Cities for development

The world is talking about urban sustainability. It is discussing ways to safeguard our cities from collapsing either due to lack of basic resources, internal and external threats. Myriad studies have taken place to make our cities sustainable by making our daily needs efficient- be it water and power usage, transports and buildings.

But which section of society wants this sustainability? Of course, as a have I need it so that I do not have to compromise on my lifestyle. What about those living in the slums? Surely, they want to reach where we are, hence sustainability is not what they are looking for. Isn’t this term elitist in nature?

During the GTZ workshop, this potent question of Urban sustainability vs Urban Survivability was raised by an expert. It got me thinking. To sustain cities, we need to be inclusive and welcome those migrating and keep into account the possible increase of basic needs- housing, water, et al.

But is migration always a choice? I kind of differ from the view. A few months back Hindustan Times did many stories around migration. Stories reflected that it happens because of lack of availability of adequate employment and resources in rural, peri- urban areas. Should we not look at developing those rather than forcing people to come into big cities and live like paupers – their quality of lives further deteriorating? NREGA is a positive step towards it. I also disagree that development comes only with big cities, isn’t it too euro- centric a concept? Our structure is very different from that of the Europe. We need to encourage farmers and others supporting the agriculture and thrive on it.

We should promote the SME sector that generates large- scale employment to people that helps in decentralisation of employment and population. We need to integrate energy efficiency through the use of green technologies, creating awareness on ways to conserve natural resources, provide access to basic needs like education, healthcare, employment, etc into the framework of development that is decentralised and dynamic.