Liveable Cities in Vikasit Bharath @2047 – Part A
When our Honorable Prime Minister envisioning Vikasit Bharath @ 2047, the entire nation was turbo-charged to wake up and work towards achieving a decided and visible goal for the country. All the departments, in almost all the states are taking up projects that could contribute towards achieving the objective of making India a developed nation. When the entire nation is working towards framing projects and programs to achieve this objective, one needs to be realistic in terms of setting the right objectives to be achieved to make India a Vikasit Bharat @ 2047.
Recently, The Economist published a report on the most livable cities in the world for the year 2024.[1] The report has been earlier used in the book “Price of Modi Years” by Aakar Patel to illustrate that during the tenure of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi from 2015 to 2021, the city of Mumbai had fallen from 115 to 124 (9 ranks) and Delhi had fallen from 110 to 118 (8 ranks). Though the actual ranks for 2024 was not available to the author, the actual scores fro Delhi and Mumbai was in the range of 50 – 60 points (on a scale of 100), which translates to liveability is substantially constrained. This is not the condition only of Delhi and Mumbai, even other cities that are ranked by The Economist, Chennai, Bangalore, and Ahmedabad all fall under the same category.
City Liveability Index, March 2024
Source: https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2024/06/26/the-worlds-most-liveable-cities-in-2024
This index is calculated based on stability (25% weightage, and includes data relating to crimes, civil unrest, threat of terror, etc.), healthcare (20% weightage and includes data relating to availability and quality of healthcare, both private and public, and availability of OTC drugs, and other health indicators taken from the World Bank), culture and environment (25% weightable and includes data relating to weather conditions, level of corruption and censorship, availability of sports and cultural facilities, restrictions on social and religious activities, and availability of food, drink, consumer goods and services), education (10% weightage and includes data relating to availability and quality of education, both public and private), infrastructure (20% weightage and includes data relating to roads, public transportation, international linkages, quality of housing, energy, water, and telecommunication facilities). A quick perusal of these factors indicates that these are the parameters that would be used to assess any city / town, state, region, or a country as developed or otherwise, which is what the Vikasit Bharat @ 2047 aims to achieve. What is surprising is that none of the cities in India are ranked above 100 out of a total of 173 cities in the world, with 1 being the most liveable city and 173 being the least liveable.
The population in some of the bigger cities in India is expected to double by 2050. Mumbai’s population was 5 million in 1960s, which is around 20 million today and is expected to touch 40 million by 2050. [2] With such population living in a city, no wonder it holds the world’s largest slum area in Dhaaravi.[3] If our cities start housing bigger slum areas, then by no stretch of imagination can India be considered as a developed nation or Vikasit Bharat. It is the right time for India to start planning on how to plan the developmental agenda in order to effectively achieve Vikasit Bharat @ 2047.
Vikasit Bharat @ 2047, as envisioned by the Prime Minister encompasses various aspects of development, including economic growth, social progress, environmental sustainability, and good governance.[4] The population in rural areas are migrating to urban areas for multiple reasons: the fertility of the soil is eroding leading to reduced agricultural outputs; other than agriculture, there are very little sustainable economic activities that the population can engage in. Neither manufacturing nor services industries are meaningfully establishing their presence in rural areas that can engage the rural population. Also in the name of development, the land in rural areas at the periphery of the cities are being taken over for urban development including real estate development, industrial hubs, logistics hubs, airports, and other infrastructure projects. Such projects would benefit only landed owners who get compensated from such projects, while the landless people in the rural areas shift to urban areas in search of a job or other means of livelihood, again contributing to the expansion of the slum areas. To arrest such migration, the Government of India should bring a national policy to stop acquiring fertile land for infrastructure projects, including real estate projects. This would ensure that the fertile land would be protected to feed the growing population of India. It should also ensure that the farmers are equitably compensated for their agricultural outputs, which would then enable to stay back in rural areas, instead of migrating to urban areas and contributing to slums.
While public housing is a solution to reduce slum areas (as managed by the Slum Clearance Boards), executing such projects effectively is of paramount importance. While granting contracts to large companies might solve the problem, one needs to be mindful of the needs of the slum dwellers. When a contract is granted to the contractor, his / her first priority should be to construct the houses for the slum dwellers rather than using the available land for constructing commercial projects to monetize their project costs. Also, ghettoization should also be prevented. The Government of India should come up with a policy to manage the contracts, especially keeping the interests of the slum dwellers in mind, rather than the commercial interests of the contractor.
In the cities, availability of potable drinking water is becoming a challenge. Most of these cities have rivers passing through them, which have been polluted because of lack of sanitation, dumping of garbage into these rivers, and ineffective monitoring and supervision by the pollution control officials. The Government of India has done a wonderful job in cities like Ahmedabad and Varanasi to rejuvenate the rivers flowing inside the city. It should come up with similar policy initiatives to ensure that the river flowing through important cities are protected from pollution and are capable of becoming a water source for its ever expanding population. Such rivers can also provide cities with an avenue for social gathering thereby enhancing the scores for the liveability of such cities.
Another important aspect that needs to be addressed by the Government of India is the healthcare. If the traffic jams, pollution, housing, water, and sanitation is not taken care, then there would be enormous need for healthcare services as the citizens are bound to fall ill because of these factors. If the Government of India starts handling these problems one-by-one on a priority basis, then the overall money to be spent on healthcare will also come down. But till then, it is the responsibility of the government to ensure that the public healthcare system is robust, efficient, and effective. The Government of India, during the COVID-19 did a wonderful job in ensure that the testing, vaccination, and treatment was done at public hospitals throughout the country. It could continue a similar process to ensure that the public healthcare facilities are well equipped and efficient in providing the essential medical care to the citizens. If the citizens’ well being is taken care of, they would be contributing towards the productivity of the economy and the overall development of the country.
While Vikasit Bharath @ 2047 aims to achieve overall development of the country with an intention to make India a developed nation, the Government of India would be better off with starting to make cities liveable in India. Towards that, the government should first make the rural conditions more conducive, so that migration from rural areas to urban areas is minimized; the housing conditions are taken care of to ensure that slums are not permeated; sufficient potable drinking water is made available for the urban citizens; and that they are provided with sufficient good quality healthcare. With these conditions, the first steps towards a liveable city would be achieved. In the next part, we will explore other important issues like infrastructure projects, public transportation, public walkways, public encroachments, and other relevant issues that could make Indian cities more liveable.
Author:
Dr. Nithyananda KV, is a faculty member in the General Management Area at the Indian Institute of Management Tiruchirappalli, Tamilnadu, India. He specializes in the area of Intellectual Property and its management.
[1] https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2024/06/26/the-worlds-most-liveable-cities-in-2024.
[2] https://www.economist.com/asia/2024/08/01/indian-cities-are-utterly-unprepared-for-what-is-about-to-hit-them
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharavi
[4] https://pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=1985077
