By Rahul Attrey
Urban governance
The 74th Amendment Act has been implemented only half-heartedly by the states in India, not enabling full empowerment to the Urban local bodies (ULBs). The ULBs comprise municipal corporations, municipalities and nagar panchayats, which are to be supported by the state governments to manage urban development. For this purpose, the ULBs need clear delegation of functions, financial resources and autonomy. At present, urban governance needs improvement to sustain urban development, which can only be done by enhancing technology, and the administrative and managerial capacity of ULBs.
Planning
Planning is largely centralised, and the state planning boards and commissions have not come out with any specific planning strategies, depending on Planning commission for the same. This is expected to change soon, since the Planning Commission has been abolished and now focuses on empowering the states and strengthening the federal structure. In fact, for big cities the plans have become outdated and do not reflect the concerns of the urban local dwellers, and this needs to be take care of by the Metropolitan Planning Committee as per provisions of the 74th Amendment Act. Now, the planning needs to be decentralised and participatory in order to accommodate the needs of the urban dwellers. However, there is a lack of human resources for undertaking planning on full scale. State planning departments and national planning institutions lack qualified planning professionals. The need of the hour is to expand the scope of planning from physical to integrated – land use, infrastructure, environmental sustainability, social inclusion, risk reduction, economic productivity and financial diversity.
Housing
Housing provision for the growing urban population will be the biggest challenge for the government. The growing cost of houses, in comparison to the income of the urban middle class, has made it impossible for majority of the lower income groups to find an alternative to residing in a congested accommodation, most devoid of proper ventilation, lighting, water supply and an effective sewage system. For instance, in Delhi, the current estimate is of a shortage of 5,00,000 dwelling units in the coming decade. The United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (UNCHS) introduced the concept of ?Housing Poverty? which includes ?Individuals and households who lack safe, secure and healthy shelter, with basic infrastructure such as piped water and adequate provision for sanitation, drainage and the removal of household waste?.
Safe drinking water and sanitation
The safe drinking water sources are also found to be contaminated because the water in the cities are inadequate and in the future, the expected population cannot be accommodated without a drastic improvement in the availability of water. The expenses on water treatment and reuse will grow.
The poor sanitation condition is another drawback in the urban areas, particularly in slums and unauthorised colonies. The drainage system in many unorganised colonies and slums are either non-existant, or in a bad shape resulting in blockages. These unsanitary conditions lead to many sanitation related diseases such as diahorrea and malaria. Unsafe garbage disposal is also one of the critical problems in urban areas and garbage management has always remained a major challenge.
Health
The two most important indicators of human development are education and health. The health condition of urban poor in some areas are even more adverse compared to rural areas. As many as 20 million children in the developing countries are dying as a consequence of non-availability of proper drinking water. About 6, 00,000 persons are losing their lives on account of indoor air pollution (Jagmohan, 2005). The National Family Health Survey, 2006-07 has envisaged that a lot of women and children are suffering from nutritional anaemia, tuberculosis and asthma. Providing health care services to the growing urban population is a major challenge for the government health care delivery system. They have to seek help from private players, as public health facilities are poor. In case of migrants, they cannot take the benefit of government policies, so they have to pay very high charges, which keeps them within the vicious cycle of poverty. The Urban education system also is becoming elite in private institutions due to limited number of seats and high fees. The condition of public educational institutions is dismal.
Urban public transport
As high income individuals are buying more private vehicles, they invariably reduce their use of public transport. The large number of vehicles in cities is causing more traffic, which in turn decreases the efficiency of public transport. Also, the penetration of public transport is less, which make people use private vehicles. Public transport is less friendly for differently abled persons. There is also a lack of infrastructure and poor maintenance of existing public transport.
Thus, the aforementioned problems associated with urban governance are a strong indicator to the current Government to adopt resolutions without further ado.
Social media caption: Urban governance: A Herculean task?
Summary: This article explains the various factors that contribute to the difficulties faced in urban governance. It discusses several components that together need to be solved in order to ensure smooth functioning in the urban areas. These components include?planning, housing, safe drinking water, sanitation, health, and urban public transport.
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