Cities after Corona: A one on one discussion with Amogh K Gupta, Chairperson, SPA- Delhi

Senior Journalist Abhilash Khandekar sits down with Amogh K Gupta, Chairperson, School of Planning and Architecture- Delhi, to get the urban planning expert’s insights into how the pandemic is going to reshape the cities and the direction of urban development in the future

India has been under lockdown for almost two months now. It needs to reopen its economy and de-escalate further load on its poor citizens. What is the way forward?
We need to address the fact that India has never focused on rural centric development at par with urban development. This has become more than apparent with the massive exodus of migrant workers from cities back to their homes in rural areas. These people had moved to cities for more employment opportunities and since now those opportunities have been taken away, they are going back. They are moving back to their native homes despite state governments putting efforts and arranging basic amenities for them. We must think about why they are still opting to move back. I believe that despite getting free accommodation, food, etc., these people have still opted to move back to their rural homes as they don’t feel safe in the cities that they help build.
Now, once the lockdown is lifted, industries would only operate at reduced capacity. When these businesses will operate at full capacity is uncertain as a big chunk of the laborers who have gone back to their rural homes are of the mindset of not returning to the city.
Looking at it objectively, we have four months. The district authorities need to survey the population that has returned to their native lands and categorise them as ’skilled’ or ‘unskilled’ labor, as they were in the cities. Based on this data, stable employment opportunities must be generated. I say ’stable’ because I believe MNREGA is not a stable option for them.
Government must look into ways to develop entrepreneurial skills in these people who have
migrated back.

If the case is that the labor doesn’t return to cities, won’t it effect the economic cycle?
It will affect the economics of the city, and thus the country, no doubt. However, if we look at it objectively, these laborers routinely migrate back to their native lands every year around this time for harvesting. However, this unexpected migration has dented the economy due to the circumstances.
Now with this forced migration, people will be hesitant to move back to the major cities, cities they helped build. Why don’t we develop ways so that these rural areas retain a certain part of the population? That should be the focus as of now,
in my opinion.

Government is now focusing on making India self-reliant. This needs bettering of infrastructure, making cities ‘smart’ and maintaining a balance with nature. For this, economically backward states must be uplifted too. What is your take on this?
We are looking too much into the statistics of migration to urban areas. This has lead us to develop more city centric approach for development as we have pre-determined that such a large population will, without a doubt, move to cities.
Hence, rural areas lag as cities continue to expand. So when cities expand, people from backward areas prefer to move to these areas for opportunities. Hence, we are struck in this loop that would not lead us to any sustainable, logical,
long-term policy.

How are cities and their operations going to change in the post Covid world?
These are truly unprecedented times as the world hasn’t been effected by any epidemic like this before. We have faced plagues, Spanish flu, etc., but though these created lesser impact than coronavirus, could have served as lessons for better management. If we were able to develop better practices, we would have been able to deal with the issue with more success. Hence, we should take lessons from this period,

Has the rural development model of India been unsuccessful? Now, since we are talking about reverse migration, what would you suggest be the way forward for urban planners, authorities for the future?
The most successful adoption of India’s rural development policies, in my opinion, has been done by the state of Kerala. If we talk about the biggest city of the state, Kochi, it ranks 75th across India in terms of city population. This can be attributed to the success of the rural planning and management that the state has done in recent times. In my experience, every panchayat in the state was well equipped so much so that it was hard to even tell the difference between what was urban and what was rural.
There is also an underlying issue that India sees when we talk about development. When I talk with bureaucrats, authorities or even the common people, I find that most of them are more content in seeing growth in urban areas as opposed to development in existing rural areas.

What are your views on the Central Vista project?
I’ve gone through the RPF and proposals of the project, and I think since the existing infrastructure does not meet our requirements, it is necessary to upgrade. Now, given the heritage of the region, the new project would only reconstruct and not redesign.
Moreover, I believe we should first see the full extent of any project before worrying about it. See the full picture first, only then react is what I believe.

Was SPA-Delhi involved in the project?
Not in my knowledge, no. But, architects from the Institute were part of the committee that Delhi Government constituted to discuss the criticism on the project and seek suggestions.

Coming back to cities and Covid-19, as cities continue to expand, shall we predetermine rules to restrict their expansion?
Definitely. City planners must devote planning sessions specific to ascertain the limit of city expansion. If cities continue to grow at such rates, it is difficult for management and planning. We must focus on developing satellite cities in neighboring areas of big cities. These areas, which some call peri-urban areas, must be designated for specific uses.

India is battling with coronavirus well but if we see and compare with many other countries, is less urbanisation a reason for this? Do you think trend of urbanisation in India could reverse from here onwards or will it be business as usual?
Yes, less urbanisation is the primary reason why this issue is only restricted to cities with high population density till now. I gave the example of Kerala to elaborate about its settlement pattern. If we incorporate similar settlement pattern in other states, I believe other urban areas would get de-stressed to a certain extent. Another thing that is worth noting when we talk about battling coronavirus, the immunity system of Indians is much higher when we compare to western countries.
We can only invite reverse migration when we start working on the rearrangement of our village economies and focus on rural development. This, in my opinion, is a permanent fix to the problem.