The ratio of urban poverty in some of the larger states
is higher than that of rural poverty leading to the phenomenon of
‘Urbanization of Poverty’. At the national level, rural poverty is higher
than poverty in urban areas but the gap between the two has decreased over
the last couple of decades. The incidence of decline of urban poverty has
not accelerated with GDP growth(1). As the urban population in the country
is growing, so is urban poverty.
Urban poverty, unlike rural poverty, imposes
considerable negative externalities on the society and economy. As the
Report points out, urban poverty poses the problems of housing and
shelter, water, sanitation, health, education, social security, and
livelihoods along with special needs of vulnerable groups like women,
children and aged people. Over-crowded slums, without access to these
basic civic amenities and social welfare nets, and with constant
uncertainty associated with evictions and loss of livelihoods, impose
considerable drags on the productivity and opportunities available to its
residents besides constraining economic growth. It also fuels social evils
like drugs and crime.
Although, urbanization is a generally positive factor
in overall poverty reduction, poor are urbanizing faster than the
population as a whole, thereby reflecting a lower pace of poverty
reduction in urban areas.
Challenges and Future Needs
With cities contributing over 62% of GDP, the
importance of urbanization cannot be under-played. With growing poverty
and slums, Indian cities have been grappling with the challenges of making
the cities sustainable i.e. inclusive, productive, efficient and
manageable. The sustainability of urban development in India is seen in
the context of shelter and slums, basic urban services, financing urban
development and governance and planning.
India has entered the Eleventh Plan period with an
impressive record of economic growth. However, the pace of decline of
urban poverty has not accelerated with GDP growth. In fact, urban poverty
will become a major challenge for policymakers in our country because as
the urban population in the country is growing, so is urban poverty.
Therefore, a need has arisen to develop new poverty reduction tools and
approaches to attack the multi-dimensional issues of urban poverty. For
this, policymakers at the national and local levels should have a good
understanding of the nature of urban poverty as well as accurate data on
various issues relating to it, in order to develop program/policies to
manage urban poverty in a systematic manner.
The Solutions
The Report proposes many solutions, few quite
innovative, to improve living condition of urban poor such as ensuring
greater equity in provision of basic amenities and subsidies to different
states and cities, special assistance to small and medium sized towns to
generate adequate resources, constitutional amendments for
decentralization, reorganization of slum communities, improving sanitation
standards by constructing community toilets and extending sewerage
networks to slum areas, and promotion of solar, bio-gas and other
non-conventional energy sources for street lights as well as for household
energy use. However, to implement such reforms, we need to generate
reliable data on the status of urban poor including homeless population in
the slums and pavement areas. In few metro cities this process has already
been started with the help of few NGOs, however, there is urgent need to
track down the vulnerable population in small and medium sized cities.
Conclusions
Urban India has a high incidence of poverty despite
being hailed as an engine of growth and instrument of globalization. The
pace of urbanization in India is set to increase, and with it, urban
poverty and urban slums. However, public policy measures for urban India
have lacked focus and proper allocation of funds. There is thus an urgent
need at the national level to document the key issues in urban poverty, to
assess the tasks at hand, and plan for the future.
