Future Cities Love, Compassion, & Sustainability must be the guiding Principles

The city development trajectory in India is at crossroads. The paradigm shift in city development that was envisaged in the 1990s and further impetus since 2014 has led to a situation where neither the desired goals have been achieved nor the cities have become sustainable.
The push in the last three decades for attracting capital investments in the cities for infrastructure development, particularly from private capital has not worked well. The whole idea of autonomy to the cities, the thrust of the 74th constitutional amendment has also not been fulfilled. Interestingly, of the 18 subjects that were supposed to be transferred to the cities, including city planning; only 3 have been universally transferred. These include waste management and the issuance of birth and death certificates. The rest of the subjects are handled by parastatals.
The inequality in the cities has grown in geometric progression. Never in the history of urbanisation have the cities seen such levels of inequality. This has further widened in recent periods. The transformation in the cities from them being industrial centres to service-dominating economies has further robbed the working people of decent livelihoods.
The planning agencies, all of them being beyond the control of the elected democratic institutions, have belittled the working class in the cities. The housing models in the form of condominiums meant only for the middle class sections has thrown a majority of the people, particularly the migrants out of bounds of these houses. Even the middle class sections have not been able to buy these houses.
Ghettoization in the cities has increased and the polarization in the cities on communal lines has further generated fear among the large sections of working people.
The answer to the urban problems has come in the form of urban renewal missions, initially by the UPA 1 and then Smart Cities Mission models by the NDA since 2014. Both these models, have done this the best; and that is to rotate poverty around. The result has been that nearly 40 per cent of the urban population currently lives in slums. The figure is startling- nearly 250 million people live in slums.

Why has all of this happened?

In the political economy we define the value of the object in two forms: use value and exchange value. Use value is something that is meant for the people for their use. Something that cannot be commoditized. The exchange value of a product is where it becomes a commodity and is saleable. Water, health, education, and likewise other such utilities were considered to be of use value for society and not exchangeable or something that cannot be commoditized. However, the last three decades in urban India have exhibited the worst form of transformation from use value to exchange value of some of the utilities. Take for example water. Water was always considered a right and hence there accrued a relationship between the agencies of the State and the citizens. The State was bound to provide the same to its citizens. But, now water is being transformed into a need and there are various players (including private) in the market, offering water or running water utilities in a city like Delhi. In the guise of non-revenue water, this important utility is being privatized and people are forced to pay exorbitant prices for the same.
Likewise, health and education are two important sectors where lots of money is shed by the urban citizens in the absence or withdrawal of State agencies from these areas. This is also linked to the overall planning in the city. Planners would love to mark a space for a multi speciality hospital whilst planning cities, rather than more primary health centres. This has been universalized in recent times.
All of this has contributed to large-scale formalization and outright marginalization of the urban working class, thus increasing poverty and homelessness. Likewise, the planning agencies have planned the cities in order to attract investments for ameliorating urban problems. Large consultant-driven models of city planning were highly exclusionary. Real estate development was one of the areas considered important for attracting investments.

Future cites

Planners love to get butter paper and design future cities. What is required is not new butter papers for designing more cities. The planners must be equipped to do more of acupuncture and suturing in the current context of ‘future cities’. The present must be improved for a better future. Aya Nagar model, where a planner decided to settle in a slum and transform it into a model town in Delhi is one of the ways of working at it.
The future cities will have to take the following into consideration:
First, the model of top-down planning, and New Delhi deciding even for cities like Leh, must be discarded. The planning process has to be highly inclusive, participatory, and bottom–up. The citizens of the cities must decide for themselves. Unlike the current model; some of the worst forms of which we are witnessing in the redevelopment model in Andamans, where the native people are screaming: not to integrate Andamans into the destruction models of New Delhi.
Second, the approach of technology providing solutions to all the answers must be given up. Technology is important but the priority of the cities must be taken into consideration. The capital-intensive technological solutions have further worsened the situation. Take two examples: the push for urban mobility is quite visible in urban India. However, the push should be for the mobility of the people; but what we are witnessing is the mobility of large guzzlers and thus creating large spaces for them in the form of flyovers, widening of roads, etc. Can a nation that imports 80 % of its fossil fuels be boasting of the sale of nearly 4 million cars in a year? Another impetuousness from cities is a bling drive for rail metros in most of the large cities; not realizing that such capital-intensive technologies are not sustainable. The second example is the handling of municipal solid waste in the country. Now once again the push from the centre is for ‘waste to energy plants’; whereas the reality is that none of the existing plants is functional. Instead of decentralized waste treatment and fixing the responsibility on waste producers who mainly are large corporations (both foreign and domestic), the roadmap calls for installing these large plants, thereby increasing the carbon footprint in the cities and burdening the people in the form of user fees.
Third, for future cities, the governance model has to be completely revisited. We are a country of ‘panch parmeshwar’. Democratizing the model of governance is the answer, along with financially empowering the city governments and the people. The current model of smart city as K C Sivarakrishnan (former bureaucrat and originator of the 74th amendment) used to say “is like writing an obituary of the 74th amendment”. There is already large-scale alienation of people in the cities; what is required is to restrict it and make them part of the decision-making process.
Fourth, create a fourth list in the Constitution. Apart from the union, state, and concurrent lists, another list for local bodies is required through a constitutional structural change. Even the implementation of the 74th amendment, if at all that is done, is insufficient for the future cities. Take for example South Africa where the city and national leadership are at par. The functions held by the cities if infringed by their national government can be challenged in a court of law. Unlike in India where cities are more like adjuncts of either state or central governments.
Fifth, create a new consciousness of owning the city and creating awareness of climate change. The most forceful impact of climate change is happening in the cities. Behavioural change along with adaptation strategies are a must to ensure minimum damage to people and assets. Green warriors or green soldiers, etc., must be part of the large curriculum in the schools ensuring massive participation of the people, particularly the students.
The future cities must be embedded in the strong footing of sustainability, compassion, love, and decent work.