Growing urbanisation in India is an incontrovertible fact. The 2011 census showed that nearly 32 per cent of Indians lived in cities and towns. The percentage of city-dwellers in the country is expected to grow from the present 32 per cent to 50 per cent by 2044. According to another relevant statistical projection, Indians who constitute 11 per cent of the global urban population as of now will form 15 per cent by 2031. By then nearly 600 million Indians would be living in urban areas! This will give the lie to what Mahatma Gandhi declared at the beginning of the 20th century that “the soul of India lives in its villages”. The trend of urbanisation offers both opportunities and challenges.
While movement of people from villages to cities is the inevitable fallout of urbanization, as can be gauged from the growing population in cities like Delhi and Mumbai, it is also a fact that these cities have grown, both horizontally and vertically. For instance, Delhi can no longer be visualised without Gurgaon in Haryana and Noida in Uttar Pradesh as its natural extensions. By the same logic, much of Kerala can be considered as a single, contiguous entity, where it is difficult to distinguish where the city ends and the village begins. Yet, little is being done to manage the growing urbanisation. An efficient waste disposal system is almost non-existent. Even the educated and the affluent have no pangs of conscience when they dump their waste on roadsides and in drains.
Urban areas are allowed to come up without any planning that takes care of the future needs of water, public transport, electricity and education. The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity has assessed that 60 per cent of the land projected to become urban by 2030 is yet to be built. This means that now is the time to plan for the future. A re-look at the Urban Development Plan Formulation Guidelines of 1996 would be necessary to ensure that implementing agencies like state governments and municipal bodies are adequately equipped to meet the challenges of the future.