Urban Sociology

1. Discuss the social and demographic impacts of globalization on the city and use Mumbai
as the case.

Introduction
Globalisation
Globalisation is a phenomenon where there is an attempt to connect the world and make it
function like a homogeneous singular organism. Transport, media, communication, trade
are factors aiming to connect the parts of world and make them function for the whole. It
has its negative as well positive impacts on cities growth and social structure.
This phenomenon has thus created an imbalance in various parts trying to connect at this
larger level. The imbalance is caused due to the migration of new elements disturbing the
existing ecology of the cities.

* In India, there had been winners and losers. The lives of the educated and the rich had
been enriched by globalization. The information technology (IT) sector was a particular
beneficiary. But the benefits had not yet reached the majority, and new risks had cropped
up for the losers the socially deprived and the rural poor. Significant numbers of non-
perennial poor, who had worked hard to escape poverty, were finding their gains reversed.
Power was shifting from elected local institutions to unaccountable trans-national bodies.
Western perceptions, which dominated the globe media, were not aligned with local
perspectives; they encouraged consumerism in the midst of extreme poverty and posed a
threat to cultural and linguistic diversity.
Cities are facing enormous challenges, with rapidly growing urban populations, often
worsening environmental conditions and deteriorating infrastructure, inequalities and
housing shortages, unemployment, crime and violence. Yet they are the main drivers of
cultural and economic development with the most concentrated resources and potential.

Social impacts
Multiculturalism
Growth of cross-cultural contacts; advent of new categories of consciousness and identities
which embodies cultural diffusion, the desire to increase one's standard of living and enjoy
foreign products and ideas, adopt new technology and practices, and participate in a "world
culture". Some disapprove the resulting consumerism and loss of languages
The shift to outsourcing
Globalization has allowed corporations to move manufacturing and service jobs from high
cost locations to locations with the lowest wages and worker benefits. This results in loss of
jobs in the high cost locations.
BPO’s in Mumbai are outcome of ill- effects of globalization
Here the major youth population is engaged in minor services for multi-national company.
Though the purpose of serving economic needs is fulfilled yet there is no growth or security
of future in these employment ventures. There is no intellectual growth in youth working for
these companies. The only aim of earning easy and fast money is served at the cost of
education and intellectual growth.
Effects on local markets
Emergence of worldwide production markets and broader access to a range of foreign
products for consumers and companies has affected local production
e.g The apples coming from abroad are cheaper than those from Kashmir in Mumbai.
Local labour suffer
Positive impact of globalization is very visible from technological advances that are
increasingly advanced, so that makes human life easier. Yet with the tremendous advances
in information and human interaction, globalization has caused so many problems such as
the use of robots replacing human workers caused many factory workers.
Because of the technology and machines, people working on small services suffer. There is
rise in unemployment giving rise to crime and un-healthy illegal practices in society
e.g. Shutting down of mills in Mumbai led to unemployment of masses.
An increase in exploitation of child labor:
A country that experiencing increases in labor demand because of globalization and an
increase the demand for goods produced by children, will experience greater a demand for
child labor. This can be "hazardous" or "exploitive", e.g. salvage, cash cropping but also
includes the trafficking of children, children in bondage or forced labor, prostitution, and
other illicit activities

Demographic impacts

Demographic changes will not only impose new challenges on developing regions,
developed countries, and countries in transition alike but also will face changes in
population without precedence during the next decades.
In the latter the population will age and in some cases even decline by number. Related to
the ongoing demographic change more and more rural and especially remote areas will
furthermore lose population by out migration to urban areas, often leading to an uneven
sex and age distribution of the people leaving behind. The demographic change will
influence the economic activities in rural areas, such as, e.g. traditional agricultural
production patterns and will therefore modify the usage of formerly agricultural landscapes.
The same applies to urbanized areas where more and more agricultural landscapes will be
modified by incorporating them into the growing urban agglomerations, e.g. for purposes of
housing, industry or transport. For this reason the knowledge of the future population
developments and their related impacts on the change of landscapes is crucial in
understanding and predicting processes of landscape change at a whole.

Examples illustrating demographic impacts

* Of its 13 million population, Mumbai city has 54 per cent in slums. It is estimated that 100
to 300 new families come to Mumbai every day and most land up in a slum colony. Prof R.
N. Sharma of the Tata Institute of Social Science says that Mumbai is disintegrating into
slums. From being known as the slum capital of India and the biggest slum of Asia, Mumbai
is all set to become the slum capital of the world.
This has led to unhealthy standard of living and de-gradation of city fabric as a whole. The
squatters are seen everywhere on the outskirts of city as well as the city core. This sudden
rise in population has led to high pressure on infrastructure of cities. Also the rich get richer
and the poor get poorer leading to in extreme in-equality in economic-structure.

The population of Delhi is about 14 million of which nearly 45 per cent population lives in
slums, unauthorized colonies, JJ clusters and undeveloped rural parts. During dry weather
these slum dwellers use open areas around their units for defecation and the entire human
waste generated from the slums along with the additional wastewater from their
households is discharged untreated into the river Yamuna.

Bibliography

* Impact of globalization on Indian economy – by Tanveer Malik

-Pooja D Chichkar
First Year M.Arch

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