Monsoon fury has exposed the rotten core of Urban India with an eloquence that no academic report could have mustered. As city after Indian city keels over in conditions of above average rainfall — Mumbai, Bangalore, Mysore, Visakhapatnam, the list grows apace — it is clear that blaming the weather gods is not enough. India is today confronting an urban nightmare. Its urban population is the second largest, after that of China — and is growing at a faster rate than China’s. Its urban infrastructure has not only not kept pace with this growth, it is in a state of advanced disrepair. About a quarter of this population lives in squatter colonies and more then half of urbanites today have no access to proper toilets. Water and power are in short supply, sewage lines — where they exist — are choked, and roads are often apologies for themselves.Those whose responsibility it was to plan for our cities and administer to their needs have ended up treating them as milch cows. Even as they drew political mileage out of pitting Rural India against Urban India, they have not been shy of exploiting the wealth generated by urban centres, giving very little in return. Mumbai and Bangalore, both huge revenue spinners for their respective governments, were cynically driven to the ground. Those governments which attempted some reform found themselves hitting a wall of non-cooperation very quickly. The Delhi government’s attempts to reform its power sector is a case in point. A rash of well-heeled and vocal residents, faced with a modest hike in power tarrifs after a reasonable spell, refused to pay up. They went on dharnas and TV studio hopping sessions to drive home their right to subsidised power. They got their demand, but ultimately it will be the city that pays the bill.That Urban India can barely keep its head above water is not good news. It accounts for 30 per cent of India’s population, and for 60 per cent of its income. If Urban India goes down the tube, so does India. The UPA government has proposed a National Urban Renewal Mission, but grandiose plans have come unstuck in the face of the nitty-gritty. Change will not happen without holistic reform and the greater involvement of the private sector. That won’t happen unless there is a proper legal and regulatory framework for such participation. And that won’t happen without the requisite political will. The recent heavy rains have come as a reality check for Urban India.
