FC Urban

Session I
Objectives of this module
• Defining and problematising the 'urban' in India
 Going beyond the census definition
 Understanding urbanisation if norms are modified
 Why defining (Or not defining) the urban matters
• Exploring nature of Indian urbanisation and key debates on the links
between urbanisation and development in India
 How the discourse on the links has reversed?
 Are cities growth engines?
• Exposure to diverse, lived urban experiences at the intersection of multiple
forms of inequality and informality, and emerging programmes of urban
development
How do we understand the ‘urban’?
What do you see as criteria for understanding what is
urban?

“The world is becoming urban.”

But, is it?
Let’s examine how we define the ‘urban’
Census towns fulfill census criteria. This is a dynamic classification.
• Population size (5000 or more)
• Density (of 400/sq km)
• Proportion of male workforce in non-agri occupations (at least 75%)

Statutory towns are granted municipal status by the state govt. and then a ULB is formed (municipal
corpn or council, nagar panchayat, or notified town area committee). Though they’re called 'town',
they are governed by Panchayats till the state government designates them as Statutory Towns.
This classification is deeply political, shows huge variation in criteria used by different states (eg WB
has popn size of 30,000, density of 750/sq km, 50% of adult popn in non-agri occupations), and is
dynamic (implies that villages can become towns and then again villages!)

According to 2011 census, there are a total of 3,894 CTs of which 2,532 have been added in the last
decade. As much as 30% of total urban growth taking place in the country is in this unacknowledged
urban category (Pradhan 2013).
India is 26% urban using the administrative definition and 31% urban using the census definition
Distribution of official urban settlements in 2001 and 2011 (Jana 2016)
 Distribution of urban settlements in 2011 satisfying:
Density condition Labour condition Population condition

Note the differences in urbanisation rate when applying each of these different conditions Source: Jana 2016
What if
• population were the sole condition: India would be approximately
43% urban. If we were to consider some other countries that based
their ‘urban’ definition on population size, we would get similarly
higher estimates of ‘urban’: using United Kingdom’s cut-off of 10,000
persons, India would be 33% urban; using France’s cut-off of 2,000
persons, India would be 66%. (Jana 2016)
• the cut-off of male workers in workforce was 50%, the percentage of
urban population would increase to 47% in 2011
• density were the sole condition, India would have been approximately
69% urban in 2001
• People could choose whether they wanted to be ‘urban’ or ‘rural’
 Global definitions of the urban… (1)
Africa
• Botswana: Agglomeration of 5 000 or more inhabitants where 75 per cent of the
economic activity is non-agricultural.
• Ethiopia: Localities of 2 000 or more inhabitants.
• South Africa: Places with some form of local authority
North America
• Canada: Places of 1 000 or more inhabitants, having a population density of 400 or
more per square kilometre
• Mexico: Localities of 2 500 or more inhabitants
• United States: Agglomerations of 2 500 or more inhabitants, generally having
population densities of 1 000 persons per square mile or more. Two types of urban
areas: urbanized areas of 50 000 or more inhabitants and urban clusters of at least 2
500 and less than 50 000 inhabitants.
Source: Demographic Yearbook 2005, table 6
 Global definitions of the urban…(2)
South America
• Argentina: Populated centres with 2 000 or more inhabitants.
• Brazil: Urban and suburban zones of administrative centres of municipalities and districts
Asia
• Indonesia: Places with urban characteristics
• Iran (Islamic Republic of): Every district with a municipality
• Korea, Republic of: Population living in cities irrespective of size of population.
• Turkey: Population of settlement places, 20 001 and over.
• Pakistan: Places with municipal corporation, town committee or cantonment.
Europe
• Austria: Communes of more than 5 000 inhabitants.
• France: Communes containing an agglomeration of more than 2 000 inhabitants living in contiguous houses or
with not more than 200 metres between houses, also communes of which the major portion of the population
is part of a multicommunal agglomeration of this nature
• Spain: Localities of 2 000 or more inhabitants.
Urbanisation in India
• Indian urbanisation rates have come down to 2.6 % p.a from 4%
above in 1970s and 3.8% in 1991-2001
• Several states : Odisha( 16%), Bihar(11%), hill states and NE states
very low urbanisation
• 50 districts have 80% urban population
• 268 districts have less than 15% urban population
• Would redefinition and labelling this urban cause a change? What
kind of change?
 Unlocking Urbanisation: The Policy Push
• WB, Expert take

• Acknowledge urbanisation

• Leverage urbanisation

• Create appropriate institutions

• invest in infrastructure and housing

• This is the route to development

Politics of classifying the ‘urban’
Both rapid growth of new CTs and slow growth of municipalisation has led to non-
recognized urban settlements

Challenges:
• Norms controlling physical expansion are not very strict as panchayats do not
have building rules. They are thus ideal for unmonitored industrial, commercial
and real estate investments to take place.
• Panchayats usually have limited capacity to provide basic urban services, to
develop policies, regulate building construction and control over land use, do
spatial and infrastructure planning.
• Defining ‘urban’ areas forms the basis for eligibility for govt schemes
After understanding the politics of, and variations
in, classification in India and the world, how does
this unsettle our knowledge of the urban?