The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which was considered to be an urban party – having more influence in the cities – was expected to address urban issues better than its predecessors. But four years of BJP rule at the Centre with a clear majority has completely disappointed people living in cities.

Who is the urban Indian?

Today, at least one-third of Indians live in urban centres. There are at least 7,935 small and big towns and 468 tier-1 cities. These (tier-1) cities are those which hold a population of over 1,00,000. Nearly 70% of the urban populace live in these tier-1 cities.

Cities contribute over two-thirds of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and 90% of total government revenue. Hence, they have also been termed the power houses of growth in India. So it would follow that the people living in such spaces have great ambitions and wishes for a secure future. Even so, more than 40% of the people in large cities live in slums where life is a struggle everyday. In cities with population under a million, the percentage of people in slums is more than 60 %.

BJP’s promises for those in cities

The BJP had very explicitly made the following promises:

– Inclusive and sustainable development.

– Quality life in villages and cities, basic amenities to all.

– Massive infrastructure development, major steps in housing and transport. 100 new cities with sustainability and massive core infrastructure.

– Upgrade of existing urban centres, transitioning of focus from basic infrastructure to public utility services like waste and water management.

– Empowerment of the poor.

The tool to carry out these ‘noble’ goals was to:

– Strengthen local governance.

– Improve their finances.

– Provide cheaper housing for all.

– Plug the deficiencies in critical infrastructure and service deficiencies like water power and transportation etc.

What has been delivered

The delivery, however, has been quite non-concomitant to the promises made.

The BJP had promised to build 20 million (two crore) houses for the urban poor in the country. However, a recent appraisal has pointed out that only 3.61 lakh houses could be constructed (which is 1.8% of the total promised). Interestingly, 87% of all the houses constructed are a follow up or convergence of previous programmes.

The 100 smart cities programme was considered a major leap in planning infrastructure in cities. These cities then were supposed to be the light houses of development for others. The smart city programme is probably a complete damp squib. The reality today is that even the BJP does not want to talk much about this programme.

There is a two-component investment strategy in these smart cities. Area based development (ABD), which is for a small area based on the size of the city and pan city development which mainly is about the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) solutions for traffic, transport etc. The core infrastructure is envisaged under the ABD which caters to a small population and region. But quite surprisingly, 90% of the total budget is consumed by the ABD which has an impact on 9% of the population in cities.

The smart city framework also happens to challenge the direct authority of elected institutions in the cities. The special purpose vehicle (SPV) which is to carry forward the agenda of the smart city needs to be registered under the Companies Act and the elected municipality is not a member of the SPV. It is headed either by a bureaucrat or a World Bank official and is not answerable to the council. Many cities had refused to work under such a paradigm shift framework of governance.

The implementation of the smart cities scheme is also tardy. As little as 7% from the Central government has been offloaded to over 60 cities under the scheme. Seventy percent of the projects are in development stage with just 5% completion so far. The smart city mission has failed in empowering the municipal governments to bring together the institutional framework for urban development and instead proposes selective development.

The evictions of the poor continue unabated in the cities. The Street Vendors Act, 2014, which was an instrument to regularise vending mechanism has hardly been implemented. The homelessness in the cities has increased in the last few years and forceful eviction and demolitions of over 54,000 houses has been documented in the recent past.

Another flagship programme of the BJP has been the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT). This programme was supposed to plug the gap in the water and sanitation delivery. The water networks both in slums and other areas were supposed to get a facelift under AMRUT.

It looks like there is more rhetoric and less real intent to deliver. This is simply because the central assistance to address urban poor’s access to water has been just 19% so far. There is a high cost that the poor living in cities are forced to pay for water. They do not have regular connections of water and have to look at the informal sector for the delivery. There is huge nexus of private water suppliers and even city government – including the officers and the corporators in the supply of water to such colonies either directly or through tankers.

The Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) has consumed a bulk of advertisements of the Central government. It was launched in October 2014 in mission mode. The main objective was to eliminate open defecation by constructing over one crore toilets in the country and promoting scientific management of municipal solid waste (MSW).

Keeping all the high-pitched campaigning aside, till date only 34% of the promised toilets have been constructed. The target is to construct over 1.04 crore toilets . The plan is completely one-sided; without being able to dispose the waste from these toilets the situation will further worsen. In absence of proper sewage treatment plants (STPs), the dumping of sewage in nearby nalas has further worsened the situation. It is estimated that over 78% of total waste generated is untreated in urban India. Even the parliamentary standing committee on urban development (2017-18) criticised the present government for its lack of realistic projections and planning. The report of the committee also revealed gross non-utilisation of budgets allocated to major flagship initiatives thus puncturing the balloon of speedy governance in the country.

The misery continues

It is a hard fact that nearly 90% of the workforce works in the informal sector. They are the ones who require the basic services immediately The National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM) was launched to much fanfare by the BJP government. The NULM is the transformation of Swaran Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY) launched by the UPA. Since its launch, the progress has been slow and lower than that of other government schemes.

A Bloomberg report has stated that 30% of the youth are neither employed nor in education or training in India. It has commented that the demographic dividend can turn into a socioeconomic nightmare. Only 4.69% of the Indian workforce is presently skilled in comparison with 52% in the US, 68% in the UK, 75% in Germany, 86% in Japan, 96% in Korea and about 50% in China. The greater the skill, the larger the capacity of the worker to bargain for a fair share.

But in India, the situation continues to worsen. Interestingly, the BJP government had a target of 400 million (40 crores) young people to be skilled in various fields. It is revealed that not even 12% of the target has been achieved. Another important feature is that 69% of the jobs in the country are under threat from automation.

There is greater informalisation in the cities since the BJP government came to power. The urban informal economy takes place at homes, streets, roadside and pavements, on-site and at unplanned and unauthorised industrial areas and markets. Most of the workers are not even under the ambit of worker welfare boards. In the last four years, with large scale evictions under the informal sector, workers have become more miserable, thus increasing their economic vulnerability. Demonetisation and the implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST) too shattered their economy with the poor being further pushed to the fringes.

The last four years of the Modi government have been a near disaster for the urban populace with their jobs being hit, services being worsened and their liveability being compromised.

Tikender Panwar was the directly elected deputy mayor of Shimla. He is presently working in the All India Urban Forum.