Towards Inclusive Urbanisation in India

This paper examines a number of propositions in the context of inclusive urbanisation. Urban growth itself makes urbanisation more inclusive. Widely and evenly spread pattern of urbanisation is more inclusive. Newly emerging informal urban settlements, i.e. the census towns, can play an important role in promoting urban outreach to the people in rural areas. Cities cannot be made inclusive without addressing the plight of migrants and the poor in the cities. Estimating poverty and the method of identifying urban poor has to focus more on housing and other vulnerabilities of the poor. The level of urbanisation and the dispersion of urban centres in space are closely related with the level of economic development. Regional pattern of urbanisation in India is uneven more because of uneven pattern of regional economic growth. Mega-cities have played important role in Indian economic development, yet high level of urbanisation need not depend only on mega-cities. Kerala and Punjab are outstanding examples. Newly emerging mega-cities are more dispersed regionally. The contribution of census towns to the net addition to urban population during the decade 2001–2011 has been very significant. A large number of these towns have emerged in states with very low levels of urbanisation. These towns are not statutorily recognised. If recognised, they could play an important role in urban outreach. Significant contribution to urban growth in future is likely to come from census towns. The number of rural-to-urban migrants is very large. They contributed about 17% to the net urban growth during 2001–2011. But for many impediments to migration, their number could have been much larger and urban growth much faster migrants, particularly the poor ones face a variety of discrimination and biases. Their living conditions in the cities are precarious. Official estimates of poverty are still largely food-centric. Other dimensions of poverty are more important for the urban poor in the modern context. Availability of a place to live is the most acute problem in cities. Casual nature of jobs, uncertainty of regular income, the absence of social security and lack of community support subject the poor to a number of vulnerabilities. Estimates of urban poverty and identification of urban poor should take these vulnerabilities into consideration.