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3861

An Approach Of Sustainable Urban Development

In India

Asoke Howlader, Sidhartha Sankar Laha, Arindam Modak

Abstract : Sustainable development for urban society is the most important issue in the fast changing world. In developing societies, skilled a nd sustainable management of natural and human resources becomes essential with the boom of city-ward in-migration and resultant concentration of dense population in unofficial settlements coupled with higher consumption patterns. The wellbeing of inhabiting households i s directly shaped by the necessary household facilities like drinking water, sanitation, sewerage, cooking fuel, power resources, and house patterns. Considering the emerging role of developing cities and metropolises in the national financial system of India, it is noteworthy to understand that sus tainable approaches must become the basis for future development in urban areas. In this context, the insistent need for competent administration and basics of intensively designed good governance systems are mostly appropriate. They could upgrade the urban structures and thereby boost the functi oning power of sub-systems formed by physical infrastructure, health, education, law and order, real estate, demographic, employment, labour, environment et c. The paper proposes to highlight the conceptualisation and foundation for execution of sustainable development goals (SDGs) in ur ban Indian context. The circumstances of living in slum areas and across the size-class towns are pointed precisely using Census of India data. Development programmes and efforts of good practices in cities for the enforcement of SDGs have also been discussed thoroughly.

Index Terms : Good-practices, Governance, Housing Amenities, MDGs, SDGs, Slum, Sustainable Development.

——————————  ——————————

1.

INTRODUCTION

Transitions in any aspect in life are the hardest and difficult process. But change is the constant and desired driving force provided that the change must strive towards the holistic improvement of the systemic whole. Sustainable development goals (SDGs) thus replaced the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in September 2015 with a wider objective of synthesizing all communities and efforts in all participating countries to endeavour to achieve the multiple targets in almost every realm and path of developmental scheme by 2030. In this backdrop one can visualize the urban regions especially the densely populated cities and metropolises in India as one of the crucial domain where initiatives of SDGs should be focussed in a massive way and be given the foremost attention. This is because the statistics suggest that level of urbanization of the world will reach 66% by year 2050 (UN, 2014) and the loci of growth of urban population and emergence of new towns will shift towards the Asia, Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. Given the fact that India might surpass Chinese demographic growth rates within the same tenure, it is imperative to analyse the dynamics of Indian urban scenario with the purview of sustainability issues.

The real challenge lies in keeping pace the provisions of basic minimum requirements that is indispensable for a decent and dignified living with the multiplying population numbers in the biggest metropolises of India; Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kolkata to name a few. The concern here is of the poor, low income population especially the migrants who throng the already teeming metropolises in search of better livelihood and social opportunities from the villages and small towns. Without effective and sustainable urban planning measures this at present is and in future would aggravate the inequalities and discrepancies in standards of living, well being and quality of life in general of the urban residents. Public utility services and infrastructural set up both the physical and the social, needs to be modernized and to be made more efficient and sustainable. Planning is conceptualized at varied levels, be it spatial, strategic, time bound, developmental among others. Another distinctiveness one must comprehend and likewise cater to in planning is that a city exists in multiple systems and subsystems of economic, social, cultural, physical, political and psycho-social nuclei. Inclusiveness becomes the next important criteria which the SDGs have ear-marked thereby making the society converging towards an ideally non-existent or a much reduced inter-group inequalities. As Kundu (2003) points out that in the post-globalized scenario, cities are portrayed in a neo-liberal manner which facilitates inflow of global capital. But this creates wider implications for the diverging income inequalities and benefits that are only reaped by the smaller proportion of affluent and higher income sections of society. Thus the socio-economically marginalised groups of scheduled caste, scheduled tribes, religious minorities, disabled, women and aged population has to be brought under the ambit of sustainable policies and opportunities for harbouring an equitable society with inclusiveness. Inclusiveness urban development means all that growth processes that allows all human beings to reach their highest potential in cities, and in this one must add the notion of sustainability which means all those improvements that plans and builds a better urban future for the next generation. But there are challenges and bottlenecks associated with getting the SDGs operational. The key factors involved are multifaceted and diverse while the integration of program policies which are multidimensional and

__________________________

Mr. Asoke Howlader, PhD Scholar, Department of Humanities and

Social Sciences, National Institute of Technology Durgapur, West Bengal 713209, India,E-mail: asoke.nitd@gmail.com

Dr. Sidhartha Sankar Laha, Assistant Professor, Department of

Economics, Tufanganj Mahavidyalaya, Cooch Behar, West Bengal 736160, India, E-mail: sidharthasankar09@gmail.com

Dr. Arindam Modak, Associate Professor, Department of

Humanities and Social Sciences, National Institute of Technology

Durgapur, West Bengal 713209, India,E-mail:

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implementation of these targeted interventions at multi-spatial levels may become difficult in wake of political red-tapism, power conflicts, problem in logistics, real estate and land governance issues and inadequate social awareness movements.

2

CONCEPTUALISATION

OF

SUSTAINABLE

DEVELOPMENT

GOALS

(SDGS)

The conceptualisation of SDGs from MDGs was made so as to broaden the scope and content of the goal path and also to be followed by all counties in the world. MDGs were targeted to only the poor and developing and least developed countries and the goals were fewer. Unlike that SDGs are applicable to all countries and with 17 prescribed goals each focussing on separate themes which are also at the larger extent mutually interconnected with one another. SDGs emerged step by step after the country heads met in Stockholm in 1972 where the human rights for healthy and decent living were discussed. In 1983, the term and concept of sustainable development was defined by the United Nations (UN) World Commission on Environment and Development. Thereafter the Rio de Janeiro summit in 1992 took place and Agenda 21 was adopted. In 2011 the concept of SDG was proposed and adopted by UN. But soon it was realised that the MDGs were narrow in focus where poverty eradication and tackling of hunger, improving child and maternal health, eradication of some diseases, achieving only universal primary education and global partnership were brought within its ambit. It was criticised to be a top-down approach. SDGs are based on the foundation of MDGs, where massive improvement in broad and as well as specific outlines in objectives, mechanisms, participation and funding has been made over the latter. A total of 17 goals with intertwined 169 targets are designated to be achieved by 2030, involving 193 member countries with a non-binding resolution of the UN was initiated in 2015 aiming at transforming the world keeping in mind the future expectations and opportunities. MDGs have gained prominence in SDGs with separate goals assigned to land and water resource management. Since only primary education was emphasised in MDGs, the secondary and tertiary education suffered. There was also lack of consensus on the measurement indicators in MDG structure. The world-wide implementation of multiple schemes under the SDGs has begun with many countries inculcating their national planning targets in congruence to SDG targets. Obstacles in the form of economic inequality and downturn, effective communications for forging inter-country cooperation and teamwork and interlinking the targets and goals for which suitable techniques, methodological procedures and proper measurable indicators, are touted to reduce the pace of progress in SDG achievement.

3 RATIONALE

FOR

SDGS

IN

URBAN

INDIA

This article focuses on the most essential area of concern; basic amenities and the health sector of the urban population. As proclaimed by Prof. Amartya Sen in many of his writings and also has been advocated perpetually by the United Nations that health and education forms the foundation of an economy on which the superstructure of the political, economic and other social developments are laid. Human capital both the physiological and mental capacities can be harnessed to its highest productivity if the population is healthy and is educated in different forms of knowledge and creativity and is exposed to quality skills training. Thus it becomes the

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3863

4 METHODOLOGY

AND

DATABASE

The paper focuses on exploring few of the contemporary issues that underline the process of urbanization in India in the background of sustainable development. The necessity and urgent deliberation in the incorporation of sustainable practices in urban living has been discussed. Census of India data published by the Office of the Registrar General of India (ORGI) for 2001 and 2011 has been used to comprehend the urban infrastructure and condition of distribution of basic amenities across the urban households and within slum settlements. The inter-tier urban hierarchy across the size class of urban centres in the access to amenities such as housing structure, safe drinking water, toilet, bathroom facilities and drainage systems are analysed. Apart from that, a brief discussion about the intra-urban disparity in Kolkata city is also made based on the field survey conducted by the author in 2015-16. The paper also aims to give a review of best practices in sustainable urban development that has been undertaken in India and attempts to integrate the urban policy interventions that are being implemented in the country in recent times.

5 LIFE

IN

SLUM

IN

INDIA

According to the Census of India, the urban population of the country stood at 377 million or 31.14% of the total population. The number of cities and towns in India increased in number by 2772 from 5,161 in 2001 to 7933 in 2011. The number of million plus cities has grown from 35 in 2001 to 52 in 2011, accounting for 43% of India’s urban population. In 2011, Census of India reported that 65 million people in India lived in slums, which are often juxtaposed with the multi-storeyed buildings and commercial structures like departmental stores and shopping malls. This figure constitutes about17.4% of urban Indian population which resided in slums. Andhra Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal are the top five ranking states that have the highest proportion of their urban households living in slums amounting to about 35.7%, 31.9%, 28.3%, 23.1% and 21.9% in the same respectively (Census of India, 2011).

TABLE 1

DISTRIBUTION OF SLUM POPULATION ACROSS SIZE CLASS TOWNS AND CITIES, INDIA, 2011

Size Class Percentage Distribution (2011)

Metro Cities 38.9

Non-metropolitan Class I Cities 34.7

Class I 73.5

Class II 11.8

Class III 10.4

Class IV 3.4

Class V 0.8

Class VI 0.05

All Towns 26.5

Source: Computations based on Primary Census Abstract

Data for Slum, Census of India, 2011

Dharavi in Mumbai, which has the title of being Asia’s second

largest and the world’s third largest slum settlement houses multi-cultural and multi-ethnic majorly migrant population engaged in active and intensely diversified informal and self-employment economy. The slum residents have slowly formed manifold and vibrant household enterprises which register huge financial turnovers annually. Quality of living within slums are degenerative, with narrow alleys, back to back closely space tenements, often interspaced with open drainage, garbage dumps nearby. Insufficient toilet and bathing facilities and water sources such as municipal taps and tube-wells put high pressure on the per capita quality for availability and access in terms of duration and amount. This highlights the necessity to delve into the availability and access to basic amenities across the urban and slum population in the country. In this regard one needs to also understand the land ownership and land policy and site aspects of the low income settlements and slum houses. Slums are located on private lands such as the ones in Chawls in Mumbai, Bustees in Kolkata and Ahatas in Kanpur, while other temporary huts are on public lands on city fringes (Sundaram, 1990).

6 HOUSING

AMENITIES

ACROSS

THE

SLUM

HOUSEHOLDS

IN

INDIA

The distribution and access to basic civic amenities across the slum households in India manifests inequality across the town size classes. The Census of India data for the year 2011 in terms of safe drinking water, toilet, bathroom and other sanitation facilities such as drainage and garbage disposal systems, types of cooking fuel and location of kitchen space and house structure and tenure mechanism is analysed hereafter. The conditions in which the slum households live and the degree of availability and accessibility of housing amenities among the slum households depicts wide ranged inequality among the tier classes of town.

6.1 Drinking Water

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completely dependent on underground water for drinking water supply.

TABLE 2

DISTRIBUTION OF SLUM HOUSEHOLDS BY MAIN SOURCE OF DRINKING WATER, INDIA, 2011

Size Class

Main Source of Drinking Water (%) Tap

water Well

Hand pump

Tube

well Others Urban India 74.0 0.8 12.7 7.6 4.9 Metropolitan

Cities 84.4 0.5 6.4 5.7 3.1

Non-metropolitan

Class I cities 69.9 0.8 14.9 9.2 5.2

Class I 77.5 0.7 10.4 7.4 4.1

Class II 68.0 1.0 15.2 9.0 6.8

Class III 61.8 1.3 21.1 8.4 7.5

Class IV 59.8 0.9 24.2 7.1 8.0

Class V 61.6 0.8 23.3 5.4 8.9

Class VI 87.3 0.4 6.6 3.2 2.5

All Towns 64.4 1.1 18.9 8.4 7.3

Source: Computations based on Census of India, 2011, Houses, Household Amenities and Assets in Slums

6.2 Toilet Facility

About 66% of the slum households and 81.4% of the urban households in India have toilets within premises as per the 2011 Census of India records. Out of the 34% slum households who do not have toilets within their homes, 18.9% defecate in the open (Census of India, 2011). Pit latrine is used by 6.2% and water closet by 57.7% slum households. Similarly 19% do not have access to bathroom within their premises. In Class II towns, 62.4 % of the slum households had access to toilets, while this proportion decreased to 32.5 % slum households having access to toilets in the Class V towns. The situation is dismal in the Class II towns where only a mere 9.5% of the slum households were connected to a sewerage mechanism. This figure keeps declining in the lower size class of towns.

6.3 Drainage Facility

Around 44.3% slum households are serviced by open drainage while 18.8 % households have no drainage at all. The stark disparity across the size class distribution of urban centres is well marked. Approximately 93.1 % of the slum households in the metropolitan cities had access to drainage facilities, whereas about 67.9 % of the slum households in these cities had access to covered drainage system. Surprisingly this figure is much higher than the mean value for the total slum households of urban India. The level of accessibility of slum households to drainage decreased with the decreasing size-class order of towns. Class II towns (73.5%) accounted for the highest proportion of slum households with access to drainage facility at while Class V towns (51%) had the lowest proportion.

6.4 Housing – Structure, Conditions and Tenure Status

A large number of slums are situated at vulnerable locations such as in the vicinity of drains, canals, riverbanks, landfills and along the railway tracks. These slums have a variety of housing typologies ranging from pucca, semi-pucca; where

there is brick masonry with mud plaster or thatch roof, to kutcha mud houses and small shacks made of wood or bamboo, slate and plastic sheets. The quality of housing unit depends on a combination of factors such as the age of settlement, tenure security and infrastructure provision. The impact of tenure security is largely reflected on the quality of structure (UNHSP, 2003). Census of India 2011 for the first time released datasets on ‘Housing Stock and Amenities’ for slums in India. Most of the slum houses in urban India had permanent structures. The remaining 14.8 % slum households had semi-permanent structures and 4.6 % had temporary structures. In metropolitan cities, 86.6 % of the slum households had permanent structures, 3.03 % had temporary structures and 9.3 % had semi-permanent structures. The quality of structures deteriorates in lower order towns. In Class IV and Class V towns nearly one-half of the total houses either had semi-permanent or temporary structures. Moreover, it is interesting to note that, proportion of ownership of the dwelling is the least in metropolitan cities as compared to any other size class of cities/towns. This suggests that high land prices makes it extremely difficult for the poor, especially migrants to own the dwelling and a higher share of migrant households live in rented accommodation.

TABLE 3

CONDITION OF HOUSING STRUCTURES IN SLUMS, INDIA, 2011

Size Class of Urban Centres

Condition of House Structures (%) Good Liveable Dilapidated

Urban India 58.4 37.6 4.0

Metropolitan Cities 60.2 36.7 3.1 Non-metropolitan

Class I Cities 58.0 37.5 4.5

Class I 59.2 37.1 3.8

Class II 59.6 36.0 4.4

Class III 54.5 40.4 5.1

Class IV 51.5 43.1 5.3

Class V 50.1 45.3 4.6

Class VI 67.1 29.9 3.0

All Towns 58.4 37.6 4.0

Source: Computations based on Census of India, 2011, Houses, Household Amenities and Assets in Slums

6.5 Cooking Fuel, Kitchen Space and Ownership of Specific Assets

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3865 6.6 Intra-city Inequality across Slum Households: Case

Study of Kolkata

The notion that all slums irrespective of their location, growth pattern, size and history of evolution will have the same problems is an erroneous idea. This can be supported from some of the primary surveys and observations conducted in 2015 and 2016 by the author in about 45 slums in the city of Kolkata. The survey revealed that there exist a conspicuous heterogeneity between the slums of the northern and the southern parts of Kolkata city in general in terms of standard of living, asset ownership and the consequent state of health and relative wellbeing. Households were canvassed in terms of their family background, occupational distribution, health condition, housing amenities, and ownership status. Slum dwellers in general have poor standard of living, but overall the situation is not homogeneous. The older established slum pockets in the northern parts of Kolkata have better living standards relative to the eastern and western slums and the southern pockets have mixed condition. The better off slums have almost more than twenty hours of tap water supply and location of toilets and drinking water sources are mostly within the house premises and street lanes are broader and spacious than other parts of the city. This is because of the proximity of water pumping and purification and transmission node in northern Kolkata. Garbage collection and sewage disposal which are the two most vital backbones of sanitation is found to be smoothly operative and better organised with regular disposal of household and municipal wastes accompanied by frequent visits of the municipal sweepers and health workers who take initiatives to educate the masses regarding vaccination, upkeep of the surroundings from disease outbreaks and also set up frequent health camps for medical checkups of the slum residents. The same can be said about the south Kolkata slums as well, especially the ones lying adjacent to the posh neighbourhoods and newly developed southern fringes of the city. The eastern slums perform worst in sanitation, sewerage, garbage disposal and in other standard of living indicators. It is worth mentioning that these slums are located near the East Kolkata Wetlands (one of the world’s Ramsar site) which is the low lying area vulnerable to flooding in rainy season. Poor people try to live in spaces that are near to their workplaces and the preferred location of their housing is bound by occupational choice that they are engaged into. Most leather tanneries and informal leather product manufacturing units are located within the eastern parts of Kolkata and adjacent slums, and so the stench, waste heaps and dump yards of animal by-products make the living conditions worse in these slum pockets. Thus geographical location and economies associated with it influence the level of development of the spatial entity and the occupants of that space. Thus another approach that must be kept in mind is that one size fits all policy will not do justice to all cities and town planning with a sustainable goal orientation. It is true that initially a level of uniformity must be maintained in providing basic services to all towns under national and regional developmental programs. But henceforth micro-region planning and small scale plans for solving slum-specific and location specific problems must be framed for each city.

6.7 Standard of Living and Health Conditions

Standard of living can be assessed using some selected indicators namely the housing structure, type of cooking fuel used, location of kitchen, source of drinking water, presence of

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governmental policies viewed slums as nuisances and eye sores, thus promoted slum eviction and demolition drives, but now sustainable governance focuses on slum regeneration and in-situ redevelopment plans like the one undertaken at present in Delhi’s Kathputli colony. It is necessary to plan for the slum dwellers keeping in mind that housing for the poor is not only a residence for them but it is an economic asset and a workplace as well. House structures only transform into housing when it is well connected with services such as safe and quality drinking water supply, sanitation, drainage, solid waste management, access to reliable and cheap and environment friendly efficient energy and transport facilities. Housing must also be ensured with secured tenure and entitlement as low and poor income households earn livelihood from informal and unorganised economic activities such as envelope and garland making, piece-rate and contractual work and self employment like garment making, manufacturing of textile, leather, plastic, rubber and wood products which are located within their houses. This highlights the need for decent work and working conditions (envisaged under SDG 8) within the house and other manufacturing unit structures. Materials of building construction are often inferior and semi-durable like thatch, unbaked tiles, clay and mud, tarpaulin and plastic sheets which subject the house structures to decay under bad and extreme weather conditions such as torrential rainfall, earthquakes, cold and heat waves and consequent health crisis. Roofing and flooring with permanent materials like stone, cement and mortar, bricks are thus safe, secure and durable. Granting of land rights and ownership rights of the dwelling to the economically poorer households in the slums by the city administration would go a long way in securing their livelihood and future entitlements. This would also encourage the people to invest in the land and the house structures through community participation and thereby improve the liveability quotient of the area.

7 URBAN

DEVELOPMENT

PROGRAMMES

IN

INDIA

Recent up-gradations of ‘Housing for All scheme by 2022’by government of India has helped in creating affordable, adequate and viable housing for the urban poor and slum dwellers along with low income groups (LIGs) and economically weaker sections (EWSs). Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) which envisages inclusive and equitable cities whereby slums of all kinds; notified, non-notified and recognized are entitled with provisioning and improving the infrastructural facilities. This is supported by ancillary services of easy availability of cheap institutional credit facilities. Similarly the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) and now Atal Mission for Rejuvenation Urban Transformation (AMRUT) programme of public-private partnership in urban infrastructure development has augmented the urban regeneration and renewal in selected big cities and towns. The Smart Cities Mission policy has also brought in more domestic and foreign investments and heightened focus on urban development. Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana (PMAY) launched in 2015 for a period up to 2022, aims to provide technical and financial assistance to the urban local bodies (ULBs) in achieving in-situ rehabilitation of the slum dwellers through credit linked subsidy and private partnership. Though initially 500 Class I cities have been chosen to be focuses for the Yojana, but it is intended to cover all 4041 statutory towns in India. The recent Swachha Bharat Mission (SBM) launched in

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3867

8 GOOD

PRACTICES

IN

REALIZING

SDSS

IN

INDIA

Tracking the progress of SDGs is a daunting task unless technology such as online web portals for updating, exchanging and analysing real-time database is used extensively. When considering India’s performance in MDGs, inter-target disparity is noticed. Some targets such as reducing maternal mortality rate and halving the percentage of people suffering from hunger has been reported to be slow paced and wide variations is visible in the inter-state performance. But India has performed moderately in prevalence rates of malaria and tuberculosis under the targets conceptualised within MDGs. World Bank report suggests that poverty rates have fallen from 51% in 1990 to 30% in 2010. Performance of India largely determines the performance of South Asia as India is a leader among these nations and because of its sheer numbers. But now under the plan tenure of the SDGs India has treaded quite a way forward with the initiation of programmes to accomplish targeted goal posts. Some good practices in convergence towards sustainable development goals have been on the way in India in many instances. Financial inclusion has been achieved to some extent in India by way of Jan-Dhan Yojana (JDY); whereby savings account opened in public sector banks have brought the poor and asset less population within institutionalized monetary setup. Promotion of gender equality and women’s entrepreneurship like the extension of Self Help Groups (SHGs) and microfinance institutions such as Bandhan, Arohan and Ujjivan which provide cheap and soft loans to small women savers who are engaged in informal employment in India. Among the good practices in sanitation Swachha Bharat Mission in India can be named which has catered to public imagination. Construction of toilets, scientific segregation of garbage and its disposal, usage of green manure has led to many town and city administration to declare themselves open defecation free (ODF). Sanitation and gendered approach to solving inaccessibility to toilets has got boost in the form of construction of toilets for men, women and disabled population. The North Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has constructed more than 100 women-only toilet complexes under the scheme of ‘pink toilets’ within their administrative limits by the third quarter of the year 2017. Smart city concept and infrastructural development under the AMRUT and Housing for All schemes are other initiatives that India has implemented keeping in parity with the SDGs. Identification of potential cities through stringent multiple criterion, wide spread introduction of e-governance, information and communication technology (ICT) in management, upgrading autonomy of urban local bodies (ULBs), enhancing collection and widening sources of municipal finance, energy and water auditing, credit rating and evolving urban plans with focus on citizen benefit maximization are some of the key features. It is highlighted that key points that would facilitate the individual countries including India to achieve SDGs would be good governance which is characterised by accountability, responsibility, transparency, abidance to law, people’s participation along with regional and international cooperation. Economic and Social Commission for Asia Pacific (ESCAP), Asian Development Bank (ADB), UN Women, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) among others have actively coordinated and collaborated amongst each other and with the developing regions of the world. Thus efforts made in recent times by

converting transport systems into renewable and less polluting compressed natural gas (CNG) from petrol as in Delhi, shift to solar powered and light emitting diode (LED) street lighting system in Kerala, mandating new construction of building laws whereby rainwater harvesting and energy efficiency or ‘green buildings’ creation, installation of solar photovoltaic systems at roof-tops are some effective steps towards sustainable energy production and consumption that has made effective inroads in Indian planning system. Recycling and reuse of resources like sewerage water, plastics, paper garbage and by products, storm and waste water as is in practice partly in Bangalore can become effective tools to control resource shortages and sort problem of waste management. Apart from this the installations of inter-locking smart power grids which are connected to distant alternative energy sources such as wind turbines as is in Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, solar energy in Rajasthan, hydro-electric power in the mountainous upper reaches so that there is no wastage in power transmission and reduced distributional losses are met. With promotion of use of public transportation like bus, shared taxi and rental car services, car-pooling and devoted cycle and pedestrian lanes in city-wide transportation arteries are some of the transportation revolutions that aim at protection of environment for a sustainable future. Modern mass-transit transport modes which run on electricity and efficient computerized systems such as metro railways, skywalks, light rail and monorail in Mumbai aim to reduce vehicular air pollution that emanate from conventional fuel based personal vehicle usage. This is making inroads rapidly in India, with wider connectivity as seen in New Delhi metro corridor expansions with near completion Phase 3 and launching of Phase 4. About 51 Indian cities have already initiated metro railway development, which propose transport oriented development (TOD) along the adjacent land areas for efficient use of agglomeration economies accruing from it. Presence of smart monitoring and low carbon emission technology, usage of LED lighting, rationalisation of transport routes, e-governance systems are furthering the cause of smart living in recent times. The installation of solar energy generation panels over metro stations in Delhi, banning of the 15 years or more old vehicles more from plying on roads under Bharat Stage VI, are some of the action taken for environmental sustainability. The challenge lies in building a resilient system to resist the disturbances that might arise from anthropogenic factors.

9 GOOD

PRACTICES

IN

GOVERNANCE

IN

URBAN

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Government of India highlights the need for recovery and reuse of any material thereby reducing the waste destined for final disposal. Sustainable resource management, protection and prohibition on misuse of scarce resources has been the primary agenda of NEP. Notable among them are E-waste Management and Handling Rules 2011, Management and Handling of Municipal Solid Waste 2000, Management and handling of Bio-Medical Waste 2003 etc. Ecotourism sector has been evolved in India since 1998 and has been renewed with the implementation of National Tourism Policy (NTP), 2002. European Union (EU), Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and World Tourist Organisation (WTO) experts have framed indicators for measuring sustainable tourism practices which India also has included in its tourism policy guidelines and made the hotels, tour operators comply with it. Some other city based sustainable projects include river restoration projects; river Sabarmati in Ahmedabad and river Yamuna in Delhi, resilient building infrastructure in Bhuj and Surat in Gujarat. The Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) is also in conformation to SDG 11. India has also exchanged ideas and helped technically cum financially its neighbouring countries and other developing nations. It has played a supportive and catalytic role apart from leading the way from the front. States of Himachal Pradesh and Chattisgarh in India have tried this Community- Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach; brainchild of Bangladesh since the year 2000 through which they have achieved remarkable success in making their country open defecation free. Through the use of public shame and disgust and health information outreach programmes that the Bangladesh government has spread the message across the population groups and motivated them to adopt better hygienic habitsIn India National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Ayog has been formed in 2015 as a successor to Planning Commission and has been entrusted with the task of coordinating with specific ministries under the union government to integrate plan policies thought the final implementation lies with the state governments. The Ministry of Statistics guides these ministries with gathering, disseminating, updating database on various indicators. Some of the notable sustainable urban development projects underway in states of India have been discussed further on in the ensuing paragraphs. The state government of Gujarat has been using geographical information system (GIS) based education system in imparting of universal education to children upto 14 years of age since the year 2010. To achieve the target of universal enrolment and lowering of the drop-out incidences, the government has conjoined the Sarva Sikhsha Abhiyan (SSA) with the GIS mapping of the school infrastructure. This has helped in identification of the specific schools and the areas in the state which require improvements in school infrastructure and which remain lagging behind. Thus it has facilitated the efficient administration in reaching the targets under Right to Education (RTE) Act. The system of participatory budgeting in Pune city was launched in 2006. Under this innovative policy, the Pune Municipal Corporation undertakes budgeting mechanism in the city with the direct involvement of the city residents who pitch in valuable and insightful suggestions to the city administration. Suggestions for upgradation of civic amenities, developmental and projects undertaken by ULB, allocation of public expenditure funds amongst others are invited and entertained from the residents. This has allowed the citizens a platform to voice their opinions

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3869

achievement as enlisted under SDGs. This apart symbiotic partnerships becomes a must step between the developing south and developed north countries of the world (Chaturvedi & Saha, 2017).

10 POLICY

SUGGESTIONS

Notwithstanding of launching of major cleanliness drives and urban renewal strategies, India can improve the scenario by population control drives, making actions of reducing infant mortality rate (IMR), maternal mortality rate (MMR), modernizing the birth control techniques and improving support systems for the elderly population and provision for wider public reach for all. These have direct bearings on health parameters that would help in environmental sustainability in the long run. Urbanisation policy must ensure reduction of rural-urban inequality and intra-urban inequality. If growth can be focussed on the small and medium towns in India then the ‘top-heavy’ urbanisation would be handled, whereby per capita costs incurred on basic services provision and other environmental costs can be reduced which is higher in large metropolitan cities. This would also bring in distributive locational justice and would entail balanced inter-regional urbanisation in the country. For effective implementation of policies and programs India can benefit if stricter rules in the form of incentives and penalties can be framed. For this, measurable and functional indicators must be designed which would aptly measure the trend and pattern of changes that happen in progress of SDGs. Though world bodies, NGOs have come up with such indicators but appropriate modifications keeping in mind the specificity of Indian context would fare better results in monitoring the situation. Such indicators must have qualities of repetitive applicability, transparency, can be updated regularly and be unambiguous so that they can form the basis for approval of projects and associated grants ahead and be used for inter-country and cross-sectional comparability. Disaggregation of database to the lowest administrative unit and frequent field visits and monitoring checks by officials in localities where the policies regarding SDG 11 compliance is underway would help identify the ground truths. Some limitations that might pose as a barrier in target accomplishment can be summarised as – corruptive practices, gender inequality, marginalization and exclusion, low investment in agriculture, water stress and under-equipped and fragmented governance, limited political and fiscal powers of cities, limited institutional capacity, absence of robust multi-level government cooperation and integration. There is a need for a better understanding of what constitutes best practice in terms of effective coordination; in particular how to use SDG outcomes to allocate resources between different sectors in ways that reward progress against national SDG objectives. Health sector in India deserves better investment and coverage especially in the aspects that were given least importance previously such as drug sale and distribution, maternal nutrition, medical equipments etc. Civil society would have a prominent role to play in pushing the policy decisions in important sectors. Strong political-will, deeper understanding of social norms and ritual customs, fostering inter-country partnerships for assistance is needed. SDG 1 to 17 are all interlinked in some way or other and thus must be targeted in an integrated manner. SDG 11 that we are focussing on primarily promotes measures to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. Resilience is a broad word which combines the past and

present and future of the cities. In this regard the sustainable and combative measures are required to mitigate climate change and its consequent aftermaths in the form of natural disasters like excessive intense rainfall events, consequent floods, sea-level rise and cyclonic weather situations, hurricanes etc that threaten to devastate life and property as already been predicted for coastal towns and cities like Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai in the coming decades. The Mumbai and Chennai floods of 2005 and 2016 respectively have shown that natural events can make life stranded more so if city master plans are not conceived in a sustainable and scientific manner. Land hungry real estate corporations and corrupt administration engaged in malpractices and unjudicious transformations of land-use in densely populated cities can wreak havoc and attenuate the natural events to cause destructionsin gigantic proportions as happened in the aforesaid metropolises. In Mumbai, clogging of the only fresh water streamlet; river Mithi and lakes due to unscientific garbage disposal, and rapid propagation of high rise structures in Chennai by blocking the natural seepage sites led to such human made disasters to take such massive toll on life. This brings us to sustainable development goal 15, which focuses attention to protect and restore biodiversity and terrestrial ecosystems like forests which act as carbon-sinks. Usage of conventional yet non renewable energy resources like oil, coal has speeded up economic growth but has subjected earth to environmental degradation and stalling sustainable life.

10 CONCLUDING

REMARKS

There are challenges ahead in the form of infrastructural, technological, institutional, and financial, governance and socio-cultural barriers that pose in the trajectory of achieving sustainable goals in India. 100 cities in India contribute to more than 60% of annual GDP and 40% of output in India (Chaudhuri, 2001). While 780 towns produce 60% of total annual output and they act as growth foci for its hinterland. But unfortunately, city administrations have limited control on the funds that they generate and even smaller power on the framing of developmental plans. Thus a better planning purpose calls for enhanced autonomy and wider participation of all sections of city society whose voices must reach the final city plan draft. Another aspect that needs to have strict attention is ensuring and endorsing justice, law and order through inclusive institutions (SDG 16) so that all citizens irrespective of their location within the socio-economic hierarchy, can participate in democratic decision making and feel like other stakeholders and consider accountable to the urban development process. Thus consented and targeted efforts with effective supervision and monitored implementation of the sustainable development plans through a chain of policies and plans would definitely ensure the achievement of the broad objectives that the SDG aims to accomplish.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors are thankful to the anonymous referees and the editor for their insightful comments. Useful disclaimers apply.

REFERENCES

(10)

[2] Chaturvedi, S., & Saha, S.,(2017). Post-2015 Agenda and Regional Cooperation in South Asia. RIS Work Program on Sustainable Development Goals, 199-214.

[3] Chaudhuri Ray, J.,(2001). Introduction to Development and Regional Planning, Orient Longman. Kolkata.

[4] Davis,M.,(2004). Planet of Slums: Urban Involution and the Informal Settlement.New Left Review,26, 5-34.

[5] Dhar Chakraborty,P.G.,(2001). Urban Crisis in India: New Initiatives for Sustainable Cities.Development in Practice, 11(2-3).260-272.

[6] Kapadia-Kundu,N.,&Kanitkar,T.,(2002). Primary Healthcare in Urban Slums.Economic and Political Weekly, 37(51), 5086-5089.

[7] Kundu, N.,(2003). Urban Slums Report: The Case of Kolkata, India.Understanding Slums: Case Studies for the Global Report on Human Settlements, 1-21. [8] Lucci, P., & Lynch, A.(2016). The SDGs at City Level:

Mumbai’s Example. Working Paper 432, Oversees Development Institute.

[9] Sundaram, P.S.A.,(1990). Housing and Urban Poor.Nagarlok, XXII(1).

[10] United Nations. (UN). (2014), World Urbanization Prospects. The 2014 Revisions. Department of Economic and Social Affairs. United Nations. New York.

Figure

TABLE 2   DISTRIBUTION OF SLUM HOUSEHOLDS BY MAIN

References

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