Report Of The Working Group On Urban Poverty, Slums, And Service Delivery System
Introduction:
Poverty in India has been a part of the policy debate right from the First Plan Period with the primary focus being on agriculture, urban poverty and rural development. Urban development was tackled through a focus on industry. While social services such as health and education provided for the urban population, there remained a concerted focus on rural India in the Five Year Plans; urban poverty was not recognized as a concern in the initial plan periods. The change towards an urban focus is seen from the VIIth Plan Period onwards (1985-1990) with attention to infrastructure, environmental improvement (slum upgrading) and livelihood promotion.
Subsequent plans have steadily increased the allocation for urban development and urban poverty alleviation. Most significant is the recent emphasis on urban renewal evidenced through the allocation under JNNURM in the 10th Five Year plan which has continued since then. JNNURM is the first attempt at a comprehensive package for development and poverty alleviation in urban India, recognizing the importance of cities as engines of economic growth. However, being the first such attempt of its kind, the review of its performance has been mixed and much more effort and commitment is needed in this regard.
Although budgetary allocations for urban development have risen substantially, these do not compare with the allocation for schemes and interventions for rural India. The per capita expenditure on the urban sector at Rs. 1,566.00 is significantly lower than the per capita expenditure in the rural sector, which is Rs. 7,433.00 for the current plan period.
India’s growing urban presence and urban poverty:
India is a part of the global trends where an increasing number of people live in urban areas. The number of towns and the absolute urban population in India has increased steadily over the last 60 years. More significant for policy formulation is the share of urban population to total population, which has grown from 17.3 per cent in 1951 to 31.16 per cent in 2011. Varying projections place urban population at about 590 million – 600 million in 2030
Urban poverty in India is large and widespread:
In 2004-05, 80.8 million people out of an estimated urban population of 309.5 million person were below the poverty line in that their per month consumption was less than Rs. 538.6. These numbers constitute a significant proportion of the world’s total urban poor estimated at 291.4 million6 . Over the past three decades (1973-2004), the numbers of the urban poor have risen by 34.4 per cent and the shares of the urban poor in the total from 18.7 per cent in 1973 to 26.8 per cent in 2004-05.
The headcount ratio of urban poverty has declined steadily over the decades but its rate of decline is lower than that of rural poverty:
From about 50 per cent of the urban population living below the poverty line in 1973-74, the proportion declined to about one fifth of the urban population in 2004-05. Over the three decades, the headcount ratio of urban poor declined by about 47.6 per cent; on an annual basis, the average rate of decline varied between 1.8 and 2.3 per cent. What has attracted attention is the slowing down of the rate of decline in the 1990s, as compared to the period 1983-1993. What has also been noted by scholars is that the rate of decline in urban poverty has lagged behind that of rural poverty in recent decades.
Non-wage, informal employment is a dominant characteristic of the urban poor households:
In 2004-05 between 72 and 82 per cent of the usually employed male urban poor and between 78 and 80 per cent of the usually employed female urban poor were reported to be either self-employed or casually employed. Wage employment among them is limited to just about 20 per cent compared to an All-India average of about 40 per cent. It is this fact that imparts a high degree of instability to the income profile of the urban poor, and restricts their access to any form of institutional and market finance.
Conclusion:
While the five-year planning period is the established planning process for the developmental goals of the country, the Working Group felt it was necessary for the Planning Commission in particular, and the Government of India in general to go beyond the temporal boundaries of the 5-year period and lay down the foundations for the next two decades of urban transition, supporting state and cities at varying levels of economic growth and urbanization. The recommendation is to look at NUPAM as a long-term sustained strategy for urban poverty alleviation that is dynamic and decentralized over the next 20 years with clear-cut goals and vision.
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