Urbanisation

URBANIZATION, THEIR PROBLEMS AND THEIR REMEDIES

Human populations have tended to increase over time. As more people were born, small groups of individuals found reasons to come together to form groups and, with the advent of agriculture, small sedentary communities.

A small number of these settlements grew into what we now call cities. This kind of growth often corresponds with a shift from one way of organizing labor to another.

The world population has grown significantly, and our economies have become more industrialized over the past few hundred years, and as a result many more people have moved into cities. This process is known as urbanization.

Even after cities emerged, however, a large majority of people lived and worked in rural areas. It was not until large-scale industrialization began in the eighteenth century that cities really began to boom.

Nearly half of all people now live in urban areas. They are attracted by jobs in manufacturing and the professions, as well as by increased opportunities for education and entertainment.

Urbanization is often discussed in reference to countries that are currently in the process of industrializing and urbanizing, but all industrialized nations have experienced urbanization at some point in their history. Moreover, urbanization is on the rise all over the globe.

One effect of this huge increase in people living in urban areas is the rise of the megacity, which is a city that has more than 10 million inhabitants.

There are now cities with even more than that. Tokyo, Japan, for example, has nearly 40 million residents.

URBAN SPRAWL:

Another effect of urbanization is urban sprawl. Urban sprawl is when the population of a city becomes dispersed over an increasingly large geographical area.

This movement from higher density urban cores to lower density suburbs means that as cities expand, they often begin to take up significant tracts of land formerly used for agriculture.

Sprawl also increases the need for travel infrastructure, such as roads, because people’s homes are likely to be farther away from where they work and the amenities they enjoy.

URBANIZATION IN INDIA:

The population residing in urban areas in India, according to the 1901 census, was 11.4%, increasing to 31.16% by the 2011 census, and is now currently 34% in 2017 according to The World Bank. .  According to a survey by UN, in 2030 40.76% of country’s population is expected to reside in urban areas.

 Population and economic growth has fostered urbanization in the country and the number  of urban towns and cities have drastically increased.

This growth is expected to continue in the years to come and India has to step up its game in order to catch up with this kind of change. Investments have to be made in order to better serve the country.

There are several factors at play that have led to the urbanization in India – population growth and migration as one of the 2 major factors.

Recently, a third factor has been seen as a huge contributor to the urbanization growth, the expansion of towns and cities. This factor is due to the high economic growth that the city has witnessed over the years.

Because of this, the government in India has decided to grab the opportunity projects to further thrust the country into urbanization, a number of smart cities to be put up in various locations, and other initiatives.

URBANIZATION AND PLANNING IN INDIA:

• Private cities are now expanding due to the support of private companies. Private developers are building private housing projects that will exponentially grow in the years to come.
• The Delhi-Mumbai Corridor is an infrastructure program set to develop ‘Smart Cities’ and combine next-generation technology with infrastructural development.
• The transport and logistics sector of India underlines the importance of interconnecting the different modes of transportation: road, rail, sea and air. An efficient multi-modal system is relevant in the development and successful growth of the infrastructural systems.
• Special Economic Zones dot the landscape of India. Each of these zones is focused on a particular sector such as IT, apparel and fashion, or petroleum and petrochemical industries.
• Industrial townships are built to house employees close to the factories and manufacturing plants at which they work. After the success of the pioneering industrial township – Tata’s Steel Town – the government is planning on developing more like it.
• India’s expected economic growth opens up expansion prospects for Indian airports. Domestic and international passengers are inevitably predicted to double in number in the years to come.

MAJOR CAUSES OF URBANISATION:

Various reasons have led to the growth of cities. They are as follows:

Industrialization:

• Industrialization is a major cause of urbanization. It has expanded the employment opportunities. Rural people have migrated to cities on account of better employment opportunities.

Social factors:

• Many social factors such as attraction of cities, better standard of living, better educational facilities, need for status also induce people to migrate to cities.

Employment opportunities:

• In rural sector people have to depend mainly on agriculture for their livelihood. But Indian agriculture is depending on monsoon. In drought situations or natural calamities, rural people have to migrate to cities.

Modernization:

• Urban areas are characterized by sophisticated technology better infrastructure, communication, medical facilities, etc. People feel that they can lead a comfortable life in cities and migrate to cities.

Rural urban transformation:

• It is an interesting aspect that not only cities are growing in number but rural community is adopting urban culture, no longer rural communities are retaining their unique rural culture. Rural people are following the material culture of urban people. Urban rural transformation can be observed in the following areas.

Spread of education:

• The literacy rate has increased among the rural people. They have become more modernised.
• Change in Dress habits.
• Adoption of modern Technology
• Enlightenment of women.
• Modern transport and communication. E.g.: Cell phones have become common even among rural people.
• Active involvement in politics.
• Growth of infrastructure like Banks, Post office.
• Awareness among rural consumers.
• Increasing demand for sophisticated products like cosmetics etc.

Thus it can be noticed that there are significant changes in the life style of village people. Indian villages have adopted urban culture and urban style of living. However, all villages in India are not transformed. Only certain villages situated close to the cities have been transformed.

Spatial planning in India:

There are two types of planning systems laid out in the Indian urbanisation and spatial development agenda to carefully combat the complications and explore the potential of urbanization.

1. National Institution for Transforming India is a new planning system which aims to target cooperation and active participation in the economic policy-making process led by the State governments of India. This NITI Aoyag was made to replace the dated Planning Commission of India.
2. The central government Urban Development (MoUD), Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (MoHPA), and the Town and Country Planning Organization (TCPO) will facilitate and support the nationwide urban and regional development planning. These organizations place their efforts on spatial planning for the improvement of the entire country.

INDIA’S SEVEN MISSION PROGRAM ON URBANIZATION:

With the rapid rise of urbanization in India, there is an increase in overall development in the different sectors. Due to this, the Seven Mission Program was founded. This program aims to fund cities to achieve intended milestones.

The Seven Mission Program includes the following plans:

• 100 Smart Cities Mission
• AMRUT stands for ‘Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation’
• HRIDAY (National Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana)
• Sardar Patel National Urban Housing mission
• National Mission on sustainable habitat
• Clean India mission
• National urban information system

Opportunities in India’s urban infrastructure:

In order to face the challenges of urbanization, infrastructures need to be improved. Unfortunately, rapid population growth and a lack of adequate investment is making urban infrastructure growth slow.

Affordable housing in India:

India is facing a house shortage in urban areas at the moment and more housing would be required in order to meet future demand. This demand comes from the economically weaker section due to lack of housing policies. Some parts in India have introduced public-private-partnership policies, which have led to the development of housing.

Transport business opportunities in India:

Private mode of transport is dominant in India. There is a heavy reliance on private transport that has led to the congestion of roads and increasing commuting time and pollution. Road networks therefore need to increase because of the influx of these vehicles.

On a separate note, public mode of transport is gradually decreasing in terms of popularity.
In an effort to improve the urban transport situation in India, new metro rail networks have been developed.

Water and wastewater management in India:

The water supply in India faces several issues and the water and wastewater management in the country needs to be improved. The government though has made initiatives to improve water supplies establishing projects for selected areas.

Sewage and sanitation is also facing a dilemma in India at the moment. Nevertheless, projects to further improve this is currently a work in progress.

Power and power infrastructure requirements in India:

Increasing urbanization has led to increasing demand in energy consumption. India greatly needs to increase their power-generating capacity and develop new ways of generating power.

Concept of  cities and smart cities in India:

Manufacturing and education have led to the development of concept cities in the country and smart cities are gaining popularity.

Key attributes of smart cities:

• Smart People and Quality Life
• Smart Governance
• Smart Economy
• Smart Environment
• Smart Technology and Mobility

India’s 13 benchmarks for smart cities:

The Indian Government’s Union Ministry of Urban Development identified 13 benchmarks for smart cities. These benchmarks include the following:

1. Transport: maximum travel time of 30-45 minutes depending on city size.
2. Spatial Planning: 175 people per hectare along transit corridors.
3. Water Supply: includes covering all households and providing water 24/7.
4. Sewage Sanitation: covers all households.
5. Solid Waste Management: 100% collection and recycling of solid waste.
6. Storm Water Drainage: 100% rainwater harvesting.
7. Electricity: includes covering all households and providing electricity 24/7 with 100% metering, and many more.
8. Telephone Connections: covers all households.
9. Wi-fi Connectivity: covers all cities.
10. Healthcare Facilities: establishment of intermediate and multispecialty hospitals.
11. Education: the set-up of educational institutions.
12. Firefighting: 1 fire station per lakh population/5-7 km radius.
13. Others: renewable energy, green buildings.

Metro transport system:

As per country data, India’s metro conglomerations have a share of only 30-45% of public transport instead of the desired 70%. This has led to a growing interest among Indian policymakers in the relevance of rail-based systems and to sustain an increasing demand to shift to a public conveyance from private modes of transport as the populations in cities expand. At least 7400 km of metro and subway transport systems will be required.

Hence, the Working Group on Urban Transport of the Planning Commission of India has recommended that cities with populations exceeding 2 million should initiate rail transit projects and cities exceeding 3 million people should construct metro rail systems. The investment for such metro rail projects is estimated at around USD 26.1 billion.

Several plans to develop numerous metro rail systems in major Indian cities have been put in place by the Ministry of Railways and the Ministry of Urban Development in collaboration with state governments. At the last count, 40 plus such projects are under various stages of development or are already operational. USD 12 billion of the approximate USD 50 billion allotted for these projects has already been committed to their development. This has led to the Indian metro sector being ranked as among the world’s biggest ongoing infrastructure programs.

Business opportunities for international firms:

As India has comparatively less domestic capability in several specific areas and has to import its products or technology from abroad, international firms have an abundance of opportunity in the following areas:

1. Design and architecture
2. Waste management
3. Signaling and telecommunication equipment
4. Power and traction
5. Ventilation and air conditioning
6. Rolling stock
7. Automatic fare collection systems
8. Machine tools
9. Electrical and mechanical equipment for maintenance  

EFFECTS OF URBANISATION:

With a high rate of urbanization significant changes have taken place. The effect of urbanisation can be summed up as follows:

Positive effects:

1. Migration of rural people to urban areas.
2. Employment opportunities in urban centres.
3. Transport and communication facilities.
4. Educational facilities.
5. Increase in the standard of living.

Urbanization can yield positive effects if it takes place up to a desirable limit. Extensive urbanisation or indiscriminate growth of cities may result in adverse effects. They may be as follows:

Problem of over population:

Concentration of population is a major problem of cities. It has resulted in accommodation problem, growth of slums etc .Disintegration of Joint family.

Joint family can’t be maintained in cities on account of high cost of living. People prefer to live in the nuclear type of families.

 Cost of living:

High cost of living is a major problem of cities. In Metro cities like Mumbai, Bangalore etc. it is very difficult for lower income groups to maintain a decent standard of living.

Increase in Crime rates:

Urban centres are known for high rate of crimes. Theft, Dacoity, Murder, Cheating, Pick pocketing, rape etc. are common in urban centres.

Impersonal relations:

Urban centres are characterised by highly secondary relations. The concept of neighbourhood, community life are almost absent in cities. Urban life is highly monotonous. This may have an adverse psychological effect on individuals. People are often self centred and they have no concern for the fellow human beings.

Problem of Pollution:

In industrialized cities pollution is a major problems. It may be caused by industries or by excessive movement of vehicles.

Stress:

Urban life is characterised by stress which may even strain family relations. In cities employment of women is almost inevitable to meet the increasing cost of living. Changing role of women in the family creates stress in the family which may result in divorce or strained relations.

Urbanization and diseases:

         Rapid increase in slums leads to poor access to clean water and sanitation. Diarrheal disease is still the most common cause of death in children under 5 years. Reliance on large agribusinesses can lead to wide-spread outbreaks of food-borne illness.

Urbanization: A double-edged sword for women:

Urbanization is often associated with greater independence and opportunity for women – but also with high risks of violence and constraints on employment, mobility and leadership that reflect deep gender-based inequalities.

Urbanization on children:

The urban sets with their associated activities decrease a child contact with altruistic and self-reliant models and reduce his opportunity to learn and to practice responsible and helpful behavior. They increase his egoistic behavior and covetousness. In addition, he is more apt to use aggressive techniques for persuading other children.

Urbanization and environment:

Urbanization boosts temperatures, and this in turn brings on two major types of effect:

• The urban heat island effect and thermal stress, whose consequences include proliferation of waterborne pathogens and carrying vectors;
• Extreme rainfall and widespread floods, which impacts insect breeding sites, drives rodents out of burrows and contaminate clean water systems.

Both phenomena may provoke outbreaks of infectious diseases, and increase human morbidity (especially epidemics, which alter physical and mental health) and mortality .

The fallout from urbanization on health is not only linked to climate change and increased pollution. Urbanization also modifies daily behaviours, which alter the ageing process and affect wellness among old adults.

Urbanization and poverty:

UN Report on Urbanization and poverty  finds that one-quarter of the world’s consumption poor live in urban areas and that the proportion has been rising over time. By fostering economic growth, urbanization helped reduce absolute poverty in the aggregate but did little for urban poverty.

WAY FORWARD:

Approaches for lessening and managing disaster risk in urban development include:

• Investment and public regulation, e.g. enforcing safety enhancing regulations including building codes and planning rules
• Resilient infrastructure development, e.g. earthquake resistant infrastructure development
• Adequate service provision, e.g. provision and maintenance of electricity, water supply, and drainage systems in urban environments can reduce flood risk, but also increases the vested interest in protecting assets
• Risk transfer, e.g. a cross-subsidised insurance scheme which provides poor households with catastrophe insurance cover
• Effective risk governance, e.g. integrating disaster risk reduction into city regulations, making it an integral part of local development
• Building codes, zoning and land-use planning have been central to addressing existing urban risk and the accumulation of new urban risk .
• Resilient urban development requires including and cooperating with both formal and informal sectors.
• Resilient urban development goes hand in hand with poverty and inequality reduction, environmental management and climate change adaptation
• Strengthening urban governance to involve and empower citizens and build partnerships with civil society and the private sector is probably the most important factor in addressing urban risk .

As we move forward in the 21st century, the global population is likely to continue growing. Urban areas will continue to grow with the population. This continual growth presents complex challenges as we prepare for the cities of the future. How we choose to manage urbanization will have consequences for our world for many years to come.

SOURCES AND REFERENCES:

• UN Reports on Urbanization
• Newspapers
• International journal on urbanization and Infectious disease
• Articles related to urbanization and development of various organizations and Institutions.
• MOH&UA Website.

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