Data deficiency and lack of decentralisation make it a challenge to fix our cities and hill stations from the bottom up
Janaagraha, 39% of our cities and towns do not have an active master plan. Vienna is named the world’s most liveable city because, among other factors, the city was planned for the present infrastructural needs more than 100 years ago. In India, we do not plan for future population growth, most cities and towns are busy catching up with existing needs. Kodaikanal had 5,000 inhabitants two decades ago, as compared to 40,000 today. Similarly, the number of tourists visiting Kodaikanal has increased from 1 lakh in the 90s to about 10 million last year. In an ideal scenario, a draft master plan should have been conceived in the 90s, giving due consideration for population and tourist projection for the next five decades, based on which urban infrastructure work should have been taken up. Unfortunately, infrastructure in most hill stations remains nearly the same as what it was during the British Raj.
Most often, governance in India suffers due to lack of data. We neither rely on data to make decisions, nor do we have the information needed to make decisions. Since the 2021 census has not been undertaken, the present Union Government does not even know the exact number of people in this country nor does it know its composition. This has resulted in, for instance, the exclusion of more than 10 crore residents from the purview of the National Food Security Act, 2013.
Another issue is the lack of decentralisation. Fixing our cities, towns and hill stations will require us to rethink our urban systems from the bottom up. Local bodies (municipalities) are very important for making our towns liveable. Idealistically, let’s say local municipalities in Kodaikanal, for instance, have all the financial resources and the knowhow. They would then be able to implement better projects for the town’s residents as they know the people and their needs; this would also make them more accountable. In the U.S., cities and towns are completely decentralised, even the local police and schools are funded and managed by the municipalities. In India, instead of more decentralisation, we are
Dharanidharan is a DMK spokesperson.
Mythili runs a creative design studio and is an environmental enthusiast.