, infrastructure, health, and education for Vishakapatnam (Vizag), Surat, Patna and Bhopal.

The performance of these cities helps us understand their successes and failures, and enables them to be replicated or avoided in other cities, although there is no one policy size which fits all. Such a study can also promote competition among cities for private investment and residents, provide information to researchers, policymakers and investors, and stimulate more targeted urban policies.

We find Surat to be economically the most vibrant, with its industrial base, and a high literacy and workforce participation rate. Vizag, already an industrial hub, is also one among the fast-growing city economies in the country, which ensures most workers find employment for more than six months. This city meets norms with respect to property tax collection efficiency, has the largest budget in terms of receipts and the highest per capita revenue among the four cities. Even in terms of service delivery, especially solid waste management, Surat is a role model for the other cities to follow. However, opportunities for recreation are limited in this industrial city. It is the worst in terms of parks per lakh population, among the four cities.

We find Vizag in Andhra Pradesh leaves much to be desired since it is home to the maximum proportion of slum households, not only among the selected cities, but nationally.

Our data on the proportion of employees in the city government to per lakh population imply that Patna does not have adequate staff for the provision of public services such as health, education and social services commonly provided by the city. The lack of staff can be related to fiscal stress and impacts the capacity of the city to perform. Patna’s air quality is also the worst among the cities we’ve studied.

Bhopal is poor as far as commuting is concerned since we find the maximum number of persons killed or injured in accidents there. We find no city meets norms of expenditure for services such as water supply, sewerage, storm water drainage, roads, or street lighting.

We studied urban poverty and the quality of life of the urban poor, which we respectively measured by the number of slums per unit of area and the availability of basic amenities like water supply, sanitation, electricity and banking in the slums. Surat and Patna have the least percentage of their households living in slums.

Though Vizag has the largest number of slums per 100 sq. km of land area, and the highest proportion of its households living in slum areas (as per Census 2011), it also has the highest percentage of slum houses with concrete roofs.

This indicates that the overall condition of the slum houses is better here than in most other cities. Further, Vizag also has the highest proportion of slum households with latrine facilities (per Census 2011). Bhopal and Patna have the least proportion of homes with latrine facilities. As far as the availability of closed drainage facilities is concerned, Surat leaves all three cities far behind. This reinforces the focus of the Surat city government on infrastructure and cleanliness.

Patna has a low proportions of slum houses with electricity, one reason being the irregularity in power supply in the State that prompts people to take either not take electricity connections or resort to illegal ways of using the same. However, as far as the availability of banking facilities within slums is concerned, Patna is the best. Surat is a miserable last on this indicator, most likely because traders there are less dependent on loans than on their own personal savings.

Surat has the highest proportion of slum dwellings with water supply within their premises and the least with water supply far away from their place of dwelling. In Bhopal, very few slum homes have water supply in their premises and almost a quarter of the total slum houses have to travel to get water. City finances need a major boost before public services can improve significantly in all the cities. Further, the proportion of households in slums doesn’t indicate anything about their quality of living, given that slum units in some cities are of much better quality and have much better access to basic services such as sanitation.

The new government should do a much better job of mandating the provision of basic services such as water supply and sanitation in the slums, and of enabling the gathering of consistent data for all Indian cities such that they are comparable.

The authors are with Public Affairs Centre, Bangalore. Views are personal.

COMMENT NOW