Total Share of India’s Urban Population Estimated to grow to 41% of the total Population by 2030 says Secretary Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation

The Secretary, Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation Smt. Kiran Dhingra has said that while a mere 28% in 2001, the total share of India’s urban population is estimated to grow to 41% of the total population by 2030. Addressing the Plenary Session on “Building a better world– Experience and Challenges” at CIB World Congress 2010 in Manchester, United Kingdom she said, some estimates place this at 55% in the year 2050. From 2003 to 2007, India witnessed an unprecedented economic growth spurt at 9%. Due to the economic slowdown of 2008, however, this rate has decreased to between 6% and 7%; for a developing country, however, this is still an impressive rate of growth to maintain. The Secretary said, of these figures, cities contribute to 60% of the country’s GDP. The percentage of population below poverty line in the country has gone down from 55% in 1973-74 to 27.5% in 2004-05. For urban areas the percentage of poor has reduced from 49% in 1993-74 to 25.7% in 2004-05.

She said, in the year 2004-05, the estimated number of urban poor was 81 million and the number of slum dwellers was 62 million. In 2001, there were 779,000 people living without homes. According to the Census of India, 2001, only 64% of urban India lives in homes that are in a ‘good condition’ while close to 1.93 million live in dilapidated houses followed by 17.31 million living in houses that are in a ‘livable condition’. The Census of India further reports that in 2001, 26% of the urban population did not have a latrine facility within their homes. The 61st Round of the National Sample Survey reveals that 44 males and 91 females out of every 1000 males and females respectively, were registered as unemployed in the year 2004-2005. Further only about 60% of the non-agricultural workforce, and as little as 40% of the female workforce worked in what can be considered a “designated workplace” in the conventional sense of the term. 18.5 million urban households (35%) had to fetch drinking water from a location away from their residential premises.

Smt. Kiran Dhingra said, the issues facing the government of India vis-à-vis urban poverty can therefore be summed up as unemployment, poor living conditions, lack of back services and lack of property rights, resulting in insecurity of tenure. She said, the challenge was how to attack these issues without excluding the urban poor as citizens with a right to their city. The aim of the government of India, simply put was to devise programmes for the growth and development of cities where ALL people, especially the urban poor, live lives in dignity and with inclusive access to basic services. A sustained development of infrastructure to meet the growing needs of the increasing urban population without excluding the urban poor and slum dwellers due to their lack of ‘voice’ is our goal.

She said, towards this end, India has adopted a policy framework for augmenting housing and addressing the issues of slum development and poverty alleviation in cities through the Five Year Plans. Referring to the national strategies to address urban issues, she said, the Government of India has taken major initiatives to address urban problems, especially the issues of affordable housing and basic services to urban poor, including slum dwellers. She said, the first is the enactment of the Constitution 74th Amendment Act 1992. This accorded a Constitutional status to the Municipalities as the third tier of government. She said, the Amendment envisages a legal-institutional framework for democratic decentralization. It reserves one-third of the seats in municipal councils for women, and the reservation of seats for weaker sections of society. It also provides a list of 18 functions as belonging to the legitimate domain of the municipalities. The Act envisages urban poverty alleviation and slum up-gradation as legitimate functions of urban local bodies.

The Secretary said, a second major initiative that the Government of India has championed is the launch of the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission. JNNURM is the single largest initiative ever launched nationally to address the problems of infrastructure and basic services to the poor in cities and towns in a holistic manner. JNNURM is demand-driven and reform-led scheme covering 65 identified cities of national importance. The scheme focuses on the implementation of a 7-Point Charter, namely the provision of land tenure, affordable housing, water, sanitation, education, health and social security. As on March 2010, the Government has approved a total project cost of approximately USD 25 Billion for JNNURM.

Other initiatives of the Government of India include: adopting ‘Inclusive Growth’ as the development paradigm for the country’s 11th Five Year Plan covering the period 2007-2012, implementation of Skill Development Mission and the Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY) to address the issues of skill development, employability and employment of the poor, National Policy on Street Vendors, Scheme of Integrated Low Cost Sanitation, Gender Budgeting and National Urban Housing & Habitat Policy 2007.

Smt. Kiran Dhingra said, the most recent initiative that the Government of India is working on is a mission to make India slum-free, called Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY). This adopts a whole-city approach to include the urban poor within the formal system of planning in cities by providing property rights to slum dwellers. She said, RAY will tackle shortages of urban land and housing that keep shelter out of the reach of the urban poor forcing them to resort to extra-legal solutions in a bid to retain their sources of livelihood and employment. States and cities will be encouraged to develop slum-free state and slum-free city plans that are informed by GIS-enabled MIS mapping of the cities including slum areas to better enable experts and planners to approach city development in a more inclusive manner. These plans will be sustained by enabling legislation in each state that will accord property rights to the urban poor. She said, the preparation for this now complete, RAY is now operational from the current fiscal year starting in April 2010.

Smt. Dhingra referred to the recently released “State of the World’s Cities Report 2010/11” which claimed that India has been successful in improving the lives of 59.7 million slum dwellers since the year 2000. Slum prevalence, according to the same report, has fallen from 41.5 % in 2000 to 28.1% in 2010, a relative decrease of 32%. She said, while statistics like these boost the morale of a government trying to alleviate urban poverty, we must caution ourselves against resting on our accolades. We still have the remaining 28.1% slum dwellers to think of. She said, we still have to ensure that those 32% who have managed to pull themselves out of poverty do not, for a variety of reasons, fall below the poverty line.

AD/DB