Strengthening Civil Society Voices on Urban Poverty in India

Economic development in India has resulted in metropolitan cities attracting large migratory populations. India’s cities have become its engines of growth. This rapid pace of urbanization in India has not been matched by public policies to tackle issues related to the development and planning of urban areas. Even though the 74^th constitutional amendments brought elected municipal governance to nearly 4500 towns and cities in 1992, the institutional design, resources, capabilities and mandates of these urban local bodies have hardly changed in the last two decades.

Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA) and Society for Promotion of Area Resource Centres (SPARC) have come together to engage in a two year long project titled “Strengthening Civil Society Voices on Urban Poverty in India” (funded by the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation) rooted in the context of growing urbanization, urban poverty and malgovernance of cities, and based on the experiences that each has had in addressing the issues of urban poverty.

National policies focus much of their attention on rural poverty; as a result, understanding of urban poverty has been inadequate. The 2001 census estimated that nearly 23 per cent of India’s urban population was poor. Not only is the basis for estimating this poverty been somewhat inadequate, even the actual estimates have been contested. Typically equated with slums and squatter settlements, recognition of urban poverty, its scale, manifestation, causes and consequences remain obscure in current development planning processes. Practical activities undertaken by some organizations in the recent past have highlighted multiple forms of urban poverty – homelessness, squatters, street/pavement dwellers, etc.

The first national programme for urban development known as JnNURM (Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission) was launched in 2005 with two sub-missions – one focused on urban infrastructure and governance reform (administered by Ministry of Urban Development) and the second focused on basic services to the urban poor (administered by Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation). However, cities and state governments had no past experience in undertaking inclusive urban renewal and development. The involvement of citizens, specially the urban poor, in design, planning and implementation of city-level investments was almost non-existent. Many of the schemes of housing for the urban poor have been designed and implemented by builders without consultation with and understanding of the needs of the urban poor themselves.

One of the major inadequacies in taking forward the agenda of inclusion and active participation of the urban poor in these programmes has been weak civil society engagement with issues of urban poverty and urban governance. The lack of a national network of civil society or even a sub sectoral coalition that focuses on these issues on a sustained basis became evident when the first national consultation of civil society actors was convened by PRIA in January 2010.

The announcement of a programme of ‘slum free cities’ or RAY (Rajiv Awas Yojna) by the UPA II Government in 2009 brought some ray of hope. This programme intended to provide secure housing and reliable sanitation to all urban poor. Currently, the detailed planning for operationalization of RAY is underway and it is at this juncture that the Planning Commission has begun drafting the Approach Paper for the 12^th Five Year Plan. This is an opportune time for civil society to give inputs which might feed into the policy process.  Civil society needs to articulate its voice in ensuring that the urban poor are not only included but also drive the implementation of RAY.

“Strengthening Civil Society Voices on Urban Poverty in India” aims to orient, support and enable CSOs in 30 cities of 6 states to engage with city governments for planning RAY in Year 1 and deepen engagement in a further 20 cities in Year 2. State level and national consultations and policy briefings will help advocacy efforts with planning and government officials. Practice-oriented studies will help bring best practices to engaged CSOs to enable them to learn from each other’s challenges and opportunities. Web based communications is the primary strategy to enhance reach of the project learnings to various stakeholders.