Right to the City: Issues of Governance

Right to the City: Issues of Governance 1 DR. VADDIRAJU ANIL KUMAR CENTRE FOR POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS, GOVERNANCE AND DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CHANGE BANGALORE

The importance of urban governance Urban governance is relatively neglected area of study in governance studies in India Growing importance of urbanisation India has 377 million urban population which makes up to 31.7% of total population India s 8000 cities together contributed 62-63% of GDP in 2007 and this is expected to go up to 75% by 2021. The number of million plus cities is 53(2011) and the population residing in them is 43 percent of the total urban population. Future of the country largely is going to be urban Further neglected focus is on urban decentralisation. Increasing questions are raised regarding the position of urban marginalised and the questions of right to the city. 2

Characteristics of urbanisation in India Urbanisation in the country so far has largely been exclusionary urbanisation ( Kundu:2003,2011). The three characteristics of this are: 1. Poor migrants from the rural areas are unwelcome 2. Cities are captured by the local elite 3. Spatially skewed towards big cities and mega urban agglomerations Another important aspect of this urbanisation has been the neglect of urban decentralisation laws. 3

Consequences of exclusionary urbanisation Cities are still crowded with migrants resulting in informal economies, crime, congestion and dysfunctionality of cities. The consequences of elite capture are that the gentrification of cities takes precedence over informalisation of cities ; and in the urban governance and policy only the voices of the gentrified part of the city are heard( Shaw:2013). When urbanisation is skewed towards big cities the small cities and towns suffer serious neglect. 4

The governance questions 5 The major policy instrument to govern this urbanisation process is the 74th CAA. The focus of studies on governance through 74 th CAA have been less compared to that of 73 rd CAA. The studies that we have indicate that the 74 th CAA is largely ignored in practice. This results from the reluctance of the State governments to abide by the law. As a consequence urban planning, participation and urban citizenship suffers.

6 The neglect of 74 th CAA is particularly glaring in small district and lower tier cities, where planning and governance is largely bureaucratic and oriented to the Commissioner system ( Vaddiraju, 2013; Lama-Rewal:2011). Elected representatives are largely dominated by bureaucracy In larger cities the problem is that of coordination of multiple governance bodies and absence of metropolitan planning committee( MPC) and malfunctioning of community participation law(cpl). In both cases the practice of urban citizenship is largely nominal and limited to voting and at the best to juridical litigation. Particularly participation in local and urban governance is minimal.

Right to the City( RTTC) In the above context the concept of right to the city makes eminent sense. The concept was forwarded by French social scientist Henri Lefebvre in his book Right to the City written in 1968. The concept is used in the contexts of practices of urban citizenship, governance and social and political participation. Right to the city as yet is a moral right and has not yet become a juridical right. The concept of RTTC provides us a lens to view urban governance problems from a fresh perspective. 7

Right to the city means right to reclaim public spaces, public participation in the city and more importantly right to housing and basic amenities. Right to the city signals a fundamentally different approach to the city which is bottom-up and citizen centric. It focuses on the public contest between private and corporate take over of public spaces. Right to the city also refers to the fact that not only gentrification but informalisation of the city poor immigrants also needs to be taken seriously. 8

9 Right to the city is both a collective right and an individual right. Right to the city focuses on enhanced participation in the existing governance structures and expanding the scope of democratic participation and deliberation. Right to city has particular implication for urban housing and right to habitation in the cities where the top-down bureaucratic beautification of cities often leads to the dismantling of slums and informal habitation settlements.

10 Excessive focus on managerial governance and technocratic governance and top-down approaches make right to the city difficult to realise. In the current context non-implementation of existing laws for the practice of citizenship such as ward sabha and DPC, MPC and CPL also make the right to the city difficult to realise. Another major threat to the right to city is the emergence of land mafias and builder lobbies in all big cities and even in smaller cities, with politics, crime and vested interests intertwined with them.

11 What are the implications of right to the city concept for urban governance? 1. A renewed focus on the rights of the marginalised in the city and for the city 2. A focus on the expansion of the boundaries of urban local governance and citizenship practices. 3. A renewed focus on the affordable public provision of housing and basic amenities in the cities such as drinking water, garbage removal and sanitation. 4. A thrust to existing laws to improve urban governance via enhanced public participation beyond voting periodically, which even the urban middle class and upper classes often do not do.

12 Concretely speaking right to the city implies a greater thrust in implementing all the provisions of the 74 th CAA, which the civil society is any way active in demanding. It implies devolving all the resources, personnel and functions to elected local bodies going beyond top-down bureaucratic governance. Over and above, right to city means nothing less than individual and collective determination of the present and future of the city and its spaces. In that it implies the transformation of formal, legal citizenship into substantive citizenship. And also extending the boundaries of formal citizenship in the city to new entrants.

The main aspects of RTTC Democratic urban governance Women s right to the city and citizenship Caste and class and RTTC Minorities, spatiality, diversity, urban citizenship and RTTC Migrants right to the city Urban spatial exclusion Urban land rights and RTTC Slums forced evictions and RTTC Water, sanitation, urban health care and RTTC Urban transportation and RTTC 13

14 The above list clearly shows that RTTC goes beyond the implementation of 74 th CAA. But most issues of the RTTC have deep implications for governance. Some of the issues involved are structural, such as class and caste division of cities, of gated communities and so on. Some of the issues are particularly social with political implications such as religious diversity and issues of minority ghettoisation and increasing communal riots in the Indian cities. Some of the issues concern social, attitudinal and policy change such as that of gender : wherein city is seen city of man and not particularly friendly towards women. Interestingly all the issues listed have governance and policy implications.

1.Gender Issues and RTTC 15 Unequal access of city spaces for women: the city as sexist Women s safety as a major concern: are cities cities of men? Women s safe transport as major concern Some of the policy recommendations in this aspect: Urban planning should mixed land use, hawkers and night markets Infrastructural facilities such as quantity, quality and accessibility of public toilets in cities, street lighting and public transport. In terms of urban governance more women friendly police or more women police on the streets and in city. Major challenge of making public spaces such as parks and other places safe for women. Also more women s role in planning the city.

2.Water and Sanitation 16 Near universal access achieved in drinking water provision in some states such as Karnataka but it is as low as 29% in some states such as Bihar and Assam. There are nuances within states. Neoliberal policies of user charges, privatisation of utilities, unequal access within cities, quality, timing and quantity of water provided are problems still. Women bear most of the burden of inadequate water provision. Sanitation is a major issue. Only 63% of urban population have safe, secure and healthy sanitation provision in the Indian cities. 37% of the urban population do not have sanitation facilities. Water and sanitation define the right to city. Right to clean drinking water is a universal human right recognised by the UN and India is signatory to this. Sanitation is closely linked to hygiene, public and individual health and is also closely linked to gender issues as women face gender specific problems. Adequate provision these two is a major governance challenge: They are rights and part of the right to dwell in a city.

3.Urban transportation and RTTC 17 There is a National Urban Transportation Policy of 2006 approved by the cabinet. The policy seeks to make city transport friendly to pedestrians and non-motorised modes of transport such as bicycles. But the policy is not implemented in its true spirit. The focus on urban transportation presently is mobility but not accessibility. This defines the right to city. When mobility is prioritised the private and upper and upper-middle class auto-mobile transport takes precedence over other modes of transport. The poor and marginalised who live in the city do not often have private automobiles and are excluded from urban transport policy. The widening of roads the shrinking of footpaths make way more and more to the private auto-mobiles reducing the city space to pedestrians and bicyclists. The solutions offered in terms of metros also are not seen as viable by the transport experts. The scholars in this area prefer BRTS Bus Rapid Transport Systems which are surface based and can reach all areas of the city. Its poorer as well as richer areas. Overall the metro is seen as one single fallacious solution to the diversity of the city. The future challenge is not to mould city transport according to unplanned city growth but to mould city planning according to the accessibility of city transport to all. Over all so far the experience has been to privilege private/rich over public/poor

4. Migrants and the RTTC 18 This is often a sensitive issue in the cities. Often in India the internal migration is important. It is often from poor rural areas to urban areas. The job/employment related migration is said to be around 52% of the total migration. But much of this is for blue-collar jobs and not for white-collar jobs. Migrants right to the city is important in the sense that they actually benefit the city by bringing new skills, cheap labour and with willingness to work at low wages. The migrants in most cities often are the ones who subsidise the rich in their life styles. Migrants right to the city is particularly important because they are the most vulnerable population subject to ethnic and linguistic prejudice, discrimination before the law enforcement agencies and are often subject to evacuations and even violence. Migrants have a constitutional right to settle anywhere in the country and right to the city is part of this right. Migrants often also bring in new enterprise, capital, willingness to take risks and many trade related benefits' to the local. Thus both poor and not so poor migrants benefit the city as much as they benefit from the city. Thus the often seen violent attitudes and sons of the soil movements often do violence to the migrants right to city. Migration is a nation-wide phenomenon and right of migrant to the city should be taken seriously in city planning, policy as well as governance. Attitudes need change.

19 Thus as can be seen from the foregoing discussion, right to the city goes beyond formal issues of governance. Right to the city concept in fact asks the questions as to how are the urban governance, planning and policies are framed, who is framing these policies and what is the role and participation of poor, marginalised and excluded in the framing of the above. The concept goes beyond the 74 th CAA but the 74CAA is the first step towards ensuring participation towards achieving RTTC. RTTC means in Lefebvre's words transforming the city spaces according to one s heart s desire. And nothing less. In this the rich and powerful succeed.but what about the poor?

20 Thank you. Every city is a city of the rich and city of the poor -Plato( 427-347 BC).