Managing the affairs of cities
P. K. Doraiswamy
URBANIZATION & GOVERNANCE IN INDIA: Evelin Hust & Michael Mann — Editors; Manohar Publishers & Distributors, 4753/23, Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi-110002. Rs. 995.
In the year 2007, for the first time in the world the number of urban dwellers will equal the rural. Furthermore, the world population increase between 2000 and 2030 will be mainly in the urban areas of the less developed world, straining the infrastructure of cities causing deficiencies in the supply of housing, electricity and water, sewerage systems, health, education and public transport.
Though one of the least urbanised countries in the world, India is notorious for its urban problems. The plight of the urban poor in Kolkata publicised through Mother Teresa's work, Mumbai's Dharavi slum, Delhi's polluted atmosphere and the Surat plague are examples that come readily to mind. Though the growth rate of urban population has come down from 3.7 per cent in 1971-81 to 2.7 per cent in 1991-2001, the absolute numbers are large enough to pose formidable challenges to urban administrators.
Moreover, while the population in large cities is growing, the growth of large villages into towns and cities, which would have reduced migration into big cities, is hardly taking place. Economic liberalisation has increased the attractiveness of large cities for business investment.
Urban governance is the way individuals and institutions, public and private, plan and manage a city's common affairs. It is a continuing process by which conflicting or diverse interests may be accommodated and cooperative action taken. It includes formal as well as informal arrangements and the social capital.
Dimensions in governance
There are several dimensions to urban governance — planning for and managing magnitudes (population, goods, services, garbage and pollution); social equity between winners and losers; the cultural and social dynamics; and the structure of governance. The last acquires significance in the context of the 73rd and the 74th Amendments to the Indian Constitution making devolution of responsibilities and resources to local bodies mandatory.
Governance is a way of reconciling diverse interests. But, who will decide the inter se priorities or enforce decisions? The question of power is, therefore, paramount. Efforts at efficient governance more often than not put the major burden on the poor and the uninfluential, who are marginalised metaphorically and physically. While admitting the need to forge a partnership between the state, the private sector and civil society, the role of the former in holding the scales even cannot, therefore, be underestimated.
The first four articles sketch the major determinants of the framework of Indian urbanisation and urban governance. The next four look at provision of water and sanitation, and garbage disposal highlighting the complexities involved therein.
The last part of the book has four case studies on housing in Delhi, starting with a historical perspective of slum clearance and the resettlement of refugees, followed by a description of the anomaly of "urban villages", which get back-washed by the expanding urban conglomeration and lose their land and traditional livelihood sources and are left to fend for themselves in the rural-urban transition. The concluding chapter is on the contemporary problems of unauthorised settlements.
Five-Year Plans
The reader is first taken through the various Five-Year Plans and the urban development policies outlined therein. The impact of liberalisation and democratic decentralisation are then analysed and the need to integrate the techno-economic optimum with the demographic, social and cultural dynamics highlighted. The Bangalore Agenda Task Force comprising representatives from the government, the private sector and the civil society is cited as a good example to be emulated.
When the government fails to perform its due role in urban governance well, the gap is filled by private initiative, especially by the poor who have to survive somehow, and by the rich and influential who exploit the power vacuum.
The authors consider illegal or unauthorised slums treated as an eyesore by the affluent as an achievement by the occupants in the absence of a better alternative provided by government.
Unauthorised expansion
A detailed study of Asia's largest slum, Dharavi in Mumbai, illustrates how a mini-India came to be created solely by private initiative and due to the failure of the state. Experts emphasise the creation of institutional framework but ignore the equity and socio-cultural aspects involved in an urban society expanding in an uncontrolled manner with a competition for resources in a non-level playing field.
The case of how pig rearing proliferated in Kanpur provides an amusing but insightful example of how even such a lowly occupation has its economic, cultural and political overtones.
The book does not offer a straightforward diagnosis and remedy, but is more of an analytical study exposing the hard and soft forces at play in urban governance in order to deepen our understanding and is more sociologically orientated than administratively.
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