Urbanization in India and issues involved

It is more than half of a century that India became independent. The country has
evolved and emerged a lot from pre independence to post independence era. At th
e time of independence, the country was poverty stricken, impoverished and a rur
al agrarian society. In 1947, only 15 per cent of the population in cities and t
owns were classified under urban areas. The rapid development and economic growt
h helped the country achieve the status of emerged nations.
The country is now one of the leading nations among the developing countries and
the progress has made the country leave behind many developed nations as well.
As per recent United Nations development reports on urbanization, India has achi
eved 30 per cent urbanization in 2010. The urbanization in India increased from
meager 10 per cent in 1901 to more than 30 per cent. However it was much lesser
in terms of rank when compared to other nations that have achieved a higher rate
of urbanization and much less below the world urbanization population of 50 per
cent (UNPD World Urbanization Prospects: The2009 Revision).
Urbanization implicates increase in population living in urban areas. An urban a
rea, according to the Census definition, is one that has (i) a minimum populatio
n of 5,000; (ii) at least 75 per cent of the male working population engaged in
non-agricultural pursuits; and (iii) a density of population of at least 400 per
square kilometre (1,000 per square mile). With increase in population, the cou
ntry s urban population also increased. The Census 2001 reports that almost 29 per
cent of Indians in urban India.
Apart from increase in population the other factors that have contributed to rap
id urbanization are migration from rural sector to urban. This happened mainly o
n account of the increasing infrastructural development to facilitate growth for
corporate sector. While the major factor in initiating migration from rural are
as to urban sector was increased landlessness in agricultural sector, reduced li
velihood potentials in rural sector and increasing employment opportunities in t
he urban sector with the growth of industries. The high level of income in urban
areas, education, availabilities of basic amenities, improved infrastructural f
acilities and increase in medical facilities were some other factors that helped
increase rapid urbanization.
Among the states, Tamil Nadu is the most urbanized in large states with almost h
alf of its population living in more than 600 towns. Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punja
b, Karnataka and Haryana are the other states where the urban population exceeds
30 per cent of the total. In terms of absolute number of people living in urban
areas, Maharashtra led with 41 million in 2001, followed by Uttar Pradesh and T
amil Nadu. Orissa, Assam and Bihar are very low in terms of urbanization and rem
ained largely agricultural states, where less than 20 per cent of the population
lives in urban areas. These are also the states with low per capita incomes sin
ce their residents have little recourse to the opportunities in cities.
The basic features of urban development is increasing infrastructural facilities
, access to improved communication and information technologies, qualitative liv
ing standard, high income spending, consumerism and improvement in other socio e
conomic parameters. These areas are also distinguished from the rural counterpar
t in terms of demographic indicators like low birth rate, low mortality, increas
ed longevity, etc. the issues of migration, unemployment are linked to increasin
g the urbanization in the country. The seasonal unemployment, disguised unemploy
ment and other factors that reduce the rural livelihood potential leads to incre
ased migration towards urban sector. Improvements in connectivity through better
communication and transport facilities have also made the migration, which was
transitory in nature to permanent migration.
Besides, the increase in population the other factors that increased the urbaniz
ation in India are the development of the sub urban areas that got upgraded to t

he urban sector. Thus the peripheral areas got the status of urban sector. Some
other semi urban areas also got upgraded to urban sector with increased amenitie
s and setting up of institutions. Increase in village population with improved c
ivic amenities also made these villages get the status.
Along with increased urbanization some issues emerged with the urbanization in I
ndia. The increase in slums in urban sector became a major problem. Unplanned gr
owth of residential and commercial structures, inadequate supply of drinking wat
er facility and increase in traffic were some other adverse effects that emerged
with increase in urbanization. Also increasing urban population in absence of p
roportionate increase in employment opportunities also increased urban rate of u
nemployment.
The civic amenities were also curtailed with more persons to benefit from the ex
isting ones. Some of the cities across India are failing to provide essential re
sources to the residents. Some states have managed their cities better than othe
rs. Karnataka is now reportedly the first state to plan for night shelters for t
he urban homeless. To address some of the issues, Jawaharlal Nehru National Urba
n Renewal Mission and multiple government schemes were initiated by the central
and state governments. Still the urban infrastructure is inadequate to cope even
with the present rate of urbanization, with many cities turning into haphazard
concrete jungles, grappling with growing problems of traffic, garbage, water and
power supply.
The increase in property and assets prices is some other repercussions of the ur
ban development. Increase in essential commodity price and non essential commodi
ties price resulted as the demands from urban sector grew. However issues on inf
lation and increasing prices pertained to whole of India which has failed to inc
rease the supply in tandem with growing population.
Conclusion:
Urbanization in India increased rapidly in post independence era. Despite the ra
pid growth rate the country was ranked much lower as compared to other developin
g nations of South East Asia. The major factors that affected urbanization were
increase in population, migration from rural areas and peripheral suburban and s
emi-urban areas getting the urban status. However with the urban growth issues r
elated to development also emerged. There has been increase in slums, reduction
in civic amenities, increase in property prices, increase in prices of other ess
entials and non essential commodities.