The World Town Planning Day was celebrated in 30 countries of four continents on November 8. It was a special day to recognise and promote the role of planning in creating livable urban communities.
Sadly, the town planners are yet to bring inclusive city planning in India. It has been a major issue that the urban planners have continuously ignored urban slums and the children in specific. Children living in slums have been treated as step kids and have not been active stakeholders of urban renewal policies and programmes.
According to the Census, 2011, 1.37 crore households or 17.4 per cent of urban India’s population lives in slums. In Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal, more than 1 in 5 urban households live in a slum. In Odisha percentage of slum population is 23.1.
Out of the total slum population in Odisha, 32.7 per cent live in semi-permanent or temporary houses where they face evacuation on regular basis. 49.8 per cent of the slum households use grass wood, thatch, metal, asbestos sheets as material for roof and 28 per cent have mud walls. These materials are temporary and do not guard against extremities of weather. Only 38 per cent of the houses are in ‘good’ condition according to Census figures. It gives a picture where children are mostly neglected. 10-15per cent children are living in slums in Odisha.
Over the period 1991-2001, urban population has grown nearly twice than the State population. However, starting from a low base of urbanisation, while these rates appear high; the challenges posed by absolute numbers do seem manageable. The urban sanitation scenario is a cause for concern — 40 per cent of urban households in the State do not have access to a latrine, another 11 per cent of households have to share latrines with others (NFHS 2006).
The 2011 Census has stated that 39 per cent of the households living in slums have a one-room dwelling and 34 per cent have two rooms. lack of access to basic services is obvious through the following data. An overwhelming 49.6 per cent of the households do not have any kind of bathing facility and about 1.7 lakh households (48.33 per cent) or 8.5 lakh people of the slum defecate in the open. 53.9 per cent of the households do not have any drainage connectivity for waste water.
The impacts of unsafe sanitation conditions and behaviour are immense that adversely affect the urban poor, women and children. Besides poverty, lack of tenure, housing and environmental conditions in slum etc., constrains the urban poor households from gaining access to safe sanitation.
The allocation of funds in the State Budget though plays a major role but it also lacks in proper financial management and allocation of resources. 84 per cent of department budget in average during last five years goes for establishment, maintenance and housekeeping related expenditure, while only 16 per cent has been allocated for creation of new assets against rapid urbanization in the State.
Again Odisha has developed a sanitation strategy. All the goals of this strategy are to be achieved over a period of six years (2012-18). looking at the budget allocation under this head in the department gives a gloomy picture. The allocation made for this purpose was Rs18.77 crore (1.33 per cent) during 2012-13 which reduced to only Rs50 lakh for the year 2013-14 (0.02 per cent). Adding to this it is a fact that children of around 20 per cent households in the city are still deprived of toilet facility for which they resort to open defecation. The main challenges of urbanisation in India are shortage of housing which is 18.78 million according to the 2011 census. 70.6 per cent of urban population is covered by individual water connections while in China this is 91per cent, in South Africa 86 per cent and in Brazil 80 per cent. Duration of water supply in India cities is between one to six hours.
According to 2011 census, 13 per cent of urban population defecates in the open, 37 per cent are connected by open drains and 18 per cent are not connected at all. 7.6 million young children living in urban poverty in Indian suffer due to improper town planning in the country. The air quality has also deteriorated sharply carrying with it concomitant health costs. It has impacted directly to the children causing several diseases.
Strategy to integrate networking of slums to city infrastructure and developing investment plans for slum infrastructure should be given priority as facts shows that slums have 20-25 per cent of population but use less than 3 per cent of land. The poor, especially the children, do not have any formal stake over land and hence, are not a part of the planning process. This indicates a gap between the plans and the reality. Time has come for the planners to visioning the world class cities with proper inclusion of urban poor and young children living in it.
It is noted that the Central Government has two major policies such as JNNURM and RAY for urban development where there have been plans to redevelop slums and make India free from slums. But civil society members across India are now advocating for an inclusive development for all where women and children have equal share in the planning process and ensure a safe living condition for all.
(The writer is a Bangalore-based development journalist and researcher on urban planning and slum development in India)