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Social Structure - I

Economic and social issues (RBI) Social structure in India

Introducing Social Structure In India

The social structure basically refers to an organized relationship between the basic components of a social system. These structures exist in all societies regardless of their ethos, history or any cultural variability. Being an external phenomenon, it determines the external aspect of society. Some of the important features of Indian social structure are the presence of a complex society, racial and lingual diversity, casteism, multiculturalism, regionalism, traditional society, etc. More than any other part of the world, India is known for its diversity in terms of religion, caste, language, culture, tradition, food habits, etc. Each of these elements corresponds to a distinct set of social relationships which in turn forms a social structure.

Multiculturalism

Multiculturalism refers to the existence of multiple cultures within the same society. It is a way in which a society deals with cultural diversity. Sociologically, multiculturalism assumes that society will benefit from the increased diversification as it will allow harmonious coexistence of different cultures. Primarily, there are two methods in which multiculturalism evolves in any society. They are described by the two metaphors ‘melting pot theory' and ‘salad bowl theory'.
While the melting pot theory assumes that different cultures will melt together abandoning their own individuality and will eventually assimilate into the society, the salad bowl theory is more liberal in its approach. It describes a kind of heterogeneous society wherein people of different cultures coexist and complement each other much like different vegetables in the salad bowl, each of which has an element of their own.

The term multiculturalism is used to describe a society in which different cultures can coexist. It signifies attempts to balance diversity against cohesion. Multiculturalism not only recognizes cultural diversity, but also advocates that such differences should be respected and publicly affirmed.
It maintains respect for cultural differences and does not favour assimilation of minority culture into the dominant one. Instead of seeking a melting pot in which minority groups assimilate into the majority culture, multiculturalism uses metaphors like salad bowl or glorious mosaic where the minorities can maintain their distinctiveness.
From the multiculturalism perspective, the public policy should not aim for standardization of cultural forms or any type of uniformity or homogeneity, but instead, heterogeneity should be maintained.It is important to know culture and identity from which the idea of multiculturalism flows. In a macro sense, culture is the way of life for people, their values, beliefs and practices. Culture, thus, encompasses tradition, religion, language, moral principles and social norms. The concept of culture is central to multiculturalism. Identity is a sense of unique and separate selfhood and sees individuals embedded in a particular culture or social context. Identity may be multiple like gender, religion, ethnicity etc. Identity is equated with difference as awareness of difference further magnifies an individual’s sense of identity.
Apart from the above mentioned categories, multiculturalism has been used as an overarching term to signify the political and moral claims of other marginalized groups like women, people with special abilities and LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender).
Multiculturalism is not restricted to claims of culture and identity alone, instead, it is also a matter of political power and economic interest since it involves demands to rectify political and economic disadvantages suffered by people due to their membership of a marginalized group.

Examples

Canada: This country officially adopted multiculturalism in 1971. It is based on the principle of ius solis or (the right of citizenship by birth). Further, the Multiculturalism Act of 1988 gives all members of Canadian society the freedom to preserve and share cultural heritages, and encourages protection and enhancement of their ancestral languages. It also asks all federal agencies to promote practices ensuring equal employment opportunities and advancement therein.
Australia: It sees itself as a country of immigrants. Multiculturalism, in this nation too is based on the right of citizenship by birth. Easy access to the naturalization process and citizenship for immigrants has been established long ago. The government believes multiculturalism to have strengthened the Australian society.
Sweden: Different from the above examples, Sweden operates by ius sanguinis or (right of blood), which extends the right of citizenship only if one or both parents are citizens of the country. However, the procedures of naturalization here are easier.

Methods of claiming multiculturalism in a society

Exemptions from Generally Applicable Laws: Exemptions are based on negative liberty pertaining to non-interference of state in certain matters as it could increase the burden on a certain group. Forex, religious exemptions can be extended to a minority group so that they can maintain their identity.
Assistance Rights: Certain rights are extended to rectify disadvantage experienced by a certain group in comparison to the majority. This includes positive discrimination or affirmative action to help the minorities. Examples include funding for schools meant for minority languages.
Symbolic Claims: This means that all the cultures are represented by the symbols of a country on the grounds of equality. Not including the symbols from minority cultures could be seen as lack of respect and unequal treatment towards them.
Recognition: It is a demand to integrate a cultural practice or a specific law into the larger society. For ex, inclusion of the history of Indian and Pakistani immigrants in British history books shows the recognition of these two groups in British multicultural society.
Special Representation Rights: They are intended to safeguard the groups which have been systematically marginalized in a bigger society. For ex, extra seats may be set aside for the minorities in the parliament of a diverse nation.
Self-Government: The cultural minorities may claim certain degree of autonomy under demands for self-government. This is required so that they can develop and preserve their culture.
External Rules: It involves restricting the freedom of other people to preserve a certain culture. For ex, outsiders have limited freedom of movement in the areas inhabited by Aborigines. Outsiders even do not have the rights to buy land in these areas.
Internal Rules: These rules restrict an individual’s behavior within the group. For ex, if somebody disobeys rules of the group, he/she can be ostracized or excommunicated.

Models of Multiculturalism

Ayelet Shachar gives two types of multiculturalism – strong and weak.

Strong multiculturalism is centred on group identity and group rights and it gives rights to the group over its members. The central problem for strong multiculturalists is injustice among different groups. In contrast, weak multiculturalism focuses on intra-group complexities and accommodation. The main focus is on how to harmonise individual rights with group rights.
According to Andrew Heywood, there are three main models of multiculturalism:

Liberal
Pluralist
Cosmopolitan

Liberal Multiculturalism:

Commitment to freedom and toleration are two hallmarks of liberalism. Toleration is a willingness to allow existence and expression of rival views.
Liberalism gives an individual the right to choose his/her beliefs, cultural practices and way of life.
However, toleration extends to values, views and social practices that are compatible with autonomy and personal freedom.
Practices such as forced marriages and female circumcision will not be endorsed by liberal multiculturalists as they are against individual freedom.
Will Kymlicka’s theory on liberal multiculturalism is one of the most important, as he combines the liberal values of equality and autonomy with the value of cultural membership. His views are expressed in his books, Liberalism, Community and Culture (1989) and Multicultural Citizenship (1995).
According to Kymlicka, culture is important to individuals for two reasons. First, membership of a culture is an important condition of personal autonomy as they serve as ‘contexts of choice’ and provide meaningful options by which an individual frames his life and goals. Second, cultural membership is important in shaping self-identity of an individual.
A person’s self-respect is connected to the respect that is accorded by others to his/her culture. He further argues that since cultural minorities are disadvantaged in accessing their own culture compared to members of majority culture, minorities are entitled to special rights.
He says that it is impossible for the state to be completely neutral and its involvement in the cultural character of the state is unavoidable.
For ex, the public holidays that a government decides to observe would promote a certain culture and those who do not share the culture promoted by the state would be disadvantaged. True equality, according to him requires different treatment for different groups.
Kymlicka has listed three types of minority rights or group differentiated rights. First, there are selfgovernment rights which belong to the national minorities. Examples would include Native 198 Major Debates Americans and Maoris in New Zealand. Second are the polyethnic rights which help religious and ethnic minorities and have been developed through immigration to main their culture. For ex, legal exemptions could be extended to Jews and Muslims from animal slaughtering laws in a country.
Third, there are special representation rights that try to rectify underrepresentation of minorities in public life, for ex, the affirmative action in the US.

Pluralist Multiculturalism:

This theory of cultural diversity is based on value pluralism, an idea that there are many values which are equally correct and fundamental although they may be in contradiction to each other.
Isaiah Berlin is one of the main proponents of the idea of value pluralism. In this view, liberal views like personal freedom and democracy have no greater moral authority than their rival beliefs.
This results in live and let live type of multiculturalism. However, Berlin was of the view that value pluralism can exist only within a society that respects individual freedom. Hence, he could not prove how liberal and illiberal cultures could coexist in the same society.
Bhikhu Parekh has also given his views on pluralist multiculturalism. He argues that multiculturalism is neither a political doctrine nor a philosophical school. Instead, it is a perspective on the way of viewing human life.
It has three central tenets: First, human beings are culturally embedded and they grow and live within a culturally structured world. Their thoughts are deeply shaped by culture and they can overcome some, but not all of its influences.
Second, different cultures have different meanings of good life. Since each culture can develop limited range of human capabilities and can understand only a part of human existence as a whole, it requires other cultures to stretch its imagination and expand its intellectual boundaries.

Cosmopolitan Multiculturalism:

It celebrates diversity as each culture can learn from the other and prospects for self-development are offered by a world of wider cultural opportunities and lifestyle choices.
It endorses exploration of different cultural options from an individual’s perspective.
Cosmopolitan multiculturalism embraces the idea of multiple identity and hybridity.
It is argued that irrespective of their different cultural origins, people share the same planet and are facing similar experiences and challenges. Hence, global consciousness and the idea of cosmopolitanism is a running thread in this type of multiculturalism.

Advantages of Multiculturalism

Adaptability: A person living in a multi-cultural society is easily adaptable to new situations. In these societies, every individual develops a sense of understanding to people who may have completely different set of beliefs and sometimes controversial beliefs. When a person is used to an ever changing society, changes in other fields of life such as work and education are easily adopted.
Open Minded: The concept of racism substantially reduces when living in a multi-cultural society. The core issues of racism is due to following the ideologies of the ancestors without understanding the real situation. Once a person starts living amongst different cultures, the person would automatically understand why people behave in certain ways.
Supportive Environment: Living in a single belief system would mean that doing anything different would go against the system. There are several cultures that strongly believe that Homosexuality is a sin and people who are homosexual are abandoned by their community. When living in a multicultural society, a community that does not have the same belief system would help in
understanding and supporting the abandoned individual.
Interesting: One thing about the global village is that everything they do is interesting. The various counters are a bouquet of what the world is like. The carnivals, food festivals and celebrations are always fun and entertaining and learning.
Culture of Food: The major advantage of living in a multi-cultural society is that one can taste different cuisines without travelling. The Biryani, Thai green curry, shawarma, shepherd’s pie Turkish grill at the global village where all an amazing encounter.

Disadvantages of Multiculturalism

Disappearance of culture: When multiple cultures live together the chances of adapting other convenient cultures highly increase which may result in erasing an entire culture (Eriksen, 2012). The Khmer culture of Cambodia adopted Theravada Buddhism over years erasing the existence of Khmer.
Increase of hatred: When two controversial cultures exist in the same area the chances of abuse, threats and violence is high. The communities may try to prove one another wrong or one above the other leading to power issues and increase in hatred such as the religion in Israel between Palestinian and Jewish causing several causalities.
Host society may be affected: The culture of the host society is considerably diluted by multiculturalism. The immigrants may or may not work for the benefit of the host society which may be a threat to the host society.
Offence: If the cultures one lives in is not completely understood, the chances of offending someone is high. In certain cultures women should not be touched by a male apart from their husband. When a person that greets with a hug would be an offender if he does not understand how the other culture behaves.

Multiculturalism in India

Multicultural concerns have long informed India’s history and traditions, constitution and political arrangements. Much of the writings on Indian history, culture and politics are marked by some kind of multicultural concern. The central question in any discussion of multiculturalism in contemporary India is how a vast, multi-ethnic country – in terms of religion, language, community, caste and tribe – has survived as a state in conditions of underdevelopment, mass poverty, illiteracy and extreme regional disparities.

Multicultural Constitution of India

The Indian Constitution can be said to be a multicultural document in the International Journal on Multicultural Societies (IJMS), sense of providing for political and institutional measures for the recognition and accommodation of the country’s diversity.
The Indian Constitution makes the conservation and cultivation of such rights the fundamental rights of every citizen of India. Article 29 (1) says that any section of the citizens of India having a distinct language, script or culture of its own shall have the fundamental right to conserve the same. This means that if a cultural minority wants to preserve its own language and culture, the state cannot by law impose on it any other culture belonging to the local majority. Both religious and linguistic minorities are protected by this provision. The constitution also defines a positive, directional role for the state in this respect.
The constitution directs every state (federal unit) to provide adequate facilities for instruction in the mother-tongue at the primary stage of education of children belonging to linguistic minority groups, and empowers the President to issue proper direction to any state (Article 350 A).

Demographic Trends

Population in India (Based on Census 2011)

India is the second most populous country after China in the world with its total population of 1,210 million (Census 2011).
India’s population is larger than the total population of North America, South America and Australia put together.
Decadal Growth rate of Population in India between 2001-2011 was 17.64%. It decreased from 21.54% during 1991-2001.
2001-2011 decade for the first time (except 1911-1921) has added lesser number of people than the previous decade.
The annual growth rate of India’s population is 1.64 per cent (2011)

Rural – Urban Composition

As per Census 2011, 68.8% population resided in rural areas.
The states like Bihar and Sikkim have very high percentage of rural population.
The states of Goa and Maharashtra have only little over half of their total population residing in villages.
The Union Territories, on the other hand, have smaller proportion of rural population, except Dadra and Nagar Haveli (53.38 per cent)
Urban population in India is less (31.16 percent) but growing very fast due to increasing economic
development and rural – urban migration.
The rural-urban migration is conspicuous in the case of urban areas along the main road links and railroads in the North Indian Plains, the industrial areas around Kolkata, Mumbai, Bengaluru – Mysuru, Madurai – Coimbatore, Ahmedabad – Surat, Delhi – Kanpur and Ludhiana – Jalandhar.
In the agriculturally stagnant parts of the middle and lower Ganga Plains, Telangana, non-irrigated Western Rajasthan, remote hilly, tribal areas of northeast, along the flood prone areas of Peninsular India and along eastern part of Madhya Pradesh, the degree of urbanisation has remained low.

Linguistic Composition

India has over 150 spoken languages with more than 500 dialects. There are 22 scheduled languages identified by the government.
The speakers of major Indian languages belong to four language families, which have their subfamilies and branches or groups.
Among the scheduled languages, the speakers of Hindi have the highest percentage.
The smallest language groups are Sanskrit, Bodo and Manipuri speakers (2011). However, it is noticed that the linguistic regions in the country do not have a sharp and distinct boundary, rather they gradually merge and overlap in their respective frontier zones.

Religious Composition

The spatial distribution of religious communities in the country shows that there are certain states and districts having large numerical strength of one religion, while the same may be very negligibly represented in other states.
Hindus are distributed as a major group in many states (ranging from 70 - 90 per cent and above) except the districts of states along Indo- Bangladesh border, Indo-Pak border, Jammu & Kashmir, Hill States of North-East and in scattered areas of Deccan Plateau and Ganga Plain.
Muslims, the largest religious minority, are concentrated in Jammu & Kashmir, certain districts of West Bengal and Kerala, many districts of Uttar Pradesh, in and around Delhi and in Lakshadweep. They form majority in Kashmir valley and Lakshadweep.
The Christian population is distributed mostly in rural areas along the Western coast around Goa, Kerala and also in the hill states of Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Chotanagpur area and Hills of Manipur.
Sikhs are mostly concentrated in relatively small area of the country, particularly in Punjab, Haryana and Delhi.
Jains have major concentration in the urban areas of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra, while the Buddhists are concentrated mostly in Maharashtra. The other areas of Buddhist majority are Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Ladakh, Tripura, and Lahaul and Spiti in Himachal Pradesh.
The other religions of India include Zoroastrians, tribal and other indigenous faiths and beliefs. These groups are concentrated in small pockets scattered throughout the country

Age Structure

According to Census 2011, the share of adolescents i.e., up to the age group of 10-19 years is about 20.9 per cent (2011), among which male adolescents constitute 52.7 per cent and female adolescentsconstitute 47.3 per cent.
Moreover, share of people in the working age (between 15 and 59 years) is more than 60%.
This large share of young and economically productive people in the population can be very helpful for the economy. This is known as Demographic Dividend.
The adolescent population is regarded as the youthful population having high economic and social potentials, but at the same time they are quite vulnerable if not guided properly.

There are many challenges for the society as far as these adolescents are concerned, some of which are

lower age at marriage,
illiteracy – particularly female illiteracy,
school dropouts,
low intake of nutrients,
high rate of maternal mortality of adolescent mothers,
high rate of HIV and AIDS infections,
physical and mental disability or retardedness,
drug abuse and alcoholism,
juvenile delinquency and commitence of crimes, etc.

National Youth Policy, 2014

The National Youth Policy (NYP–2014) was launched in February 2014.
The NYP–2014 has defined ‘youth’ as persons in the age group of 15–29 years.
It proposes a holistic ‘vision’ for the youth of India: “To empower the youth of the country to achieve their full potential, and through them enable India to find its rightful place in the community of nations”.
In order to achieve this Vision, all stakeholders must work towards meeting 5 key objectives:

1. Create a productive workforce.

Education
Entrepreneurship
Employment & Skill Development

2. Develop a strong and healthy generation.

Adolescent and reproductive health.
Promotion of sports.
Control on drug abuse.

3. Instill social values & promote community service.

Promotion of social values.
Community Engagement.

4. Facilitate participation and civic engagement.

Youth Engagement.
Participation in governance.

5. Support youth at risk & create equitable opportunity for all.

Inclusion
Social Justice

Sex Composition

National Ratio in Census 2011 = 940 (improved from 933 in 2001 census).
States/UTs having highest Sex Ratios: Kerela – 1084, Puducherry – 1038 [* UT having highest sex ratio], Tamil Nadu – 995.
States/UTs having Lowest Sex Ratios: Daman and Diu – 618, Dadra and Nagar Haveli – 775, Chandigarh-818, Haryana – 877 [* State having lowest sex ratio].
Child Sex Ratio (sex ratio in age group 0-6 years): 914 (declined from 927 in 2001).
Declining child sex ratio in India indicates that the sex ratio of India may further decline in future.

Literacy Rates

Literacy Rate of India: 74.04%
Male Literacy Rate of India: 82.14%
Female Literacy Rate of India: 65.4%
States/UTs having Highest Literacy Rates in India: Kerala – 93.91%, Lakshadweep -92.28 %, Mizoram – 91.58%
States/UTs having Lowest Literacy Rates in India: Bihar – 63.82%, Arunachal Pradesh – 66.9 %, Rajasthan – 67%.
Kerela has the highest Female Literacy rate (91.98%). Mizoram ranks second.
? Rajasthan has the lowest Female Literacy rate (52.66%). Bihar ranks second.
Lakshadweep has the highest Male Literacy rate (around 96%). Kerala ranks second.
Bihar has the lowest male Literacy rate (73.39%). Arunachal ranks second.

Composition of Working Population

The population of India according to their economic status is divided into three groups, namely; main workers, marginal workers and non-workers.
The main and marginal workers and non workers who are seeking employment are included in the labour force of the country.
It is observed that in India, the proportion of workers (both main and marginal) is only 37.5 per cent (Periodic Labour Force Survey 2018-19) leaving a vast majority of about 60 per cent as non-workers.
This indicates an economic status in which there is a larger proportion of dependent population, further indicating possible existence of large number of unemployed or under employed people.
The proportion of working population, of the states and Union Territories show a moderate variation from about 39.6 per cent in Goa to about 49.9 per cent in Daman and Diu.
The states with larger percentages of workers are Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manip ur and Meghalaya.
Among the Union Territories, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu have higher participation rate.
It is understood that, in the context of a country like India, the work participation rate tends to be higher in the areas of lower levels of economic development since number of manual workers are needed to perform the subsistence or near subsistence economic activities.
The occupational composition of India’s population (which actually means engagement of an individual in farming, manufacturing, trade, services or any kind of professional activities) show a large proportion of primary sector workers compared to secondary and tertiary sectors.
About 54.6 per cent of total working population are cultivators and agricultural labourers, whereas only 3.8% of workers are engaged in household industries and 41.6 % are other workers including non-household industries, trade, commerce, construction and repair and other services.
As far as the occupation of country’s male and female population is concerned, male workers outnumber female workers in all the three sectors.
The number of female workers is relatively high in primary sector, though in recent years there has been some improvement in work participation of women in secondary and tertiary sectors.
It is important to note that the proportion of workers in agricultural sector in India has shown a decline over the last few decades (58.2% in 2001 to 54.6% in 2011). Consequently, the participation rate in secondary and tertiary sector has registered an increase.
This indicates a shift of dependence of workers from farm-based occupations to non-farm-based ones, indicating a sectoral shift in the economy of the country.
The states like Himachal Pradesh and Nagaland have very large shares of cultivators.
On the other hand, states like Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh have higher proportion of agricultural labourers.
The highly urbanized areas like Delhi, Chandigarh and Puducherry have a very large proportion of workers being engaged in other services.
This indicates not only availability of limited farming land, but also large scale urbanisation and industrialization requiring more workers in non-farm sectors.

Important Issues

India’s Demographic Dividend

India has 62.5% of its population in the age group of 15-59 years which is ever increasing and will be at the peak around 2036 when it will reach approximately 65%.
These population parameters indicate an availability of demographic dividend in India, which started in 2005-06 and will last till 2055-56.
According to Economic Survey 2018-19, India’s Demographic Dividend will peak around 2041, when the share of working-age,i.e. 20-59 years, population is expected to hit 59%.

Demographic Dividend: Definition

According to United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), demographic dividend means, "the economic growth potential that can result from shifts in a population’s age structure, mainly when the share of the working-age population (15 to 64) is larger than the non-working-age share of the population (14 and younger, and 65 and older)".
With fewer births each year, a country’s working-age population grows larger relative to the young dependent population. With more people in the labor force and fewer children to support, a country has a window of opportunity for economic growth if the right social and economic investments and policies are made in health, education, governance, and the economy.

Demographic Dividend in India

India has one of the youngest populations in an aging world. By 2020, the median age in India will be just 28, compared to 37 in China and the US, 45 in Western Europe, and 49 in Japan.
Since 2018, India’s working-age population (people between 15 and 64 years of age) has grown larger than the dependant population — children aged 14 or below as well as people above 65 years of age.
This bulge in the working-age population is going to last till 2055, or 37 years from its beginning.
This transition happens largely because of a decrease in the total fertility rate (TFR, which is the number of births per woman) after the increase in life expectancy gets stabilised.
A study on demographic dividend in India by United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) throws up two interesting facts.
The window of demographic dividend opportunity in India is available for five decades from 2005-06 to 2055-56, longer than any other country in the world.
This demographic dividend window is available at different times in different states because of differential behaviour of the population parameters.

Advantages Associated with Demographic Dividend

Better economic growth brought about by increased economic activities due to higher working age population and lower dependent population. It will be channelised in following ways:
Increased Labour Force that enhances the productivity of the economy.
Increased fiscal space created by the demographic dividend to divert resources from spending on children to investing in physical and human infrastructure.
Rise in women’s workforce that naturally accompanies a decline in fertility, and which can be a new source of growth.
Increase in savings rate, as the working age also happens to be the prime period for saving.
A massive shift towards a middle-class society, that is, the rise of aspirational class.
Demographic dividend has historically contributed up to 15 % of the overall growth in advanced economies.
Japan was among the first major economies to experience rapid growth because of changing population structure.
The country’s demographic-dividend phase lasted from 1964 to 2004.
Rapid industrialisation and urbanisation because of higher number of employment seeking population that would force higher economic activities.
Rise in workforce: With more than 65% of working age population, India will rise as an economic superpower, supplying more than half of Asia’s potential workforce over the coming decades.
Effective policy making: Fine-tuning the planning and implementation of schemes and programmes by factoring in population dynamics is likely to yield greater socio-economic impact and larger benefits for people.

Challenges Associated with Demographic Dividend

Asymmetric demography: The growth in the working-age ratio is likely to be concentrated in some of India’s poorest states and the demographic dividend will be fully realized only if India is able to create

gainful employment opportunities for this working-age population.
Lack of skills: Most of the new jobs that will be created in the future will be highly skilled and lack of skill in Indian workforce is a major challenge. India may not be able to take advantage of the
opportunities, due to a low human capital base and lack of skills.
Low human development parameters: India ranks 130 out of 189 countries in UNDP’s Human Development Index, which is alarming. Therefore, health and education parameters need to be
improved substantially to make the Indian workforce efficient and skilled.
Informal nature of economy in India is another hurdle in reaping the benefits of demographic transition in India.
Jobless growth- There is mounting concern that future growth could turn out to be jobless due to deindustrialization, de-globalization, the fourth industrial revolution and technological progress. As per the NSSO Periodic Labour Force Survey 2017-18, India’s labour force participation rate for the agegroup 15-59 years is around 53%, that is, around half of the working age population is jobless.

Is there a need for India to take urgent & coercive measures to curb population growth?

There is no urgency for India to take population control measures. The country is already witnessing a decline in its population growth rate. Couples not only desire, but also have fewer children than earlier.
The overall growth appears high because of the population momentum in the presence of a large base of the young population. Thirty per cent of the country’s population comprises young — adolescents (10-19 years) and youth (15-24 years) — who are or will soon be in reproductive age.
Even if this group produces fewer children per couple, there would still be a quantum increase because the number of reproductive couples is high. Thus, India, with its large proportion of young people, will take time to stabilise its population. However, the country’s demographic changes are along the expected lines. With increased access to education, economic and other development opportunities, India will ensure fertility decline in all the states. Regressive social norms continue to undermine the value of women in many parts of India. According to the National Family Health Survey-4, as many as 14.43 million women (20-24 years) married before the age of 18 and 4.5 million become mothers during adolescence. Also, 10 million girls (15-24 years) who wish to delay pregnancy do not have access to contraceptives.
Early marriage, teenage pregnancy, preference for sons, lack of women’s agencies, taboos attached to abortion and poor commitment from men towards family planning are some critical socioeconomic factors resulting in high fertility.
India is among the countries with the highest number of girls married before they are 18. As women’s reproductive health is largely affected by decisions made mostly by men and their families, it is important for men to not merely be sexual partners, husbands and heads of families. They should help change women’s lives by increasing the use of contraceptives and seeking reproductive healthcare services. This can change the country’s family planning narrative .
In the early 1970s, coercive population control strategies gained momentum in India, which saw the rise of mass sterilisation camps. It compelled states to employ extreme incentive policies with target-based approach to attain numbers. But in 2000, the Union government brought out the second National Population Policy (NPP) which reflects the commitments made at the International Conference on Population and Development in 1994.
NPP emphasised that people must be free and enabled to access quality healthcare, make informed choices and adopt measures for fertility regulation best suited to them.
It hoped to bring the national Total Fertility Rate (TFR) to 2.1 by 2010 and work towards filling the unmet need for contraceptives and services by advocating “small family norm”without prescribing numbers and running state-specific programmes. Nowhere did the policy advocate “two-child norm”.
It is disturbing that “small-family norm“ was misinterpreted as “two-child norm”, which clearly has coercive implications. India has to stabilise population without coercive policies. To ensure that high fertility regions lower their TFR to replacement levels, the government needs to raise budgetary allocations, address the large unmet need for family planning services and provide more contraceptive choices in public health systems. Simultaneous investments to enhance women’s education, health status and greater participation in the workforce can contribute to reducing fertility rates.

Skewed Gender Ratio

Sample Registration System (SRS) Statistical report (2018) which measures the global population projection, highlighted that fertility rate has been declining in India for some time now. The report estimated that India’s Total Fertility Rate (TFR) was around 2.2 in the year 2018, which is close to the replacement rate of 2.1. This clearly marks the success of government measures to bring population control. However, on flip side the SRS report highlights the declining sex ratio at birth in India that has further got reduced from 906 in 2011 to 899 in 2018. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) State of World Population 2020 held that sex ratio at birth in India is lower than all the countries in the world except China. Therefore, along with stabling of population , government and society needs to address the declining sex ratio and subsequently gender discrimination.

Reasons For Skewed Sex Ratio

Gender Bias: According to information from the UNPFA, reasons for female infanticide include antifemale bias, as women are often seen as subservient to men, who often employ positions of power.
Son-Preference: In addition, parents believe they will be better taken care of in their old age by men, as men are perceived as the principal wage earners of the family.
Social Practices: Parents of girls are usually expected to pay a dowry, which could be a massive expense, avoided by raising males.
Counter Effect of Rise in Income: Contrary to popular perception, in India’s sex ratio at birth declined even as per capita income increased nearly 10 times over the last 65 years, according to an IndiaSpend analysis of government data.
This could be because rising income, which results in increased literacy, makes it easier for families to access sex-selective procedures.

Issues Related to Lower Sex Ratio at Birth

Gender-imbalance: Prof. Amartya Kumar Sen, in his world famous article “Missing Women? has statistically proved that during the last century, 100 million women have been missing in south Asia.
This is due to discrimination leading to death, experienced by them from womb to tomb in their life cycles.
An adverse child sex ratio is also reflected in the distorted gender makeup of the entire population.
Acording to World Bank, in 2031, India will have 936 females per 1,000 males, lower than the sex ratio in 1951 of 946 females per 1,000 males.
Distortion in the Marriage System: Adverse ratio results in a gross imbalance in the number of men and women and its inevitable impact on marriage systems as well as other harms to women.
In India, some villages in Haryana and Punjab have such poor sex ratios that men “import” brides from other States. This is often accompanied by the exploitation of these brides.
There are concerns that skewed sex ratios lead to more violence against both men and women, as well as human-trafficking

Urbanisation

Urbanization is popularly defined as the rise of population in urban areas.
Urbanization is derived from the Latin “Urbs” a term used by the Romans to a city.
United Nations perceives urbanization as movement of people from rural to urban areas.
Mishra defines urbanization in the following way “Urbanization is not a product. It is a process by which a people, instead of living in predominantly dispersed agricultural villages, start living in towns and cities dominated by industrial and service functionaries. It involves multiplication of urban places and/ or an increase in size of cities. Growth of urban population is only one of dimensions of
urbanization.”
Urbanization results in both the increasing footprint of urban areas and the increasing percentage of the urban population.
Accordingly, urbanization is very common in developing and developed worlds as more and more people have the tendency of moving closer to towns and cities to acquire “privileged” social and economic services such as better education, health care, sanitation, housing, business opportunities, and transportation.
Most developing countries experience the process of urbanization, especially once they start becoming industrialized.
Cities and towns become hubs of trade and culture, and more people start moving out of the country to gain access to some of these social and financial benefits.
Agriculture begins to decline, and industrialization fuels the move from rural areas to urban ones.

Classification of Process of Urbanisation:

One of the eminent demographers Kingsley Davis classified the process of urbanization into three stages.
The Stage-I is the initial stage, characterized by traditional rural society with predominance in agriculture and dispersed pattern of settlement.
The stage-II is where proportion of urban population gradually increases from 25% to 40%, 50%, 60% and so on. This is otherwise called as the stage of acceleration where basic restructuring of the economy and investments in social overhead capitals including transport, communication take place.
The stage-III is known as the terminal stage, where urban population exceeds 70% or more. According to Davis, at this stage, the level of urbanization remains more or less same or constant.

The Census of India has broadly categorized urban areas in into following types:

Statutory towns: all places with municipality, corporation, cantonment board, notified town area committees, etc.
Census towns: all villages with a minimum population of 5000 persons in the preceding census, at least 75 percent of male main working population engaged in non-agricultural activities and a population density of at least 400 persons per sq. km.
Urban Agglomerations (UAs): a continuous urban spread comprising one or more towns.
Urban Growths (UGs): areas around a core city or town, such well recognized places like railways colony, university campus, port areas, etc. lying outside the limit of town.

Urbanisation Trends in Developed Countries

The important trends in urbanization in the developed countries are suburbanization, urban renewal, gentrification and megalopolitan development.

Suburbanization

One of the most significant changes in urban form that has happened in advanced capitalist countries in the twentieth century is the growth of suburbs.
It has taken place around the edges of major towns and cities.
A suburb is an area of residence, a neighbourhood of houses rather than mixed land use type of neighbourhood found in the city proper.
Suburbanization has primarily been caused by the migration of people into the countryside escaping from the drawbacks of urban life.
Customarily, suburbanization implies a separation between home and workplace, perhaps the most important is relatively cheap transport, as transport connectivity extends the distance of suburbs from the central city.

Urban Renewal

Urban renewal is a continuous process of remodelling urban areas by means of rehabilitation and conservation as well as redevelopment.
In urban renewal, the emphasis is given on those parts of the city which have fallen below currentstandards of public acceptability.
They are commonly found to be in the residential part of the inner city and also in the central parts of the inner city, face problems of inadequate housing, environmental deprivation, social malaise and the presence of non-conforming uses.
The central business city part faces problems of traffic congestion and obsolescence of building and obsolesce of building and sites.

Gentrification:

It means change in the social character of neighbourhood as a result of professional higher income groups seeking residence in central city location.
Gentrification issocially important in attracting some middle to high income residents back to central areas.
Gentrification is so to say selective in nature not only in terms of population to attract but also of the conditions under which it occur.
In the USA, most of the major cities are now experiencing varying levels of gentrification in their central area neighbourhoods. In Britain, the process has occurred in a few cities namely Bristol and London .
Megapolitan Development: One of the most important facets of urbanization in the developed countries is the growth of cities not in terms of population but in terms of area.
Here the cities expand physically and the same number of people is living in the cities but at low densities.
The examples of megapolitan type of development are characteristics of Atlantic sea board of USA, and in Japan it has appeared naturally and in the Netherlands it has appeared by design and planning.
The United States megapolis extends over 600 miles from Boston to Washington D.C., the Tokaido megapolis extends from Tokyo, Yakohoma to Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto and the Ransted megapolis comprises of three major cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague. This process has also started in developing countries.

Urbanisation Trends in the Developing Countries

Urbanization in the developed countries is higher as compared to the developing countries. As per UN statistics, the percentage of population residing in the urban areas of developed countries is 79.1%, while that of less developed countries is 46.8%.
The urbanization in the African region is found to be slightly higher than the Asian region. However in both the region, urbanization is comparatively lower than those of Europe and USA.
Urbanization takes place without much industrialization and strong economic base. Lack of industrialization led urbanization has resulted in growth of unorganized sector which is characterized by lower wage rate and poor service condition which affect the quality of life of urban population.
Unplanned urbanization in developing countries has led to growth of urban slum areas characterized by low quality housing, poor sanitation, access to unsafe drinking water, etc.
It is not a flight of fancy, but delicately, the current pattern of urbanization in developing countries is alarming if viewed from a historical, spatial and cross country perspective. The unplanned urbanization greatly concerns most of the government in these countries.

Some of the features of urbanization as mentioned by the WHO are as follows:

More than half of the world’s population now live in cities.
By 2030, six out of every ten people will be city dwellers, which will rise to seven out of every ten people by 2050.
One in three urban dwellers lives in slums.
Urban air pollution kills around 1.2 million people each year around the world, mainly due to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases Tuberculosis incidence is much higher in big cities.
Urban environment tends to discourage physical activity and promote unhealthy food consumption.

Urbanisation Trend in India

British era witnessed de-industrialization and de-urbanization due to their thrust to Industrial revolution in Europe only.
Urbanization in India began to accelerate after independence, due to the country's adoption of a mixed economy, which gave rise to the development of the private sector.
Population residing in urban areas in India, according to 1901 census, was 11.4% and according to 2011 census it reached the mark of 31.16% that is nearly 40 crores.
Among all the States and Union territories, Delhi and Chandigarh are most urbanized with 97.5 percent and 97.25 percent urban population respectively, followed by Daman and Diu (75.2 percent) and Puducherry (68.3 percent).
Among States, Goa is most urbanised State with 62.2 percent urban population.
Among the North-Eastern States, Mizoram is most urbanised with 51.5 per cent urban population.
Among major states, Tamil Nadu continues to be the most urbanized state with 48.4 percent of the population living in urban areas followed now by Kerala (47.7 per cent) upstaging Maharashtra (45.2 percent). The proportion of urban population continues to be the lowest in Himachal Pradesh with 10.0 per cent followed by Bihar with 11.3 percent, Assam (14.1 percent) and Orissa (16.7 percent).
In terms of absolute number of persons living in urban areas, Maharashtra continues to lead with 50.8 million persons which comprises 13.5 percent of the total urban population of the country. Uttar Pradesh accounts for about 44.4 million, followed by Tamil Nadu at 34.9 million .

Significance of Urbanisation in India

As in most countries, India's urban areas make a major contribution to the country's economy.
Indian cities contribute to about 2/3 of the economic output, host a growing share of the population and are the main recipients of FDI and the originators of innovation and technology and over the next two decades are projected to have an increase of population from 282 million to 590 million people.
India's towns and cities have expanded rapidly as increasing numbers migrate to towns and cities in search of economic opportunity.
According to the 2011 census, there are 53 cities in India with a population of a million or more; by 2031, that number will rise to 87. Some of these metropolitan areas will become major economic powerhouses that have higher GDP than the current GDP of countries such as Israel, Portugal and the UAE.
Cities provide major opportunities for sustainable development, given that they have large numbers of people in a small area, and offer significant economies of scale which provide jobs, housing and services.
There is a need to fully realize the potential of Indian cities for ecological, economic and social sustainability. But this urbanization can only be harnessed and sustained by inclusive planning that provides affordable transportation, continuous water supply, modern sewage treatment and a good solid waste management system.
There are several factors at play that have led to the urbanization in India – population growth and migration as one of the 2 major factors.
Recently, a third factor has been seen as a huge contributor to the urbanization growth: the expansion of towns and cities.
This factor is due to the high economic growth that the city has witnessed over the years. Because of this, the government in India has decided to grab the opportunity: projects to further thrust the country into urbanization, a number of smart cities to be put up in various locations, and other initiatives.

Specific Reasons of Urbanization In India since Independence

Industrialisation: The creation of PSU by the government and dawn the Industrial Revolution in India along with the Industrial townships are built to house employees close to the factories and manufacturing plants at which they work. After the success of the pioneering industrial township like Tata’s Steel Town of Jamshedpur, Bhilai, Bokaro, Rourkela etc. urbanization had happened in India. Rural-urban migration had happened in search of better economic opportunities.
Creation of new capital cities which acted as the administrative towns like Chandigarh, Gandhinagar, Bhubneshwar etc. and the capital city of north eastern states like Agartala, Kohima etc.
Government Policies: Eleventh five-year plan that aimed at urbanisation for the economic development of India.
Economic opportunities are just one reason people move into cities.
Special Economic Zones dot the landscape of India. Each of these zones is focused on a particular sector such as IT, apparel and fashion, or petroleum and petrochemical industries. These SEZs act as a nucleus of urban areas.
Infrastructure facilities in the urban areas like health care, schools, colleges, Universities etc.
Urbanization in India is mainly due to liberalization of its economy after the 1990s, which gave rise to the development of the private sector.
Presently, although urbanization is taking place at a fast rate in India, only one-third of its population lives in urban areas.

India Specific Reasons Behind The Problems Of Urbanization

Out of date and static master plans immobilize the supply of serviced land and buildable space, blocking efficient and productive development. Rigid master plans and restrictive zoning regulations limit the land available for building, constricting cities' abilities to grow in accordance with changing needs.
The proliferation of slums is largely the result of failures in land markets and regulations, compounded by limited access to housing finance.
Public transport services provide inadequate services, and non-motorized transit for pedestrians, bicycles, and handcarts is limited, forcing this traffic to compete with cars, trucks and motorcycles for space on the streets.
Fractured planning structures are incapable of integrated planning for land use, infrastructure planning, and finance across metropolitan areas.
Urban services, including water & wastewater, and solid waste, do not reach many residents, and those they do serve receive sporadic, unreliable services. And, in the case of non-notified slums, service providers are prohibited from serving residents.
Weak and unpredictable financing frameworks limit the ability of ULBs to manage their resources effectively. ULBs and local service entities have neither clear responsibility nor the fiscal and operational autonomy to deliver adequate urban services;
Overlapping institutions across three tiers of government diffuse accountability across agencies, parastatal bodies and elected governments. This situation undermines India's robust democracy, clouds issues of responsibility, and blocks the development of coherent regulatory frameworks and sustainable service delivery models.
Dominance of state governments: India's states are often on the scale of countries. These state governments cannot effectively provide service or good governance at the local level. Even India's mega-cities do not have control over their own policies, planning, finances, assets, or institutions.

Causes Of Urbanization

The causes of urbanization are many; however, a few important reasons of urbanization are narrated below:

Agricultural Development:

Development of agriculture due to farm mechanization has resulted in fewer demands for labour force in the agriculture sector. These surplus labour usually migrate to urban sector for employment and livelihood.
The labourers deployed in the construction and other low menial work and self employed activities are largely migrants from rural areas. It is also seen that agriculture development in Punjab has resulted in migration of rural Punjab population not only to the cities of different states of India but also to the cities of other countries of the world.

Industrialization:

Generally, it is observed that industrialization takes place in and around the cities. This industrialization help people add value to their product and this in turn helps more and more people to earn livelihood and settle down in the outskirt of the cities.
The industrial workforces in the cities are mostly migrants from the rural areas.

Market Forces:

The proliferation of consumer goods industries through the play of market forces leads to an increase in the importance of the market oriented locations.
Towns provide large readymade markets for consumer goods and thus attract new industries for the manufacturing of these goods.
These new industries and the supply of labour in turn increase the size of the potential market. A snowball effect is set in motion and urban growth becomes self-sustaining.

Growth Services Centres:

With the growth of cities, the living standards of the city dwellers rises and along with these trading increases and the tertiary sector services by their very nature, tend to be centralized in towns providing retailing, entertainment, catering, banking, insurance and administration.
As more and more services are required, it attracts more and more people and gradually the urban area grows.

Emergence of towns as socio-cultural centres:

Now a day’s towns have become the epi-centre of most of the socio-cultural activities of the nationstate. They have emerged more as a centre of entertainment.
Towns with facilities such as cinemas, theatres, art galleries, museum, parks, etc, act as magnets to the surrounding population. Many people simply enjoy being near the centre of urban life.
Because of the concentration of many socio-cultural activities, urban areas have become zones of immense opportunities.
People concentrate more and more in urban areas as success in urban areas is more attainable. The glamour of staying in urban areas becomes much more compared to rural areas. The influx of people makes the urban areas overcrowded.

Improvement in transport and communication:

Development of nation-sate focuses on improvement in infrastructure facilities and greater connectivity between rural and urban areas. More roads are constructed which improves the connectivity between rural and urban areas.
As a result of improved communication and transport facilities, the migration of population from rural to urban areas becomes faster and easier.
As the job opportunities available are manifold compared to rural areas more and more people prefer to migrate to urban areas leading to rise in urban population.
The development of rail communication in backward areas also promoted migration of population from these areas to the towns, cities and metropolis.

Natural increase of population:

This is one of the most important factors for the current urbanization in the world. Although the upper and middle class population of urban areas have lower fertility leading to natural increase of population in urban areas.
In fact the growth and natural increase of population in urban areas are lower compared to rural areas, but it cannot be overemphasised as one of the factors of increase in population in urban areas. All these factors are responsible for urbanization.

Problems Associated With Urbanisation

The rapid Urbanization has brought in its wave a host of problems particularly for the government of the developing countries. Although, higher income is an added benefits to the urban dwellers, yet urban poverty and unemployment and a host of problems associated with pollution and congestation are the most noted indicators of urban failures.

According to Tolley and Thomas, there are three types of externalities associated with over urbanization and these are:

First, environmental externalities such as those connected with pollution and congestation, meaning that cities sizes are large maximum national income and welfare;
Second, protected employment that maintain urban wages above market-clearing levels may make cities large or smaller than they otherwise would be, depending on the elasticity for labour; and
The attractiveness of urban areas can lead to excessive urbanization.

On the whole, although, urbanization is contributing towards economic development and growth of a nation, yet the over urbanization has caused a sundry of problems to developing countries. Some of the important problems are given below.

Urbanization and Health:

The World Summit on sustainable development identified health as an integral component of sustainable development and called for a more efficient, equitable, accessible and appropriate health care system for the population that rely on them.
Urban areas, particularly the slums are exposed to many types of health problems because of unhealthy environment and poor living conditions.
Overcrowded and congested housing in the urban slum areas expose the slum dwellers to high rates of infectious diseases such as pneumonia, tuberculosis and diarrhea.
Besides, the overcrowding combined with poor sanitary conditions and inadequate waste disposal creates conditions favorable to spread of infectious diseases.
People in general and children in particular are susceptible to diseases when they are born and brought up in an environment characterized by overcrowding, poor hygiene, excessive noise and lack of space for recreation and study.
Moreover, like the children, women and particularly pregnant women are vulnerable to environmental contaminants.
Pregnant women’s exposure to filthy environment increases the risk of abortion, birth defects, fetal growth and perinatal death.
Many studies have shown that exposing pregnant women to carbon monoxide can damage the health of the fetus.
Among the general population in the slum of the cities some of the diseases found occurring are HIV/ AID, tuberculosis, yellow fever and dengue.
According to Trivedi, Sareen and Dhyani (2008) the range of disorders and deviances associated with urbanization is enormous and includes psychoses, depression, sociopathy, substance abuse, alcoholism, crime, delinquency, etc. such negative impact often results in unreasonable means which may result in communal violence.
WHO has rightly remarked that “while urban living continues to offer many opportunities, including potential access to better health care, today’s urban environments can concentrate health risks and introduce new hazards,”

Urbanization and Education

Although access to education is not a problem in urban areas, however, affordability is a problem particularly for the urban poor.
Urbanization has boosted higher education in metropolis and cities. With the proliferation of cities, schools, colleges and universities have been established.
As a result, literacy rate in urban areas are comparatively higher than that of the rural areas. However, education in the urban slum areas is still a concern.
The migration of rural population to urban and semi-urban areas has put tremendous pressure on educational infrastructure and manpower in urban areas.
Numbers of NGOs are seen to be working in education sector in urban slum.
Despite free education, children of urban poor families are found to be engaged in income earning activities.
Education for urban poor is still a luxury, particularly as far as the quality and higher education are concerned.

Urbanization and Sanitation

World Bank (1992) remarked that poor are the agents and victims of environmental degradation.
The urban sanitation is a big problem as the provision of sanitation infrastructure is falling short of the growing population in urban areas.
Customarily, sanitation means safe disposal of waste. It is estimated that 40 million people reside in slum without adequate sanitation.
The drainage system in many unorganized slums either not exist and if existing are in a bad shape and in bits resulting in blockage of waste water.
The open drainage passing through the slum colonies deeply affect the health of the people.
Urban garbage disposal is one of the critical garbage management which has always remained a major challenge before the municipal areas and administration.
In mega cities, urban people in general and children in particular suffer from many urban environment related health problems because of exposure to unhygienic garbage disposal.
The National Urban Sanitation Policy has stipulated the norm for total sanitation of cities those that are open defecation free city; universal access to toilets for all including the urban poor; elimination of manual scavenging; safe collection, treatment and disposal of all wastewater, etc.

Urbanization and Safe Drinking Water

Securing a safe water supply in urban areas is an increasing problem in most of the urban areas of developing countries.
The United Nations recognizes access to clean drinking water as a human right, but it remains out of reach of millions of people.
According to UN statistics, some 400 million people in Africa live in urban areas but as of 2008, 55 million of them lacked access to clean drinking water.
According to Stockholm International Water Institute, global effort to improve access to drinking water has been hindered by rapid urbanization.
It has been remarked that bad water kills more people than HIV, malaria and wars together affecting the lives of families and the economic development of may countries around this world.
Most of the urban areas do not have adequate access to safe and reliable supply of drinking water.

The safe drinking water surveillance lays emphasis on following five important aspects:
Quality of drinking water
Quantity of drinking water
Accessibility of people to safe drinking water
Affordability that is paying capacity of the people towards water tariff and
The continuity that is percentage of time a household spend for fetching which drinking water is available.

Although the percentage of households having access to safe drinking water is higher in urban areas as compared to rural areas, yet the poor management and distribution of water has resulted in unequal access to safe drinking water.
The breakage in the water pipe sometimes leads to the contamination of drinking water sources. This has resulted in outbreak of waterborne diseases. The water shortage during summer and water contamination during the rainy season is problems which need to be tackled.

Urbanization and Housing Problem

One of the key challenges of urbanization is to provide healthy housing to urban population. However, the rising urban population has created serious housing problem, thus, leading to growth of urban slum featured with poor housing.
Excessive urbanization has created manifold problems such as the haphazard growth of unauthorized housing colonies and slum and squatter settlements has become a well know phenomenon in the metropolitan cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Ahmadabad, etc.
The unauthorized and squatter housing are astoundingly high in low income and lower middle income countries. The underdeveloped countries are unable to provide healthy housing to its urban population particularly migrating from rural to urban areas.

Urbanization and Pollution

Urbanization and pollution has become the most common phenomenon in mega cities. The growing numbers of vehicles and slums have escalated the urban pollution problems in big cities.
Besides this, outdoor population caused by vehicles and factories, the indoor air pollution caused by the use of fuel store and fire woods, etc. by slum population has increased the risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and acute respiratory infections in childhood. It is one of the most important causes of deaths among children below five year age in India.
Besides, car, factories and burning wastes also emit dangerous gases that affect the air quality in the cities. Dangerous gases like carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides cause respiratory diseases, has long effect on physical environment and human health.

Urbanization and Poverty

It is remarked that the most widely observed and acutely felt urban problem in developing countries is the large number of poor and unemployed people in the cities.
According to ILO one third of the world’s urban population approximately 400 million people were living in poverty.
It has also noted that poverty-related problems such as overcrowding, hunger, disease, crime and malnutrition are increasingly prevalent in cities of many countries both developing as well as developed.
Economic development and urbanization are closely correlated. For example in India, cities contribute 55 percent to country’s GDP. Therefore for India, urbanization is considered an important component of economic growth.
However, on the other hand, it is interesting to note that the ratio of urban poverty in some of the mega cities is even higher than the rural poverty which is termed as “Urbanization of Poverty”.
This urban poverty is a responsible factor for several problems in urban areas such as housing and shelter, water, sanitation, health education, social security and livelihood.
It has been rightly remarked that with growing poverty and slums, Indian cities are grappling the challenges of making the cities sustainable i.e. inclusive, productive, efficient and manageable.
Eradication of poverty form urban areas was a major challenge before the government. Thus urban poor constitute nearly 20 percent of urban population. Thus unplanned urbanization has escalated the size of urban poverty.

Urbanization and Unemployment

Generating employment for the increasing number of urban population is a challenge for the government.
The urban underemployment and casual employment is another problem which has resulted in poor quality of living among the urban poor.
The ILO has remarked that most urban unemployment in developing countries takes the form of underemployment, in which people are obliged to undertake any available economic activity, however, productive and unproductive, because these are no social-safety nets and no alternatives in the form of unemployment insurance or job training in the formal sector.
In sub-Saharan Africa, the urban informal sector is estimated to employ more than 60 percent of the urban labour force at extremely low incomes. In Latin America and the Caribbean, 83 percent of all new jobs created between 1990-93 were in the informal sector, the bulk of these jobs are poorly remunerated, unsafe and of low productivity. The large majority of Latin America’s urban poor work in the informal sector.

Mental health Issues

At the macro, social group level, changes related to urbanization are thought to contribute to social disintegration and disorganization.
These macro factors contribute to social disparities which affect individuals by creating perceived insecurity.
Perceived insecurity can be due problems with the physical environment, such as issues with personal safety, or problems with the social environment.
Increased stress is a common individual psychological stress or that accompanies urbanization and is thought to be due to perceived insecurity.
Changes in social organization, a consequence of urbanization, are thought to lead to reduced social support, increased violence, and overcrowding. It is these factors that are thought to contribute to increased stress.
It is important to note that urbanization or population density alone does not cause mental health problems. It is the combination of urbanization with physical and social risk factors that contribute to mental health problems.

Impact Of Urbanisation In The Rural Areas

In India, urbanisation along with westernisation and modernisation has furthered the process of rapid social change both in the rural and in the urban areas. One of the important results of urbanisation is the rural to urban migration.
Migration has become a continuous process affecting the social, economic and cultural lives of the villagers widely.
Rao (1974) distinguishes three different situation of urban impact in the rural areas.
In the villages from where large number of people migrate to the far off cities, urban employment becomes a symbol of higher social prestige.
Villages, which are located near the towns, receive influx of immigrant workers and face the problems of housing, marketing and social ordering.
Lastly, in the process of the growth of metropolitan cities some villages become the rural-pockets in the city areas. Hence the villagers directly participate in the economic, political, social and cultural life of the city.
Srinivas pointed out that urbanisation in southern India has a caste component and that, it was the Brahmin who first left the village for the towns and took advantage of western education and modern professions. At the same time as they retained their ancestral lands they continued to be at the top of the rural socio-economic hierarchy.
Again, in the urban areas they had a near monopoly of all non-manual posts. However, the antiBrahmin movement and the economic depression of the nineteen thirties led to the migration of Brahmins from the south and rural areas to metropolitan cities.
As a result of migration there has been a flow of urban money into the rural areas. Emigrants regularly send money to their native villages. Such money facilitates the dependants to clear off loans, build houses and educate children.
The urban centres of India have become the centres of national and international linkages. At present, many cultural traits are diffused from cities to the rural areas. For example, dress patterns like pants, shirts, ties, skirts, jeans etc. diffuse from cities to the rural areas.
Besides these, new thoughts, ideologies are also diffused from the cities to the rural areas due to increase in communication via radio, television, newspaper, computer, the Internet and telephone.
The urbanism, which emerges in the cities gradually, reaches to the rural areas, depending on their proximity to the cities. The process of urbanisation has not been an isolated phenomenon.
At present, along with the whole gamut of occupational diversification, spread of literacy, education, mass communication etc., continuity between rural and urban areas has increased.

Sustainable Urban Development

The report of the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) envisaged that sustainable development has now assumed a broader significance as a process of change in which the use of resources, the direction of investments, the orientation of technological development and institutional changes must all contribute to enhancing the quality of human life, today as well as tomorrow, within the carrying capacity of supporting economic systems.
It broadly emphasises on the establishment of a condition of ecological and economic stability that is sustainable far into the future.
The United Nations Environment Programme and its partners have been persuading the nations of the short and long-term benefits to be gained from the sound environmental management of natural resources.
WCED declared that “all human being have the fundamental right to an environment adequate for their health and well-being. There has to be sustainable development which will be durable and beneficial to the present and future generation.” Sustainable Urban Development must be the aim of all developing countries.
The UNCHS (United Nations Conference on Human Settlement) defined sustainable city is a city “where achievements in social, economic and physical development are made to last”.
A Sustainable city has lasting supply of the natural resources on which its development depends and a lasting security from environmental hazards which may threaten development achievements.
Sustainable urban development is important because urban areas now a day contribute significantly to the Gross Domestic Product. They contribute increasingly to export and is a rich place for capital formation.
Cities offer quality education and health care; arts and science; technology and innovation and transport and communication

The Agenda 21 of WCED held in 1992 in Rio-de-Janerio for promoting Sustainable Human

Settlement Development is:

Providing adequate shelter to all
Improving human settlements management
Promoting Sustainable land use planning and management.
Promoting the integrated provision of environmental infrastructure: water, sanitation, drainage, hazardous and solid waste management.
Promoting sustainable energy and transport systems in human settlements.
Promoting human settlement planning and management in disaster prone areas.
Promoting sustainable construction industry activities.
Promoting human resources development and capacity building for human settlement development.

Government Initiatives

The Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD), Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (MoHUPA) and the Town and Country Planning Organization (TCPO) will facilitate and support the nationwide urban and regional development planning. These organizations place their efforts on spatial planning for the improvement of the entire country.

The Government of India's overarching urban development objectives is to create economically productive, efficient, inclusive and responsive ULBs, by focusing on strategic outcomes:

universal access to a minimum level of services;
establishment of city – wide frameworks for planning and governance;
modern and transparent budgeting, accounting and FM;
financial sustainability for ULBs and service delivery institutions;
utilization of e-governance;
transparency and accountability in urban service delivery and management;
Slum-free cities.
In pursuance of these goals, the Government of India launched a flagship urban development program called the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM) in 2005.
With the rapid rise of urbanization in India, there is an increase in overall development in the different sectors. Due to this, the Seven Mission Program was founded. This program aims to fund cities to achieve intended milestones.