Whenpromisesarenotevenmade...

AnurbaneyetoCMP1
Introduction
In India, out of the total population of 1027 million as on 1st March, 2001, about 285 million live in urban areas. The percentage of urban population to the total population of the country stands at 27.8 percent. Among the major States, Tamil Nadu is the most urbanized state with 43.9 percent of the population living in urban areas, followed by Maharashtra (42.4 percent) and Gujarat (37.4 percent). The trend is quite evident that more and more people are living in urban centers and we cannot ignore the issues in urban areas any longer. A large percentage of population in cities live below dignified existence in crowded agglomerations called slums. About 42.6 million people live in slums in India, of which, more than 96% work in the informal sector with lack of legal protection and social security. The slums are characterized by lack of basic services including water, sanitation, health, education etc. In many urban centers drinking water is denied to people who have come after a particular cut off date in the city (for eg: Mumbai). The scale of urban poverty in India is staggering. According to a study undertaken by World Food Programme (WFP) and M.S. Swaminathan Foundation, child malnutrition is very high in urban areas - 36 per cent of urban children are shorter than they should be for their weight and age, while 38 per cent are underweight. There has been a rise in informal settlements and economy. According to the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), out of the total workforce of 397 million, 369 million (93%) work in the informal sector . Of the people working in the non agricultural informal sector , about 50% are in urban areas. Manufacturing sector growth in India has fallen sharply in the last seven years, since the economic reforms in 1991, declining from 7.4% to 4.7% in the period 1997 -98 to 200304. Employment in the manufacturing sector is also declining, as seen in Greater Mumbai, where the share of manufacturing sector employment has reduced from 36% in 1980 to 28% in 1990. The large scale urban exclusions are also resulting in urban crimes, underworld economy and related activities .

Socio Eco Political Issues

The Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), announced by Prime Minister, Mr. Manmohan Singh in December 2005 talks of renewal of urban areas through the provision of urban infrastructure, administrative reforms for good governance, basic services and housing for the urban poor. Many cities have taken upon themselves this mission for renewal which is resulting in mass displacement and dispossession of the urban poor. The funding under this mission is linked with the undertaking of certain mandatory and optional reforms, including the withdrawal of the Urban Land Ceiling and Regulation Act (ULCRA), 1976, which, was meant to take over surplus land for housing of the urban poor. Moreover, In their efforts towards renewal and beautification, cities are pushing out street vendors and other informal sector workers from employment. Massive infrastructure http://www.google.co.in/ig?hl=enprojects are also resulting in displacement of people from pavement and slum communities. Instead of mass housing
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PapersubmittedfortheCMPreview2007draftedbyMr.RajuBhise,Ms.PhoebeSimonandMr.MajuVarghese

schemes, cities are seeing mass displacements. Even the consultative processes with a crosssection of city stakeholders which were required to be held when defining the vision of cities in the form of a City Development Plan (), were made a mockery of and were not even held in a number of cities, including Mumbai. Cities which were thought as having an equalizing effect on caste and other social exclusion have instead, in the renewal process, intensified the further marginalisation of communities who were historically outside the ownership of resources and excluded from a legal status, land, housing and basic services . The worst affected in all this are women, specially single women, homeless population, etc. While the 74th Constitutional Amendment has articulated changes in the nature of representation, including that of women and backward castes in the governance of the city, the qualitative changes in the urban agenda in this direction is yet to be seen. Instead of devolution of powers to Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) with the 74th Amendment, new non-representative authorities, such as the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA) are being floated by the state as parallel power centers.
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The enormous increase in the value of the land and the resultant burgeoning of real estate business and increasing lobby of builders and elected Councillors are pushing the poor out of cities to suburbs and beyond. The development of the city is also witnessing growing incidences of man-made disasters, particularly floods, landslides and major health hazards. The filing of wetlands and dwindling of open spaces are also taking a toll on urban environment.

The Excluded experience

The changes in the urban landscape has also brought about resistance from the excluded communities. The irony of democracy is that the democratic voices of the poor are being ignored and attempts are being made to stifle them. The huge demonstrations against demolitions went unheard. Land explicitly reserved for housing the dishoused has been diverted for building malls and high rises. Meanwhile, there is an increase, not just in informal settlements but also informal work which lack a legal status and social security. Lack of security of land also means exclusion from formal systems of credit. Police and other allied officials have to be bribed on a daily basis to protect their livelihood, including hawking. Even then, security is not assured, as at any time the municipal authorities could push them off the pavements. The settlements where they live lack access to basic services and the proliferation of slums is more the result of a lack of affordable housing / rental than anything else. According to the Ministry of Urban Development, the total housing shortage is about 24.71 million of which 17.9 million is in theEWS (Economically Weaker Sections)category and 6.29 in the LIG (Low Income Group) category.

Commitments in CMP

Key Commitments
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Present Status

Remarks / Recommendations

As stated in the detailed guidelines of the JNNURM Toolkit

TheUPAgovernmentwill NationalRuralEmploymentGuarantee immediatelyenactaNational Act(NREGA)wasenactedbytheUPA EmploymentGuaranteeAct.This governmentin2005butitdoesnot willprovidealegalguaranteefor containanycommitmenttotheurban atleast100daysofemploymentto poor,quitecontrarytotheCMP beginwithonassetcreating commitment.TheEmployment publicworksprogrammeseveryyearGuaranteeActhasbeenmadeintoa atminimumwagesforatleast ruralactalthough27.78%arelivingin oneablebodiedpersoninevery urbanareaswithmorethan80million rural,urbanpoorandlowermiddlepopulation. classhousehold.Intheinterim,a massivefoodforworkprogramme will be started.

Significantreductioninpovertyin Indiacanonlybeachieved if the urban dimension is included in all policy planning and development. There is an urgent need for an Urban Employment Guarantee component in the National Act.

Provision of basic services should not To put an end to the acute drinking There is no universalisation of access to be linked with the legal status and all water shortage in cities, especially in water as it is being denied to people who such orders / legislations should be southern states, desalination plants have come after a specified cut off date. repealed. will be installed all along the There should be no barriers in providing Coromandel Coast starting with basic services to urban poor who Chennai. Special problems of constitute roughly1/4th of the total habitations in hilly terrains will be population. addressed immediately. Providing drinking water to all sections in Public water taps which were the only urban and rural areas and augmenting means of accessing water supply for the availability of drinking water sources homeless population and other urban is an issue of the topmost priority. poor, including hawkers, was removed Harvesting rain water, desilting due to the privatisation of water and existing ponds and other innovative resultant increase in its provision cost. mechanisms will be adopted. Inspite of having a surplus of Rs. 20 billion from its water services saved as reserves, the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai is attempting to privatise its water delivery and 3 management systems. The UPA government will launch a The Central Government has linked the comprehensive national release of JNNURM funds to the De-link Repeal of ULCRA from programme for minor irrigation of all withdrawal of Urban Land Ceiling Act. JNNURM lands owned by dalits and The Act is now in place in Maharashtra, The surplus land should be acquired adivasis. Landless families will be Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal. and used for housing of the poor and endowed with land through Pressure is being built to repeal the Act homeless. implementation of land ceiling and which will result in non distribution of land redistribution legislation. No even the litigated surplus land reversal of ceilings legislation will be permitted.

ForfeitingDemocracy for the Mirage of 24/7 Article by Afsar Jafri, Focus on the Global South

The UPA government commits itself Instead of developing new schemes for Social spending on housing should be to a comprehensive programme of mass housing, the UPA government has increased to reduce the slum dwellers urban renewal and to a massive integrated the existing programs into the in India and this objective must be expansion of social housing in towns Integrated Housing and Slum adopted in the National Development and cities, paying particular attention Development Programme (IHSDP). Goals. to the needs of slum dwellers. Only 7.03% out of the approved project Housing for the weaker sections in costs of JNNURM pertains to housing. rural areas will be This shows the thrust in NURM where expanded on a large scale. Forced 58.33% of the approved project cost is eviction and demolition of slums for urban infrastructure and governance will be stopped and while which also results in urban displacement. undertaking urban renewal, care will 34.64% of the approved project cost is Adequate land should be reserved in be taken to see that the urban and urban areas under Development Plans for Basic Services to the Urban Poor semi-urban poor are provided and the existing reservations should (BSUP) housing near their place of not be diluted and de-reserved. occupation. Although the housing policies declared by states talk of housing for all, it is sought to be provided through Public Private partnership which is linked with Stop all forced evictions and there market forces. This does not take care of should be no cut off dates for the urban poor as the access is limited urban entry. only to those who have come into the city before a particular cut off date. Adopt UN guidelines on forced evictions. Forced evictions continue in various urban centers due to infrastructure projects and non legal status of migrants in cities. More than 1000 families have been evicted in the past month in Mumbai alone.

FDI will continue to be encouraged and actively sought particularly in areas of infrastructure, hightechnology and exports and where local assets and employment are created on a significant scale.

FDI is being brought into retail which Complete NO to FDI in retail will have a negative impact on the small scale retailers particularly in the unorganized sector. Retail giants like Wal Mart is tipped to enter the country.

Conclusion
The issues being faced in the urban areas need to be addressed from a lens of the urban poor. The urban poor who are excluded from the cities and its governance are also being excluded from political promises forget implementation of promises. The rights of the urban poor can only be realised when they are integrated into urban planning, where they participate to decide and make their future.