Inequality needs due attention in urban planning, governance

One need not go on a long drive in a big city to witness stark inequalities between the posh and the common localities. Even within these localities, urban experience does not remain the same. Almost every vulnerable group – women, children, the elderly, and differently-abled – experiences unequal treatment daily. This needs to change now, and cities need to be welcoming and courteous to all

Are cities in India inclusive and provide services and access to infrastructure equitably? The answer to this question does not come in simple shades of black and white. There are grey areas.
Cities have practiced segregation of all kinds since time immemorial. The rich and the poor live in different neighbourhoods. Cars and pedestrians have a differential share of road space. Some hundred years ago, people of different classes and races lived in separate neighbourhoods, and it was a pretty exacting distinction. People with different or lesser physical abilities cannot access every facility in the city. Every misstep in planning can perpetuate inequality.
Inequality in the delivery of services and access to urban infrastructure has been a fundamental problem in cities. With the expansion of cities and growing population, the problem has aggravated. For example, slums in the city like Mumbai clearly show that urban poverty is concentrated and the strong inequalities between urban communities are visible. There are several such examples all over the country.
According to a research paper on urban inequalities ‘Access to Urban Infrastructure: Who Benefits?’, the most pervasive causes of segregation, scholars have argued, are de jure, that is, they are rooted in law, public policy and other intentional government action. Until recently, in countries like the United States and South Africa, national, state, and local governments implemented explicitly discriminatory policies that determined where white communities and communities of colour should live. State-sponsored segregation of this kind throughout the 20th century has made contemporary cities particularly unequal.

Rural-urban divide

The overcrowding of cities can be because of a lack of economic opportunities and adequate health and education facilities in rural areas. The problems of inequality in cities perpetuate from various aspects of socio-economic conditions in rural and urban areas. Some issues of inequality can be addressed in villages. For example, a person has to come to a city to consult a doctor for an ailing family member. He cannot get the required health facilities in rural areas, and individuals’ health worsens in the absence of medical facilities. This is usual for people who live in far-flung areas. They will say that doctors visit local health facilities once or twice a week. They have to travel long distances to get essential medicines. There is no blood bank. In such a desperate situation, the family members of the ailing person take him or her to a nearby city where health facilities are available. Their priority is to get the ailing person treated, who, if he gets lucky, gets admitted to the government hospital facility, but the person accompanying him has to find a place to sleep at night. Where does he/she go? He/she sleeps on pavements. On a close look at a mega health facility such as All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi, one can see the sorry state of affairs. In such a scenario, one cannot pinpoint who is at fault.
Cities need to be ready to handle floating populations of such kind. They need to have the infrastructure to provide facilities. At the same time, such a problem can also be handled locally in rural areas by strengthening basic medical facilities. To control large-scale migrations from village areas to cities for accessing basic facilities of health and education, rural infrastructure (or lack thereof) must be strengthened.

Government Initiatives

India has been an agriculture-based economy for several decades since its independence. Gradually the share of agriculture in the national GDP dipped, and the urban service sector got a boost. Since then, people have been moving to cities for better economic opportunities, and the trend continues. It is becoming evident that urbanisation, if not planned well, can affect the efforts for sustainable development and overall progress on urban equality. When people come to cities, and in case they do not find immediate jobs and housing, they end up living in slums or, worse, on the roadside. These places usually do not have adequate civic service provisions. Infrastructure and urban services are important urbanisation dimensions, providing essential services to support diverse urban activities. Inadequate service provisions magnify inequalities and can derail our efforts to build just and fair societies.
The village economy must be strengthened if we want to check mindless migration to cities. The country has started working in this direction with the promotion of village-based small and medium-scale industries. These initiatives need to be further promoted, and meanwhile, the government needs to build a robust village-level infrastructure for basic education. Other steps could be improving agriculture-based research and bringing about massive transformation in the sector.
For example, rural local bodies should also get due attention and encouragement in their efforts to innovate for sustainable development in the areas under their jurisdiction. Instilling research and proper training in agriculture and adequate capacity building of rural elected representatives and officials in line with those of ULBs can improve the situation at the ground level. Such an initiative can also open doors for more investment into essential services in rural and urban areas, such as health care, education and skills development which could be the long-term solution to issues related to economic distribution.
The most crucial aspect of urban service provisioning and infrastructure access is the disparity between different economic users based on their gender, socio-economic status and physical ability. A research paper assessing access to public transport systems in Seoul found that the people in the lower rung of the socio-economic pyramid living in low-income colonies had inadequate access to mobility options compared to those from high-income neighbourhoods. Such kind of disparity is visible among other groups as well. Despite several government notifications, many government buildings remain inaccessible to physically challenged individuals. The issue of safety and the presence of dark spots in cities also hinder women’s movement at night.

The village economy must be strengthened if we want to check mindless migration to cities. The country has started working in this direction with the promotion of village-based small and medium-scale industries. These initiatives need to be further promoted, and meanwhile, the government needs to build a robust village-level infrastructure for basic education. Other steps could be improving agriculture-based research and bringing about massive transformation in the sector