CITIES ARE centres of opportunities, of all types: entertainment, employment, education, healthcare and so on. When it is a matter of development, it is true that everything new comes to the city first. But sometimes it takes ages for a particular technological innovation find its way to the fringes of rural India. By the time they manage to reach the last person in the village, the other side of the world dominated by metros and urban landscapes would have gone nautical miles ahead, and the process keeps repeating. This is not going to be practical anymore. Educated youngsters from around the cities migrate to urban landscapes looking for opportunities.
What happens to the urban landscape when it comes to hold more population than what it is really able to hold? It is growth. Landscapes have to grow both vertically and horizontally. Vertical growth is taking place much faster than horizontal growth. Though slowly, horizontal growth takes place really steadily, and it makes our urban landscapes look unorganized and haphazard.
Slums sprout out in every strip of public place. Makeshift living arrangements surface overnight. Streets get congested with people and vehicles. Those small strips of open spaces in the urban areas disappear. Pollutions of all types increase; consumption multiplies as population gets doubled.
People carry on their lives by doing things both legal and illegal. Pressures of life make many pick up bad habits and asocial professions. Crimes increase, law and order get halted and life gets threatened. Drainages get clogged, wastes accumulate, mosquitoes breed, epidemic break out and the city loses its green belt and green cover. Ultimately, the physical appearance of our urban landscapes takes an ugly look, and ordinary life in the cities becomes near impossible. Can we afford to be so for long? Can our cities be anymore accommodative to this perpetual movement of men and material in its landscapes?
As long as cities remain attractive or rural areas remain aloof, deprived of the benefits of the developments and the eventual opportunities offered by the new world order, we cannot imagine of a city without rural urban migrants. Modern world is more mobile than it was, and the size of the floating population is increasing every day. Added to this are the settlements formed by migrants from distant places.
The vertical growth of the cities is mainly dominated by business houses, real estate holdings, and the affluent section of the society. This growth most of the time gives way to a set of entirely different problems. The pressure these problems exert on the urban landscape is more environmental than aesthetic. City planners and corporation authorities may be able to put some check on any growth that is against the rules on lands and their holding in cities.
The story is different when it is a matter of men and women from a different social landscape transplant their families to an entirely different environment. These people are least bothered of the effects of their presence in a new locale. For them the way ahead is very hard, and making both ends meet is more important than making their places look good. So they live their lives the same way they lived in their native places. The physical appearance of the urban landscape changes without the knowledge of anyone. Only a bird’s eye view can get a clear picture of our cities.
What is the way out? Opportunities should go evenly to semi urban and rural areas. The attractions that cities hold need to be accessible to all irrespective of whether one belongs to rural or urban or semi-urban area. Inclusive growth paradigm is the only possible way out we have in front of us. It is natural that people move from place to place.It is more so when it comes to improving their lives. But it is not natural that developments and opportunities are concentrated in a particular place, call it city or metro. If we want to keep people where they are, we have to make their places attractive by way of developments, opportunities, facilities and sustainable growth.
Private players in the growing sectors like IT, ITES management streams, insurance and finance may be encouraged to establish their wares in semi urban and rural areas and they may be asked to give priority to candidates hailing from rural areas. This is to be cautiously executed because, rural landscapes are environment-sensitive, and any development activity aimed at stopping rural urban migration needs to be thoroughly studied to ensure that its impact on the environment is sustainable.
Sustainable growth, even distribution of opportunities and inclusive development are the viable options to curb rural urban migration.
Then the physical appearance of our urban landscapes would not get any worse.
October 7th, 2008 at 1:43 am
The article is an important piece for concern. I believe that in stead of people migrating from villages to cities for opportunities the government and society should create opportunities in and around villages. Modern eminities and infrastructure should be provided to stop migration.
October 14th, 2008 at 11:21 am
‘The article is an important piece for concern. I believe that in stead of people migrating from villages to cities for opportunities the government and society should create opportunities in and around villages. Modern eminities and infrastructure should be provided to stop migration.’
Really?