Urban–Rural Divide Must Go

 Urbanization

                                                                                             

Urban Area, in general terms, is a place where there is large and relatively dense concentration of population and where inhabitants are engaged in non-agricultural occupations. The urban areas have emerged mainly because of historical reasons and locational advantages and have become industrial and commercial centers and seats of governance and learning.

 

The urbanization has long been seen as a necessary step in economic development and therefore Cities have been referred to, as engines of development that fuel economic progress. But they are also increasingly being seen, as the prime machines that pollute and degrade environment. As cities grow, so do their adverse impact on health and quality of life, because too many people will be chasing too little. Therefore the mega-cities jeopardize the very hope for better living, for which the city dweller aspires.

 

Trends of Urbanization

 

There has been dramatic growth of global urban population since beginning of last century, going up from 1 urbanite in every 10 in 1900, to 3 in 10 in 1948. Today's population, in well developed countries is already urban and their future urban growth will be relatively slow. But in developing countries, the urban growth will be relatively higher and more than 50% of urban population, unlike in developed countries, will be living in conditions that threaten their health, even their lives. The greatest challenge facing the developing countries in 21^st century is to solve these problems and to provide better urban life to this majority population.

 

Rural Migration

 

In India about 74% of population of more than100 crores (one billion), lives in about 600,000 villages and yet, it has the second largest urban population in the world and is expected to go up in the years to come. The growing economic disparities between urban and rural, and the pressure on fragmented agricultural land, lack of employment opportunities, the neglect of traditional trades/skills, non-availability of basic civic amenities and good quality primary education and health care, the traditional malice to cast etc in villages, are largely contributing to the migration of rural population to cities.

 

The situation in the States of Punjab , Haryana and  Kerala is some what different, because of rural prosperity due to comparatively well developed infrastructure and the availability of better opportunities in villages. This minimized the migration of rural population to cities, preventing the emergence of large metropolitan cities in these states. During the last five decades, large number of urban centers have emerged in other states, on the western model, ignoring the needs of villages and the problems of inequality, poverty etc peculiar to our country. As a result a high proportion of urban population lives in slums, without basic amenities.

 

Urban Slums

 

 Earlier when urbanization was not a very serious issue in our country we were talking about Slum-Clearance. Today the slums have been recognized as the main feature of the urban environment. Now the priority seems to be Slum-Upgrading through a variety of programmes such as Urban Community development, Urban Poverty alleviation, Slum environmental improvement etc, funded by external agencies like DFID. But the malaise is that ghettos have been created in the process and they have been politicized. In other words, vote-banks have been created ignoring socio-economic uplift of slum dwellers.

 

AP State Urbanization

                    

 Andhra Pradesh State with a population of about 7.60 Crores (76 million), has an urban population of about 2.10 Crores (21 million). This works out to be about 27%, which is higher than all India urban average of 25.72%, and may go up to 50% by 2020, if the present trends are allowed to continue. The cities of Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada put together cater for about 39% of total urban population of the state, while Hyderabad alone accounts for 27.60% and the balance 61% is spread over about 200 towns, which are becoming overcrowded and becoming unmanageable. This has brought tremendous pressure on land in and around Hyderabad and other cities/ towns, leading to  encroachment of water bodies, parks, hills, open spaces etc causing unprecedented rise in temperatures, flooding and   inundation of residential areas/roads and irreversible damage to environment.

 

Urban- Rural Disparities

 

 If the present trends of urbanization are allowed to continue unchecked, the population of Hyderabad Metropolitan Area (HMA) is expected to cross one Crore (10 million) by 2015, which will be well neigh impossible to manage. Therefore there is an urgent need to arrest and reverse the migration from rural to urban areas. The migration is a product of both the Pull of perceived opportunities and services in the urban areas and the Push of rural unemployment and lack of facilities. But unfortunately, instead of reducing urban-rural disparities and balancing the pull- push factors, more and more investments are being made to augment urban infrastructure facilities, which have become unmanageable. These ill-conceived urban investments, in projects like flyovers and other fancy projects, having short term and marginal benefits, not commensurate with the money spent, are sending wrong signals to encourage migration and to add to urban problems.

 

 Reverse Rural Migration

                    

There are no quick and easy solutions to complex urban problems in isolation from rural problems. The planned reverse migration is not only feasible but also essential to save the cities, as well as to revive the village economy.  There has to be a concerted action plan, for integrated development, at the level of Villages, Mandal headquarters, District towns, Cities and Metropolitan areas, as a total human settlement package. And each level should have a role, based on its advantages, to channelize mobility in a given direction, through appropriate employment opportunities and a physical and social infrastructure.

 

The Panchayats at Village, Mandal and District levels should be endowed with such powers and authority to enable them to function as intuitions of self government in accordance with Article 243 of The Constitution of India ((incorporated by Seventy-third Amendment) This approach will facilitate spreading of urban facilities to rural areas and to bring down disparity, instead of concentration in a few cities adding to their problems. All these will show results over a period of time and are not suited to short term oriented decision makers (political and bureaucratic},who want the black magic of producing results overnight.

              

India vs. Bharat

 

  Sri.M.Venkaiah Naidu, former Union Minister for Rural Development, said that our entire system has an urban bias, because organized & educated people and the Infrastructure are concentrated in the urban areas of the country, creating urban-rural disparities. He also said that India (Urban) has Cyber Towers, Internet, Flyovers, Expressways etc, while Bharat (Rural) lacks basic amenities like Water supply, Sanitation, Health care, Housing and Roads and this Urban-Rural divide must go.