Urban issues are coming to the forefront, and the ruling governments are becoming cognizant of the importance of addressing these issues on a priority basis.
Be it the Metro and public transport fare hikes, access to clean drinking water, traffic woes, air pollution, or the mounting garbage, urban issues are gradually occupying centre stage in political space and elections. Unlike earlier times, politicians can no longer ignore or sidestep these serious issues plaguing India's overcrowded cities.
From Mumbai to Bengaluru, the voter turnout has always been low, reflecting urban apathy and middle-class cynicism. The question is: how long can they stay silent as if nothing happens in their backyard? A chain of events hints that the invisible urban faces are beginning to speak and act. The recent Delhi elections, where civic issues were a central talking point, could be a harbinger of change.
More people migrating to cities
The rapid rate of urbanisation is reflected in the emergence of 40 megacities and 2,500 swiftly growing towns in the country, mostly because of the steady stream of migration of people from rural to urban areas in search of employment. However, most migrants are landing up in slums and as squatters devoid of shelter and basic civic amenities.
It is reported that half of India’s population will be found in these towns and cities by 2030, having to live through the adverse impact of climate change such as heat waves and floods. The poor are living a life of ‘poverty in the midst of affluence’ in cities and towns and lead a pathetic life. Despite o many urban development programmes like Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rojgari Yojana, National Urban Livelihood Mission and others that are being implemented, many people in urban areas are just at the mercy of municipal corporations and municipalities.
Also read: Bengaluru Metro fare hike: CM calls for reduction as ridership falls
Apathy comes to the core
The absolute neglect of urban issues largely stems from the apathetic attitude of elected representatives and their misplaced priorities, resulting in urban issues taking a back seat. In fact, when urbanization is on the rise, there is an even bigger necessity to recognise the needs of people in cities and towns, and more importantly, the poor and the lower middle class who live on the margins and without proper facilities.
Notably, it must be mentioned that even public transport fare hikes, like the Metro charges in Bengaluru, is a classic example of this indifferent attitude of elected representatives and their sheer lack of concern. The fares were reduced partially after public protests and a plunge in ridership. The rollback has been negligible, and the protests continue. Even on Sunday (February 23), there was a large convention in the heart of the city.
Similarly, in the recently concluded Delhi state polls, issues such as cleaning the Yamuna River and air and water pollution emerged at the forefront during the campaign. Of course, caste and religious matters, as always, hogged the limelight, but the issue of potholed roads, sanitation, and garbage disposal was widely discussed across constituencies. AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal flashing dirty Yamuna water bottles in a press conference, daring the BJP, Congress leaders and Election Commission top brass to drink from the river, reflected the growing anger of urban voters.
Urban issues are coming to the forefront, and the ruling governments are becoming cognizant of the importance of addressing these issues on a priority basis.
Also read: 'Drink if you dare': Kejriwal asks EC top brass to drink from bottles filled with Yamuna water
Bias towards the rich?
It has been observed that in cities like Hyderabad facilities like drainage, sanitation, drinking water, roads, including cycling tracks are being laid on a priority basis in some areas where the neo-rich live, while other areas with middle-class and lower middle-class populations are neglected and forgotten for quite some time. It is the same situation with newly built cities and towns, while the relatively older parts of these cities occupied by the poor are neglected.
For this reason, we are seeing the rate of decline in urban poverty in India from 8.65 per cent to 5.27 per cent, which is slower when compared to the rate of decline in rural poverty from 32.59 per cent to 19.28 per cent during the period 2015-16 to 2019-21 (India, National Multidimensional Poverty Index, A Progressive Review 2023, NITI Aayog, New Delhi).
However, the migrant labourers who reside in different parts of the cities are not at all considered for social security, though they are the ones who are building new areas and cities.
Also Read: Bengaluru Metro passengers' body protest: 'Metro is not business, it's service'
Traffic congestion is a real challenge in metropolitan cities, and it is not addressed by the authorities concerned, though there have been murmurs of protests. What’s more, there is discrimination in providing civic amenities in the cities, in which the majority lower middle-class and poor are residing without proper facilities. Of course, the middle class pays property tax as per the Municipalities Act, but authorities have less priority in attending to their needs. However, the pertinent question is why political parties who are very active on some issues fail to raise urban issues in electoral politics that may well resonate with the electorate?
Also read: For crawling Bengaluru, Metro fare hike is a bolt from the blue
Missing links
The reason is that the lower middle-class and middle-class people are not the ‘influencers’ since they are fragmented and cannot assert their rights in unison. Because they are polarised based on party lines, they cannot claim a single point agenda that is ‘development of urban areas’ as a first priority.
As a result, municipal authorities have a step-motherly attitude towards these people and are not committed to address the urban issues raised by them.
Secondly, urban issues require considerable resources to address the needs of the majority, and there is a dearth of funds for urban local bodies. Further, the devolution of the three F’s viz., functions, functionaries and funds, especially ‘fiscal decentralisation’ by the state governments, are minimal or zero in some states, leading to a financial crunch at the Urban Local Bodies (ULB) level. When looking at the finances of ULBs, they are largely in bad shape and resort to loans.
Consequently, urban issues never become part of election agendas in general and state elections, although they are critical to the healthy lives of people in urban areas.
Thirdly, voter turnout in cities and towns is lower than in rural areas whenever elections are conducted. If any programme is implemented in cities and towns, it is very hard to mobilise people’s participation, which, in fact, is critical for its success. The fact is that the urban constituencies have registered lower turnout than those in rural constituencies because of their indifference towards political parties.
Further, urban voters have been disappointed by the state governments in terms of providing basic civic amenities for quite some time. Moreover, there is less connect between the contestant for a position and urban voters when compared to rural voters, where the connect is very strong.
Fourthly, there is a jurisdictional complexity as many urban issues seem to drop under the purview of municipal governance and hence their prominence has been reduced in state and national-level election campaigns.
Candidates contesting Assembly and Lok Sabha polls rarely discuss urban issues, pushing them to urban and rural local body elections, as if they are not the ones to be dealing with it. This kind of attitude by MLAs and MPs is widening the gap between central and state governments, and the local self-governing institutions, leading to a neglect of local development.
Short-term electoral gains
Fifthly, short-term electoral gains dominate over long-term planning. Political parties focus on immediate populist measures like freebies rather than long term urban development, which they think may not yield quick electoral benefits.
As a matter of fact, issue-based election campaigning is not taking place, or it is minimal in our country, although very few talk about it. Though some voters in some cities are more concerned about local issues over national ones, especially urban amenities and so on, many are still not paying attention to these issues.
Broadly, political parties talk about development, but the concept is something different for them. They expect good roads without traffic congestion, drinking water, sanitation and waste management. However, the crux of the issue is that most political parties do not contest the basis of urban problems while diverting their attention to other issues. Therefore, these issues are brushed aside and neglected.
Planning and advocacy
To sum it up, urban issues are sidelined due to polarisation of voters by the political parties, low voter participation, lack of people’s involvement in development, governance complexities and short-term political benefits, etc. Thus, awareness generation among people in cities and towns and the need for their participation in development process, including planning and advocacy for urban development are critical.
Only then will urban challenges be included in mainstream political discourse, followed by the next steps that will eventually address issues encountered by the urban poor in particular and urban people in general.
However, it must be said recent developments in cities, like citizens' protests over fare hikes in Namma Metro in Bengaluru, and civic issues and cleaning up of the Yamuna river getting featured in political campaigning, seem to indicate a shift in electoral politics. The government had to partially roll back the prices, ceding to the urban protests.
The ruling parties need to understand quickly that even the urban populace, or the voters, can't be taken for granted forever.
(The Federal seeks to present views and opinions from all sides of the spectrum. The information, ideas or opinions in the articles are of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Federal)
