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| Can Transformation of slums transform New India | | | Dr. Manzoor Ahmad Yetoo | 11/11/2014 11:28:12 PM |
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Under the Jawaharlal Nehru Na-
tional Urban Renewal Mission
(JNNURM), launched during the 10th Five Year Plan, and under RAY, small and medium towns have consistently been excluded from plans for improving and allocating urban infrastructure, despite clear evidence of there being a higher incidence of poverty and slum-like conditions than in large cities. The emphasis on large cities - evidenced also by the fact that the Census only collected information on slums in larger cities .In the drive for a slum-free India results from the country's political economy, which necessitates an improvement in the environmental conditions of big cities to make them more attractive for business. Currently under the programme, cities have the responsibility for determining the tenability of slums and identifying them as either 'hazardous' or 'objectionable' for the purposes of the Action Plan. While hazardous slums are defined in terms of environmental problems and health risks, objectionable slums are those that violate legal or master plan norms. In some cases, only a part of a slum may be identified as tenable or non-hazardous. Unfortunately, there is no clear process or criterion to categorise untenable and hazardous slums, and decisions are taken on a case-by-case basis. Further confusion results from the fact that policies on water bodies, industrial and commercial land, mixed land use, etc. are not transparent or consistent across agencies. This ad hoc system has created enormous conflicts at the local level, often leading to legal impasse.
RAY guidelines must be more specific about slum mapping and granting land titles so that cities and states do not interpret these differently. To prevent subsidy leakages, the programme must identify and target the right beneficiaries; however, city commissioners find these responsibilities taxing in the absence of unambiguous criteria. India's National Advisory Council (NAC) recommends that the District Collector should undertake slum mapping and surveys of eligible candidates in conjunction with officials, slum residents, youth groups, social workers, etc. For example, state and local government agencies in Mumbai had worked with the Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centres (SPARC), an NGO, to develop multiple parameters to determine household eligibility for subsidised housing (with the provision of appeal by the excluded households) and this was a successful experiment. Therefore, ultimately, a comprehensive and long-term solution to the problem of India's slums cannot be about the slums themselves. A viable solution would have to take a holistic view dealing with India's larger macro challenges and recognise the critical role which cities will have to play if India is to successfully transition into a middle-income country. Such a solution and should include the following strategies:
1.Industrial Revolution and Continued Development. While it was the industrial revolution which led to a wave of rapid urbanisation in the West and gave rise to slums, without the industrial revolution, the West would not have been able to afford to develop housing and infrastructure required for its growing populations. The solution to slums is not to reverse industrialisation or to try and contain urbanisation, but indeed to press forward with it more aggressively so that businesses can afford to provide jobs to slum-dwellers and pay them a proper wage.
2. Knowledge and Freedom Advantage. India is not fully leveraging its "freedom advantage" which highlights the strong link between a society's freedom and its development potential) which should in theory allow for people to strive to realise their aspirations. In particular, India needs to create an open knowledge economy where the slum-dwellers are empowered to solve their own problems and have the access to financing to do so. This requires scaled charities and NGOs that can apply global best-practices to tackling India's urban issues and also raise the necessary financing.
3. Slum Architecture. Lesson from other cities indicate that slums are best solved when housing is horizontal not vertical. In order to assimilate slum-dwellers into urban life instead of further ostracizing them, India cannot just bulldoze the slums and pile up the people into apartment blocks. A real solution would involve building high-quality, low-cost, multi-storey, diverse formats in the current areas such that these become integrated with the rest of the city (as we see in London or Paris). This needs the best brains in India and the world to come in and design the solutions. The slum is merely the platform for an urban re-invention.
4. Sustainable Continuous Dynamic Infrastructure Provisioning. The government needs to create a framework for gradual and continuous upgrading of slum infrastructure through innovative public-private models and by leveraging the many dynamic charities and NGOs in India. Such a model would see the slum-dwellers become the driving force of, rather than bystanders to, the improvement of their living conditions by empowering them to identify the solution and then finance and implement it.
5. Rural Re-Visioning and Investment. India cannot solve its slum problem by focusing on the cities alone. Any city which develops the systems to accommodate more people and create economic opportunities will attract a disproportionate number of migrants putting it under further strain unless opportunities in rural areas are sufficiently attractive relative to those in the city. Therefore a comprehensive solution would necessarily have to involve improved infrastructure, schools, employment opportunities and the overall quality of life in India's small towns and rural centres. India's countryside has all the potential of a Switzerland (Kashmir and the Himalayas), the Caribbean (the many beaches along its long coast), an African safari (the many wildlife sanctuaries and forests), and a Gulf desert trek (Rajasthan's deserts and palaces) - however, the country has barely begun to exploit this potential.
None of the five strategies described above on their own can transform the slums. However, if implemented together, they could represent a sea change in the way that India's mass migration and resulting urbanisation is managed. This requires a recognition that the reason why slums in India persist and continue to expand is because of the failure to address fundamental issues of economic opportunity across the country, population growth, urban and rural development and education and skills development. A middle income India will indeed demand world-class cities and conversely, to reach middle income levels, India needs to create opportunity for the population to be gainfully employed. Given India is already in the midst of a rocky economic cycle at the same time as slums are growing at the edge of every major city, the investment in urban infrastructure can create a highly positive multiplier effect for the economy while addressing a major issue. There is no single point in time or crisis which will tell us that India's cities have suddenly become "un-livable"; however if the status quo prevails for the next 20 years, they will get progressively more chaotic and at some stage in the not-too-distant future, it will be impossible to harness the economic potential of India's population without even more radical changes than those outlined above. Addressing this issue is one of the key steps in the regeneration of the India story and will have a highly positive impact on the success of the next government. Indeed, solving the issue is about as difficult as putting a man on the moon, but would have massive collateral benefits for the nation as a whole and would be a true indicator that India is truly ready to play its role on the global stage.
The author is an expert in environment ,project& waste management, occupational safety& health & pollution control and empanelled expert for IRCA).
(You may reach him at [email protected] |
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