About 55% of the world’s population are living in urban areas, that concentration is expected to increase to 68% by 2050, and 90% of this increase is taking place in Asia and Africa, among the current trends in urbanization revealed by the 2018 Revision of World Urbanization Prospects produced by the Population Division of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA).
The report noted that India, China and Nigeria will account for 35% of the projected growth of the world’s urban population between 2018 and 2050. By 2050, India will have added 416 million urban dwellers and China 255 million. The level of urbanization in Asia is now close to 50%.So, in this year, 2019, and in coming years as well, the people living in Asian countries have to confront the multi-dimensional problems caused by the urban growth.
More than 130 million South Asians are living in informal urban settlements with poor construction, insecure tenure and underserviced plots. The widespread prevalence of slums, are constantly increasing in cities. In Southeast Asia, many cities in low-lying areas are susceptible to rising sea levels and storms sweeping in from the oceans. These challenges are very formidable in the Asia’s urban scenario.
The World Bank in 2015 termed South Asia’s urbanization as” messy and hidden” and blamed the authorities for not addressing the congestion constraints that arose from the pressure of urban populations on infrastructure, basic services, land, housing, and the environment. The disadvantaged section and the poor were the most affected due to this kind of messy urbanization. But the Bank’s neoliberal prescriptions like liberalizing the economy and allowing unhindered entry of global corporate into the domestic urban economy had not solved the urban crisis. Instead, it had caused more havoc on the vulnerable sections in Asia.
It is true that the cities, which account for just 3% of Earth’s land, account for 84% of the world’s GDP. But, who are the beneficiaries of the urban economic growth? In a World Bank report released in 2017, Judy Baker, the Bank’s urban specialist and the report’s lead author, said: ”it’s much more stark in cities because you have the wealthy living right next door too often to the urban poor in small spaces,” and she warned that “Widening inequalities can create social divisions in society.”
Populations in Asian cities are increasing day by day. In every minute, 30 Indians move from rural areas to urban areas to escape from rural poverty. Such kind of migrations are taking place in all Asian countries. But the poverty, instead of getting eradicated, simply assumed the urban character. Governments in Asia failed to meet the needs of the growing urban populations, such as housing, transportation, energy systems, basic infrastructure, employment, and basic services, such as education and health care.
In Bangladesh, it is projected that nearly 44% of the country’s population would be living in urban areas, by 2050. However, successive Household Income and Expenditure Surveys (2005 to 2010 and 2010 to 2016) indicated that the rate of poverty reduction was very slow and the absolute number of extreme poor was increasing in urban Bangladesh. While rate of urbanization was getting accelerated, more people lived in extreme poverty in 2016 than they did in 2010. Among the labor-force in urban areas, 19% of men and 28% of women are illiterate in Bangladesh. So, the existing inadequacy of education and skills in developing Asian countries had an impact on urban employment and poverty.
Dense concentrations of businesses and households in cities would naturally lead to consuming energy and goods resulting in excess of greenhouse gas emissions which contribute for global temperatures to rise. Also it is destroying the natural water resources.
In India, the city of Bangalore is home for many domestic and multinational monopoly corporations. The drive for profit-maximization led to unplanned urbanization and the people are now experiencing the effects of environmental hazards.
According to a research paper by T.V. Ramachandra and Bharath H. Aithal, from the Indian Institute of Sciences, the temperature in the city had increased by 2-2.5 degrees Celsius over the past three decades. In many places in the city, the water table has declined from 28 meters down to 300 meters deep and with an 88% loss of vegetation a 79% loss in wetlands. The city is witnessing frequent flooding in recent years.
Ramachandra noted, “Air pollution is at dangerous levels, the water is polluted, there is nowhere for the waste to go, and the lakes have been killed.” This is what is exactly happening in many Asian cities.
Rural misery is contributing to the migration of people from rural to the urban areas. The integrated policies to improve the lives of both urban and rural dwellers, through strengthening the linkages between urban and rural areas and building economic, social and environmental ties are necessary. But governments in Asia have been pursuing policies that destroy the agricultural communities and leave the rural areas for the plunder of natural resources including the fertile land, by big corporations.
In India, more than 40 million people are moving internally, from rural to urban areas. Mumbai, known as the financial capital of India, rose to prominence due to such migrations. Now it is known for the unplanned urbanization with increasing proliferation of slums, air pollution, crime, etc. In all Asian cities, inadequate water, sanitation provisions are leading to the deterioration of health and the standard of living of the poor.
The benefits of urbanization in Asia are not fully shared by the people and hence Asia’s urbanization is not inclusive. The policies to manage urban growth are not directed to ensure democratic access to infrastructure and social services.
Instead of focusing on the needs of urban poor and other vulnerable groups, like housing, education, health care, decent work and a safe environment, the governments in Asia, are interested in making cities haven for capital accumulation for the big corporates.
The neoliberal assumption, that the linking of cities with global capital would result in enormous improvement in the standard of living, had prevailed even among the middle classes in the last two decades. Now it has proved to be a myth. The current direction of urbanization is very much exclusionary. It must be reversed. To achieve the inclusive urban growth, the powerful movement of urban working people is the need of the hour.
N. Gunasekaran is a political activist and writer based in Chennai, India.
From The Progressive Populist, February 15, 2019
Blog | Current Issue | Back Issues | Essays | Links
About the Progressive Populist | How to Subscribe | How to Contact Us
PO Box 819, Manchaca TX 78652