Urbanisation will be an emerging challenge in sustainable development

MUMBAI: The Rio +20 summit grabbed much limelight with its focus on sustainable development this month, but a smaller event held in Hungary threw the spotlight on another equally pressing aspect of development: the challenges of urbanisation. The growing footprint of cities could very well determine the future path of sustainable development.

The conference organised by the Global Development Network, an international conglomeration of researchers and institutes comes at a time when more than half the world's population lives in urban agglomerations and depends on cities as their source of livelihood. India too is rapidly urbanising with 31.16% of its population or 377 million people now living in cities, an increase from 27.81% of its population in 2001, according to Census 2011 data.

Urban planning then becomes a key concern. "Cities were, in the past, the natural place for social cohesion and progress. Today, the phenomenal speed of the process of urbanization presents a challenge to maintain that very precious characteristic of cities as an engine for social mobility and inclusiveness," said GDN President Gerardo della Paolera in a press release, echoing the popular rhetoric that development was gradually becoming synonymous with urbanization.

Urbanisation in the Indian context then should be looked at beyond mega-cities like Mumbai and Delhi with a holistic view to include second-tier towns and agglomerations. Policies to address the problems of urban poor also remain a glaring vacuum in an environment where schemes and programmes are often designed with an assumption that poverty lies in villages. The much-delayed rollout of the National Urban Health Mission being a case in point.

Decentralisation of urban planning and involvement of citizens may be a good start.