UP PCS Mains-2024

Approach Define urbanization. Highlight the need for urbanization and what the challenges are. Explain major schemes and initiatives of the government. Conclude suitably.

Introduction

Urbanization means the increase in the proportion of the population of a country who live in urban areas. As per 2011 census, 31.2 percent of India’s population lives in urban areas. As per UN World Urbanization Prospects 2018, more than 50% of the country’s population will be urban by 2050. The most important cause of urbanization is rural-urban migration due to push and pull factors like education, health, job opportunity and better standard of living.

Body

The need for urbanization:

• Urban living is linked with higher levels of literacy and education, better health, longer life expectancy, greater access to social services and enhanced opportunities for cultural and political participation.
• There is easier access to sources of information for the public. For instance, women living in towns and cities are more likely to be informed about family planning.
• Cities are drivers of economic growth and contribute more than 80 percent to global GDP. To make India 5 trillion economy, urbanization is the need of hour.
• According to the recently released UN data, India has become the most populous country of the world. Cities act as a shock absorber for rural to urban migration.
• Urbanization is associated with increased industrial growth. Industries have the potential to provide huge employment.
• Urbanization promotes social mobilization. This dilutes caste identities which is very pervasive in villages.
• Urbanization is also an instrument for empowerment of women. They have access to job markets, educational and health facilities which enable them to live a life of their choice.

However, urbanization is not free from the challenges:

• It creates excessive population pressure on the existing public utilities. The cities suffer from the problems of slums, crime, unemployment, urban poverty, pollution, congestion, ill-health and several deviant social activities.
• The problem of inadequate housing is associated with urbanization. A vast majority of the urban population live under conditions of poor shelter and in highly congested spaces.
• There is a high crime rate in urban areas. The crimes against women, cybercrimes, kidnapping for ransom, frauds are more associated with cities.
• There is a problem of inadequate water supply and sanitation. This leads to water borne diseases like dengue in urban areas.
• The problem associated with solid waste management and waste-water treatment is another challenge.
• The overcrowded urban space leads to traffic jams and congestion.
• The cities are the centre of pollution due to industrial and vehicular pollution. They account for more than 70 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

The government has taken following initiatives to minimize the negative consequences of urbanization:

• Smart City Mission: Its objective is to promote cities that provide core infrastructure and give a decent quality of life to their citizens, a clean and sustainable environment through the application of ‘Smart’ solutions.
• Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT): Its objective is to assure supply of water and a sewerage connection, developing greenery and parks, reduce pollution by switching to public transport etc.
• Heritage City Development & Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY): To undertake strategic and planned development of heritage cities aiming at improvement in overall quality of life with specific focus on sanitation, security, tourism, heritage revitalization and livelihoods retaining the city’s cultural identity
• Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY)-Urban: It is an initiative to provide affordable housing to the urban poor.
• Swachh Bharat Mission: It aims to accelerate the efforts to achieve universal sanitation coverage and to put the focus on sanitation.
• Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME): This scheme was launched in April 2015 under the National Electric Mobility Mission, to encourage electric and hybrid vehicle purchase by providing financial support.
• Municipal Bonds: The districts like Lucknow and Ghaziabad have issued municipal bonds to attract investment in urban infrastructure.

Conclusion

To bring down the rural-urban migration we can provide alternative income opportunities to the farmers in rural areas in the form of horticulture, aquaculture and livestock farming. Initiatives like Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas (PURA) can also check rampant migration and thus bring down the problem associated with urbanization.

Target 11 of Sustainable Development Goals talks about inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities. To achieve this goal, we need to implement policies in an integrated manner and plan towards social inclusion, resource efficiency, mitigation and adaptation to climate change and resilience to disaster.