There is no better time to witness the unabashed populism and shortsightedness of all levels of government than around elections. Municipal elections are just around the corner in Mumbai and sure enough, the last few months have seen a flurry of populist reforms being passed in record times. Most noteworthy are the new promises being made to certain slum dwellers...
Slum neighbourhoods are teeming with industry and commerce, yet the policy sphere still tends to treat them as residential spaces alone. What are the consequences of this misconception? And is it time to invoke a right to space, where every community member has a right to two or more spaces within a city: a residential space, an employment space, an educational space, etc.?
Governments in many places can exhibit a loss in the basic competencies required for effective urban planning. In the UK and India, some of the slack is picked up by the private and non-profit sectors, with surprising and innovative results.
Despite claims of lack of accountability and transparency on both sides, NGOs and governments need to learn to trust each other lest basic services for the urban poor continue to go undeveloped.
Rather than turn to Dharavi, Ahmedabad would do well to look amongst its own social entrepreneurs for models to rehouse the poor and integrate them into their new roles as homeowners.
There is no better time to witness the shortsightedness of governments than around elections. With municipal elections just around the corner in Mumbai, a whole raft of new promises are being made to certain slum dwellers...
The Indian government agencies responsible for managing the country's urban slums talk of ICT and GIS technology to help them keep track of slum communities, yet they should also reach out to NGOs.
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It may be little more than a great stonking political ploy to become the architect of whatever new airport London eventually gets, but it's a kind of holistic long-term thinking we rarely see from a national government...
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The Global Urbanist is an online magazine reviewing urban affairs and urban development issues in cities throughout the developed and developing world.
Its readers are drawn from the urban policy and international development sectors, and include urban planners, officers in local, national or international government agencies, civil society leaders, and researchers.
