- Hasan Suroor
Warns against attempts to impose a “single monoculture of globalisation”
Prince Charles
LONDON: For millions of India’s slum-dwellers, it might sound like a joke but Prince Charles seriously believes that shanty towns such as Mumbai’s Dharavi, depicted in the film Slumdog Millionaire, are better equipped to deal with the “challenges” of a growing urban poor population than western-style high-rise buildings.
The Prince, who visited Dharavi in 2003, cited it as a model for environmentally and socially sustainable settlement because of the way it was organised around people’s needs. He was struck by what he described as the “underlying intuitive grammar of design” that, he said, was “totally absent from the faceless slabs that are still being built around the world to ‘warehouse’ the poor.”
Speaking at a conference organised by his Foundation for the Built Environment, the Prince said: “I strongly believe that the West has much to learn from societies and places which, while sometimes poorer in material terms, are infinitely richer in the way in which they live and organise themselves as communities.”
The Prince, known to loathe modern western architecture, warned against attempts to impose a “single monoculture of globalisation” on the rest of the world.
Arguing that traditional settlements such as Dharavi would deliver more “durable gains” than were likely to be delivered through what he called the “brutal and insensitive process of globalisation,” the Prince said: “It may be the case that in a few years’ time such communities [as Dharavi] will be perceived as best equipped to face the challenges that confront us because they have a built-in resilience and genuinely durable ways of living.”
Jockin Arputham of the National Slum Dwellers’ Federation of India criticised attempts by foreign investors to demolish Dharavi in order to build high-rise luxury apartments.
“I am a slum-dweller, not a slumdog,” he said protesting against the title of Danny Boyle’s film. He said: “Many developing countries look to the West as a model but that cannot be the model. These [western] buildings use too much power and would not be affordable in India.”
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Friday, February 6, 2009
Thursday, February 5, 2009
India shifting to urban centres - The Hindu
Aarti Dhar
NEW DELHI: Fifty per cent of India’s population is expected to be urban-based by 2030. This projection takes into account an expected 8 and 9 per cent growth rate of the population over the next decade and anticipated shifts from agricultural to non-agricultural occupations and from rural to non-rural employment, according to a report, India: Urban Poverty Report 2009.
The report was released on Tuesday by Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Minister Kumari Selja.
The United Nations’ projection of the urban population percentage is 40 for the same year.
Urban Poverty Report 2009, brought out with the aid of the United Nations Development Programme and academicians, draws attention to two aspects. One relates to a clear trend, especially apparent in the last two decades, of urban workers being increasingly pushed into the informal sector, even as space for informal economies in towns and cities shrinks. In the informal sector, the profile of work in urban areas has moved from casual employment to self-employment.
The second aspect concerns minimal amenities, a near-absence of rights to land and livelihood, and the higher cost the poor have to incur on transportation and travel to the workplace. Both trends stand to undermine progress towards the Eleventh Five Year Plan goals that focus on “faster and inclusive” growth, the report says.
According to the report, in 2001 an estimated 23.7 per cent of the urban population was living in slums amid squalour, crime, disease and tensions. However, not all slum-dwellers are below the poverty line; they are part of the “other” urban India because of poor city planning and poorer urban land management and legislations.
Basic services
The report focusses on the need to deliver basic services to the urban poor — real or perceived — as a pivotal poverty reduction challenge to be addressed through programmatic focus and proper allocation of funds. This challenge should address not only the present situation but future influx to the cities.
Urban poverty alleviation strategies should be aimed at the poorest and most vulnerable, the report says.
Ms. Selja said the challenge was to provide basic services to the urban poor and slum-dwellers without letting the elite capture all the benefits, and without a subversive protest against sharing of strained city infrastructure resources by those who now own them.
NEW DELHI: Fifty per cent of India’s population is expected to be urban-based by 2030. This projection takes into account an expected 8 and 9 per cent growth rate of the population over the next decade and anticipated shifts from agricultural to non-agricultural occupations and from rural to non-rural employment, according to a report, India: Urban Poverty Report 2009.
The report was released on Tuesday by Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Minister Kumari Selja.
The United Nations’ projection of the urban population percentage is 40 for the same year.
Urban Poverty Report 2009, brought out with the aid of the United Nations Development Programme and academicians, draws attention to two aspects. One relates to a clear trend, especially apparent in the last two decades, of urban workers being increasingly pushed into the informal sector, even as space for informal economies in towns and cities shrinks. In the informal sector, the profile of work in urban areas has moved from casual employment to self-employment.
The second aspect concerns minimal amenities, a near-absence of rights to land and livelihood, and the higher cost the poor have to incur on transportation and travel to the workplace. Both trends stand to undermine progress towards the Eleventh Five Year Plan goals that focus on “faster and inclusive” growth, the report says.
According to the report, in 2001 an estimated 23.7 per cent of the urban population was living in slums amid squalour, crime, disease and tensions. However, not all slum-dwellers are below the poverty line; they are part of the “other” urban India because of poor city planning and poorer urban land management and legislations.
Basic services
The report focusses on the need to deliver basic services to the urban poor — real or perceived — as a pivotal poverty reduction challenge to be addressed through programmatic focus and proper allocation of funds. This challenge should address not only the present situation but future influx to the cities.
Urban poverty alleviation strategies should be aimed at the poorest and most vulnerable, the report says.
Ms. Selja said the challenge was to provide basic services to the urban poor and slum-dwellers without letting the elite capture all the benefits, and without a subversive protest against sharing of strained city infrastructure resources by those who now own them.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Job creation holds the key - The Hindu
Rather than despair over the continuing stream of bad news on the economic front, nations should see in the unfolding crisis an opportunity to reshape policies, and put in place structures that will help a speedy recovery. The most serious consequence of the economic crisis is the impact it will have on employment. The International Labour Organisation has sounded an early warning that global unemployment could increase by anything between 18 million and 50 million this ye ar over and above the 2007 levels, depending on the severity of the economic crisis. Taken as an indicator of the real consequences of the global downturn, this daunting prospect calls for urgent and workable intervention by policy-makers. Although remedies are under way, they are in the form of monetary easing and tax cuts, both of which take time to translate into more jobs. Multi-pronged state-led economic action is the most effective choice.
As is evident, the ability of the agriculture and industry sectors to create the required mass employment immediately is questionable. The vulnerability of depending on the services sector — particularly financial services — has also been exposed by the sub-prime crisis, which triggered the current global recession. Yet hope remains. That is largely because of the untapped employment potential in two areas: infrastructure and technology. Fresh initiatives, which focus directly on job creation and can yield long-term economic benefits, need aggressive state support and popular backing. Infrastructure creation is an area that generates employment, and also has a multiplier effect. India’s focus on urban and rural infrastructure projects, actively linked to job creation, is commendable. In the case of the United States, President Barack Obama’s economic approach lays stress on infrastructure and emerging sectors such as alternative energy. For countries like India, the present global shakeout is also the occasion to reinvent a workable social security mechanism, which should include components of support for the unemployed, and help in re-skilling workers facing redundancy. These troubled times call for effective state action to protect existing jobs and create new avenues of employment in both the public and the private sectors. Hope for a quick recovery hinges on how soon governments can shift the focus to employment creation.
As is evident, the ability of the agriculture and industry sectors to create the required mass employment immediately is questionable. The vulnerability of depending on the services sector — particularly financial services — has also been exposed by the sub-prime crisis, which triggered the current global recession. Yet hope remains. That is largely because of the untapped employment potential in two areas: infrastructure and technology. Fresh initiatives, which focus directly on job creation and can yield long-term economic benefits, need aggressive state support and popular backing. Infrastructure creation is an area that generates employment, and also has a multiplier effect. India’s focus on urban and rural infrastructure projects, actively linked to job creation, is commendable. In the case of the United States, President Barack Obama’s economic approach lays stress on infrastructure and emerging sectors such as alternative energy. For countries like India, the present global shakeout is also the occasion to reinvent a workable social security mechanism, which should include components of support for the unemployed, and help in re-skilling workers facing redundancy. These troubled times call for effective state action to protect existing jobs and create new avenues of employment in both the public and the private sectors. Hope for a quick recovery hinges on how soon governments can shift the focus to employment creation.
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