Urbanisation, Slums And Incidence Of COVID-19: Undertaking Reforms
Urbanisation, Slums and Incidence of COVID-
19: Undertaking Reforms
ABHAY PETHE*
RASHMI SHARMA**
ABSTRACT
COVID-19 being the headliner of the year 2020, in the absence of a vaccine or medication, has engulfed the whole world. In India, though the lockdown was conceived as a response at a very early stage, the number of cases have multiplied more than 1000 times since then. Data emerging since shows that the outbreak is primarily urban and given the life conditions in the Indian urban areas in general and slums in particular, there had to be a connect between urbanisation, slums and the incidence of COVID-19. The following note first establishes the above-mentioned fact with special focus on slums. In managing the spread of the virus and taking effective measures in responding to its spread, the vulnerabilities of these ever-expanding cities/ slums have been exposed, once again emphasising the need for higher investments in public health, improvement in the state of the slums and eventual creation of affordable houses, more than ever.
Keywords: COVID-19, Governance, Public Health Infrastructure, Slums, Urbanisation ‘More than ever before, there is a global understanding that longterm social, economic, and environmental development would be impossible without healthy families, communities and countries.’ —Gro Harlem Brundtland (GoI, 2020)
INTRODUCTION
Originating from the city of Wuhan in China, SARS-COVID-19 has become a global household name over the past five months, and not
*Senior Resident Fellow, Mumbai School of Economics and Public Policy (MSE- PP), University of Mumbai.
Email: ampethe@gmail.com
**Doctoral Candidate, Mumbai School of Economics and Public Policy (MSE-PP), University of Mumbai.
Email: rashmis0102@gmail.com
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NAGARLOK VOL. LII, Part 3, July-September 2020
in a pleasant way. Over eight million COVID-19 cases, claiming 4,35,000 lives, have been reported globally as of June 17, 2020. Knowledge of possible devastating consequence of the pandemic and the will of the citizenry towards self-protection, not to mention a bit of political leadership, has played its part in preventing its spread to the worse (Guru, 2020). Since the pandemic apparently has covered rich and poor nations alike, it has questioned the health infrastructure of all. Even the developed nations with well-established public health facilities could not contain the outbreak and had to eventually announce a lockdown. Fortunately, India had examples to learn from the global experience. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a complete lockdown of the nation at nearly 350 COVID-19 positives. Despite (or because of) the lockdown, today we stand at (only) 3.5 lakh cases, mostly concentrated in highly urbanised centres of the country.
The pandemic has caught the world by and large, but especially us, unaware primarily on two fronts. Firstly, the lack of adequate public health infrastructure, and secondly, the matter of socio-economic integration of the poor, in particular slum-dwellers and migrants, in the urban system. Needless to emphasise that what lays ahead of us, as we try to emerge from COVID-19, is an ‘unimaginable economic pandemic’ (Chakraborty & Thomas, 2020). Whilst the government with the help of various task forces is trying to do the fire-fighting, in this piece we are primarily concerned with identifying what is missing and the reforms to be carried out going forward so that we are better prepared when such an eventuality comes upon us the next time around as it inevitably will. This article consists of six sections. Starting with an introduction,
the paper underlines in Section 2, the positive correlation between
urbanisation, slums and the incidence of COVID-19. Section 3 elaborates
on the plight of the marginalised slum dwellers. Section 4 describes
some challenges that lay ahead of the economy in the upcoming post-
pandemic times. Section 5 suggests a road ahead that elaborates on the
suggested vision for social sector investment in future. Finally, the last
section suggests the reformatory action plan indicating the correction
of essential institutional fundamentals in urban areas.
URBANISATION AND INCIDENCE OF COVID-19
The pressing priority today is to understand the weak links in our
system not only to manage it now while it is spreading like wildfire, but
also to manage such a crisis better in future. Therefore, to review the
spread of COVID-19, it may be worthwhile to meditate upon its linkage
with urbanisation. In order to validate the aforementioned point, the
authors used a few proxies, advisedly using simple statistical tool, and
Challenges In Times Of Covid-19 Pandemic
Pandemic in simple terms is an infectious disease spreading into various regions and continents affecting large populations. World witnessed several pandemics earlier like Spanish flu which led to heavy human loss and suffering hundred years back. In recent years viruses like SARS, Ebola, Nipah, etc., have affected humans. The latest of this is Covid-19 virus belonging to SARS group.
In this article an attempt has been made to discuss urbanisation and ecological linkages, urban bias of Covid virus spread and the impacts of virus infections. The issues arising out of Covid virus and the strategies adopted to deal with emerging problems in India are discussed along with some light on international experiences. Covid virus is a developing story hence, the discussions are based on present situations and experiences.
Keywords: Urbanisation and ecological linkages, urban bias, impact of virus
URBANISING WORLD
Urbanisation is the global trend witnessed more vigorously in the post-industrial era across the developed countries. The countries in the developed region became more urbanised with urbanisation levels reaching 70-80 per cent. The urban centres were developed with great foresight and good infrastructure facilities. Urbanisation in the developing world picked up rapidly in the past 50-60 years outpacing the developed regions. Urbanisation is a complex socio-economic process that transforms the built environment, converting formerly rural into urban settlements, while shifting the spatial distribution of population from rural to urban areas.1 It changes balances in ecological, demographic and social structure across the globe. The wellbeing of
Mobilisation Of Financial Resources In Lucknow Municipal Corporation: Status, Trends And Issues
Lucknow is a historical city. Its administration owes its genesis to British days. It is, however presently the largest city in most populous state of Uttar Pradesh. Being the state capital, it enjoys distinctly placed status and position. Lucknow Municipal Corporation is a leading municipal corporation in the state. It strived hard to become the role model for others. Its revenue balance is encouraging.
Significance Of Enhancing Resilience In The Urban System Towards Sustainable Future Cities
The term resilience has been defined as the ability to bounce back or bounce forward. Building resilience in the urban systems is an upcoming research field pertaining to the various challenges posed by the climatic and environmental changes. The resilience of an urban system depends upon the available infrastructure to maintain acceptable levels of functionality during and after disruptive events and to recover full functionality within the specified period of time.
Policy Approaches In Planning For The Sustainable Compact City In Maharashtra
Cities of the developing world have become the centre of opportunities. The concentration of resources in the cities has led to a major socio-economic inequality between urban and rural life. It is necessary for city planners to find innovative, hybrid and cohesive policy planning approaches for the development of the urban system.
Enhancing Citizen Engagement In Smart Cities Mission In India
Infrastructure projects (urban or otherwise) are meant for greater good of people and therefore reflect their needs. Citizen participation is of utmost importance considering this goal. Studies in the past have attempted to define the success of projects through benefits realisation. In public infrastructure projects the end user is the citizen of that nation. However, meaningful citizen engagement has been a challenge for cities all over the world. With the advent of Smart Cities Mission in India in 2015, this aspect of citizen engagement has been brought to the forefront again as an important objective to be achieved. The mission aims to be truly reflective of citizen’s aspirations through a massive public outreach programme. In this paper, the processes followed in citizen engagement during the proposal formation phase as well as during the execution phase are studied. The example of City of Pune, is taken to understand the processes during formulation phase.