Urban Poor - Developed Poverty?!
I was wandering the streets of the metropolitan like a citified dandy. There comes this man trying to forge the look of the urban shore. He caught my attention. He seemed to be an asylum seeker. I see him come out from a dingy and congested urban area with lack of basic amenities. To the eye of the citified dandy as I call myself to be, I found his attire to be a forced costume of deprived livelihood which was so obvious to assume his shortfall of earnings.
Do I call him poor of the urban?
Or
Would he rather like to be called an inhabitant of countryside compared to urban poor?
“The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States.
Quite often,
We see numerous articles pop up sharing different tales of the urban poor. Few describe the urban poor to be the migrants who are struggling and juggling to sustain in the growing urban areas. Some termed the urban poor as the slum dwellers. Whereas the others tagged the urban poor are the ones in the below poverty income groups who are deprived due to the climate change with lack of secured living conditions.
Let’s see some background
Firstly, if we look into the theory of the migration in the social process; we see that due to urbanisation there is a faced paced economic development taking place in the urban areas leading to the rise in the private sector and overall advancement of the urban growth. This, in turn, creates a huge amount of working opportunities leading to different income levels. The rural-urban migration is one best example to say that the urban growth is acting as a push factor for the rural population to aim for a better standard of living. This is creating a massive difference in the scales of the income amongst the various categories of the urban population. As more and more rural population tends to merge into the urban, it is found that the urban accommodation for the rural had caused chaos within.
Coming to the theory of the slum dwellers in the same context; in simple terms, a dingy and congested urban area with lack of basic amenities is called as slums. The people who lead their livelihood in these areas with substantial earning methods are the dwellers. Finally, the concept of deprived livelihood due to climate change also revolves around the same concept of lack of amenities and shortfall of earning opportunities to lead an “unpoor” living.
So, basically, all the above definitions whirl around a single diluted agenda of lack of reachability towards the standard of “unpoor” living.
Dilemma!
Why is it so?
When the poor and unnoticed of the rural move towards the urban for an upgraded living; why is he still surrounded by the concept of urban poor?
As said in one of the definitions above; is it that only the migrated population the victim of urban poor?
And at least;
When we see major economic development with unfolding opportunities for the growth in all the arenas in the urban areas, why do the urban poor still exist in the urban areas?
Look at the statistics
Even the statistics show that urban India is holding over 25% of the urban poor. It also said that the rural poor are higher than the urban poor at present but in near future, this breach will be filled. One of the biggest cities in India, Mumbai is experiencing a huge rural-urban migration by supporting 12.5 million populations so far. Followed by Delhi with 11 million population and so on. The growth is inevitably seen in all the metropolitan cities of the country.
What is it that is causing a problem here?
According to the World Economic forum update,
Over Population: One in six urban citizens in India lives in urban poverty.
For instance, in the overpopulated metropolitan cities like Mumbai, we see more than 50% of the population live in the degraded conditions with lack of basic amenities.
Lack of Education and Security: The children from the deprived families are either illiterate or child labours.
Not just being poor, but 29% of girls of these families are victims of child marriages.
Lack of reasonable Employment Opportunities: Due to illiteracy and lack of awareness on the present development, the deprived don’t get standard jobs with reasonable pay scales to improve their livelihood.
What to do?
The Indian Government was always aware of the existing situation and tried to introduce various programs like AMRUT, Smart Cities etc., with a vision of providing housing and basic amenities to all the vulnerable groups of the nation.
The first move towards the urban poverty was noticed with the Sustainable Development Goals introduced by the UN as one of its components with their possible vision towards the inclusive development. The standard of living of the urban poor is closely linked with the other components of sustainable development such are water supply, sanitation, skill development, electricity and so on.
So, the isolated target towards the development of the urban poor does fetch any results?
We notice that the programs and goals introduced by the Government and agencies like UN look at the problem in a one-dimensional aspect.
Let’s see what can be done
Awareness program: The concept of serving to the vulnerable has got a lot to do with creating awareness rather than just providing services.
As always said – Stakeholder consultation, Grievance redressal committees play a prominent role in understanding the needs of the deprived.
Provision of services versus prioritising the provision: Every area has its own texture and every community has their own requirements. It is important that every locality is individually supervised and the needs are prioritised and then allotted accordingly.
Convergence of the components of the program: Many of the activities cannot be resolved by just focusing on one component at a time.
For instance, through a particular scheme in a particular village, an amount of 5 crores is being funded towards the development of road network component. Now, this particular scheme fund can only support the provision of the inventory for the road network, in order to support the need of the labour, it would be ideal to converge with any other scheme taken up in the similar areas to fund for the skilled labours to provide the necessary
This way it helps to avoid duplication of work along with efficient output.
As a whole, it is really important for the government to take the inclusive approach to development so that the vulnerable are completely aware of the benefits of the development.
The poor living from the urban poor can only vanish when the step towards eradicating child labours; child marriages and illiteracy are primarily focused along with the inclusive development.