Urbanisation

Let’s begin with a basic yet powerful idea. Imagine a country progressing economically—industries are growing, jobs are being created, and infrastructure is expanding. Where do you think this progress physically manifests? In cities. That’s why urban areas are often called the “engines of inclusive economic growth”. It’s in these spaces that economic dynamism meets human aspiration.

Now, if we look at the 2011 Census, about 31.16% of India’s total population was living in urban areas. That’s nearly one-third. But here’s where it gets even more interesting—the pace of urban growth in India is far higher than in many developed countries.

Why is that? Think about it: People from rural areas are constantly migrating to urban centres—big cities keep getting bigger. Here’s a fun yet striking fact: India’s urban population today is larger than the entire population of the United States! And projections suggest that by 2050, over half of India’s population will be living in cities.

But this rapid growth comes with its own set of challenges. With more people comes greater pressure on urban infrastructure—roads, water supply, housing, sanitation, education, healthcare—all get strained.

Main Causes of Urbanisation – Let’s Understand the Push and Pull

Now let’s understand why urbanisation happens. Think of it like this—people don’t just wake up one day and move to a city. They move because there are push factors driving them away from villages and pull factors attracting them toward cities.

1. Industrial Revolution

Historically, the Industrial Revolution marked the beginning of large-scale urbanisation. Why? Because factories and industries needed workers. Industrial employment acted like a magnet. It drew people from rural areas to urban centres.

Once in cities, these people work in what’s called the modern sector—jobs that contribute to national economic development, such as manufacturing, services, construction, and more.

2. Social Factors

Urban areas are often seen as places of opportunity and aspiration. Better:

• Living standards
• Educational institutions
• Medical facilities
• Lifestyle choices
• And sometimes, even social status

These aspects attract people, especially the youth, to cities.

3. Job Opportunities

Mega cities offer a wider range of employment options—from formal sector jobs in offices and industries to informal ones in transport, domestic work, and small businesses. That’s why people often migrate in search of a livelihood.

4. Advanced Infrastructure

Cities boast better infrastructure—like roads, electricity, internet, transport, and communication. These are essentials for modern life and economic activity.

5. Availability of Transportation

Because cities are well connected by railways, highways, and air travel, migration becomes easier. Mobility increases, and with it, urbanisation.

6. Growth of Private Sector

The private sector—especially in services, real estate, retail, and IT—has expanded mostly in urban centres, creating jobs and attracting rural migrants.

7. Natural Increase of Population

Urbanisation isn’t only due to migration. Cities also grow because of the natural increase in population—i.e., when birth rates are higher than death rates in urban areas.

Urbanisation in India – What Makes It Unique?

Now let’s look at the pattern of urbanisation in India. It’s not like what we saw in Europe or America. India’s urbanisation has certain distinct characteristics:

1. Lopsided Urbanisation

Urban growth is not evenly spread. There is a concentration of population in Class I cities (those with a population of more than 1 lakh). As a result, mega cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore keep swelling, while smaller towns lag behind.

2. Urbanisation Without Industrialisation

This is a crucial point. Ideally, urbanisation should come with industrial growth. But in India, much of it has happened without a strong industrial or economic base, especially in smaller cities. That’s problematic—it means cities are growing, but without enough economic activity to support that growth.

3. Demographic Explosion & Poverty-Induced Migration

Urbanisation in India is often not a sign of prosperity, but of distress. It’s not so much the cities that are pulling people in—it’s the poverty and lack of opportunities in rural areas that are pushing them out. This leads to what we call distress migration.

4. Slum Growth and Urban Misery

With cities growing faster than infrastructure can keep up, slums expand rapidly.

What follows is:

• Poverty
• Unemployment
• Poor living conditions
• Exploitation
• Urban inequalities
• Overall decline in urban quality of life

5. Urbanisation Due to Rural Push, Not Urban Pull

This is important to grasp. In classical theory, cities attract people because of opportunities (urban pull). But in India’s case, many people migrate not because cities are very attractive, but because villages are unlivable (rural push).

6. Poor Quality Migration = Poor Quality Urbanisation

When distressed and unskilled people move to cities without employment security, social support, or basic services, they end up in informal sectors or slums, leading to sub-standard urbanisation.

7. Urban Decay

Ironically, such unplanned and stressed urban growth can cause what we call urban decay—where cities themselves start degrading due to overpopulation, pollution, traffic congestion, and poor governance.

Conclusion

So, what have we learned?

Urbanisation is not merely a demographic trend—it is a multi-dimensional process involving economic, social, infrastructural, and demographic changes. In India, urbanisation is fast but uneven, often driven by rural distress rather than urban opportunity. It brings with it both challenges and opportunities, and hence must be planned and managed wisely.

Issues Related to Urbanisation in India

Urbanisation, while often seen as a symbol of progress, also gives rise to a variety of structural and functional problems—especially in a country like India where urban growth is rapid but not always planned.

1. Rural–Urban Migration: The Root of Many Urban Challenges

Let’s begin with a fundamental truth—migration and urbanisation are both spatial reflections of economic development. And in today’s globalised world, they are happening faster than ever.

But in India, the nature of migration is distress-driven. Why are people leaving villages?

• Agriculture has become stagnant and volatile—sometimes there’s a bumper crop, sometimes a drought.
• There’s a lack of diversification—most rural economies are still heavily dependent on farming.
• Low productivity, unstable incomes, and regional disparities have persisted for decades.
• And ever since the structural adjustment policies of the 1990s, public sector investments in rural infrastructure have declined.

This results in out-migration—especially from backward regions—and migrants are absorbed into the urban informal sector.

Here’s the key issue: Cities have limited capacity to absorb these migrants. They cannot always provide employment, housing, land, or basic services. So what do we get? Urban slums, unemployment, and social stress.

2. Emergence of Slums: A Visual Indicator of Urban Crisis

Due to lack of affordable housing, nearly half the urban population in major cities lives in slums.

What defines a slum? Let’s simplify it:

• Poor quality housing—temporary, unsafe structures.
• Overcrowding—more than 3 people sharing a single room.
• No legal ownership or tenure—the constant threat of eviction.
• Inadequate access to water and sanitation.

According to 2011 Census:

• Around 1.37 crore households, or 17.4% of urban Indian families, live in slums.
• Vishakhapatnam tops the list with 44.1% of its households in slums.

These areas are vulnerable to health hazards, fires, floods, and social exclusion.

3. Urban Transport: A Growing Headache in Indian Cities

As India urbanises and modernises, cities are becoming hubs of economic activity. But urban transport hasn’t kept pace.

Let’s break this down:

• Traffic accidents and deaths: Poor roads, increasing vehicles, rash driving, overcrowded buses/autos—these are everyday realities.
• Pollution: Both air and noise levels in Indian cities are alarmingly high.
• Congestion: Peak hour traffic is a nightmare—due to narrow roads, unauthorized parking, and a high vehicle-to-road ratio.
• Funding issues: To expand public transport—like buses, metros, electric fleets—huge capital investment is needed, which is often lacking.

In short: urban mobility is inefficient, unsafe, and unsustainable in many cities.

4. Waste Disposal: A Broken System in Most Urban Areas

Who is supposed to clean your city? The municipal corporation. But here’s the ground reality:

The system involves:

• Sweeping
• Waste collection from bins and homes
• Transporting it to open dumps or landfills

But the system suffers from:

• Lack of managerial skills in local bodies—especially in small towns.
• No incentives for households to reduce, segregate or recycle garbage.
• Rampant use of plastic—though some states like Maharashtra have tried to ban it.
• No cost-recovery mechanism—people don’t pay for waste services, so there’s little accountability.
• Lack of modern technology—mechanised collection and segregation are rare.

Result? 30–40% of waste goes uncollected. It pollutes water, air, and soil—and damages public health.

5. Water Supply, Drainage and Sanitation: Basic Needs Still Unmet

According to Census 2011:

• 87% of households use tap, hand pumps, or tube wells.
• But only 43.5% use tap water, and just 47% have water within their premises.
• 17% still fetch water from a source 100+ metres away in urban areas!

Drainage systems are often absent or poorly maintained, causing urban floods even after a short rain.

To tackle sanitation issues:

• The Swachh Bharat Mission aims to eliminate open defecation.
• New technologies like Bio-toilets are being introduced—especially in areas lacking sewer networks.

6. Electronic Waste (E-Waste): The Modern Crisis

E-waste includes:

• Old computers, monitors, printers, mobile phones, remotes, etc.

In India:

• Most of the e-waste is handled by the unorganised sector—informally, manually, and often by children or untrained workers.
• It is a source of income for many—especially rag-pickers.
• But the recycling techniques are crude, often toxic and unsafe, leading to serious health and environmental problems.

The irony? E-waste is rich in valuable metals like gold, silver, copper—but we lack the technology to extract them safely.

7. Urban Poverty: Rural Misery Migrated to the City

Nearly 40% of urban population growth is due to migration. But many migrants don’t find decent jobs or housing.

So what we see is urban poverty—slums, informal jobs, and poor living conditions.

To address this:

• The Planning Commission set up the S.R. Hashim Committee to define and identify urban BPL households—so that government benefits can be better targeted.

8. Haphazard Growth of Real Estate Sector

Urban real estate is growing fast—about 20% annually—and contributes around 5–6% to India’s GDP.

But it is plagued by:

• Black money
• Land mafias
• Corruption
• Red tapism

To tackle this, the government introduced the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 (RERA)—earlier proposed as a 2013 Bill.

Its aims are:

• Transparency in real estate transactions
• Regulation of developers
• Protection for homebuyers

In a nutshell, RERA is a move to civilise an otherwise lawless sector.

Conclusion

Urbanisation in India is a double-edged sword.

• On one side, it brings opportunities, growth, and modernisation.
• On the other, it leads to congestion, inequality, environmental degradation, and slums—especially when unplanned and unregulated.

To ensure that urbanisation becomes an inclusive and sustainable process, we need:

• Proactive planning
• Strong local governance
• Targeted policies for migrants, slum dwellers, and the poor
• And most importantly, public participation

Measures Taken to Reduce Issues of Urbanisation in India

So far, we’ve seen the problems of unplanned urbanisation—migration-induced pressure, slums, poor infrastructure, and poverty. But what is being done to correct this trajectory? Let us now turn to corrective and proactive measures, both global and national.

1. Global Initiative – Habitat III Conference

Let’s start with a global framework before zooming into India.

🏛️ What is Habitat III?

• It stands for the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, held in Quito, Ecuador, in 2016.
• The purpose was to renew political commitment to sustainable urban development for both rural and urban settlements.

🧭 Outcome – The “New Urban Agenda”

• A guiding document for the next 20 years that sets international norms for:
  • Reducing urban inequality
  • Improving housing and sanitation
  • Promoting mobility
  • Securing the rights of vulnerable populations (women, elderly, disabled)

📌 Critical Perspective

• While ambitious, it needs stronger monitoring to evaluate progress since the earlier Habitat I (1976) and Habitat II (1996) conferences.

🇮🇳 India’s Situation in Light of Habitat III

• India’s urban centers are service-sector dominated.
  • This causes inequality between skilled and unskilled workers.
  • Urban growth is therefore often exclusionary, not inclusive.

2. Government of India’s Efforts for Planned Urbanisation

India has taken multiple programmatic measures to make cities more livable, inclusive, and resilient. Let’s examine them one by one.

🏘️ Pradhan Mantri Gramin Awaas Yojana (PMAY-G)

Earlier known as Indira Awaas Yojana, this scheme focuses on rural housing—why? Because fixing rural deprivation reduces rural-to-urban distress migration.

• Target: Assistance to 4.95 crore eligible rural households with basic amenities by March 2029
• Emphasises eco-friendly and disaster-resilient construction.
• Reduces push factors behind urbanisation.

🏙️ Smart Cities Mission

A transformative programme aiming to make Indian cities:

• Economically vibrant
• Technologically advanced
• Citizen-friendly

📌 Key Features:

• Area-based development:
  • City improvement (retrofitting existing infrastructure)
  • City renewal (redevelopment of dilapidated areas)
  • City extension (new urban areas)
• Smart solutions like:
  • Smart meters, Wi-Fi zones
  • Real-time traffic and waste management
  • Integrated command-control centres

This creates liveable cities using data and technology—a crucial ingredient for modern governance.

🚰 AMRUT – Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation

Launched in 2015, AMRUT focuses on basic urban infrastructure.

🏗️ Objectives:

• Improve water supply, sewage, and stormwater drainage
• Enhance urban mobility
• Promote green spaces

In essence, AMRUT aims to make cities functionally efficient and capable of handling their rising population.

AMRUT 2.0, launched in October 2021, aims to provide universal water supply and sewerage coverage in 4,900 towns

🏛️ HRIDAY – Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana

India’s cities are not just economic hubs—they are repositories of culture and heritage.

• HRIDAY (launched in 2015) aims to conserve the heritage character of ancient cities.

🕍 Focus:

• Development of monuments, temples, ghats, heritage walkways
• Holistic approach—infrastructure + cultural identity

Cities like Varanasi, Ajmer, Amritsar, and Puri have benefited under this scheme.

✅ Final Takeaways: India’s Road Ahead in Urbanisation

Urbanisation can either be a crisis or an opportunity—depending on how we plan and govern our cities.

Key Reforms Needed:

1. Integrate urban and rural planning to reduce distress migration.
2. Invest in basic services—housing, water, transport, waste.
3. Strengthen local governments through finance, function, and functionaries.
4. Promote inclusive urbanisation—that empowers migrants, slum dwellers, and informal workers.
5. Implement and monitor global best practices through frameworks like the New Urban Agenda.