From Bharat To India: Understanding Rural-Urban Migration In a country with 600 million farmers, of which 40 percent are willing

to quit farming for various reasons, mass migration from rural to urban areas has increased rapidly. Between 1991 and 2001, 73 million people have migrated from the rural areas to elsewhere. Mass migration is a phenomenon that is a consequence of various problems in the rural India. Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, suggested that if people from the rural areas are brought to urban areas, the state could serve them better. But, this is a wrong notion which can lead to the destruction of agriculture on the whole, almost or completely damaging Bharat. There are umpteen number of reasons for this, namely: health, poverty and hunger, water and sanitation, women and children, education and employment, environmental problems, resources, industries and corporates, etc. Now, let us analyze each reason and how and why the proposal cannot turn into action. In terms of health, India has one of the most neglected health care systems in the world. Indias ranks among top five countries in the world with most number of HIV positive cases, present IMR in India is 52 deaths per 1000 live births and MMR is 230 per 100, 000 live births according to WHO statistics. Though, private and corporate hospitals are blossoming in the cities, villages in rural India still suffer from lack of proper health care services. Setting up public health centres (PHC) and community health centres (CHC) have solved a few problems in the villages. However, lack of proper equipment, operation theatres, paramedics, technicians and doctors are leaving most of these health centres in shams. Services like 108 have been introduced in villages in case of emergency, but the patient will be driven in a van through roads which almost kill the person before reaching the PHC or the CHC which is mostly located in towns, about an hour drive from any village. Population is another major problem in our country. In the name of family planning, forced sterilization, birth control pills and Intra-uterine devices (IUD) are used. The effects of these can cause hormonal problems in women or sometimes, death. Once we probe deeper into issues related to health, hunger and poverty stand tall in the list of factors affecting the health of people. India ranks 63rd in poverty Index and its rank in the standard of living compared to that of 186 countries is 126, which is much lower than many other developing countries. More than 320 million people go hungry to bed every day. Of these, many die, many suffer from various diseases. Most of them among the 320 million hungry people are the ones who live on less than Rs. 20 a day. Like Mr. Devinder Sharma (Food and Trade Policy Analyst) said, the biggest challenge our country faces with is, the way it has defined the poverty line. The government calls a family as below poverty line (BPL) family if a person consumes less than 2100 calories a day. And if it is greater than 2100 calories a day, it is an above poverty line (APL) family. According to Sharma, 2100 calories if converted into currency is equal to Rs. 17 per day per person in rural areas and Rs.20 per day in urban areas.

In Everybody Loves A Good Drought, P. Sainath says poverty line provides conceptual rationalization for looking at the poor as a category to be taken care of. It does not take into account important aspects of poverty such as ill health, low educational attainments, geographical isolation, ineffective access to law, powerlessness in civil society and caste and gender based disadvantages. Apart from food security, what we also need to look at is water and sanitation problems. Even today, many people in the rural areas walk 10 kilometers or more to get water from the nearest drinking water sources. They are infected with various diseases because of sanitation problems. Depletion in ground water level and water pollution due to prevalence of toxics, sewage and other pollutants is also a trouble. For example: Many districts in Karnataka like Kolar have high fluoride content in them which makes the bones of people brittle, causing joint pains. Apart from this, fluorosis also decreases fertility rate in men and women. The reason for high fluoride content is because of depletion in the ground water level. Women and children have a crucial role to play. According to a report by International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) India ranks 11th in top 20 hot spot countries for child marriages in the world, with 50 percent of girls less than 18 being married. Human trafficking and abduction top the list of crimes committed in the country. According to Child Rights Trust, 50 percent of women between 15 to 49 years of age suffer from anemia in India. According to WHO report, 43.5 percent of children under five are underweight. Even today, female foeticide and infanticide are prevalent in many parts of India. Girls are sold to agents from different states in the guise of marriage and prostituted. Schemes like the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) offer services to mother and child in every village through anganwadis. Child labour is still practiced on a large scale in our country. Most of the rag pickers are women and children. For example: In an article Invisible environmentalists, Kalpana Sharma states that women and children do the more hazardous jobs of sorting and separating the waste, the men deal with the dry garbage. As a result, it is the women who are exposed to hazardous waste none of them wear any kind of protective gear. She calls them silent environmentalists because they work during the night when the whole country sleeps and are landless, homeless and sleep on the roads. She also mentions an example of how a 15-year-old rag picker and a woman were buried under a heap of garbage dump in Jawaharnagar on the outskirts of Hyderabad. This also brings out a point about gender sensitization in our country. Crimes against women and children are on the rise every second. While this is the status of women and children, education is another aspect one has to concentrate on. The Right To Education (RTE) act that came into force last year made it compulsory for every child to get free education between 6 to 14 years of age. The government sees this as an achievement of its own. However, what matters is the quality of education. Government schools in villages do not have enough teachers. In some schools, one teacher teaches many subjects irrespective of whether she knows the subject or not.

The poor do not have enough money to send their kids to the school. For example: The kids in the border areas of the state face problems with the language because the schools in Karnataka-AP border areas like Bagepalli are Kannada medium ones, but the local language is Telugu. On the other hand, the schools in the cities demand high fee, and therefore, impart better quality of education. Unemployment is another section one has to explore about. Even the ones who are educated do not have jobs. Forty million people in India are unemployed. India has the largest share of illiterate women in the world. The literacy rate (defined as those age 15 and over that can read and write) is 65.5% for males and 37.7% for females. (Source) Even environment is one of the most significant areas one has to talk about when it comes to rural to urban migration. In the name of environmental sustainability, entire rural set-up is being destroyed. This can be further categorized into two sections: Farming and land grabbing. Farming has been major occupation in India. But, in the past decade, 200,000 farmers deaths were reported. With this came food crisis, food inflation and agrarian crisis as if they are new schemes introduced in the country. A recent report by P. Sainath on farmer suicides stated that the past six years recorded the worst number i.e. 17,036 farmer suicides. Crop failure due to the entry of GM crops, less rainfall or floods or drought, infertile soil, soil erosion and many other aspects have take a toll on the lives of people in rural areas. For Example: GM crops are being distributed in market. Many farmers think they would produce high yield, but the crop fails and the farmers cannot save some of it for their next cultivation. Apart from this, allergens, weeds affect crops and weedicides, pesticides are sprayed which make the pests (like bollworm) immune to them, often damaging the crop. In Everybody Loves A Good Drought, Sainath gives an example of a farmer in Surguja in Madhya Pradesh who is given land to grow Subabul trees for feeding their cattle to increase the production of milk, but under few conditions. The farmer should not allow mating of cattle. Many farmers followed suit and urged for forced castration in local bulls. The farmers followed the instructions of officials and fed fodder to cattle and in a few days, artificial inseminations were performed. The production of milk fell drastically and the cattle born from artificially inseminated livestock were smaller in size. This gradually led to the extinction of Khariar Bull in that village. The trees made the soil infertile and useless, leaving the farmers in distress. The above instance exemplifies land grabbing in rural areas. Presently, many battles are being fought all over India to avert this. Be it in Singur or Nandigram or in Mangalore, in the name of Special Economic Zones (SEZs), the government has been on a land grabbing spree, promising to rehabilitate the displaced ones. In what is called as the National Land Loot act by Arindam Chaudary in his article Blood billionaires, scam billionaires, he explains how people are displaced from their natural habitat. What we ought to know is that, the land that is grabbed from the poor people is resource rich and incomegenerating one. Be it Yamuna expressway or the Sardar Sarovar project, in this whole process, ecosystem people are converted into ecological refugees.

For several years, these people have lived on those lands, generating income through agriculture, producing food for the country and now, in the name of development, food is snatched away from them, their homes demolished and they are asked to leave the place. What one needs to understand is that, the government in the name of development is destroying peoples lives and depriving them of basic rights they are entitled to. This deprivation leads to mass migration and therefore, the migration rate has increased rapidly. All the above mentioned factors are better off in the cities in terms of facilities, infrastructure and basic amenities. So, there is migration from rural to urban areas. After all every person has the right to live a dignified life. As a result of migration, urban poors population is also on the rise. Many of these migrant labourers dwell in slums. They are farmers who work as labour for minimum wages in the cities with a notion that their job assures them a pay, unlike agriculture which is more a failure than success these days. Though, we have so many schemes like the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), National rural employment guarantee scheme (NREGA), Bhagyalakshmi Scheme, mid-day meal scheme and funds pouring in from World Bank for sustainable development of India, the above mentioned factors make it almost impossible to bring the rural people to urban areas and think that it would serve better. The millennium development goals remain mere goals which cannot be achieved not only by 2015 but also in 2115. Foreign direct investments are given more importance and the development is overlooked. And, in our country, inclusive growth often means exclusion of neglected sections of people in the country. When we cannot feed 320 million people who are hungry, when we commercialize agriculture and ask the corporate giants to take over, when we ask the World Bank for aid only to kill our farmers and not use the money for self-sufficiency, when we cannot provide food to those who provide us with food, what is the guarantee that all this will be provided to people who migrate from rural to urban areas? Even in the urban areas, they might be neglected, they might die of hunger. Therefore, asking people to migrate from rural to urban areas is not ideal. Proper implementation of schemes, proper planning, transparency is required to so. Providing basic amenities and improving the facilities, making them available to all at minimal prices would be beneficial to one and all, without displacing them from their land. Like Vanadana Shiva said let us not promote bio-imperialism in our country but suppress it.

Indian Farmers: To Be Or Not To Be Recently released movie Peepli live begins with a farmer vowing to commit suicide and ends with his migration towards the city where he works as a labourer. It may seem far-fetched to some but for a huge proportion of farming community in India, this is the grim reality.

The question all of us need to ask ourselves is why even after two decades of liberalization, our farmers are not free? Why are they still chained within the clutches of the vicious tyranny of poverty? It is not that people are not trying to answer this question. In fact, some of them are trying hard to work it out. But, the design and shape of their answers tend to complicate the questions and dont provide a plausible solution. On the other hand is the school of thought that wants India to get rid of agriculture so that it can accelerate on the path of industrialization. They perhaps dont realize the uselessness of vehicle in the absence of an engine. This engine of Indian economy needs answers in the light of changing paradigms in agricultural landscapes. We need to discuss rigorously the concept of crop diversification and contract farming by keeping farmers in the centre of our scheme of things. This discussion is urgently required as borrowed concepts are not going to work in India. How else does one explain the success of Grameen bank in Bangladesh but its utter failure in West Bengal? How else does one explain the success of Panchayti Raj in West Bengal but its utter failure in Bangladesh? We need to devise something innovative and something of our own. For example, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, adapting a hardnosed model of contract farming with all its legal and formal structure is not going to work. It will invite a severe backlash given the political volatility of the state. A more humane and informal structure may be the way out. This will not only help alleviate the apprehensions in the minds of farmers and politicians against private sector but will also pave the path for much needed privatization of agriculture that will convert presently chaotic and tightly controlled sustenance driven economy into free and market driven economy. Of course, market doesnt know everything. It needs to be told a thing or two. It needs to be told that insisting upon growing cut flowers may sound very fancy and glamorous but it requires huge amount of water that earth is not in a position to provide. This is where government regulation comes into the picture and there is no denying that they are inevitable. Similarly, there is no dearth of people calling NREGS a sheer waste of money. But now, as we are sure that it is here to stay so why not come out with something innovative within the confines of this scheme. For instance, people employed under this scheme can be asked to make ponds. These ponds can be used for growing in-land fish, something which is not only in demand in India but outside as well. This enhancement in production of fish will also signal improvement in healthcare sector. Thus, it will serve twin purposes. Now, we all are aware of commitment of UPA-II towards women empowerment so why not use the platform of NREGS which already has one third of the jobs reserved for women to uplift condition of sericulture (a highly women extensive practice by integrating NREGS and agriculture)? This inclusiveness can be very sustainable if implemented carefully. Remember, we cannot move forward without farmers. Asking them to leave agriculture and work in cities is akin to asking them to leave paradise and descend to hell. If they go there, so would we.

A Big Shift: From Villages to Cities

How many of us have an opinion of how exactly opportunity or success is defined? How about where either can be found? Or what forms they take? Many youth are eager to travel abroad in search of fortune. And, within India, it is not uncommon to see people flocking to metro cities expecting fame and fortune. This article focuses on a few of the aspects related to migration to cities from rural areas. One very common reason for migration is Education. What many of our parents once experienced, when they migrated in search of jobs, is now felt by thousands of students who travel far from home for higher education. The culture shock in such an alien environment takes some getting used to, especially if this change is expected to be permanent. Youth are said to be very open to change. Many of them see cities as their big escape into a world of opportunity. Even more believe that foreign shores are their ticket to success. While this is not always true, it must be admitted that better facilities and prospects abroad have opened a lot of doors for the youth. One positive effect of urban migration is related to the role of women in a household. They are now rightly appreciated as integral members of a family and a workforce. More households are open to women in workplaces. The gender disparity that was often lamented is now less than before. Also, there is greater access for them to quality educational facilities. Moreover, there is more scope for conducting higher studies for women than before. The economic situation of most people is now, much more lavish than what they were used to earlier. While this is blamed for the escalation of certain unhealthy practices, it is also responsible for better healthcare and education. It could also possibly be responsible for greater general awareness about public policies, environmental issues and current affairs. While urban migration might be a good thing in many cases, it is not so in totality. Excessive urban migration is responsible for an increase in slums in metro cities. This leads to lower living and working standards. Slum areas are often polluted and over-crowded and represent a lower standard of living. Recently, a study found that the occurrence of obesity in migrants to an urban dwelling is much higher than in people who reside in their hometowns. Very similar to the Freshman Fifteen, one can blame this on the easy availability of junk food and the resulting consumption of a higher amount of calories. Another contributor is the lack of physical activity in urban settings. On related issues, obese people are more likely to have diabetes, hypertension, and high blood sugar compared others. Another negative effect is the diminishing contact of urban dwellers with their aged family members still living in rural areas. Rural couples are now likely to receive more in terms of monetary support, but are sadly lacking when it comes to physical care and personal attention that only comes with the presence of their children. One should be considerate towards the villagers who prefer to stay back in their native places. Opportunity should be available and accessible to all, regardless of their location and settings. The untapped potential that remains hidden due to apparent bad luck represents a vast pool of talent that simply turns stagnant due to underutilization.

Many people are under the impression that the grass is always greener on the other side. This is not quite true. Opportunity must be created, not chased indefinitely. Urban life is not a guarantee of a perfect life for everyone.

Agrarian India and Crisis: Lest We Forget The peoples protest against Special Economic Zones in various parts of the country, including at Nandigram in West Bengal, stagnation in agriculture, import of food grains, widespread suicide of farmers- all these are signs of simmering discontent in the agricultural sector. What is highlighted today in the national scene is the image of incredible India and shining India. We hear about India as a country with a very high economic growth, a country with the highest numbers of billionaires in Asia. But we do not hear enough about the serious problems in agriculture. Our government doesnt actually seem to be concentrating on this topic much. But we cant easily ignore it. It was with the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) in 1991 that the policy of globalization was concretely introduced in India. Based on this policy and the directives of the World Bank, the Indian economy was substantially overhauled. The export levels were drastically lowered and the government started reducing its investment on agriculture and industrial sector allowing the private sector to take over. The problems of agrarian sector have adversely affected the Indian agriculture. The most prominent manifestation of this is in the drastic decline in the growth rate of food grains. The rate of growth of agriculture was very less as compared to the increasing rate of population. And India then started to import food grains at a much higher price than that in the domestic market. Again, unemployment in the agricultural was not profitable due to the fall in the price of farm products. Finally the number of people who are employed in the primary sector and the area under cultivation decreased, which in turn caused a decline in rural employment. The suicide of farmers is the third fall-out of stagnation in agriculture. When there is no season the farmers are left unemployed. The main reason for agrarian crisis is- liberal import of agricultural products, cutback in agricultural subsidies, lack of easy and low cost loan to agriculture, decline in government investment in the agricultural sector, restructuring of the public distribution system, special economic zones. Finally in support for the growth of the agricultural sector, we are all aware that our farmers are in great distress. Therefore, our government should take up important measures to remove the hindrances. Better and easier banking and micro-financing should be promoted. Investment must be made especially in the farming industry. A periodic revision of the statistics of the growth and development should be made. Bold steps must be taken to implement land reforms which are not implemented in

most states. An effective way of helping out the farmers could be indulgence of the youth in social entrepreneurship concentrated in the agricultural sector. According to Dr M.S. Swaminathan, In a country where 60% of people depend on agriculture for their livelihood, it is better to become an agricultural force based on food security rather than a nuclear force.

Health Care In India: Time We Thought About It! India, with its diversity in terms of cultures, traditions, contours, foods and crafts, has a lot to boast about. However, hidden beneath these delightful pictures is the underbelly of a deprived India. Rajat Kumar, 8yrs, was admitted in hospital for a relatively simple appendix operation. However, he developed high grade fever after surgery which was proved to be an infection of the whole system and of a particularly virulent drug resistant organism picked up from the hospital and the little boy succumbed to it very soon. Similar dangers are present worldwide but the difference is that developed countries recognize the dangers of fatal infections and reinforce measures to prevent them. In our country, due to the struggle to get its citizens treated by qualified personnel, these dangers are put on the back burner, resulting in devastating consequences. Contracting infections in hospitals is a malady rising at an alarming rate in the country. With thousands of feet treading long distances to avail the far and few medical facilities, hygiene and sanitation have taken a definite backseat. Patients who come to a hospital or a clinic for treatment often face and suffer from a callous disregard of fundamental sterilization measures. A very sorry state of affairs is evident in the rampant spread of Hepatitis B infections in hospitals. It is easy to say that medical personnel use badly serialized instruments actually the tragic story is that these viruses require very special sterilization procedures which, of course, would be impractical to implement regularly for all surgeries and invasive procedures. These actually just require basic preliminary investigations which tragically are not available to the common public, being expensive to the majority and free in very limited government hospitals. The infections in hospitals are not caused by the use of some highly multifarious instruments whose use is beyond the comprehension of the common man. They are, actually, caused by regularly used items like reused surgical gloves, non-sterilized syringes and intravenous sets, contaminated gauze, germladen instruments and medical products without proper certification. Again the tragedy is the lack of funds set out for the use of disposable sterile equipment and gloves, which is an irony considering patients are actually being paid a sum of Rs. 600 up to 1500 for a delivery in states like Uttarakhand. The list of people dying and suffering from hospital acquired infections in India is mounting at a distressing rate. Dinesh Gupta, 12, is one of the many on that list. He was admitted to a Delhi hospital

with a kidney problem. Instead of cure, he got an infected catheter. Now he suffers from a chronic renal failure. Unlike popular perception, visiting a private hospital and spending a fortune on the same medical treatment guarantees proper healing, leading private hospitals in Delhi have come in the limelight for the very opposite reasons. Unlike financial constraint, however, these hospitals do this because of irresponsible money making and due to lack of fear because of improper inspections and inadequate punishments. According to the Hospital Infection Society, Mumbai, 25 35 per cent of patients admitted to city hospitals become casualties of hospital infection. The solution to this problem is neither straightforward nor can be effortlessly implemented. In fact, there will be countless opinions regarding the upgradation of medical services in India. A country like India, with a huge shortage of academically and professionally proficient doctors needs more educational institutions directed towards producing them without lowering the academic standards. In areas where there are competent doctors, a regular assessment of the functioning of the hospital must be done to ensure proper norms are being followed. Strict punishment following any laxity by the doctors will deter loads of miscreants. Currently, in India, graduates have to offer their services in rural areas for one year compulsorily. This provides very highly myopic and short-term solutions. Despite all these measures, a long-term solution to the problem would be developing infrastructural base and providing doctors with lucrative offers for working in under-developed regions of the country in order to improve health-care facilities. India has a long way to go where standard of living for the citizens is concerned. Besides focusing on trying to increase the productivity and efficiency of India as an economy, its time we think about enhancing the Human Development Index (HDI) of India-the country and starting with re-organizing and improving health sector seems like a fine idea.

Child Marriage In India: And You Thought it was Over When we talk about children in India and their future, we talk about education, reforms, sustainable development and much more. But when we talk of such progressive steps we forget that in the heart of the real India lives a tradition ruining lives of millions of children. Despite Indias economic and educational reform efforts in the last decade, the prevalence of child marriage remains high. Statistics are elusive, but estimates are that 40 to 50 percent of marriages in India involve a girl under 18 or a boy under 21, the legal ages for marriage. A tradition prominent in the rural areas of India, child marriage destroys millions of lives every year. The child not only suffers from a psychological shock, but the tender age also poses a number of risks to the physical being of the poor child. So lets know more about child marriage and its effects. Do post your comments and let your voice reach out to everyone.

From causing multiple pregnancies, female sterilization, infertility to still born fetus, the girl child is often the one to bear the burden. At an age when all that a child must care for are his/her studies and play, the children are married off and are buried with the burden of running a family. According to UNICEFs estimates, over 60 million (around the world) women aged 20-24 were married or in union before the age of 18. Factors that influence child marriage rates include: The state of the countrys civil registration system, which provides proof of age for children; the existence of an adequate legislative framework with an accompanying enforcement mechanism to address cases of child marriage; and the existence of customary or religious laws that condone the practice. A Violation of Human Rights In many parts of the world parents encourage the marriage of their daughters while they are still children in hopes that the marriage will benefit the children both financially and socially and relieve financial burdens on the family. In actuality, child marriage is a violation of human rights, compromising the girls development and often resulting in early pregnancy and social isolation, with little education and poor vocational training reinforcing the gendered nature of poverty. The right to free and full consent to a marriage is recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with the recognition that consent cannot be free and full when one of the parties involved is not sufficiently mature to make an informed decision about a life partner. An International Issue The literature suggests that many factors interact to place a child at risk of marriage. Poverty, protection of girls, family honour and the provision of stability during unstable social periods are considered as significant factors in determining a girls risk of becoming married while still a child. It has been that found little overall change in the average age at marriage for age cohorts born between 1950 and 1970 in most regions, as well as little change in the incidence of child marriage. Focusing primarily on Benin, Colombia, India and Turkey, strong correlations between a womans age at marriage and the level of education she achieves, the age at which she gives birth to her first child and the age of her husband. Women who married at younger ages were more likely to believe that it is sometimes acceptable for a husband to beat his wife and were more likely to experience domestic violence themselves. The age gap between partners is thought to contribute to these abusive power dynamics and to increase the risk of untimely widowhood, although noted that older husbands may be better providers for the household. Closely related to the issue of child marriage is the age at which girls become sexually active. Women who are married before the age of 18 tend to have more children than those who marry later in life. 97 per cent of women surveyed in India in 1992-1993 did not use any contraception before their first child was born. However, the Population Council and UNICEF found that, in Pakistan, a substantial number of young married women indicated an interest in the use of contraception in the future. Pregnancy related deaths are known to be a leading cause of mortality for both married and unmarried girls between the ages of 15 and 19, particularly among the youngest of this cohort.

Strategies to end the practice of child marriage # Evidence shows that the more education a girl receives, the less likely she is to marry as a child. Improving access to education for both girls and boys and eliminating gender gaps in education are important strategies in ending the practice of child marriage. Legislative, programmatic and advocacy efforts to make education free and compulsory, as well as to expand Education for All programming beyond the primary level, are indicated by the strong significance of educational attainment in terms of reducing the number of girls who are married. Increasing the level of compulsory education may be one tactic to prolong the period of time when a girl is unavailable for marriage. # It is also important to capitalize on the window of opportunity created by the increasing gap in time between the onset of puberty and the time of marriage by providing substantive skills enhancing programmes and opportunities. There is a need to develop methods to protect girls at risk of child marriage and to address the concerns of girls and women who are already married by ensuring the fulfillment of their right to a full education and providing them with life skills-based training to ensure that they can earn a livelihood. # Efforts are also required to protect girls who are in union. Decreasing the pressure on young women to conceive through education and advocacy on the dangers of early motherhood should be considered. Similar consideration should be given to ways to improve access to effective contraceptive methods. # Services for survivors of domestic violence should be accessible. Outreach efforts should consider targeting women who were married before age 18 as potentially in need of assistance. Mapping child marriage levels within countries may be a useful practice for programmatic purposes when determining where to launch new prevention campaigns. It can also be used to track future progress by comparing child marriage levels at different points in time. # Further data collection and research is also required to explore the impact of child marriage on boys and men. The demand-and-supply relationship of child marriage should be qualitatively explored to illuminate dynamics, such as the reasons why households marry their children and why men prefer younger brides, in order to inform programming strategies. So please DO NOT just read this article and feel bad for the poor children who get married. If you have a view or thought in your mind then dont let it go waste. Post a comment NOW and let your voice reach out to the world.

India in transition: Urban migration and exclusion By 2030, Indias urban population is set to reach 590 million, an addition of approximately 300 million to Indias current urban population. Much of this growth will be due to rural-urban migration. The success of the Indian urbanisation agenda will be hugely dependent on the poor migrants integration as urban citizens. While the bulk of scholarly work focusing on the haves and have-nots

in India has traditionally focused on the rural, there is comparatively little that we know and understand about its dimensions in the urban context. MIGRANT IDENTITY This somewhat neat categorisation of India into the rural versus the urban also overlaps with stereotypical labels of backward and modern. Such acts of labelling and categorising are not necessarily benign or apolitical acts. They further the logic of the developmental agenda and are a justification for the urbanisation mission that India is steadfastly marching towards. Little wonder then that Gurgaon, Indias youngest urban centre, gets hailed as the countrys Millennium City, while it is actually far from that. Barring the residents of the traditional villages, on whose acquired lands Gurgaon has been raised, almost everyone here is a migrant. However, the term migrant conjures up images of the poor and destitute that work in the informal economy and live in slums or jhuggis. There is a certain unsaid understanding about an ideal city dweller as belonging to a certain social and economic class, who is conceived as the resident around whom the bulk of urban planning and development is focused. Interestingly, when an undergraduate class of sociology students, in a university in Delhi, gave instances of migrants, they responded unanimously in identifying only those working in the informal economy, despite the fact that quite a few of them have relocated to Delhi for higher education themselves and are being taught by faculty who also belong to other parts of the country. This othering of the socalled migrants happens through acts of labelling, such as outsiders, encroachers, illegal occupants, and criminals. Urban development is a story of sharp contrasts. While it conjures up images of glitzy buildings, attractive shopping arcades, fancy corporate offices, and neatly laid out residential complexes that provide a clean, safe, and healthy existence, there also exist shanty towns, slums, and the informal economy where people live in sub-human conditions and earn a living by doing odd jobs, including casual labour at construction sites, domestic work, rickshaw pulling, security guard duty, street vending, and hawking. While their contributions are indispensable to the smooth working of urban spaces, these people, their needs are overlooked in the planning and vision of urban development. India does not stop its citizens from internal migration. People are free to move across States to escape destitution or in search of better opportunities. However, local governments and Indias middle class largely view economically poor migrants as outsiders making illegitimate claims to life in cities.

THE NEW CASTES

Recently, scholars have started pointing out the growing hostility of urban governments, as well as middle-class citizens, towards the urban poor, especially migrants to the cities. The 2010 Common Wealth Games held in Delhi saw the forced eviction of large numbers of urban poor, mostly rural-urban migrants. Urbanisation in India subscribes to forces of the neo-liberal economy, where citizens are expected to become self-reliant and not be an economic liability for the State. The manner in which urbanisation is conceived and executed is, therefore, inextricably linked to this notion of the ideal city resident. While cities may be melting pots that have arguably helped mitigate traditional caste-based discrimination, urban spaces are generating newer forms of inequalities and exclusions that go beyond caste. In urban India, ones social and economic class has become the new caste. The caste anonymity of migrants is not enough to allow access to all urban spaces, as their social profiling restricts entry to most of these enclaves. So, while India may not be like sections of apartheid Africa, where the state legalised exclusionary practices, there is little being done towards the active enforcement of rights that allow for an integrated society. Much, therefore, depends on a citys ability to create an enabling environment for new entrants. This involves planning for services such as access to safe housing, water, electricity, schools, and healthcare. However, institutional and state policy efforts to this end seem to have been sparse.

STATE NEGLECT At the beginning of the Eleventh Five Year Plan (2007-2012), there was an urban housing shortage in India of 24.7 million. Ninety nine per cent of this shortfall pertained to the economically weaker sections and lower income groups in which migrants typically fall. While most migrants would qualify as lawful citizens of the land, in urban India, the rights of citizens get operationalised through a host of official documents, such as property lease or ownership papers, PAN cards, bank statements, bills, and voter IDs. Bereft of these, the paperless migrant accesses basic goods and services at a premium in the black market economy. Ironically, the most marginalised and poor also have to pay the most dearly. The underground economy is also indicative of the states absence in service delivery and lack of institutional support. Urban development, if done in an inclusive manner, can enable social mobility and integration of migrants. The Right to Education Act has been a landmark intervention which has opened up private educational establishments to other economically weaker sections.

There is a long road ahead, however, and similar legislations are also needed in health, housing, and labour rights sectors.

RAISING AWARENESS Good policy-making is only half of the solution. In the absence of proper execution or enforcement, it becomes mere eyewash, failing to help the most excluded. An acceptance of the permanence of the poor migrant population is critical to better planning, provisioning, and integration into Indias urban development. There are interesting lessons to be learned from China, where the State Council of Chinas cabinet, in January 2010, came out with a document to resolve problems of urban integration faced by young migrants. Excluded migrant populations would gain by seeking a collective identity that unites them on the basis of their exclusion. Activism and awareness about their rights are key to overcoming some of the negative stereotypes they might have inherited or internalised. This, in turn, will help them to better stand up for their rights and exert demands for better living and working conditions. Additionally, social attitudes of urban elites need to be addressed through active campaigns. If schisms are left unaddressed, it will not be long before the inequality in Indias urban centres, like the rural hinterlands, becomes engulfed by civil strife.

THREE IDEAS THAT CAN CHANGE INDIA.

Panchayats: There are 245,500 panchayats (village councils) in India, each covering 2-4 villages. The countrys three million panchayat members embody governance at the grass roots. Almost all of them have mobile phones. By developing all-round content and service-driven mobile applications, one can empower these three million and ensure better governance and revenue-oriented services.

Poor: People in villages and small towns depend largely on government programmes, jobs, schemes and provisions. Yet, there is no single-window information feed on hundreds and thousands of government schemes. As rural mobile penetration touches more than 40% of them, there is clearly an opportunity to offer them with necessary information on government services

through mobile phones.

Small enterprises: India has more than 26 million micro, small and medium enterprises employing 60 million people. More than 70% of these do not have Internet connectivity and websites, but they all have mobiles, work in clusters, and are located in small cities, towns and villages. There is a huge opportunity in this business sector to reach out through innovative mobile applications, including services such as mobile money, financial inclusion and livelihood-oriented services. Specialized applications could be developed to target the 60 million employees.