Nearly 30% of India’s population lives in urban areas. This is supposed to rise to 50% by 2050. Increased urban population puts pressure on resources as migration to urban region increases. Therefore sustainable planning is important.
Achieving to a report by NITI Aayog, 21 cities run out of ground water by 2020. To avoid this reality we must take measures. India has one of the largest housing programmes. Affordable housing is a boon to managing land resources in equitable way. Housing draws attention to another important aspect of sewage and solid waste management. Rapidly growing urban agglomerations need planning to manage the rising challenge of untreated water.
Sustainable urban planning will provide efficient and eco-friendly public transport facilities to overpopulated urban cities. Sustainable planning will help in creating sustainable environment and will help manage disasters more efficiently.
In absence of sustainable urban planning India may face manifold challenges. India has few of Asia’s largest slums in Delhi and Mumbai. The unplanned organisation in these cities has led to increase in polluted water, health issues and rising rate of crimes. Due to lack of management in cities floods in Mumbai and Chennai are very common and show ill management of cities. According to a report of WHO, out of 20 most polluted cities, 14 are in India with most of them being in North India.
Creating sustainable cities is not easy but will give results in the long run. Challenges in sustainable organisation are economic, ecological and social sustainability. Lack of investments and poor technology applications are hindering economic sustainability. Dependence on fossil fuels, coal energy, poor waste management process and vehicular pollution has worsened the effects of climate change.
Building a society based on constitutional principles will further the cause of social sustainability. Gender sensitization needs to be involved in development. Public awareness needs to be increased to help people manage at micro levels.
Government programmes like Atal mission rejuvenation and urban transformation i.e. AMRUT scheme harnesses agglomeration economies of cities. Various schemes like smart cities, hriday yojana for heritage city development are in process. Pradhan mantri awaas yojana is one scheme that focuses on housing and credit linked subsidy.
India needs to work on achieving the goals set by United Nations under SDG 11, which are to be achieved by 2030. Need for comprehensive national urban plan is needed which will help in timely implementation of policies and schemes. Further, road safety, affordable housing, basic services and public transport must be upgraded.
Aishwarya Says:
I have always been against Glorifying Over Work and therefore, in the year 2021, I have decided to launch this campaign “Balancing Life”and talk about this wrong practice, that we have been following since last few years. I will be talking to and interviewing around 1 lakh people in the coming 2021 and publish their interview regarding their opinion on glamourising Over Work.
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