Indian cities are urban without being urbane

New Delhi: 2008 appears poised to be the year of urbanisation without urbanity, a year of real estate without real values.

India's urban population has increased six times since independence, road rage is widespread, amenities are available only for money, and the rich and poor live as suspicious neighbours.

The Indian city is humanity's ground zero. One in every three Indian's now lives in a city and more are pouring in every day.

CNN-IBN asked various people where they were from and got answers as varied as “Jharkhand”, “Bihar” and “Lucknow”.

With ever-growing pressure on their resources, the Indian city is increasingly becoming a zone of conflict, and the future doesn't seem to be too bright.

In 2007, a brother shot his sister over a parking dispute in Mumbai, road rage erupted regularly, court cases showed that drunk young people behind the wheel are barely aware of who they share their urban space with.

More of the same is sure to follow. There is real estate but no real values of city living. There are candybox California mansions behind high gates surrounded by rag-pickers and the informal economy.

Delhi alone has 5 lakh cycle rickshaws and more than 2.5 lakh vendors, which means around two-thirds of Delhi's population is dependent on vending and cycle rickshaws. These cycle rickshaws and vendors share the streets with 5.4 million vehicles that now run on the capitals' roads. Delhi is their city too, yet the Mercedes Benz and Sumos pretend as if the road belongs to only them.

Social activist Madhu Kishwar says, “We are allocating huge tracts of high-value land for car parking lots, but we are trying are best to ban cycle rickshaws. We are making it impossible for people to commute on bicycles.”

Civic amenities will become even more privatised. Middle-class colonies will create their own enclaves of clean living and the poor will get even more marginalised.

Such slums will only grow as the population explodes further and there will be no running water electricity or hygiene. Already garbage is piling up on the streets of Chennai. In Mumbai, the septic waters of the drains that dry up in summer flood out every monsoon, bringing India's biggest metropolis to a halt. As for potholes, before the municipality can fill one, three more come up.

Despite these numerous glaring urban problems, there are some who feel that things are not completely beyond repair.

Dinesh Mohan of the IIT says, “Indian cities have a fantastic chance of being the most livable cities in the world because of our democratic process. The big mistakes which could have been made, have not been made.”

An example of India’s sick urbanism are Nithari and Noida, where lived Moninder Singh Pandher, the man accused of killing over 19 women and children. The remains were found only two years after they went missing demonstrating that between slum and mansion, there was no common social space.

One can only fear that the Indian city in 2008 would be no different – there will be urbanisation but no urbanity.

(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest)

#Urbanisation #Indian cities #real estate