Alternatives Have To Be Sought To Make Cities Liveable
Tikender Singh Panwar
Unprecedented misery struck the people of India when a sudden lockdown was announced in the country by Narendra Modi, the prime minister of India, owing to the threat of COVID-19. Not realising that the lockdown, which was spontaneous and unplanned, will affect millions of people who work in the cities and majority of whom are linked to the informal sector.
People, out of panic, started the process of reverse migration from cities to countryside, for they knew that to survive even for a few weeks without work, wages, housing, or food, would be extremely difficult. The scary pictures of people walking hundreds of kilometres to their homes, and some of them never even making it, will haunt us for years. Its no big surprise that around 117 people have lost their lives so far, because of the lock down.
The World Bank estimates that in India, there are 450 million internal migrants who migrate from rural to urban, and also from urban to urban. Why is it that cities that are centres of learning, innovation, and civilisation, could not hold these working people back in their urban centres? It must be pointed out that the proposal for a second lockdown is looming large, and that what we saw on the streets as part of the first lockdown was only the tip of the iceberg. A large section of migrant labourers are still in the country’s metropolises. In the second leg of the lockdown from April 14, if the government falters and does not take proactive steps, then we will witness a near holocaust. A trailer of such a situation was witnessed on April 9 in Surat, where nearly a thousand people came out on the streets demanding wages and food. Similarly, people defied the curfew in Delhi too, demanding food. There is a large working population still held back in cities and require immediate state intervention in their issues.
Why are cities unable to hold back their working population even for a few weeks? One of the major reasons is that the way cities have been shaped up, especially in the last 3 decades. This process has made cities extremely vulnerable spaces for the poor and the working classes, and inherently exclusive in nature. The changed role of cities — from mere city manager managing the city affairs and its utilities, to cities being turned into entrepreneurs — is today’s stark reality and is a process that took place over a period of time. It essentially means that cities will act like business units. All the various ‘reforms’ implemented in the past have only reinforced this idea of ‘city entrepreneurship’ and for cities to be converted into hot-beds to attract investment. Land monetisation is one of the forms.
This has led to a situation where 94 per cent of the jobs the cities are in the informal sector. This has further led to a situation where humongous inequity has developed in Indian cities. The Oxfam report tabled two years ago states that the difference between the top and bottom 10 per cent asset-holders was 500 times in rural India, but a whopping 50, 000 times in urban India. This in itself explains the alienation of working people from the cities they live in. There is also a change in the nature of employment — a large majority of workers are either on contract or on casual basis. 82 per cent of them have no written contracts with their employers. 69 per cent have no access to social security benefits from the State. We came across a recent report on national media that around 94 per cent of construction workers are ineligible for direct fund transfer announced by the government. The situation is really precarious. The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) has reported that nearly 120 million people have lost their jobs in India lately.
Apart from the virtual no-assets-holding capacity of the urban workforce, the meagre amount that they are paid also robs them from any savings capacity for the future. Nearly 84.3 per cent casual workers get a monthly average income of less than Rs. 7, 500. It is impossible for such a large section of the urban workforce, who has not earned a penny in last few weeks, to survive in cities with such meagre wages.
Another aspect that is pivotal in city management is related to preparedness for disaster. The city has an important role to play in what is called the mitigation and adaption strategies for disaster risk reduction. However, a cursory look at developments in India since the last two months will find Chief Ministers and Health Ministers of respective states proactively dealing with the situation, but nowhere can we see the City Council or the Mayor’s intervention. Not to say that they are not part of the disaster management, but the way we have conceived our disaster management plans, such processes are faulty.
There is a State Disaster Management Plan, followed by the District Plan and in a few cities there is also a City Disaster Management Plan of Action (CDMA). However, according to the Disaster Management Act, the CDMA is not ratified, and hence, the City Council is a dis-empowered puppet in the hands of the district and state administrations. Despite the epicentres of the present COVID-19 crisis primarily being cities, the city governance is minus from its management. Barring Kerala, which has activated its City Councils and are running community kitchens, nowhere else in the country can one find the intervention of city governments in managing the pandemic. According to an affidavit filed by the Ministry of Home Affairs at the Supreme Court, Kerala is running 65 per cent of the relief camps for migrant workers in the state. 100 smart cities, more than 500 AMRUT cities have a kitty to their accounts. Had the government allowed city governments to function well and empowered them, this money could have been utilised for at least running community kitchens and providing shelters to the migrant workers in urban agglomerations.
Housing happens to be another major impediment for the urban workforce in the country. According to Prof. Ravi Srivastava of the Institute of Human Development (IHD), for any developing nation, the bare minimum of 25 per cent housing must be provided in the formal sector, and the private or informal housing market can cater to the 75 per cent. However, in the Indian scenario, the condition is extremely precarious and formal housing has fallen from 6 to 3 per cent in Modi Raj. In such a situation, how does one expect migrant workers to stay back in cities, with neither work, nor housing or food? In Delhi’s homeless shelters meant to provide a roof over the homeless, it is startling to note that nearly 95 per cent of its inmates are urban workers engaged in the informal sector, and not beggars.
Shimla’s Labour Hostels
The answer to such a situation lies in the construction of labour hostels, like the Kerala government did or the model of Shimla municipality that was developed almost a century ago. In Shimla, labour hostels were constructed to accommodate migrant workers, so that they could find a place to live in. Even today these labour hostels function well. We know that these labour hostels cannot be constructed overnight. However, at least while framing the Master Plans for cities, it is imperative that they take cognisance of the fact. Presently, there is a revision of Delhi’s Master Plan being done by the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA). It is important that the NIUA takes appropriate lessons and incorporates the demands of migrant workers for the construction of labour hostels and rental housing.
The pandemic will be over in sometime and the working people will again come back to the cities. Certainly, it will take time, but cities will bounce back. However, the smugness of things as usual cannot sustain. The slogan of ‘right to the city’ is not just a philosophical slogan, but an achievable creation. The right to the city means that residents of the city must be a part and parcel of city-making and should not be left out for planners and architects alone. The city must be shaped up by its people.
Another futuristic, perhaps utopian idea, would be to look at the ‘Seoul Declaration’ for a ‘decent work city’. Though the Seoul Declaration is not a socialist idea, it is one that asks cities and its governments to emphasise on the slogan of ‘decent work city’. This is certainly advancement from smart cities, which only sought investments and doled out concessions to multilateral agencies to run through city affairs, thus, making cities highly exclusive spatial areas. A ‘decent work city’ is definitely a step towards a more pro-active role of the city – that is role of the urban workforce, the city government and the city entrepreneurs.
Tikender Singh Panwar is a former Deputy Mayor of Shimla.
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