Urban Update June 2016

ISSN 2349-6266 RNI No DELENG/2014/57384

Setting The Agenda For Tomorrow’s Cities

UrbanUpdate Volume III, Issue VI

Rs 100

June 2016

Uplifting poor, Confronting Poverty in Cities Gleaming urban centres feature the extremes of wealth, prosperity and growth on the one hand, and poverty, deprivation and social exclusion on the other. Poverty is urbanising fast and demands out of the ordinary thinking on development to make cities inclusive and equitable

Where will the poor live?

Are our already crowded cities prepared to provide them housing alternatives to ensure urbanization is planned, not haphazard?

The project is funded by the European Union.

The project is implemented by the AIILSG.

Union Ministry of Urban Development has empanelled AIILSG on the list of consultants qualified to work for Smart City Mission.

AIILSG has been selected to work for Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, Chandigarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh.

Community Based Interventions

Professional Empowerment Project Management

Advisory Services Customised Training

Knowledge Management Capacity Building Information, Education and Communication (IEC)

Policy Research

All India Institute of Local Self-Government No. 6, F-Block, Bandra Kurla Complex, TPS Road-12, Bandra-East, Mumbai-400051, Maharashtra Tel.No.: +91-22-26571713, 26571714, 26571715, Fax: +91-22-26572286, Email: contact@aiilsg.org

UrbanUpdate A monthly magazine published by the AIILSG — a project funded by European Union’s ‘Equi-City’ programme for India.

Ranjit Chavan President-AIILSG Capt. Anant Modi Editor-In-Chief Director General-AIILSG, dg@aiilsg.org Ashok Wankhade Managing Editor Abhishek Pandey Editor Ravi Ranjan Guru Executive Editor

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Printed at Artz & Printz, 208, DSIDC Shed, Okhla Industrial Area Phase-I, New Delhi-110020 Published at Sardar Patel Bhavan, 22-23, Institutional Area D-Block Pankha Road, Janakpuri, Delhi-110058 Despite careful selection of sources, no responsibility can be taken for accuracy of the contents. The magazine assumes no liability or responsibility of any kind in connection with the information thereof. The views expressed in the articles are the personal opinions of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the All India Institute of Local Self-Government.

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The project is funded by the European Union.

The project is implemented by the AIILSG.

The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission.

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June 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

EDITORIAL

Cities for all

S

Capt. Anant Modi Editor-In-Chief dg@aiilsg.org

Cities are capable of generating wealth due to economies of scale and agglomeration benefits. To realize this potential, it is necessary that national governments craft innovative policies and governments at the local level act to address the issues of affordable housing, service delivery, efficient public transportation and so on

lum populations in many developing country cities are growing, though at a slower pace than the total urban population.

In India, as per Census 2011, the proportion of slum population to total urban population fell from 23.5% in 2001 to 22.4% in 2011. To dispel any doubts regarding counting efficiency, the numbers include notified, recognized as well as identified slums, the last category comprising nearly a third of the total slum population. A UN-Habitat Report states that between 2001 and 2010, nearly 200 million people were pulled out of slums. However, this outcome has been more skewed rather than uniform with most of the achievement coming from the more developed nations.

Therefore any complacency is misplaced.

Slums are an indication of the inequity that has been spawned by relentless urbanization. This inequity is possibly one fallout of the unpreparedness of cities for the onslaught of the urban influx. Often, the phenomenon has been viewed as an undesirable passive outcome of economic development, so much so that policies in the past were crafted to discourage and obstruct its course. Nevertheless, urbanization has not been stopped; but this anxiety driven approach has left cities unprepared and ill-equipped to deal with the reality.

Among the consequences is the Urban Divide we see.

The Urban Divide extends across various metrics-economic, social and cultural. Vast sections of the population in cities do not have access to housing and basic municipal services including clean water, sanitation and health services. Deficits in infrastructure, environment and governance such as roads, street-lighting and open spaces,and service delivery are particularly glaring in those areas where the poor reside. Schools and public hospitals in these areas are characterized by neglect and decay, denying those

sections of city-dwellers who need them most. Crime and violence is another example of the prevailing inequity.

The poor are particularly vulnerable to security breaches by hostile elements, often a result of poor policing and enforcement. Other sections of society, usually a minority, generally live in well-serviced neighbourhoods, gated communities and formal settlements.

This divide, caused in part by urbanization, is a reflection of many challenges including income inequalities, extreme poverty, environmental degradation and marginalization. Take income inequality for example. By some accounts, the richest one percent of the global population holds nearly 48% of all the global wealth. And eighty percent of the population has only 6% of the wealth. Urban divide has the potential for social unrest and instability with high social and economic costs for society at large rather than for just the urban poor.

One must however remember that cities are capable of generating wealth due to economies of scale and agglomeration benefits. To realize this potential, it is necessary that national governments craft innovative policies and governments at the local level act to address the issues of affordable housing, service delivery, efficient public transportation and so on. Their actions need to be aimed at more equitable distribution of the opportunities and benefits of urbanization. At the same time they need to anticipate, manage and mitigate the negative consequences of urbanization which have the potential to heighten urban divide. Our national urban interventions including AMRUT, PMAY and Smart Cities Mission all address these issues and aim to provide support through enhanced financial outlays and other policy levers.

The subject calls for informed debate and formulation of development plans to enable the creation of sustainable, inclusive cities. This issue of Urban Update is an effort in that direction.

www.urbanupdate.in | June 2016

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Quotes

PIN POINT BUZZ

Smart towns would be developed on the pattern of smart cites in Haryana with the cooperation of Israel. To begin with Gharaunda in district Karnal has been chosen. Also a Nodal Officer has been appointed for this purpose

We want to build a city where every section of the city is open to everybody. There is room in the city for everybody; that’s the vision we are building here in Detroit.

Manohar Lal Chief Minister of Haryana

Mike Duggan Mayor of Detroit

M Venkaiah Naidu Union Minister for Urban Development, Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation

Rajkot walls painted with beautiful pics. Compliments to citizens for voluntarily taking it up. Learnt that 6000 such paintings are done across the city by forming local associations.

Kudos…

Leonardo DiCaprio @LeoDiCaprio Actor and Environmentalist

ClimateChange could force huge migrations for people & animals near the equator, already beginning in some nations

To understand and appreciate smart cities, the focus has to be on people. Cities are about people, and particularly about bringing people together. We are a social species, and cities serve to create the physical venues for interaction that generate innovation, art, culture, and economic activity

It’s our duty to do everything we can to turn the migration challenge into an opportunity.

It is important to avoid ghettos and segregation.

Social inclusion is not only for migrants, but it is now the most important issue.

Dilip Rahulan Executive Chairman & CEO, Pacific Controls

Corina Cretu EU regional policy commissioner

Katie Appel Duda @kjappel Government Innovator Bloomberg

Cities must intentionally build their social muscles; we need them now more than ever

UN Development ‫‏‬ @UNDP

60% of ppl affected by crises end up in cities. #Humanitarian response must think urban.

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Inside

Volume 3, Issue 6

Inside June 2016

28 Numerographs

ONE ON ONE

34

‘Shun old ways; adapt to innovation to make cities smart’

An exclusive interview with Shaida Mohammad Abdali, Ambassador of Afghanistan to India, on urban trends and sustainability

Article

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Cities: By the citizen, for the citizen

40

Promoting energy conservation for sustainable future

AIILSG with Karnataka government is promoting energy conservation in the state by taking a range of initiatives to make buildings energy efficient and reduce the electrical demand by 30-40%

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The citizen is now moving centre- stage where city development is concerned. This new direction to make our cities more liveable is indeed welcome. It deepens and strengthens the democratic process and gives more voice to the community

Urban Health Challenges and Solutions

Urbanization is resulting in proliferation of slums, unauthorized colonies and irregular growth of cities leading to increase in number of health and social problems in our cities

Cover story

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Uplifting poor, Confronting Poverty in Cities

27

Delhi demands serious intervention to bridge urban-poor divide

Delhi is among the fastest growing cities in India. It offers a plethora of facilities to residents in terms of services and infrastructure.

However, the widening urban-poor divide that is manifested in many ways calls for well thought of action plan

Gleaming urban centres feature the extremes of wealth, prosperity and growth on the one hand, and poverty, deprivation and social exclusion on the other. Colonies of the poor and the rich exist cheek by jowl in most of the cities of developing nations.

Poverty is urbanising fast and demands out of the ordinary thinking on development to make cities inclusive and equitable

LEADerspeak

32

RegularS

6 10

Pin Point Newscan

15 46

City Images Urban Agenda

Where will the poor live?

The rural poor are migrating to cities in search of better livelihood options and plain survival. Are our already crowded cities prepared to provide them housing alternatives to ensure urbanization is planned, not haphazard?

www.urbanupdate.in | June 2016

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feature | Equi-City

NMC, Equi-City team organise public awareness and sensitization workshop The Equi-City Project Team in collaboration with Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) organised an awareness and sensitization workshop on Sanitation, aligning with the aim and objectives of the Project Team Equi-City

T

he Equi-City project aims to promote equity in delivery of municipal services and diversity in Local Authority organizations. The project is being implemented by All India Institute of Local Self-Government (AIILSG) and funded by European Union (EU).

Aligning with the aim and objectives of the Equi-City Project, the project team in collaboration with Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) organized an awareness and sensitization workshop on Sanitation on June 17, 2016 at Gorewada Basti in Nagpur. The workshop was conducted to promote the objectives of the EquiCity Project.

The broader theme of this workshop was Sanitation and Hygiene. Besides several other important goals, the workshop had a few prevalent goals which were—to generate awareness regarding sanitation, to understand the condition of municipal services, to sensitize people about the existing situation and to identify problem areas if any.

The workshop was organized as a part of initiatives which will help improve citizen participation in Nagpur City.

The workshop will be the kick-off event for the creation of a network of ‘participatory forum’ in the city where citizens can participate in decisions regarding their city’s development and contribute towards the same.

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Citizens’ expectation

The major expectation of the citizen from any local body includes services which are reliable and affordable and which impose only a limited management burden on users. For improved sanitation, issues regarding safety, privacy, comfort and dignity of an accessible toilet (plus status, utility) play a very important role.

The Equi-City project team analyzed the level of basic services (Water Supply, Sewerage and Sanitation, Solid Waste Management) in Nagpur cityto understand the level of these services in the city. Different set of analysis such as Weighted Scaling Analysis and calculation of Service Level Benchmarks (SLBs) have been done on the basis of data collected from the various departments of NMC to further understand the provision and level of basic services.

In total 10 indicators were studied under the chosen theme of sanitation for the above mentioned analysis.

The weighted scaling analysis done by Equi–City Team, reveals that the slums in Zone 10 and Zone 8 of Nagpur lack proper sanitation facilities, compared to the others. Further, Zone 10 has been chosen for the field study based on the fact that it has more number of slums and open defecation spots. Of all the Wards in Zone 10, Gorewada Basti was further chosen for the workshop because of low level of sanitation facilities in the ward.

During the field survey and interaction/consultation with the people of the Basti, Equi-City Project Team identified the problems in the areas which need to be solved for better sanitation and hygiene facilities.

This interaction brought out the fact that people in Gorewada Basti are facing problems regarding Sanitation which includes absence of and no access to toilets, unhygienic facilities such as water logging & drainage overflow, open drainage, lack of cleanliness in the surroundings, pollution because of burning waste in Basti and others. The main focus of these interactions was to create awareness about the need to eradicate open defecation and build individual household toilets especially from the view of gender sensitization.

To inform/communicate about the details regarding the workshop and the importance of people’s participation in the workshop, pamphlets were distributed to local people and posters were displayed at every major spot in Gorewada Basti under the guidance of respective ward members. The initial response of the people to participate in workshop was enthusiastic and positive.

As the next step towards the final preparation, feedback forms were prepared which included questions regarding provision of municipal basic services, issues to be solved with the help of municipal corporation and feedback about the workshop from

the participants. This was further used in analysis to understand the people’s need from their local representatives and leaders at the grass root level.

The Workshop was held on May 17 at Gorewada Basti. The chief guest invited for the workshop was Meena Tidke, Ward Corporator. Other guests who attended the event included Prakash Warade, Assistant CommissionerGAD (NMC) and Mahesh Dhamecha, Zonal Assistant Commissioner, Zone 10 (NMC).

Outcomes of the workshop

Citizen’s participation has many functions in developing a strong system of local self-governance, as it is a central way to build awareness about the importance of the local bodies, and a means of understanding the concerns and expectations of the community.

The development initiatives taken by the local government can have more impact when the local people are directly involved and the decision making also happens at the grass root level.

There are strong reasons for making an effort to encourage citizen participation and collaboration.

Fundamentally, participation is crucial to democracy and to further good governance. Moreover, citizen’s feedback brings out the problems straight from the source which can

be addressed directly while decision making. Since their introduction in the 1970s, participatory methods and techniques have become central tools for community development.

Participatory approaches to development are promoted on the basis that they support effective project implementation and enhance the wellbeing of the poor. Research shows that participatory projects are better at addressing local needs and are generally more relevant to local populations One of the best examples of citizen’s participation is the Participatory Development Forum, which was launched in 1972 by a group of women leaders in Indonesia to develop an accessible freshwater supply plan through community self-help. As a result of these co-ordinated actions from the local people, most of the issues around water and health were solved.

Similarly, another good example is the Working Women’s Forum (India), which for over 27 years has mobilized the poorest and the marginalized working women. In India, one of the best examples for participatory development is watershed development program in Rajasthan where a participatory watershed development project called People’s Action for Watershed Development Initiative (PAWDI) was initiated in 1995 in two districts of Rajasthan where the participation of

people has been appreciable. It is in the background of all these factors that participatory governance becomes indispensable. Hence in congruence with the ideals of participatory governance and also in alignment with the objectives of the Equi-City Project, this “Public awareness and Sensitization Workshop” was held by the Equi-City Nagpur Team. The advantages of conducting such a public awareness and sensitization workshop in the Gorewada Basti in Nagpur can be mentioned as: ♦♦ Direct Action- as the local people are directly connected to the municipal officials to discuss and bring out solutions to the problems in their locality. ♦♦ More Inclusiveness- People of Gorewada Basti were actively involved in the workshop and raised many issues related to Sanitation and Hygiene. ♦♦ Better service delivery- The Workshop acted as a platform which brought both the decision makers and the citizens close together and helped decisionmakers identify areas of interest among population groups. This will help the city deliver services and engage in projects that are close to the citizens. ♦♦ Better informed citizens- through involvement of people in the city’s policy-making processes, the local people exchanged ideas and methods which should be applied to their local area. ♦♦ Transparency- Since the platform provided through the medium of this workshop was open to all and both the stakeholders and the decision makers had equal opportunity to interact and present their issues, this was a major step towards transparent governance.

The workshop was a success as it involved people directly and infused knowledge regarding various aspects of sanitation and hygiene in Gorewada Basti. It also helped the local body to identify the pressing issues regarding the municipal service delivery and the potential solutions to these problems.

www.urbanupdate.in | June 2016

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NEWSCAN

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Cabinet approves Civil Aviation Policy The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given its approval for the Civil Aviation Policy. This is the first time since Independence that an integrated Civil Aviation Policy has been brought out by the Ministry of Civil Aviation New Delhi: The much-awaited national civil aviation policy that seeks to strengthen regional connectivity and tap the sector’s high growth potential was cleared by the Union Cabinet recently.

Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju said the policy is a “game changer” and that the country’s aviation sector is poised to become the world’s third largest by 2022. The policy has been finalised after nearly eight months since the Ministry came out with the revised draft in October 2015 and follows many rounds of deliberations with stakeholders. The NDA government had for the first time unveiled the policy draft in November 2014. “NDA government clears India’s first ever integrated National Civil Aviation Policy. This will be a gamechanger for the sector,” Raju said in a tweet. In another tweet, the Minister said India would be the third largest civil aviation market by 2022. “To achieve this, we need right intentions, vision, planning and execution,” he added.

Significantly, India’s domestic air traffic market logged the fastest growth in the world for the 13th consecutive month in April. The market grew at nearly 22 per cent during the month.

“India’s domestic traffic soared 21.8 per cent, marking the 20th month of double-digit traffic growth and the 13th consecutive month it has led the domestic markets,” global airlines body, International Air Transport Association

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Highlights ♦♦ India to become 3rd largest civil aviation market by 2022 from 9th ♦♦ Domestic ticketing to grow from 8 crore in 2015 to 30 crore by 2022 ♦♦ Airports having scheduled commercial flights to increase from 77 in 2016 to 127 by 2019 ♦♦ Cargo volumes to increase by 4 times to 10 million tonnes by 2027 ♦♦ Taking flying to masses – Enabling Indians to fly at Rs. 2,500 per hour under Regional Connectivity Scheme at unserved airports ♦♦ Requirement of 5 years of domestic flying for starting international operations removed ♦♦ Flexible and liberalized ‘open skies’ and ‘code share’ agreements ♦♦ Incentives to MRO sector to develop as hub for South Asia ♦♦ Ensuring availability of quality certified 3.3 lakh skilled personnel by 2025 ♦♦ Development of green-field airports and heliports ♦♦ Enhancing ease of doing business through deregulation, simplified procedures and e-governance ♦♦ Promoting ‘Make In India’ in Civil Aviation Sector (IATA) had said last month.

Initially, the policy was expected to be finalised in the last financial year as certain proposals were to be in effect from April 1, 2016. However, the government had been moving back and forth on the policy seeking to sort out the differences among stakeholders including on 5/20 norm.

In the run-up to the framing of policy, various provisions including the issue of international flying norm witnessed extensive debate, with legacy carriers

opposing any changes to the rule, while start-up airlines frantically demanded its scrapping.

Significantly, AirAsia Berhad -a key stakeholder in AirAsia India had recently said that it was confident of the Government scrapping the norm. “...the ruling (5/20 norm) is expected to be revoked along with a new National Civil Aviation Policy (NCAP) to be introduced in the near future, given massive lobbying against it,” AirAsia Berhad said in its 2015 annual report.

NEWSCAN

Government launches scheme for setting up 1000

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Government sanctions Rs 370 cr CAMPA fund for Rajasthan, Telangana

MW Wind Power Project Delhi: Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has launched Scheme for setting up of 1000 MW Wind Power Project connected to transmission network of Central Transmission Utility (CTU) with an objective to facilitate supply of wind power to the non-windy states at a price discovered through transparent bidding process. Ministry has designated Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) as nodal agency for implementation of the scheme.

The Scheme will encourage competitiveness through scaling up of project sizes and introduction of efficient and transparent e-bidding and e-auctioning processes. It will also facilitate fulfilment of Non-Solar Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) requirement of non-windy states.

The Government of India has set an ambitious target of achieving 175 GW power capacity from renewable energy

resources by 2022 and out of this 60 GW has to come from wind power.

The Scheme will be implemented for setting up 1000 MW capacity of CTU connected Wind Power Projects by Wind Project Developers on build, own and operate basis. However, the capacity may go higher than 1000 MW, if there is higher demand from Discoms of nonwindy states.

MDWS felicitates 90-year old couple who made their village ODF Madurai: The Secretary, Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Parameswaran Iyer, visited Madurai district to review Swachh Bharat Mission performance in the district during his State visit to Tamil Nadu. The Secretary, during the visit, observed that Madurai District Collector, Veera Raghava Rao, and Additional Collector, Rohini Bidari, were proactively leading the campaign in the district. The campaign in Madurai has been christened “K to K”, i.e. Kanmai Karai (Tank bund, the usual place of open defecation) to Kazhi Parai (a toilet).

The Secretary began his visit with the village Achhampatti, an ODF village of Madurai. There, he met a 90-year old couple who were the first to adopt a toilet in the village, and motivated others as well. The Village level federation of SHGs and trained motivators also played key role in this, along with private contribution in the form of solar panels over toilets to provide light. Following the example of Achhampatti, adjoining villages were also motivated through setups and tools. The district is now scaling up its successes through multiplying motivators, increasing technology options, etc. The Secretary also made a village visit to Chattrapatti to see a live example of Solid and Liquid Waste Management-MGNREGS convergence in action.

The Centre sanctioned Rs 164 crore for Rajasthan and Rs 156 crore for Telangana, following a meeting on Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) with the two States. Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Prakash Javadekar, said that the money has been sanctioned for afforestation, relocation and other biodiversity works in the two states. He said that according to court’s guidelines, only 10 per cent of the funds can be released this year and hoped that Compensatory Afforestation Bill will be passed in the Monsoon session for more money.

Kamrup(M) to set up Swachh Bharat Clubs for clean city The Kamrup (Metro) district administration in Assam has decided to set up Swachh Bharat Clubs in residential areas, school and college premises as part of its endeavour.

Deputy Commissioner M Angamuthu said, “A mission is successful only when there is mass participation of locals.

Keeping this in mind, we have decided to form Swachh Bharat Clubs in residential areas and educational institutions. It is very important for students to develop a habit of keeping the environment clean.”

www.urbanupdate.in | June 2016

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4800 villages in Gujarat declared Open Defecation Free (ODF) Gujarat has achieved a sanitation coverage of 73.75%, and 4800 villages in Gujarat have declared themselves as ODF. This has been achieved through a strong emphasis on behaviour change trainings, involvement of Self Help Groups and involving various Development partners like World Bank, UNICEF and Tata Trusts closely. The Secretary, Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Parameswaran Iyer, went on a state visit to Gujarat recently where he met the Chief Secretary and Principal Secretary (Sanitation), and discussed the progress and achievemnts.

$100m from clean energy bank for Australian cities

Australia’s clean energy bank will set aside $100 million each year for energy efficiency and renewables as part of the federal government’s smart cities plan. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced the new investment fund within the $10 billion Clean Energy Finance Corporation to deploy value-for-money clean energy and power-saving technologies to cities. “That could include better lighting, it could include better traffic management, it could include better water management,” Turnbull told media.

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June 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

NEWSCAN

World’s space agencies unite to face climate challenge

New Delhi: For the first time, under the impetus of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the French Space Agency (CNES), space agencies of more than 60 countries agreed to engage their satellites, to coordinate their methods and their data to monitor human-induced greenhouse gas emissions.

The COP21 climate conference held in Paris last December acted as a wake-up call in this context. Without satellites, the reality of global warming would not have been recognised and the subsequent historic agreement at the United Nations headquarters in New York on April 22, 2016 would not have been signed. Out of the 50 essential climate variables being monitored recently, 26 - including rising sea level, sea ice extent and greenhouse gas concentrations in all layers of the atmosphere - can be measured only from space. The key to effectively implementing the Paris Agreement lies in the ability to verify that nations are fulfilling their commitments to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Only satellites can do that. Invited to New Delhi by ISRO and CNES on April 3, 2016, the world’s space agencies decided to establish “an independent, international system” to centralise data from their Earth-observing satellites through the ‘New Delhi Declaration’ that officially came into effect on May 16, 2016.

The goal now will be to inter-calibrate

The key to effectively implementing the Paris Agreement lies in the ability to verify that nations are fulfilling their commitments to curb greenhouse gas emissions these satellite data so that they can be combined and compared over time. “It is overwhelming to see the unilateral support of all space agencies to use space inputs for monitoring climate change,” said ISRO Chairman AS Kiran Kumar.

“Earth observation satellites provide a vital means of obtaining measurements of the climate system from a global perspective. ISRO is committed for the continuity of earth observation data, through the thematic series of satellites, with improvements en-route, to meet contemporary as well as future needs.

ISRO is also engaging with CNES, JAXA and NASA for realising joint missions for global climate observation with advanced instruments.”

CNES President Jean-Yves Le Gall said “With this consensus among space agencies from more than 60 nations, the international space community and scientists now have the tools they need to put their talent, intelligence and optimism to work for the good of humankind and our planet.”

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Global coalition of cities to fight climate change launched Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy will combine efforts and leadership to accelerate climate action at the local level worldwide.

Brussels: The world’s two primary city-led climate change and energy initiatives, the EU Covenant of Mayors and the Compact of Mayors, announced the formation of a new, first-of-its-kind global initiative of cities and local governments leading in the fight against climate change. This single initiative will create the largest global coalition of cities committed to climate leadership, building on the commitments of more than 7,100 cities from 119 countries and six continents, representing more than 600 million inhabitants, over 8 per cent of the world’s population. The launch of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy comes six months after the historic Paris climate change conference, where cities were crucial voices in shaping and advocating for a strong global agreement, and is a historic and powerful response by the world’s local leaders to the urgent climate challenge.

The new Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy will be the world’s largest coalition of mayors promoting and supporting voluntary action to combat climate change and move to a low-carbon economy.

Commission ViceEuropean President Maroš Šefovi said: “The EU Covenant of Mayors shows that when mayors share a vision of a low-carbon future and roll up their sleeves, things get done. Bottom-up and close to the citizens: that is the strength of the European Covenant. As of today, this will become the strength of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy, a coalition that is truly unique on the global scene. Never before have so many cities joined forces, eager to inspire each other and committed to collectively taking the path to a low-

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June 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

Michael R. Bloomberg (in photo) will co-chair the board of the new Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy

carbon, resilient society.”

“Today, the world’s cities are uniting their efforts to fight climate change behind a single global organization, something that has never before happened,” said UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Cities and Climate Change Michael R. Bloomberg, who will Co-Chair the new Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy. “In unity there is strength, and this new Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy will help accelerate the progress cities are making and magnify their influence on the global stage. This is a giant step forward in the work of achieving the goals that nations agreed to in Paris.” By aligning city-led efforts, the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy will allow for greater collaboration between cities across the world, bridging gaps and building connections, as well as increasing funding to support and empower city action on sustainable energy and

climate change. This merger will harness the convening and investment powers of the European Union and Bloomberg Philanthropies, as well as the critical global city network partners of each initiative, including C40, UCLG, Eurocities, Energy Cities and Climate Alliance – allowing for a stronger presence and visibility of local authorities in the on-going work of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The new initiative will provide a common platform that brings together relevant data on cities’ energy and climate actions reported to the current EU Covenant platform and the platforms supporting the Compact of Mayors (CDP Cities and the carbonn Climate Registry), allowing for comparison of cities’ achievements to other cities and towns all around the world, and make them publicly available through a new Global Covenant of Mayors website, to be launched by January 2017.

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City Images

Tackling Urban Floods

Under the JALRAHAT initiative, Guwahati became the first city in the country to undertake a major mock drill aimed at tackling the worst kind of urban floods. A number of flood response teams of the Indian

Army, Navy, NDRF and SDRF took part in a mock exercise on the river Brahmaputra, displaying various kinds of response measures that are available with them to tackle any kind of emergency arising out of

severe floods in an urban situation.

The exercise JALRAHAT is a joint initiative by the Assam State government and the armed forces led

by GAJRAJ Corps with full support from HQ Eastern Command.

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KMC to implement Unit Area Assessment for determining property tax The Kolkata Municipal Corporation is finally set to implement the Unit Area Assessment (UAA) for determination of property tax for city’s property owners. The UAA method has already been implemented in major cities like Delhi, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh and Patna.

However, fearing resentment among property owners in large areas of north Kolkata, the KMC authorities will introduce the UAA system as optional for the property owners. Under the new system, a property owner can go for self assessment of his/her property and declare the same to the civic body after filling up a prescribed format.

Any deviation from the declared statement will attract penalty.

Vijayawada to use solar energy The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation has prepared the ambitious Vijayawada Solar City Master Plan at an estimated cost of Rs 256.50 crore. The plan aims to reduce by 10 per cent in five years’ time the consumption of conventional energy by corporate, commercial and industrial sectors and domestic users too. It envisages using solar energy instead of electricity, petrol, diesel, LPG, CNG or other alternatives, having just completed the installation of five solar energy plants at the VMC offices in the city. Now, as the city turns into a destination for migrating employees and other stake holders from Hyderabad to Vijayawada, the promotion of solar energy to reduce air pollution has gained importance.

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24x7 monitoring of all sewage treatment plants: Javadekar New Delhi: The Government has approved a series of measures for the abatement of pollution and for the conservation and preservation of lakes in Bengaluru. The decision was taken at a meeting jointly chaired by Union Minister of Chemicals & Fertilizers, Ananth Kumar and Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Environment, Forest & Climate Change, PrakashJavadekar.

Speaking after the meeting, Javadekar said that it has been decided to initiate 24x7 online monitoring of all Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs), as well as lake water quality by concerned authorities in Bengaluru. The Minister said that the corporate sector is also being involved in the effort to conserve and preserve the lakes in Bengaluru. He also said that the progress will be monitored every six months. Ananth Kumar said that biodevelopment of lakes of Bengaluru will be undertaken. He said that the lakes will be restored in a bio-diverse manner in Public-Private Partnership mode.

Discharge of untreated sewage being generated in the city into the lakes is a major cause for their degradation. Against present sewage generation of around 1320 mld (million litres per day), installed treatment capacity is 721 mld (with quantity of sewage treated in these STPs is only 600 mld). To bridge the gap between sewage generation and treatment, the Bengaluru Water Supply & Sewerage Board expects to complete 336 mld STP capacity (which is under construction) by

December 2018, 515 mld STP capacity by December 2019 and 189 mld STP capacity

by December 2020. Thus, by the end of 2020, STP capacity totalling 1761 mld and its related sewerage system is likely to be available for treating the entire sewage generated in the city.

Projects totalling to Rs 887.97 crore relating to sewerage system and STPs in Bengaluru have been approved/ initiated under AMRUT programme of Ministry of Urban Development. Apart from other benefits, these projects will help in rejuvenating lakes in Bengaluru by reducing the pollution load being discharged into them.

Some of the other actions that have been agreed upon include: ♦♦ All residential group housing projects/apartments with >20 units and total build-up area of 2000 sq mtr to install STP. ♦♦ Re-use of treated sewage for various purposes and dual piping system to be prescribed in apartments/ commercial establishments for re-use of treated sewage. ♦♦ Regular monitoring of STPs by State Pollution Control Board. ♦♦ Proper management of plastic waste to ensure that it is not dumped in the lakes. ♦♦ Lake wardens to be appointed for public engagement in lake conservation ♦♦ CSR funds to be tapped for conserving and developing lakes.

Ulsoor Lake, Bengaluru

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Prime Minister launches Smart City Mission into implementation mode Modi urges urban citizens to take up the challenge in the era of competition

Pune: Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently launched the flagship Smart City Mission into implementation mode with launch of 14 projects of Pune’s Smart City Plan, exactly a year after he set off the mission by releasing the Mission Guidelines.

Speaking on the occasion in Pune, the Prime Minister said that Smart City Mission is now succeeding as a people’s movement as envisaged. He expressed satisfaction over citizen participation in preparation of smart city plans of various cities with over 25 lakh people giving serious suggestions on MyGov.in. Modi clarified that the central government did not select the smart cities but it was the citizens who enabled their selection in the ‘City Challenge Competition’.

Modi said that an era of competition has been ushered in for improving conditions in urban areas and urged the citizens to rise to the challenge for bettering the conditions in respective cities and towns. Stating that he has recently reviewed the progress of Smart City Mission over the last

“

Smart City should not be seen as a fancy concept since the mission is meant for ensuring availability of all basic services to the people through necessary infrastructure including houses for urban poor in a comprehensive manner Narendra Modi Prime Minister of India

one year, Prime Minister expresses satisfaction over enthusiastic and large scale participation of people in formulation of comprehensive smart city plans, the way the City Challenge Competition was held for selection of cities, formulation of projects there under and their launch.

During his address, the Prime Minister elaborated on the concept of smart cities and the advantages that follow from it. Asserting that urbanization mitigates poverty and empowers the poor, Modi said that it

should be seen as an opportunity instead of a problem. Prime Minister stressed that if people were empowered and involved in participatory development, the country would develop fast. Noting that an era of competition among cities and towns has come to prevail, he urged the citizens to rise to the challenge for improvement of respective urban areas.

Referring to the changing attitudes, Modi said that gone were the days when the central government was looked as a giver of funds, it was now being looked at as a source of ideas. Elaborating on this, Modi said that in all the recent surveys conducted, Swachh Bharat Mission was ranked the most popular of government’s initiatives since the idea of sanitation appealed to the people.

The Prime Minister also launched ‘Make Your City Smart’ contest inviting people to come out with designs for street junctions and open spaces and a ‘Smart Net Portal’ which is a net based platform for sharing of ideas and sourcing of solutions for smart city development.

Speaking on the occasion, Minister of Urban Development M Venkaiah Naidu said that the smart city projects launched were the first shoots of urban renaissance taking place in the country as a result of paradigm shift in the approaches to urban development ushered in by the government. He further said that the journey towards the much desired urban transformation has begun in a Team India spirit with the collective effort of people, urban local bodies and State Governments.

This transformation is an integral part of ‘Making of Developed India’, he said.

Chief Ministers of Rajasthan, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, Vasundhara Raje Scindia, Naveen Patnaik and N Chandrababu Naidu outlined their smart city vision through videolink.

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NMC to sell 1,500 tonne fertilisers to private firm

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10 cities in Maharashtra to be developed on lines of smart cities: Fadnavis

The Nashik Municipal Corporation will soon sell 1,500 tonnes of fertilisers made in its compost plant at Pathardi to Rashtriya Chemical Fertiliser (RCF). The decision was taken at a general body meeting held.

Of all 1500 tonnes made last year, 800 tonnes of fertilisers have been sold. Now, the NMC has total stock of 1,500 tonnes including old stock of 700 tonnes. The NMC had fixed a rate of Rs 2,500 per tonne for loose sale and Rs 3,000 per tonne packed in bags.

The central government has directed fertiliser companies to buy fertilisers. Accordingly, the general body has given its approval to the civic administration’s proposal to sell 1,500 tonnes of fertilisers to RCF and sign agreement with the company for the purpose.

Surat Corp to redevelop 13 slum settlements Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) would redevelop 13 slum settlements in the city. At least 4,350 new houses would be constructed in publicprivate partnership under slum redevelopment programme for slum dwellers. SMC has got 13 slum settlements vacated in Anjana area of the city. These slum areas would be given to private developers to rebuild multi-storeyed houses for slum dwellers. Private developers would be given additional FSI for their work.

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THANE: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis recently said 10 cities in the state would be developed on the lines of Centre’s Smart City programme. “10 cities in the state would be developed on the lines of the Smart City programme (of the Union government),” Fadnavis said after inaugurating the Smart City Summit at Kalyan in the district.

“Credible, efficient, transparent, and inclusive planning was the base for (any) smart city. And these cities (to be developed) would be provided with necessary funds,” he added.

The Chief Minister further said the Smart City concept initiated by Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) “was not meant only for handful of rich people but was meant for one and all from the cities”. “Unless and until all classes (of the society) participate, the city will not become smart. The investment made in the city will definitely be useful,” Fadnavis added.

Meanwhile, the Chief Minister said hereafter the civic bodies would not be given permission for dumping grounds.

“Instead they (the civic bodies) should find the ways and means to dispose of

the waste scientifically,” he added.

“We (the state government) will think positively to implement cluster development for Kalyan-Dombivili on the lines of the one in Thane city,” Fadnavis said. The Chief Minister also said Oracle has selected twin cities of Kalyan-Dombivili for implementation of its e-governance pilot project.

Fadnavis said that citizens have a right to get time bound services from the government and hence the state government is implementing the right to services. “(In the) next two years, citizens will not be required to go to any government office for their services. All the apps will be available on the mobile itself,” he said.

NITI Aayog to encourage innovation through Atal Tinkering Labs Delhi: NITI Aayog recently held detailed interaction with Principal Secretaries/Secretaries of School Education Departments from all States and UTs through video conferencing to disseminate information and ensure successful implementation of Atal Tinkering Laboratories.

Atal Tinkering Laboratories is one of the three major initiatives under the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM). As part of the Mission, NITI Aayog will fund the establishment of 500 Atal Tinkering Laboratories in schools across India.

The interaction was led by NITI Aayog CEO, Amitabh Kant and Secretary, Department of School Education and Literacy, MHRD, Dr S C Khuntia. “Atal Tinkering Lab will ensure that young minds give shape to their ideas through hands on do-it-yourself mode and learn innovation skills,” said Kant. He highlighted key features of the scheme such as funding support of Rs 20 lakhs for each Atal Tinkering lab, providing required infrastructure and mentoring support by the private sector. He urged states to disseminate all information pertaining to the labs among all schools in the state, thereby encouraging them to apply.

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Chennai Corpn plans zone-wise count to regulate hawkers

‘Shanghai ready to help Indian cities to combat pollution’ Shanghai: China’s financial hub Shanghai is ready to share advanced technology as well as ‘green’ practices with Indian cities to combat the effects of environmental degradation caused by fast-paced economic development, a senior official has said.

“It is a fact that environmental pollution is a challenge for cities around the globe and we are all attaching great importance to how we treat the environment. That is why a major consensus has been reached globally to save the environment,” said Fu Jihong, Deputy Director-General of the Shanghai Municipal Foreign Affairs Office, while referring to efforts being made worldwide for environmental conservation. “With such a consensus as an important foundation, there will be increasingly closer collaboration in the world when it comes to conservation of the environment,” he said at an occasion to mark the 15th anniversary of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) here.

He added that Shanghai, which is fast becoming the nerve centre of the economic world, is working towards sharing its experiences, best practices as

well as the latest technology in the field of environmental conservation with partner cities.

Beijing in China and New Delhi in India are among the world’s worst polluted cities. Shanghai, China’s most populous city — home to 24 million people — is also witnessing worsening air quality.

Asked whether Shanghai was ready to cooperate with India on green development, Fu said, “When it comes to environment protection, we must acknowledge that every city is different, with its own features and characteristics.

The treatment of the environment must also take into consideration the specific needs of the city as well as the development requirements of the city.

But I think the latest and advanced technologies and best practices can definitely be shared with India.”

While the Delhi government has introduced schemes, such as odd-even initiative for private cars in Delhi, Shanghai is combating air pollution by creating more green spaces. In 2015, the Shanghai government managed to convert almost 25 square miles of the city into green areas.

Greater Chennai Corporation will soon form teams from each of its 15 zones that, headed by zonal officers, will conduct a headcount of hawkers on roads and beaches. Following this, the civic body will form a Town Vending Committee (TVC) that will provide identity cards and licences to the hawkers, earmark places exclusively for vendors and regulate them.

Several places will become ‘no hawking areas’. The corporation will allow only vendors with licences to sell and will take action against illegal hawkers.

Show cause notice to five municipal bodies of UP

National Green Tribunal issued notices to the Chief Executive Officers of five municipal councils in Uttar Pradesh to show cause why environmental compensation be not imposed on them for their failure to comply with “statutory obligations” on discharge of untreated sewage water in Ganga. A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar slammed the municipal bodies for not complying with environment rules.” The reply shall also contain show cause notice which is primarily issued for their failure to comply with statutory and public law obligations and the directions issued by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB),” the green panel said.

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MPs, MLAs get a say in implementation of urban development schemes M Venkaiah Naidu approves setting up of District Level Advisory and Monitoring Committees

MoUD modifies guidelines under PMAY

Delhi: To promote people centric planning and execution of new urban development schemes launched by the Government, Minister of Urban Development M.Venkaiah Naidu has approved setting up of District Level Advisory and Monitoring Committees with the elected representatives of the people across the country. In a first of its kind, these Committees will oversee, review and monitor implementation of urban development, affordable housing and urban poverty alleviation programmes.

Implementation of schemes to be monitored by these Committees are – Swachh Bharat Mission, Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY), Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Housing for All (Urban) and Deendayal Antyodaya YojanaNational Urban Livelihoods Mission.

States/UTs will appoint the senior most Member of Parliament as the Chair person of the Committee. Two more MPs, one each from Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha will be the Co-chairpersons.

All MLAs from respective districts representing the Urban Local Bodies, Mayors and Chairpersons of ULBs, Chairpersons and Chief Executives of Urban Development Authorities in districts, Commissioners and Chief Executive Officers of ULBs, senior most representatives of the Department of Public Health Engineering and senior most officials of para-statal bodies like water board, sewerage board will be the members of the District Level Advisory and Monitoring Committees. District Collector or Municipal Commissioner of metropolitan cities will be the Member Secretary.

The Terms of Reference of the Committees include; to promote effective citizen involvement, to review improvements in service level

DELHI: Under Prime Minister’s Awas Yojana (Urban), minimum addition of 9.0 sq mt of carpet area to the existing house will be required to be eligible for Central assistance under the ‘Beneficiary Led Construction’ component of the housing mission.

Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation issued modified Guidelines under PMAY (Urban) to this effect to States and Union Territories for compliance while sending affordable housing proposals for enhancement of existing houses under ‘Beneficiary Led Construction (BLC)’ component of housing mission.

Under BLC, beneficiaries will be assisted for construction of new houses and enhancement of existing houses to make them more livable. A minimum addition of 9.0 sq mt of carpet area to the existing pucca or semi-pucca house shall now be ensured for being eligible for Central assistance of Rs 1.50 lakh per beneficiary.

The Technical Group set up by the Ministry of HUPA, in their assessment of housing shortage in urban areas reported Congested houses of 14.99 million, Obsolescent houses-2.27 million, Non-serviceable kucha houses-0.99 million and Homeless people of 0.53 million, totaling a housing shortage of 18.78 million in urban areas.

Based on this estimate, the Government has assessed a housing shortage of 20 million dwelling units in urban areas by 2022. The other components of PMAY (Urban) are; In-situ Slum Redevelopment, Affordable Housing in Partnership and Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme giving options to beneficiaries to choose from based on their needs and income levels. Ministry of HUPA has so far approved construction of 6.84 lakh affordable houses for Economically Weaker Sections with a total investment of Rs 43,922 cr and with a total Central assistance of Rs 10,050 cr.

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indicators like water supply, review progress of implementation of reforms with focus on e-governance and ease of sanctioning of construction permits, advise state and central governments regarding bottlenecks in implementation, suggest mid-course correction in implementation and facilitate coordination among various agencies. The Committees shall meet at least once in three months and shall submit Action Taken Reports to State/UT Governments for necessary action. States/UTs in turn will submit consolidated reports every year to the Ministry of Urban Development and Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation.

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UGC to introduce urban planning as a subject

DELHI: The University Grants Commission (UGC) has issued a statement to all the universities and colleges affiliated to it to introduce a subject on urban planning. In order to lay emphasis on economic growth through proper planning of towns and cities, the UGC has issued a statement to all the universities and colleges affiliated to it.

It is written in the statement, that from the present academic year, a subject on urban planning must be introduced.

It is after the implementation of the smart city project by the Centre, that the UGC directive arrived.

The members of the UGC recently made a presentation to the Prime Minister on how towns and cities are emerging as key drivers of economic

growth and emphasised the need for capacity building in urban administration and urban planning.

UGC chairman Jaspal Sandhu wrote in his letter to the vice chancellors of universities, ‘’It has been proposed that colleges and universities should start subject/courses on urban planning.

Accordingly, you are requested to start a subject/course on urban planning in your university and also convey relevant instructions to the colleges/ institutes affiliated to your university to take urgent steps for starting of this new subject course at graduate and post graduate level.”

“In the presentation made to the Hon’ble Prime Minister, it was emphasised that towns and cities are emerging as key drivers of economic growth, hence the economic growth model of a city should form an essential part of its vision”, added the letter.

He also asked them to convey relevant instructions to the colleges and regarding taking urgent steps for starting of this new subject course at graduate and post graduate level.

Columbus wins $50M Smart City Challenge Columbus: Columbus will soon have $140 million from the public and private sectors to kick-start an initiative to improve mobility in U.S. communities. The victory in the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Smart City Challenge is a coup for the city, which beat out six others to win $40 million from the federal government and $10 million from Vulcan Inc., which was founded by Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen.

Central Ohio businesses and public organizations pledged to nearly double what the government and Allen’s company are devoting to the effort, putting $90 million toward the Smart Cities initiative.

Being chosen means Columbus won a competition that “could completely change the American city,” as the Washington Post described the Smart City Challenge.

The city would test, for example, driverless vehicles in the low-income Linden neighborhood so its residents can get to jobs.

The city was victorious over formidable competition for the federal grant: San Francisco; Austin, Texas; Denver; Pittsburgh; Kansas City, Missouri; and Portland, Oregon. Now all eyes will be on a midsize Midwestern city that won over big-name rivals. Columbus and other growing cities – 78 applied for the competition – are grappling with traffic congestion while their populations surge. Central Ohio is expected to add 1 million residents by 2050 and Columbus is still the biggest U.S. city not to have a public mass transit system, such as a commuter rail line, though city leaders have broached the idea.

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GMC takes Smart City lessons from BMC A four-member team of the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC), led by its commissioner Narayan Konwar, interacted with Bhubaneswar mayor Anant Narayan Jena and top officials of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) to understand the BMC’s plan on the smart city project and development work in the city. “As Guwahati featured among the top 20 smart cities, we are planning to implement best practices from other top scorers of the contest through a knowledge exchange programme. We chose Bhubaneswar as it has secured the top position in the smart city contest,” said Konwar.

‘Keep stray animals off cities’ limits’

UP chief secretary Alok Ranjan has directed administrations of all districts of the state to form a committee and ensure that such animals are taken out of city limits. Ranjan passed this direction on the basis on an order passed by Allahabad High Court in this regard. In a letter issued to all districts’ senior officials last month, Ranjan stated that stray animals in many cases became a cause of accidents which escalated into a law and order situation.

Despite orders putting a ban on movement of stray animals in public places and operations of illegal dairies, the government has received complaints of their presence, which it has taken very seriously, the letter read.

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World Bank to help Indonesian cities in boosting sustainable economic growth Jakarta: The World Bank and the Government of Switzerland established a USD 13.4 million fund to help Indonesia harness the growth of its cities, whose rate of growth is currently the highest in Asia.

Investments in cities’ infrastructure have not kept up with the rapid rate of urbanization, resulting in congestion, pollution, and risks of disasters such as flooding. The fund will support the building of capacity among government agencies to prepare policies that support investments in sustainable infrastructure.

Minister for Public Works and Public Housing Basuki Hadimuljono said that, within decentralized Indonesia, regional governments play a strategic role in managing urbanization, yet they face funding constraints.

“In decentralized Indonesia, the development of cities are the responsibility of regional governments, with the central government guiding and supervising the process. Regional governments should finance, maintain, and rehabilitate infrastructure facilities, but currently their budgets are spent on salary expenditures. Alternative sources of funding are crucial to support the

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development of infrastructure in this country,” said Minister Hadimuljono.

By providing more higher-productivity jobs and lowering the costs of doing business – helping businesses grow faster -- medium cities can substantially boost a country’s economic growth.

From 1970 to 2012, every 1 percent growth in urban population correlated with per capita GDP increase of 13 percent for India, 10 percent for China, and 7 percent for Thailand. Indonesia has gained only 4 percent per capita GDP growth for every 1 percent urban growth.

“Indonesia is enjoying only a fraction of the potential benefits of cities, which can be centers for transformational innovation and high growth. With more investments in critical infrastructure that deliver clean water, sanitation, efficient public transport, and affordable housing, in a sustainable way to the cities of Indonesia can accelerate growth and lift millions out of poverty,” said Rodrigo Chaves, World Bank Country Director for Indonesia.

Indonesia’s rapid urbanization is amongst the fastest in the world, increasing the size of its urban land from the years 2000 to 2010 by more

than 1,100 square kilometers – second in size only to China.

By 2025, Indonesia is expected to have 68 percent of its population living in cities. With 50 million rural residents – many of whom have families who have migrated to cities – the island of Java in particular faces high urban growth potential. The Swiss Government, through its State secretariat for Economic Affairs, or SECO – which globally supports the promotion of sustainable growth -- provided the first contribution to the Indonesia Sustainable Urbanization Multi-Donor Trust Fund (IDSUN), which has an initial time-line of three years.

Dr. Yvonne Baumann, Ambassador of Switzerland to Indonesia, explained that, “Through the IDSUN trust fund, we support Indonesia’s efforts to prioritize economically, socially and environmentally sustainable urbanization on the national agenda, and to strengthen synergies and capacity across agencies and local governments to improve people’s living conditions in cities.”

IDSUN is a key part of the consolidation of a national ‘platform’ on sustainable urbanization for Indonesia, which is expected to comprise several coordinated national programs: on slum upgrading and affordable housing, urban transport, urban water supply and sanitation, solid waste, and drainage and flood risk management.

Other actions that can help Indonesia benefit more from urbanization include enhancing urban management through strategic investment planning, taking advantage of domestic options for financing of essential urban infrastructure, issuing policy reforms that facilitate investors in infrastructure development, and learning from countries with a track record in sustainable urbanization, such as South Korea and Singapore.

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Johannesburg embraces sustainable planning

Johannesburg: The City of Johannesburg presented Johannesburg’s Spatial Development Framework 2040 (SDF) at the 2016 South African Planning Institute (SAPI) Conference entitled ‘Planning African Cities’. The Spatial Development Framework elucidates Johannesburg’s spatial vision to become a world-class African city. It was developed through a series of participatory multistakeholder workshops (charrettes) facilitated by UN-Habitat’s Urban Planning LAB and Johannesburg’s planning department. The framework was approved and adopted as council policy by the mayoral committee last month.

The SDF’s participatory process is an example of how urban planning can be used to coordinate different sectorial concerns to develop an integrated spatial vision. The SDF applies sustainable planning principles on a city-wide scale, and promotes a just and efficient spatial organization. To ensure that the plan is implementable, UN-Habitat’s three pronged approach that incorporates spatial, legal and financial components

was adopted from the start.

The framework provides guidelines for development and prioritizes the investments in capital infrastructure and strategic urban areas for the next 25 years. Johannesburg is one of the largest cities in South Africa, and is expected to grow from 4 to 6 million inhabitants by 2040. Currently, most urban growth is accommodated by single-use, low-density areas at the edges of the city, resulting in traffic jams and long travel times to work.

The SDF marks the beginning of a new planning approach that will allow Johannesburg to shift progressively from a sprawled city to a compact one that brings people closer to jobs and amenities and increases public transport opportunities.

To achieve this, the SDF defines five transformation areas which include the mining belt, urban development around transit nodes, regeneration and extension of the city centre. Johannesburg’s Spatial Development Framework 2040 sets an example for planning an African city in the 21st century, and how the New Urban Agenda can be implemented.

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SDMC to install RFID at toll gates The South Delhi Municipal Corporation has decided to adopt technology to decongest the capital’s borders by installing radio frequency identification (RFID) systems at nine prime locations to collect toll tax. The corporation, which is the nodal agency for toll collection, has floated a tender to appoint a consultant to develop the RFID-based lanes.

“A total of 31 RFID lanes will be developed at nine locations in a pilot project. Based on the reviews, we will extend it to other locations,” said a senior South Corporation official. The nine toll points selected for the project include Ghazipur (main and old), KalindiKunj, Kapashera, Kundli, Rajokri, Shahdara flyover, Tikri and Aya Nagar.

RMC to beautify ponds before monsoon Ranchi Municipal Corporation is all set to start beautification of 22 major ponds across the city before the monsoon sets in. As many as 20 ponds have been selected for beautification under one project and two big ponds including Bada Talab and Karamtoli Talab will be beautified as separate projects. Deputy mayor Sanjiv Vijayavargiya said, “The plan is to not just beautify the ponds but also de-silt them before the monsoon so that their depth increases and they can store more water in monsoon.”Of the 20 selected ponds, tender for eight including Kadru Talaab, Bhimsa Talaab, Tunkitoli Talaab, Banas Talaab, HatmaBasti Talaab, Devi Mandap Talaab, Divyayan Talaab and Argora Talaab has already been done and the work is going to start soon.

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COVER STORY | Urban Divide

COVER STORY | Urban Divide

Uplifting poor Confronting Poverty in Cities

Gleaming urban centres feature the extremes of wealth, prosperity and growth on the one hand, and poverty, deprivation and social exclusion on the other. Colonies of the poor and the rich exist cheek by jowl in most of the cities of developing nations. Poverty is urbanising fast and demands out of the ordinary thinking on development to make cities inclusive and equitable

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C

Abhishek Pandey Editor, Urban Update ap.urbanupdate@gmail.com

ities are centers of innovation, high rise glass towers, lucrative jobs, fine dining, worldclass medical facilities, high finance, and so much more.

On the other hand, cities also have underbellies that feature poverty, people living in ghettos, homeless sleeping on pavements, unhygienic conditions, poor civic amenities and unemployment. The world of cities is divided. It is different for the marginalised and starkly dissimilar for the affluent. And, the divide is widening further. The situation is far

worse in developing countries than in the developed world where the poor may face financial difficulties but a lot of basic issues of life are taken care by the governments.

Urban poverty

Poverty is a colossal challenge for most of the cities in the developing world. With rapid urbanization, the concentration of poor in urban centres is on the rise. According to Census data, the slum population in urban India has increased from 5.23 cr in 2001 to 6.59 cr in 2011. Same is true for other developing countries. Many

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COVER STORY | Urban Divide

studies suggest that almost all of the growth will occur in unplanned and underserved city slums in parts of the world that are least able to cope with added demands.

There is no denying the fact that urbanization and economic prosperity go hand in hand. It helps in socioeconomic transformation provided the phenomenon is handled well and steered on the right path. It is also true that most of the cities in developing countries like India are unprepared to tackle the multi-dimensional challenges associated with urbanization and increasing level of inequality in cites.

The nature of urban poverty poses diverse challenges for housing, drinking water supply, sanitation facilities, health services, education, social security, livelihoods and the special needs of vulnerable groups such as women, children and the aging. Urban poor are among the most at risk groups to the negative impacts of climate change and natural disasters such as landslides, sea level rise, flooding, and health hazards due to various kinds of pollution. Their lack of access to basic services rendered by local authorities push them on the brink of marginalization. Unhygienic, scantily serviced, and densely populated settlements–often situated in disaster prone and environmentally hazardous areas– mean ill health is both endemic and chronic, playing a routine and devastating role in the lives

The recently released report by UN-Habitat says that the world is more unequal than it was twenty years ago. Today, 75 per cent of the world’s cities have higher levels of income inequalities than two decades ago. The world is not only divided by differentiated access to opportunities, consumption, public spaces and services, education, technology and employment, but more and more by access to income.

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of the urban poor.

Cities need to craft their policies in a way that not only addresses issues related to urbanisation, population growth and to improve civic amenities in cities but also addresses the challenges faced by increasing population of urban poor in their dayto-day lives.

Government interventions

A Planning Commission report by the expert group to recommend the detailed methodology for identification of families living below poverty line in the urban areas says, “Identification of urban poor households is a necessary condition for more effectively targeting the beneficiaries under various poverty alleviation programmes being implemented by the Central and the State Governments. Programmes of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, such as the Swarna Jayanti Shahri Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY) for Livelihoods, the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM) for services and the more recent ones like Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) for housing, along with national programmes such as food security, all aimed to ensure nutrition, livelihoods and decent shelter and services for the urban poor.

“In order to be able to plan and design appropriate interventions, and to ensure their targeted delivery, it is not enough only to know who the poor are and where they live, it is also important to know the precise nature of the vulnerability or deprivation that they face, as also the extent of such deprivation, both absolute and relative.”

Government of India has initiated many schemes which intend to bridge the urban divide in cities. Livelihood and skill development missions by the central and state governments are among the corrective steps taken in the right direction to improve the employability of the urban poor working in informal sector. The recent government has launched Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM) that envisions reducing poverty and vulnerability of the urban poor

households by enabling them to access gainful employment.

This will result in an appreciable improvement in their livelihoods on a sustainable basis. It is a known fact that most of the poor migrating to cities live in slums and engage in informal sector for livelihood. Some of them become unskilled daily wage labourers, or put up small businesses in fringe settlements or become street vendors. The poor working in informal employment sector do not enjoy any kind of social security cover. They constantly face a threat of eviction, confiscation of goods and harassment by the law enforcing agencies and almost no participation in decision making process at local level.

The recently launched livelihood mission would aim at providing shelters equipped with essential services to the urban homeless in a phased manner.

In addition, the mission would address livelihood concerns of the urban street vendors by facilitating access to suitable spaces, institutional credit, social security and skills to the urban street vendors for accessing emerging market opportunities.

Global perspective

Urban growth is a contemporary challenge. More than half of the world’s population currently lives in cities.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNPF) predicts that by 2030 this number will swell to about 5 billion. It is expected that rapid urbanization will keep bringing a larger part of the poverty into cities. With this growth, the numbers of the urban poor will keep increasing, particularly in developing countries.

The World Cities Report 2016, a recently released report by the UN-Habitat, says, “Globally, the conventional distinction between urban and rural is changing, with cities emerging as drivers of change in rural areas. Rural areas benefit from urbanization through increased demand for rural goods, which can have a significant impact on rural poverty.” The report also highlights the widening urban divide. It says that the world is more unequal than

it was twenty years ago. Today, 75 per cent of the world’s cities have higher levels of income inequalities than two decades ago. The world is not only divided by differentiated access to opportunities, consumption, public spaces and services, education, technology and employment, but more and more by access to income.

In China, urbanization occasioned by massive economic growth helped pull 680 million people out of extreme poverty between 1981 and 2010, and reduced the rate of extreme poverty from 84 per cent in 1980 to 10 per cent in 2013. Similar results in our cities would need a planned approach to address multi dimensional problems of the urban poor. Access to health services is also a major issue among urban poor. When we compare health statistics from urban and rural agglomerations, the facts suggest that urban population in general is better placed. However, the raw statistics do not take into account the heterogeneity of urban centres. There is a need to understand the distribution of health services, affordability and several other indicators to understand the real problems in the urban health sector.

While it is true that cities provide better health services than villages, it does not mean that they are easily accessible by the urban poor. Since most of the poor live in slums illegally, they fear to go to government run hospitals for two main reasons: they do not have proper identity proofs and they fear eviction from their settlements which they generally build on vacant land illegally.

The government, public sector and civil society organizations need to work in proper coordination to ensure that health services are accessible to the urban poor and basic health related services such as sanitation, preventive health measures, clean drinking water are taken care of by urban local bodies with community engagement for ensuring wider reach.

Follow the writer on Twitter @abhishekpandey

Delhi demands serious intervention to bridge urban-poor divide Delhi is among the fastest growing cities in India. It offers a plethora of facilities to residents in terms of services and infrastruture. However, the widening urban-poor divide that is manifested in many ways calls for well though of action plan

Kumar Dhananjay Consulting Editor kumardhan@hotmail.com

I

n the eighties and nineties, many developing countries faced a severe crisis in terms of balance of payment and servicing their debts. This forced them to bring about a major change in their perspective for urban development. India was no exception. In the early nineties India started opening up its economy described as ‘liberalization’. It also meant a liberal system of governance and management of cities. As the market opened up, investment started pouring in different sectors. But twenty five years down the line since India went for structural reforms, the result has been mixed.

While the urbanization of Indian cities brought in tremendous growth and opportunities, the hinterland of the country remained deprived of any benefit.

In other words the benefits of liberalization never percolated to the small towns and villages as was hoped for.

As a consequence, a huge amount of migration started taking place form villages and small towns to the urban centers in search of livelihood and a better life. While the movement of labour cannot be controlled and must not be controlled, such huge influx of people added to the woes of already suffering infrastructure of the cities. Delhi was no exception. Infrastructural deficiency bursting at the seams and incapacity of the state and local government bodies to make adequate investments to alleviate these has only compounded the problem over the years.

The capital of India is roughly home to twenty million people. Delhi is certainly not a city of dreams but full of aspirations and people come here looking for a

www.urbanupdate.in | June 2016

27

COVER STORY | Urban Divide

bright future. There are certain reasons behind that. It is a safe destination for investment as good infrastructure is available. Also standard of living is high with numerous facilities available to its inhabitants, though not to all. And in this high lifestyle of the rich and elite there is a tendency to ignore the slums and JJ clusters even when they are situated in the posh areas of the city.

It’s a fight for survival for slum dwellers or urban poor as they are called in these times of rapid urbanization.

Their dreams turn into a nightmare and hopes and aspirations into a struggle every day. After Mumbai, Delhi has the highest number of slum dwellers.

Interestingly, a slum exists next to almost every posh colony. While all the services are delivered at the doors of the affluent ones, the urban poor is even today deprived of basic amenities.

Resources like clean water, disposal of garbage and waste water, proper toilets and other essential services are mostly absent from these areas. Compounding the problem is the absence of support from municipal corporations.

The report prepared by the city’s urban shelter agency the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) last year is an eye opener. This report was submitted to the Delhi government for approval. Let’s look at the statistics first before interpreting it. The data that the board collected in order to prepare a housing strategy for the slums, however, reveals the grim reality of inadequate sanitation. Poor sanitation, in addition to depriving slum-dwellers of their dignity, also poses the perennial risk of exposing the residents to infections and diseases.

Let’s look at the situation of toilets in the slums.

This report also talks about slum-free city action plan (SFCAP). In percentage terms 22 percent may not sound that big but if we look at the real numbers defecating in public or without access to toilets, it’s huge. The SFCAP data shows that nearly fifty seven

28 June 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

thousand households in Delhi’s slums still defecate in the open. It calls for “sufficient arrangement to be carried out for totally liquidating such type of practice”. The situation is the worst in South Delhi. According to statistics available more than half of the children living in slums and unauthorized colonies defecate in the open. Women too are forced to defecate in open due to unavailability of public toilets. This is not only hazardous for them as it could lead to infection and diseases but also pose a grave threat to the affluent colonies nearby.

Water: A scarce commodity

‘Jal hi jeevan hai’ goes the saying in Hindi. The Right to Water is the most basic need for survival and it must

precede any other security. Providing safe drinking water is an obligatory duty of every government and a fundamental right of all people. But a vision document published by Delhi Jal Board says that “as per the 2011 census and Delhi Jal Board’s record, 33.41 lakh households were in Delhi and at present, about 20 lakh households are being provided piped water supply.

Thus a study reveals that more than 75 lakh people of Delhi still do not get piped water in their homes and are dependent on other sources like Tanker water supply; bore wells; river; canal; ponds etc.” this document also claims that “DJB has made transformative improvements in water pipeline ….and has introduced schemes, which combine good governance and pro-poor

supply varies between 66.92 per cent in West to 36.78 per cent in East Zone.

Only about 14.29 slum clusters have reported three times water supply in 24 hours; in 76.69 per cent of the slum clusters water supply is reported to be two times in 24 hours; and 3.38 per cent slum clusters get water only once a day. About 1.88 per cent slums get water alternate day and 2.63 uncertain about the arrival of water.”

Housing for slum dwellers

policy. Regularization of unauthorized connections, provision of water to over two hundred fifty unauthorised colonies and reduction in sewerage and water development charges have brought water to the poorest in Delhi and also ensured better water management and accounting since they are now under the ambit of the Delhi Jal Board’s formal network.”

While policy level decisions are being taken, the fact remains that majority of slum clusters still do not get safe drinking water. According to a study done by Centre for Global Development Research (CGDR) out of 477 slums in which the study was done, only 211 (44.23 per cent) reported regular supply. It states “the maximum number of slums reporting irregular

In April this year, the Delhi government approved the Delhi Slum and JJ Rehabilitation and Relocation Policy, 2015, which focuses on in-situ development for the city’s urban poor.

In-situ range has been kept between zero to five kilometres and the clause of income cap has also been removed.

Under this policy three lakh dwelling units will be built and people staying in slums will be relocated to these houses. It was also decided that under the first phase, 20 JJ clusters will be beneficiaries of this scheme, while 23 others will be rehabilitated. The Aam Aadmi Party government had approved the cut-off date as February 14, 2015 – the day AAP formed the government in Delhi. But it was changed to January 1, 2015, as the Ministry had stated that fresh electoral rolls were out by then.

The policy also states that JJ clusters which have come up before January 1, 2006, will not be removed without rehabilitation.

While on paper things appear to be moving in the right direction, the delivery on the ground seems distant. While the urban poor are in crying need of immediate attention, problem is the lack of coordination among multiple agencies involved in the various projects. Problem also is compounded by the fact that Delhi has three tier power structure that is the centre, state and urban local bodies.

In recent times we have seen that the relationship between the three is far from harmonious and they are often

Delhi is roughly home to twenty million people.

The rich and the poor alike come here looking for a bright future. There are certain reasons behind that. It is a safe destination for investment as good infrastructure is available.

Also standard of living is high with numerous facilities available to its inhabitants, though not to all. In this high lifestyle of the rich and elite, there is a tendency to ignore the slums and JJ clusters even when they are situated in the posh areas of the city

at logger heads. In a signed statement on his ministries’ website, rural development minister of Delhi Gopal Rai says ‘It is evident that neither the Central government nor its experts have been able to influence State-level urban policies. Directing urbanisation from the cosy seat of New Delhi has not worked. Attempts to directly influence the urban planning of select cities through the cash-rich Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission have also not made any deep impact.”

It is true that vision has to emerge locally, but the Delhi government has to bear in mind that it’s vision must keep the urban poor and the underprivileged at the centre of it. Otherwise vision will turn into a mere lip service and the city state of Delhi will remain a bad example of urban governance.

www.urbanupdate.in | June 2016

29

Numerographs

living on the edge

Urban slums are the visual manifestation of poverty in cities. Nearly a billion people live in slums across the world and the number is growing with each passing day. United Nation predicts, with this trend, the number will touch three billion mark by 2050. Poor living conditions in slums further worsens the wellbeing of urban poor who not just suffer from deficit in economic opportunities owing to lack of skills and resources but also face inadequate access to basic services. Bringing equality in delivery of services and equal access to public infrastructure and resources for all is the key to eradicating urban poverty Compiled By Arzoo Arora, Editorial Researcher Designed By Meenakshi Rajput, Graphic Designer

UN-Habitat (2014)Â states that the number of people living in slum conditions is now estimated

A total of

33,510 slums

were estimated to be present in the urban areas of India. About 41% of these were notified and 59% non-notified.

30 June October 2016 2015 | www.urbanupdate.in | www.urbanupdate.in

The urban slum population in the country has increased from

5.23 crore in 2001 to 6.55 crore in 2011

863

at million, in contrast to 760 million in 2000 and 650 million in 1990. UN predicts the slum population will touch 3 billion mark by 2050.

State Share of Slum Population to Total Slum Population

Urban Poor (in million)

Developing World Maharashtra 18%

Other States 29%

Developing Asia

Andhra Pradesh 16%

South Asia

Madhya Pradesh 9% Tamil Nadu 9%

271 298 189 259 152 122

37 East Asia and the Pacific 137

West Bengal 10%

1990 2008

Uttar Pradesh 9%

Urban Poor in Asia YEAR Share of the

Urban poor 1990 18.3 1996 16.8 2002 17.2 2008 22.9

Rural-Urban ratio of the Poor 01:00.2 01:00.2 01:00.2 01:00.3

URBAN POPULATION Urban Slum Population

60% 50% 70%

63% 55%

60% 50%

46% 23%

World

Asia

Urban Population

India

China

25%

11% Mexico

11%

Indonesia

22% Egypt

0%

Pakistan

10% 0%

India

20%

10%

22%

China

30% 24%

Bangaladesh

20%

South Africa

40%

Brazil

30%

Afghanistan

40%

Source: Census 2011, 69th National Sample Survey The World Bank-IMF (2013) Global Monitoring Reports

www.urbanupdate.in | June 2016

31

Leaderspeak | Affordable Housing

Ranjit S Chavan President, AIILSG

Where will the poor live?

The rural poor are migrating to cities in search of better livelihood options and plain survival. Are our already crowded cities prepared to provide them housing alternatives to ensure urbanization is planned, not haphazard?

G

overnment of India has envisioned providing affordable houses to every citizen by 2022. Realisation of the vision requires sincere efforts and huge investment in cities because proliferation of slums and informal settlements in cities poses a big threat to an inclusive urban future. It is important to mention that 30 per cent of the urban population occupies only 2.3 per cent of India’s geographical area so building houses for the poor and low income groups would not only require funds but also many policy measures to expedite the procedure to build houses within the given time frame.

With more people moving to cities, the housing problem will worsen if concrete steps are not taken to tackle the problem urgently.

Various studies by independent research organisations suggest that there is a housing shortage of 6 cr housing units which will go up to 11 cr units in 2022. The housing deficit is almost equally distributed between rural and urban areas; both areas would require almost 5 to 6 cr housing units. However, the government study at the beginning of the 12th Five Year Plan estimated the housing shortage in India around 19 million units. Almost 95% of this housing shortage pertains to households falling in the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) and Lower Income Group (LIG) segments. Seeing the huge housing shortage in the country, achieving the target in six years

32 June 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

appears to be a mammoth task.

According to government data, more than 10 lakh houses were built for the urban poor in the last 11 years and 23 percent of them are lying vacant. In Delhi, 96% of the completed houses are vacant. The government needs to not just scale up the construction of housing units exponentially but also to ensure that they are taken up, for turning the dream of Prime Minister Narendra Modi into a reality. Housing is a basic human need. The proliferation of slums and other kinds of informal settlements in our cities signifies that the government could not provide people with affordable housing options. With increase in pace of urbanization, people kept moving to cities and began settling wherever they could afford to live or build houses on vacant public or private land.

Slum redevelopment and affordable housing

According to census data, slum population in the country has increased from 5.23 crore in 2001 to 6.59 crore in 2011. There are approximately 34,000 slums in the country and 59 percent of them are non-notified slums.

Most of these urban slums do not have basic amenities but still millions of people are living in them to realise the urban dream which lured them to cities. These human settlements are characterized by severe deficits of basic services such as drinking water, adequate

drainage system, sewerage network, sanitary facilities, electricity, roads and effective solid waste disposal. Most of these areas where slums are located are disaster prone.

Many state governments have, in the past, taken initiatives to rehabilitate slum dwellers through slum rehabilitation programs but most of such initiatives have failed because the governments could not link livelihood and transit options with housing. A person living in a slum located in the heart of the city would not like to relocate to a suburb or someone doing business in his small house would not like to shift to a one bedroom apartment where he could not carry on with his business because of several operational constraints. It is required that governments should consult the community before making plans for them to ensure successful implementation of the program.

Delegating more powers to Urban Local Bodies can enable local reforms and speed up implementation of schemes of affordable housing.

It is also necessary that the term ‘affordable housing’ is well defined because affordability is a vague term which may mean different things for different individuals. There are many definitions of affordable housing which differ from country to country. The basic definition of affordable housing takes into account the economic potential of an individual buying a house. In the United States of America (USA) and Canada, a commonly accepted guideline for affordable housing is that the cost of housing should not be more than 30 percent of a household’s gross income. This can vary with regions and income levels. According to a report

Highlights ♦♦ ♦♦ ♦♦ ♦♦ ♦♦

USD 2 trillion investment is possibly required to achieve the vision 11 crore houses will likely be required by 2022 1.7-2.0 lakh hectare land is likely required to meet urban housing need 30-35 per cent of housing cost consists of fees and taxes Urban housing is to account for about 85 to 90 per cent of the total investments; the focus should be on affordable urban houses, which is 70 per cent of the total urban housing requirement ♦♦ 70 per cent of housing need is concentrated in nine states namely Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh (including Telangana), Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka Source: KPMG, Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation

by KPMG, affordable housing can be defined using three key parameters viz. income level, size of dwelling unit and affordability. While the first two parameters are independent of each other, the third parameter is correlated to income. Housing costs here include taxes and insurance for owners, and utility costs. If the monthly carrying costs of a home exceed 30–35 percent of household income, the housing is considered unaffordable for that household.

Learning from Brazil

The Brazilian Government launched National Housing Plan named Minha Casa, Minha Vida scheme (My House, My Life) housing scheme which aims to build houses for those earning low wages. It is the largest home access initiative already established in Brazil.

The program provides various forms of assistance to families in need of housing, considering the location of the property - the city and the countryside

- family income and value of the housing unit. In addition, the program also contributes to the generation of employment and income for the construction workers, who perform the work. More than 400,000 units will be built for families each with a monthly income of less than R$ 1600 (GBP 416) a month on payment of 10 percent of their monthly income. The poorest families contribute as little as 5% of their monthly income. The program has also devised a backup plan for families, who lose their jobs on allocation of homes, with a special fund of GBP 294 million for covering their defaults.

The government needs to find out innovative models from the countries which have successfully implemented affordable housing schemes. It is true that India has a bigger challenge because of the volume of work at hand but appropriate policy measures and collaboration with communities and private players can ease the journey.

www.urbanupdate.in | June 2016

33

one on one | Ambassador of Afghanistan

“Shun old ways; adapt to innovation to make cities smart�

Shaida Mohammad Abdali, Ambassador of Afghanistan to India, speaks to Urban Update on a range of issues concerning cities in South Asian countries. He says the region is witnessing rapid urbanization and suggests that there is a need to take into account the suggestions and recommendations of local governments and populace for making comprehensive city plans and for making cities inclusive and sustainable.

Edited excerpts from the interview‌

What are the main criteria governments in South Asian countries should take into consideration when planning smart cities to make them inclusive and welcoming for the poor?

I am glad that we are discussing smart cities and urbanization in South Asian countries because it is an important phase when new cities in the region are emerging because of rapid ruralurban migration. We have to be ready to provide the increasing population with adequate infrastructure and better service delivery mechanism. For this, we need to involve local leaders and local population in decision making process. We need to build bridges between local governments and central government to build inclusive and growth-oriented cities. We should ensure that every one has equal access to urban resources.

What are the sectors which require immediate attention in Asian cities?

For example, Delhi government recently has had to go for vehicle rationing scheme to curb air pollution.

What are the key areas where cities need to focus to make themselves sustainable?

We should create inclusivity in our cities. Making comprehensive city plans by engaging government and private sector for ensuring urban sustainability is a must. Right now, cities in South Asian region face many more problems in comparison to the cities in any other region. This is because we have not found new innovative ideas to run our cities. We require people involvement and creativity in managing day-to-day works. Municipal governments in the region can share best practices with each other on a common platform so

Shaida Mohammad Abdali Ambassador of Afghanistan to India

Abhishek Pandey Editor, Urban Update ap.urbanupdate@gmail.com

34 June 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

that we can learn from each other for the larger good.

Events like the South Asian Cities Summit can play a major role where best practices from around the world can be shared with the cities where we have not made significant progress in the areas of civic amenities. We can borrow such practices from the cities which have performed better than us and implement in our part of the world.

What is the role of cities in realizing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? Many world leaders have commented that cities have to play a major role in next 15 years if we have to achieve SDGs. Your comments‌ Its absolutely right. Cities have to play an important role. United Nations have set an agenda for all of us. For cities in the region, it is required to make use of technological innovations in relevant sectors. The main problem is that we have not transformed our system so far. We are still following the traditional ways and means. In order to address current problems, we need to embrace the tools of the 21st century, best practices of the 21st century and of course, utilize the knowledge of local intelligentsia.

You talked about community engagement and using knowledge of local people in development process.

Do you think local bodies in the region are faring well in this area?

Unfortunately, no. Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi has introduced Smart Cities Mission and Digital India.

These are the foundations on which we should work. It is true that we have

Kandahar and Mumbai have collaborated as Sister Cities as proposed by the Embassy of Afghanistan last year.

A view of Kandahar city.

not reached where we should be but we have started marching towards it.

PM Modi has given such vision and we should work hard to make sure that we attain an adequate level of abilities and facilities we provide in cities. We hope that all of us shake hands, work together and make our cities better.

Afghanistan and India have started Sister Cities initiative in which we have announced the names of ten cities from both the countries. It means that we will not only build our own cities individually but tie up with one another so that one city can help the other. This will help in making our cities smart jointly by learning best practices from one another.

What are the similar challenges cities in Afghanistan and India face?

How can we take advantage of urbanization happening in the region?

Urbanisation has opportunities

Afghan Embassy in Delhi has initiated the creation of sister-city relations between major Indian cities and states and their Afghan counterparts. To date, the embassy has proposed the creation of relations between Delhi and Kabul, Mumbai and Kandahar, Ajmer Sharif (Rajasthan) and Herat, Hyderabad and Jalalabad, Ahmedabad (Gujarat) and Asadabad (Kunar), as well as the State of Assam and the Province of Helmand

and challenges both. Let me start with opportunities, the potential of population growth is result oriented in a positive way. The problem we are facing is because we are not adapting to urbanization as it demands. People are coming from rural areas and settling in urban centres. We have to make sure that we adapt to the evolving situation put up by population pressure. For example, Kabul once upon a time was for 5000 people but at present, over 5 million people are living there. But the infrastructure there is almost the same.

We have to make sure that resilience of the existing infrastructure is improved and at the same time, we adapt and renovate our cities and bring them to a level where they are able to handle the pressure put by growing population.

What role can research and academic institutes like AIILSG play in the process of urban development?

We should continue having conferences like South Asian Cities Summit. South Asian cities have similar problems, we can learn from those who have done better than us. It will be better if we can invite people from the rest of the world who have done better than us. Their experience can be helpful in tackling our urban problems. We should start collaborating with one another and implementing the innovative solutions so that we can turn our cities into better urban agglomerations.

www.urbanupdate.in | June 2016

35

Article | Community Engagement

Cities

By the citizen, for the citizen

T

he Citizen has come to the forefront of the debate on cities and urban governance. The focal point of the Smart Cities Challenge in which 100 cities participated for a place in the top 20, was the citizen consultation process.

Reaching out to large numbers of citizens, seeking their views and suggestions, documenting these and then developing the Smart City Vision and Proposal based on these became the cornerstone of the entire activity. Launching the Smart City Mission into implementation mode in Pune recently, Prime Minister Modi said that Smart City Mission is now succeeding as a people’s

V Vijaykumar Sr Advisor, AIILSG v.vijaykumar@aiilsg.org

36 June 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

movement as envisaged.

He expressed satisfaction over citizen participation in preparation of smart city plans of various cities with over 25 lakh people giving serious suggestions on MyGov.in. He clarified that the central government did not select the smart cities but it was the citizens who enabled their selection in the ‘City Challenge Competition’. He asserted that if people were empowered and involved for participatory development, the country will progress fast.

Public participation

Rapid urbanization, often unplanned and sometimes ‘messy’, is engaging policy makers, urban practitioners, municipal officials, civic

activists and others in many parts of the globe, especially in countries hosting fastgrowing metropolises.

Many of these debates are prompted by a sense of urgency, even despair and panic, in dealing with the huge tsunami of the urban influx. In their search for solutions, urban practitioners and those tasked with the management of our cities are increasingly realizing that citizen engagement needs to be at the core of their strategy.

Water supply has been among the stickiest challenges for cities given the sharp rise in citizens’ needs and limited resources in the face of growing environmental concerns relating to depleting ground water resources, among

others. A recent report has pointed out alarmingly, that Beijing is sinking at the rate of over 10 cms each year.

Relentless exploitation of ground water to meet needs of human consumption, agriculture, and above all to fuel the infrastructure development in the city have taken a sharp toll.

The growing weight of the buildings and other infrastructure along with absence of water underneath to support the weight is quoted as the cause of this land subsidence. In India, the severe drought conditions in many parts this summer brought the issue of water into sharp focus. Citizen groups, activists and social organisations joined hands with local governments to bring down consumption and adopt conservation measures. Students and housewives joined in various measures including short term ones like conservation and long term ones like tree plantation, ground water recharging and rainwater harvesting. These measures, if sustained over the long term can prevent water crises in our cities.

Sanitation and Waste management in cities also requires deepened and strengthened citizen involvement and cooperation.

The government’s Swachh Bharat Mission recognized this and from the launch has sought to strengthen citizen engagement.

Celebrity support for the cause is also helping mobilize citizens and to create awareness regarding the gravity of the issue.

Citizens are being urged to amend their unsustainable

lifestyles and habits which are contributing to the waste menace and to adopt more eco-friendly ways of doing things. Regular citizen surveys by local authorities are being used to assess the effectiveness of the scheme and citizens’ satisfaction levels. Thus citizens’ voice, not official statements, is used to track the progress.

City Traffic Management is getting more complex by the day with burgeoning number of private vehicles on the roads alongside shrinking public transportation options. Both city officials and residents are realizing that it is futile to just depend on traffic police to restore order on our streets. Various community groups in every large city like Bangalore, Delhi and Pune and working with local officials to ensure safety on roads. Large numbers of volunteers including senior citizens and college students are assisting traffic police personnel on the streets.

Marching together

Overall city safety, education especially of the poor, efficient public transportation and pollution are some of the other major issues in our cities which can be addressed in a long lasting manner through close coordination and cooperation between concerned authorities and the community. The citizen is now moving centre-stage where city development is concerned. This new direction to make our cities more liveable is indeed welcome. It deepens and strengthens the democratic process and gives more voice to the community.

The citizen is now moving centre-stage where city development is concerned. This new direction to make our cities more liveable is indeed welcome. It deepens and strengthens the democratic process and gives more voice to the community. At the same time it places greater responsibility on people to participate actively in shaping the future of their cities.

At the same time it places greater responsibility on people to participate actively in shaping the future of their cities. It may no more be enough to just complain about piled up garbage on the streets.

Residents need to work with the community and the administration to reduce waste generation, spread awareness, and support safe disposal measures. City security can be significantly enhanced with vigilant, well connected citizens who work closely with the police and local bodies to ensure adequate infrastructure such as well-lit streets, report suspicious activity and provide community support in general. All would do well to recall the famous words of the Father of the Nation, “I am the change I want to see”.

City Administrations on their part, need to constantly innovate and devise effective mechanisms to engage citizens in their quest for safer, more efficient and inclusive cities. One is reminded of John F. Kennedy’s famous words, “The efforts of the government alone will never be enough. In the end the people must choose and the people must help themselves”.

www.urbanupdate.in | June 2016

37

Round Table Conference | South Asian Summit

“Change starts to happen when we start to change” Capt. Anant Modi, Director General of AIILSG and Bernadia Irawati Tjandradewi, Secretary General of UCLG-ASPAC discuss the role of UCLG Congress scheduled later this year in promoting sustainable urban development and making cities more inclusive. Edited excerpts from the interview…

Kumar Dhananjay Consulting Editor kumardhan@hotmail.com

Mr Modi, how important is the role of UCLG Congress to promote local governance and sustainable development?

After declaration of 100 Smart Cities in India by the Honourable Prime Minister, I see that the UCLGASPAC Congress will be an excellent opportunity of learning for Indian city leaders, mayors and other municipal officials. I will personally encourage their attendance in the summit at Jeollabuk-do. We all know that South Korea strode into smart city creation with the vibrant example of Songdo IBD, the ubiquitous city. And as such Jeollabuk-do is also a great example with some beautiful scenic places.

The local self-government and their promotional activities have laid down a wonderful foundation of consciousness for environment among the citizens.

Looking at previous achievements, Mrs Bernadia, Jakarta used to be a chaotic and unorganized city about ten years ago, how have you been able to manage the transformation we can see now? Besides the fact that Asia Pacific is densely populated, how have you been able to garner strong support for the cause of local selfgovernment?

I am here representing the whole of the Asia Pacific. UCLG is an umbrella organization for more than seven thousand local self government bodies and this conference in Joellabuk-do

38 June 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

will be attended by more than one thousand delegates. Theme discussion and agenda determination is very important because we will decide the future of these local self-governments.

Asia Pacific is the largest section in the world with more than three billion people. So the transformation in this region will equally bring big transformation in the world. It has to be a people centric development. This region is associated with huge diversity in culture, race and life style so we must not forget to apply our wisdom towards it. Like Indonesia, we will be sharing lots of practices not only in South Korea but in other countries as well. When we talk about smart cities, Jakarta is also being turned into one.

It is having an integrated transport system. The current leadership there is working on profiling places for children and women. The challenge is not solely the attainment of perfection but to develop good leaders who can make a difference in the future also.

How do you think that this summit of UCLG-ASPAC is going to help in improving standard of life in urban areas?

I am attending UCLG-ASPAC summit for the first time. Totally impressed and appreciate the practices and methods discussed in this meeting. Hope to see the same flow of knowledge and experience sharing in the Congress event, South Korea in September.

The main idea behind the smart city mission is to create a more livable city where people are able to get all the municipal services at their doorstep and ultimately we see happy and satisfied citizens. Children should have open spaces to breathe freely.

Basically there is a myth that a smart city is one where they have wide roads, ICT, mobile applications, etc for which Indian smart cities concept is being criticized

Mr Modi, you were talking about the sustainable development in the environment. How do you think that a forum like this can help the government to formulate a policy which is not just about making smart cities but also creating smart citizens?

The main idea behind the smart city mission is to create a more livable city where people are able to get all the municipal services at their doorstep and ultimately we see happy and satisfied citizens. Children should have open spaces to breathe freely.

Basically there is a myth that a smart city is one where they have wide roads, ICT, mobile applications, etc for which Indian smart cities concept is being criticized but the Prime Minister of India has totally changed the views by focusing on ways to make citizens happy and cities livable. So in this kind of forum we learn from countries like South Korea and Japan and also about the participation of citizens in achievement of environmental goals.

Earlier we discussed that happiness is the key factor for a healthier and growth oriented citizen. While travelling across the globe, we found

smart city development is associated with displacement and there are several protests against it. What has been your experience in dealing with these situations?

Mrs Bernadia: I think finally everything depends upon happiness and it comes from inside. We have learn thow Bhutan has surged ahead on happiness index compared to other countries. I have a serious belief that people’s concerns should be prioritized. It’s important to maximize people’s participation because we cannot always blame the governments.

We must take the responsibility as citizens of the country. Now with easy access to information and social media everybody can get involved. When people take an active role in planning, it results in active development.

Community engagement can be increased by increasing interaction with the government and giving feedback.

At ASPAC we have become a bridge between people and local governments.

Private companies also play an important role in the development. I think having harmonious relationship between actors is the key to directional

development. But I also believe that change starts to happen when we start to change.

To a South Korean delegate, what has made your province so special? What kind of experiments you did and how successful have they been?

Jeollabuk-do is a well preserved province in Korean tradition. We are also known for Korean tradition of food and sound. Also we are at the center of agriculture sector in Korea.

In this regard we are proud to have this UCLG-ASPAC conference in Korea.

More than a thousand delegates from thirty-six countries and institutions will participate in the conference. We hope that they will be able to visit our province and share their knowledge.

Mr Modi, this is a wonderful conference that we have hosted in New Delhi. On the one hand we are trying to forge an international collaboration and at the same time we are also talking about local self-government.

How do we match the two?

I think we have to think globally and act locally and that is what we are trying to achieve through these summits.

www.urbanupdate.in | June 2016

39

Article | Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC) in Karnataka

Promoting energy conservation for sustainable future All India Institute of Local Self-Government with Karnataka government and many other stakeholders such as Bureau of Energy Efficiency, UNDP GEF Building Energy Efficiency Project, Karnataka Public Works Department, Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Ltd. (KREDL) and Electrical Inspectorate is promoting energy conservation in the state by taking a range of initiatives to make buildings energy efficient and reduce the electrical demand by 30-40 % Team ECBC Cell

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o give impetus to energy conservation in the country, Government of India enacted the Energy Conservation Act (EC Act) on March 1, 2002. Under the Act, the Government of India established the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), a statutory body under the Ministry of Power (MoP), Government of India.

Under the EC Act, BEE has prescribed Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC). Karnataka is one of the most proactive states, which is spearheading the implementation of ECBC. The state of Karnataka has modified ECBC to suit its local requirements and a notification to this effect was made in the Gazette of Government of Karnataka in 2014. The ECBC is applicable to all buildings or building complexes in the urban areas that have a connected load of 100 kW or greater, or a contract demand of 120 kVA or greater, or having conditioned area of 500 m2 or more and used for commercial purposes. It is applicable for both government and private buildings.

The ECBC sets minimum energy performance standards for buildings

40 June 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

and covers building envelope, heating, ventilation and air conditioning, service hot water systems, interior and exterior lighting, electrical power and motors including thermal comfort in non-centrally air conditioned/heated buildings. The code, would provide multiple options for compliance that is, prescriptive for each sub-system and overall system or using trade-off between sub- systems or whole building

performance based compliance, as per the prescribed procedure. The code is getting implemented through collaborative efforts of multiple stakeholders: Bureau of Energy Efficiency, UNDP GEF Building Energy Efficiency Project, Karnataka Public Works Department, Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Ltd. (KREDL), Electrical Inspectorate and ECBC Cell.

Updation of Karnataka Schedule of Rates

According to the notification,“Urban Local Bodies will be responsible for enforcement of ECBC in respect to private buildings and Public Works Department (PWD) and Architectural Department of PWD will be responsible in respect to state government buildings. Department of Electrical Inspectorate, Government of Karnataka is to inspect electrical installation in the buildings, which are ECBC compliant”. These directives for the implementation of the Karnataka Energy Conservation Building Code will ensure construction of energy efficient buildings with reduced electrical energy demand by about 30% to 40%.

Activities of ECBC Cell in Karnataka

All India Institute of Local SelfGovernment (AIILSG) under the UNDP GEF BEE project has set up an ECBC Cell for one year duration in the office of Principal Chief Architect, Karnataka PWD. The ECBC Cell team over the past six months has been assisting Karnataka PWD and State Designated Agency (i.e. Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Limited) in mainstreaming ECBC in the state. The cell is assissting the departments in deploying energy-efficient measures through various means and ways.

Technical Assistance for energy efficient building design

Under the project, ECBC Cell has been mandated to make at least 10 of the PWD’s new buildings energy efficient.

The Cell follows integrated building design, where performance of all the applicable energy efficient strategies (related to building envelope, lighting, HVAC, renewable energy integration, etc.) specific to the project are evaluated using state-of-the-art simulation tools.

The team also performs financial analysis of the feasible strategies to make informed decisions. The analysis results are then presented to the entire PWD architectural team and through collaborative process, specific ECBC compliant strategies are selected.

ECBC Cell has provided this advisory service for an auditorium building in Bengaluru. The proposed interventions (in building massing, envelope, lighting, HVAC, etc.) will augment the occupant comfort while bringing energy saving of 42% compared to business as usual design. The available roof area of the auditorium can be used to install 45 kWp of photo-voltaic cell.

Currently, team is working on four distinct PWD projects i.e. engineering college, hospital project, and office building and parking cum dormitory building.

Another major intervention by ECBC Cell is to provide assistance to PWD to update the Schedule of Rates (SoR) of Karnataka. It is a reference document followed by PWD and some Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) for providing material and technology specifications and for cost estimation of buildings.

Karnataka has two documents for SoR, one for Civil and another for Electrical & Mechanical. These SoR documents with minor modifications are followed by three PWD zones i.e. South Zone, North Zone and North-East Zone. Updating of SoR is performed by the office of Chief Engineer, Karnataka PWD under the chairmanship of Secretary, PWD. Next updating of the SoR is scheduled in July 2016. ECBC Cell had collated specification information and cost information of several energy efficient products (list of strategies proposed has been included in the box). The proposal of energy efficient building materials and technologies was exhaustively discussed and reviewed by Architecture and Engineering Departments of Karnataka PWD. The revised version of SoR documents will have separate chapter on Karnataka ECBC compliant material and strategies.

Other activities

ECBC Cell has developed georeferencing maps for the state of Karnataka to place climatic zones, districts, administrative divisions and green rated buildings.

The Cell has also collated directory of manufacturers and suppliers of energy efficient products. Periodic seminars are organised by the Cell for PWD architecture team to develop awareness & skills on building physics, energy efficient materials & technologies and use of energy simulation tools.

In the coming months, the Cell will assist in updation of Bengaluru byelaws to include ECBC clauses. It will help in making new buildings energy efficient and contribute to sustainable development.

www.urbanupdate.in | June 2016

41

Article | Health

URBAN HEALTH Challenges and Solutions Dr P P Singh Former Director, India Population Project, Delhi drppsingh_48@yahoo.com

Urbanization is resulting in proliferation of slums, unauthorized colonies and irregular / haphazard growth of cities leading to increase in number of health and social problems in our cities

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rbanization is the most important demographic shift world over in both 20th and 21st centuries.

Industrialization, population growth, and migration from rural areas are some of the reasons which add to the population influx of a city. It is expected that by 2050, around 66% of the world’s population will live in urban areas (UNDESA 2014).

Impact of unplanned urbanization is many fold especially pertaining to overcrowding, congestion on the roads, water & air pollution, including problems of liquid & solid waste management besides the scarcity of resources such as land and water.

When the underlying cause of migration is push rather than pull towards urban areas it results in proliferation of slums, unauthorized colonies and irregular / haphazard growth of cities leading to increase in number of health and social problems.

Subsequently, as the public tertiary health centers are concentrated in the cities in addition to private hospitals with state-of-the-art facilities, many patients from rural areas have no choice but to get treatment in the cities. This leads to huge pressure on the urban public healthcare service.

More often than not, the floating population visiting health care facilities in cities are overlooked while planning the health infrastructure and thus most cities experience great deficit in provisioning for universal primary healthcare.

42 June 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

Why is health one of the primary concerns? Let us discuss the same.

Health is directly interrelated with economic and social aspects; all three are dependent on each other. Good health will enhance the economy, whereas poor health will lead to low GDP. Thus urbanization has a direct impact on the health of individuals and society at large; new communicable diseases are emerging and old ones which had long subsided too are reemerging. Various experts have identified the social & economic determinants of better population health.

Urbanization and industrialization affect health primarily in the following ways: ♦♦ Changes to physical environment affects human health directly by reducing the availability of clean air, sunlight & water, etc. Poor water and sanitations facilities due to high density can cause several diseases and finally overall reduction in green spaces can also lead to change in climatic conditions. ♦♦ Social environment can divide society into economic, gender, caste, race and religious groups and prevalent inequalities in these groups may lead to serious health impacts.

Marginalized groups, such as women, poor, lower caste and minorities face immense challenges in an urbanized area due to minimum or no opportunity to improve them. ♦♦ Community health-Unplanned

urbanization creates problems like alcoholism, prostitution, overcrowding, and disruption of family life causing delinquency, psychosomatic disorders and drug addiction besides various kinds of crimes.

Before we find a Solution let us understand the meaning of Health.

World Health Organisation (WHO) has defined health as “Physical, Mental, Social and Spiritual Wellbeing of human and not merely absence of illness”. Whereas Environmental Health is “The control of all those factors in man’s physical environment which exercise or may exercise a deleterious effect on his physical development, health or survival. The sum total of all external conditions and influences that affect the life and development of an organism”. In addition, health can also be impacted by occurrence of any

hazard which impacts human life.

Like disaster is addressed through four key principles - preparedness, mitigation, relief and rehabilitation, similarly health can be universalized by targeting the following four- Preventive, Promotive, Curative and Rehabilitative.

First two are the basic components of Public Healthcare, which should be the essential components of any health improvement plan. Winslow (1951) defined Public Health as a science and art of preventing a disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the community participation to control infections, sanitation, health services, legislation, etc. as a state responsibility.

Public health therefore involves: ♦♦ Knowledge of all determinants of diseases. ♦♦ Administrative organization to provide services for preventions of diseases.

Barriers to Sanitation

Way Forward Engaged Citizen

FOOD

FOMITE

FLIES

FLUID

FEACES

Outcome & Impact

Consent

Integrated Targetship

Data Information Institution partnership

To make government efforts more effective, community participation is must for attainment of public health targets. However, for communities to participate and work with the government their basic needs such as the following should be met: 1. Access to better public transport.

2. Putting pedestrians first.

3. Availability of adequate parking.

4. Reduced traffic congestion.

5. Safer living.

6. Hassle-free civic services.

7. Safety against natural disasters.

8. Neighborhood sanitation.

9. Easy access to all basic infrastructure.

10. City beautification.

Thus to achieve above objectives the challenge is community participation which has been summarized in the circle above. It is hoped that with new initiatives of Swachh Bharat Mission, AMRUT, etc. we may achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

♦♦ Latest scientific and medical knowledge applications to modify all the factors influencing the health. ♦♦ Public health also to deal with housing, water supply, disposal of waste, etc.

Unfortunately till date major thrust of government’s intervention is on curative health. This is evident from the total allocation / expenditure on health and public health which is approximately 4% & 1% of GDP respectively. However, to address urban health challenges the above allocation needs to be reversed.

Community has a pivotal role to play in meeting targets set out for Health, Nutrition and Sanitation under the Sustainable Development Goals 2030. Healthcare services are not only provided by the allopathic practice but also the traditional Ayurveda (AYUSH) medicine. Further, the role of IT cannot be underestimated. In developing countries, e-governance and Information technology can help ensure desired results. Using IT in family enumeration, disease surveillance, health licensing (trades), birth & death registration, Management Information & Evaluation system and the diagnostic services can help reduce the process time and achieve accuracy.

Family enumeration is an important step to plan any health intervention at national, regional and local level.

Digital records of families help find the socio-economic status of all families in Groups of I Very Poor, II Poor (BPL), III Low Middle Class, IV Middle Class & V Higher Class (Elite). State may decide whether to charge or not to charge the health service expenditure on ESI beneficiaries, CGHS beneficiaries, Railways employees, etc.

One of the key factors which negate the effect of heath interventions is the lack of sanitation. 100% sanitation in cities can automatically lead to an overall improvement of health. The five ‘F’s: Food, Fluid, Faeces, Flies & Fomites, are important agents which carry most of the diseases and a check on them will help ensure better health for all.

www.urbanupdate.in | June 2016

43

Good reads | Book Review

A must for basic urban understanding The book Urbanisation in India-Challenges, Opportunities and the Way Forward tackles subjects such as urban planning, infrastructure and sustainability, municipal financing framework, governance and affordable housing, etc.

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Abhilash Khandekar National Political Editor Dainik Bhaskar kabhilash59@gmail.com

44

June 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

rbanisation is a fast evolving branch of knowledge in India.

It is also the sector where a number of experiments are being done simultaneously, resulting in us witnessing all kinds of cities and facilities for people-from good to not so good!

The book under review is interestingly

edited by three such eminent persons from different fields-two from economics and one from the bureaucracy-who cannot strictly be put in the category of urban planning experts or practitioners of urbanism. Other than Isher Ahluwalia, Ravi Kanbur (both experts in economics and international affairs) and P K Mohanty, a former bureaucrat in urban development ministry and chief secretary of undivided Andhra Pradesh, there are 11 domain experts who have contributed to this volume which I consider worth reading for all those who wish to know what is happening in numerous fields related to urban development and also for those who are quite worried about the fate of urbanisation in India. I would however, like to caution the readers here that while the book is not very old nor historic, it does not talk about smart cities as it came just before the Smart Cities Mission was unveiled by the Modi Government. Nonetheless, the urban issues raised through well-written papers by the contributing authors and editors, cover almost the entire gamut of the theme.

Besides providing an overview of the challenges urbanisation in the country is facing, the book tackles subjects such as urban planning, infrastructure and sustainability,

Book Urbanisation in India-Challenges, Opportunities and the Way Forward Editors Isher Judge Ahluwalia, Ravi Kanbur, PK Mohanty Publishers Sage Publications Pages 338 Price Rs 895

Good

Reads

service delivery, municipal financing framework, market worthiness and urban local governments, practice of PPP in urban infrastructure, redevelopment of slums, governance and fiscal federalism, generating demand for good governance and affordable housing.

Touching upon almost all the burning issues that a government faces today while trying to make cities habitable, the editors have done well to draw upon some experts in the field to contribute their thoughts.

Affordable housing, for example is one area everyone is concerned aboutfrom policy makers in the government to bankers to real estate developers to finally, the poor and middle class home seeker. Deepak Parekh, chairman HDFC throws light on this crucial sector within urban India, while also providing some international overview as to what is happening in Brazil, Turkey and Egypt. “ ...affordable housing has to be a key component of any urbanisation strategy. In India, there is no dearth of solutions but policies, unfortunately,

have not been implemented efficiently”, Parekh tells us adding, “in every country, resolving housing issues has political, economic and social implications.” Housing is a significant engine of growth and development of an economy. Urban housing shortage in India is pegged at 26.53 million units and therefore Parekh argues that better ways of housing finance would rid the problem to a certain extent. The chapter also talks about ‘My House, My Life’ scheme of the Brazilian government to address the problem of 6 million units shortage.

Ms Ahluwalia, a Padma Bhushan in the field of education and literature, is the famous wife of the famous husband Montek Singh, the former head of the Planning Commission of India.

In times of UPA regime she was an important person among Delhi’s ruling elite and thus had a close ringside view of almost everything. Giving reference of Jane Jacobs’ Cities and the Wealth of Nations, she says that cities improvise and innovate; innovation enhances productivity and generates growth.

She reels off figures of Indian urban population which stood at 286 million in 2001 and in the last census of 2011 it rose to 377 million. Which means only about 31% of the Indian population lived in urban areas as against 45% for China and 54% for Indonesia and a staggering 87% for Brazil. But she says it’s going to grow in India, and by 2031 to 40%, meaning 600 million Indians would be urban dwellers. Linking it to GDP she develops her theorem to say “in order for India to realise its mediumterm growth potential, an essential prerequisite is to manage and facilitate the process of urbanisation which is an inevitable consequence of rapid growth and structural transformation”.

She also underlines the fact that addressing challenges of urbanisation in India is above all a question of reforming institutions and governance.

But how will this happen, especially when we see decay in governance all over, especially municipal governance?

How cities can be better places to live in?

The book, elsewhere takes into

consideration the issues of urban planning where heavy dependence on public acquisition of land has been a major feature. “Indian cities have been greatly hampered by the lack of a properly functioning land market base on clear property rights, ease in transecting the purchase or sale of land, effective enforcement of contracts to buy and sell properties and transparent rules and regulations for redeveloping land or property.” The authors are very correct in pointing towards a highly opaque Indian property market, which would hopefully change in the days to come.

While the last year’s Paris summit on climate change has reawakened authorities towards their responsibilities for ensuring sustainable livelihood, the book already talks extensively about sustainable urban living.

As we all know Indian cities are far less sustainable. A larger percentage of people in urban settlements are not content with the facilities being made available to them despite paying proper taxes. Water, traffic, pollution, garbage and safety are the issues being faced by an average Indian and no solution seems in sight due to the sheer fact that no one is talking of population control, something which the Justice Venkatachaliah Commission (formed

by Atal Bihari Vajpayee for suggesting Constitutional reforms) had touched upon in 2002. After that no serious debates and solutions are heard on this critical issue.

The book summarises the important slums problem in a separate chapter by Bimal Patel and V K Pathak (both domain experts) and underlies the importance of integrating redevelopment of slums in city planning, through various examples and scientific approach to the problem. Slums are increasing due to rising rural-urban migration patterns and the problems are seen in most of the large and medium cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Lucknow or Indore.

Slum-free cities had been a slogan of many political parties but it seems a distant dream. More of a political promise than a lasting solution towards better city governance.

www.urbanupdate.in | June 2016

45

URBAN AGENDA | Urban Poverty

The truly disadvantaged Tackling poverty in cities demands a multi-dimensional approach to solve the problems faced by urban poor.

Engaging people living in urban slums in decision making process at local level can bring about the change and expedite the process of eradicating poverty

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rban poverty exists in every city. It is multilayered and not limited to only deficiency in income. It is also related to inadequate access to land and housing, basic civic services, physical infrastructure and social security cover.

The phenomenon of migration of people from rural areas to urban areas has given impetus to urbanisation of poverty.

Slum dwellings or informal settlements mushrooming in cities are the most visible manifestation of urban poverty.

Such settlements lack even the most basic services and living conditions.

Asian Development Bank’s report on urban poverty states that most urban analysts underscore the link between urbanization and poverty with a simple explanation: the developing world is becoming urban and the weight of the world’s poverty, historically borne by the rural areas, is shifting to cities and towns. Several analysts point out that the corollary of the shift in the distribution of the world’s population toward urban areas is that poverty is increasingly located in cities and towns.

The analysis in the report underlines that the governments in developing countries failed to provide adequate housing alternatives, equitable delivery of services and employment

46 June 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

opportunities that led to increase in inequality in cities.

People come from rural areas to cities for better economic opportunities.

Low incomes and limited jobs in the formal sector forced people to run their own small businesses on streets or in marginal spaces in their informal settlements. Street vendors, daily wage labourers at construction sites and domestic helps are some of the groups which are providing their services to the affluent urban residents.

Since most of them are not formally registered with the government, they become vulnerable to the vicious circle of exploitation.

According to the ADB report, the urban poor do not have access to what the International Labour Organisation (ILO) calls decent work; most urban poor who work in the informal sector are characterized by working poverty.

The term informal sector where most of the poor work has multiple connotations and images—it is said to be heterogeneous, vast, gray, and consisting of underground activities.

The one feature that binds the informal sector workers is their exclusion from social security, trade union, productive services typically available to large enterprises, and from the GDP estimation and other statistical enquiries and surveys. The ILO looks

Ashok Wankhade Managing Editor bhau1008@gmail.com

at the informal sector in terms of deficits, which refers to poor quality, and unproductive and unremunerative jobs that are neither recognized nor protected by law and characterized by the absence of rights at work, inadequate social protection, and lack of representation and voice.

In the absence of employment opportunities in formal sector, basic services at their homes and any kind of social protection net, poverty in cities further exacerbates. Urban poverty is often linked to increase in crime in cities, encroachment of public spaces, environmental degradation and many other problems.

For eradication of urban poverty and to combat issues related with it, there is a need to understand the dynamics of urban poverty and make policies and schemes in a way that address the problems faced by the disadvantaged groups of people living in informal settlements in cities. It is quite common that urban local bodies, which are responsible for delivery of civic amenities to urban dwellers, have not recognised most of the poor colonies.

It is one of the major reasons that those dwellings are deprived of basic necessities because their requirements do not feature in their planning process since they do not exist in their records and hence do not matter.

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