The webinar titled ‘’Mind the Gap Leave no One and Place Behind’’ was organised by the Institute for Spatial Planning and Environment Research, India (ISPER) on the occasion of World Habitat Day which falls on October 3, 2022. The title of the webinar was the same as this year’s theme of ‘World Habitat Day’ which is “Mind the Gap. Leave No One and Place Behind.”
Arun Kumar, Professor of Economics (Retd.), Jawaharlal Nehru University while highlighting the issue of inequality between the haves and have-nots, noted that the problem of unemployment has aggravated due to the rise in the use of technology. Lack of social sector development including health and education exacerbates inequalities. He also skimmed through the issues of rising extreme weather events, and globalisation that has created resentment in the advanced countries. Therefore, countries are tilting towards the right, leading to a less tolerant conservative societies. He later shed light on some of the solutions including social safety nets introduced in 1980s, while in India they were implemented in the 2000s which include the Right to Education, Right to Food and MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme). The need of the hour is to devise sustainable long-term solutions, instead of these short-term measures.
Discussing another kind of inequality, Ashwani Luthra, Professor, Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU), Amritsar spoke about urban bias in policymaking. Referring to the title he said that the gap has been identified in the form of 3Cs, that is Covid-19, Climate and Conflict. At the policy level, there is a lack of integration with other policies and financial glitches, while spatial planning is urban-biased and development is pro-rich. Following this comment, he outlined some of the urban challenges like inadequacies in existing urban infrastructure like water and sewerage, etc. Regionalisation of urban development is the key to solving these issues. The land-use-based spatial planning approach needs to be changed to climate-resilient smart planning. Making slum-free cities should be the agenda of the government.
Professor Tanuja Sharma, Management Development Institute, Gurgaon spoke on the subject of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) system, its components and its progress in India. According to her, the corporate sector prioritises profit over environment. Lack of general corporate integrity has always been a point of concern, and even this globalisation is driven by government-business nexuses. But when governments, businesses and the media band together, then the public becomes vulnerable. The ESG initiative which is commended by United Nations (UN) and advocated by Europe, is mandated by the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in India as the Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report (BRSR) initiative.
Dr Rahul Deshpande, Dean, NICMAR University, Pune discussed about the transport sector and its impact on climate change. The transport sector, he said, is solely responsible for 14 per cent of the total global Green House Gas (GHG) emissions and to address this issue we are stressing public transport but the affordability of the transport like metro is still not there.
Rakesh Ranjan, Senior Consultant, NITI Aayog highlighted an important issue in policy implementation. Taking the example of the aspirational district programme, he said that when the performance under a programme or scheme is assessed based on indicators, then the tendency to do the bare minimum grows. For instance, in maternal health we take into account whether the midwives are visiting the pregnant women four times or not. However, the responsibility also lies with the civil society to make such programmes successful.
P Singh, Chief Town Planner DTCP, Haryana, suggested that the inequality is reducing but it is not the rosy picture. As far as development planning is concerned around 80 per cent of Haryana is covered. The major gap in the grievances redressal of the allottees has been plugged, which arose as there was a huge participation from the private sector in Haryana. The complaints of the allottees have been well addressed by the Real Estate Regulatory Authority. He also talks about the large scope of digitalisation and decentralisation of power. Mansi Sachadeva, Urban Planner, UN-Habitat, India briefly explained SDG India Index and the progress of the country on SDG 11 for which the regional focus on the Northeast and Jammu and Kashmir is required. She also elucidated the issue of urban poverty and its multidimensional nature which needs to be understood to make us more inclusive of the needs of vulnerable sections.
Jaswant Singh, Secretary General, KSS-ISPER, Panchkula, spoke at length on the subject of housing for all. In countries like South Africa, Kenya, and Canada, housing is included in the list of fundamental rights, while in India it comes under Article 21 (Right to Shelter, Growth and Nourishment) of the Indian Constitution. He noted that the Right to Shelter not only means a roof over one’s head but also having essential infrastructure to enable one to live a life of dignity. Therefore, the Supreme Court of India has put the onus on the government to include it in the list of fundamental rights. He also highlighted that there is a huge gap between the demand for affordable houses and their availability especially when 16–17 per cent of our population resides in slums.
Abhishek Pandey, Editor, Urban Update, All India Institute of Local Self-Governance (AIILSG), spoke about the urban local bodies (ULBs) in terms of service delivery and access to infrastructure facilities in our cities. Housing 18 per cent of world’s population, India has only 3 per cent of the global household wealth. In cities, there is a huge difference in the benefits and services enjoyed by the rich living in posh localities and people living in slums who are deprived of basic necessities. He also talked about the Equi-City project started by the AIILSG in Nagpur which aims to ensure that all the localities have access to facilities and services.
Income disparity is only one kind of inequality. Elaborating on this argument, Avinash Kumar, Former ED, Amnesty International spoke about the rise of social conflict, fragile states and the tendency of the state to look for conflict within, especially targeting migrants and minorities, thus making inequality a political question. He said we need to relook at the role of government in a market-regulated economy. When talking about the quality of services he said that we have to create a yardstick which should be available to all the people thus creating a level playing field for all. He also talked about making women more visible in public life, especially in the fields which are generally considered male domains like police force, etc.