Cover Story: Civics; Slum of the Mind

Blinkered policies of the past have created nightmarish conditions in Indian cities. Unless we change the contours of our mindscape the urban landscape will continue to decay.

The maladies that afflict India's cities are not merely localised wounds that can be cleaned, disinfected and healed; they have deep roots. Basically the problem is civilisational. Cities shape civilisations and are in turn shaped by them. It is impossible to view them separately.

The picture is grim. There is no sanitation worth the name for 52 per cent of the urban population, and individual toilet facilities are available to only about 24 per cent. The sewage system covers only 35 per cent of the population of Class IV cities and 75 per cent of the population of Class I cities. About 34 per cent of urban population does not have any arrangement even for drainage of rain water.

FACTOIDS

ť There is no sanitation worth the name for 52 per cent of the urban population.

ť Individual toilet facilities are available to only about 24 per cent of urbanites.

ť The sewage system covers only 35 per cent of the population of Class IV cities and 75 per cent of Class I cities.

ť At least 35 per cent of our cities live in slum settlements. And their population is increasing at more than double the general growth rate of urban population.

Some 60 per cent of the municipal bodies collect less than 40 per cent of the solid waste generated daily. At least 28 per cent of the urban waste is allowed to decompose and putrefy on the roadside. Quite a substantial portion of it goes into the drains, choking them and creating slush and stink all around, besides being breeding grounds for disease.

Plus, on an average, the slums and squatters' population has been increasing at more than double the general growth rate of urban population. At least 35 per cent of our cities live in the slum-settlements. It is not only the absence of amenities but also the unclean way of life and utter disregard of civic obligation that make these slums extremely filthy. Internationally, there is nothing like the insanitary conditions prevailing in the slums of Calcutta and Kanpur.

Few cities in India are known for their urban discipline. But, of late, norms of organised civic life have been violated with impunity. Illegal encroachments and unauthorised constructions have become rampant. Land and building mafias have cropped up everywhere.

What is happening at present not only constitutes an open loot but also creates a highly unjust situation. While those who ravish the city and imperil its future get away with illegal gains, the law-abiding citizens suffer the consequences of traffic congestions and shortages of civic services that the additional constructions cause.

Of late, urban environment, too, has suffered a deep degradation. Delhi has attained the dubious distinction of being the fourth worst-polluted city in the world. Even in not so large cities as Amritsar and Ludhiana suspended particulate matter in the air now exceeds the safe level. The dust-load in the air of our cities is the highest in the world. A World Bank study suggests that the polluted air in the Indian cities is causing premature death of about 40,000 persons every year. The extent of water pollution can be gauged from the state of our rivers which, for most part of the year, are hardly distinguishable from vast urban gutters.

The crisis of governance is particularly marked at the municipal level. The 74th constitutional amendment ensured regular elections to urban bodies but it didn't improve their performance. Whereas urban governance demands a coherent, coordinated and vibrant set-up, our cities have been saddled with fragmented, fractured and imbecile authorities incapable of tackling core problems.

After Independence, India should have evolved a clear urban vision which should have been a part of an equally clear national vision. Unfortunately, those at the helm did not show any real ingenuity. They became more imitative than creative. They failed to regenerate the Indian mind. The Dickensian blight and haze that hang over the Indian cities today is nothing but a fallout of a fake and foggy vision.

Let me answer by looking at the most ancient city of India, Varanasi. If, under an inspiring urban vision, Ganga water had once again been made crystal clear, if the ghats had been rebuilt elegantly, if a green vista had been developed along the river front, if the temples had been renovated with an ancient touch and provided with open space around, and if the excessive trade and industry had been relocated, Varanasi would not only have regained its glory but also emerged as a thriving and a dynamic centre of modern civic life. It would have become a symbol of resurgent India. Now, in the absence of a vision, Varanasi has lapsed into a beehive of filth, congestion and urban blight.

Indian cities have suffered at the hands of the policy makers. Though 90 per cent of the government revenues and 60 per cent of our gross domestic product (GDP) are contributed by the cities, they, at the municipal level, get only 0.6 per cent of the GDP. Over the years, the percentage of Plan allocation has also declined. In 1951, allocation for urban development was 8 per cent of the total Plan outlay; now it is only 2.6 per cent. Resource allocation has shown a downward trend. For urban infrastructure alone, at least Rs 20,000 crore per annum would be required over the next 10 years, over and above the Plan resources, to make good the shortfall.

The future seems daunting. ESCAP estimates that between 1990 and 2020, India will add 418 million people to its cities. If present densities are maintained, urban areas will be two and a half times more extensive than they are now.

My blueprint has two facets -- involving the mindscape and the landscape. India must experience an awakening that should stir people and create in them an inner urge to rebuild their cities and civilisation.

At the landscape level, the future must involve an urban-land policy that provides social justice and treats land as a resource to be used for the benefit of the citizen; an approach towards shelter which recognises that the problem is not of housing in the conventional sense but of having a roof over the head; a framework of urban institutions which answers the current and emerging requirements of growing metros; a cadre of urban administrators who have the training and motivation to meet the new challenges; a human settlement technology which helps in the growth of harmonious communities; a strategy for outflanking the industrial revolution and evolving a new system of production and distribution; and a pattern for tapping financial resources and distributing them for balanced development.

Cities are the spiritual workshop of the nation. They are manifestations not only of physical architecture but the architecture of the mind. We can't let the rot persist.

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