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Journalism of Courage
— Ritwika Patgiri
Every year during the monsoon season, reports of Indian cities battling floods have become the norm. Such reports reflect poorly on urban infrastructure, particularly their drainage systems. There are also concerns about other aspects of urban infrastructure like health care and education.
Data reveals that nearly half of India’s urban population lives in slums, which often lack access to safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, or durable housing. Urban poverty is, therefore, not only about deprivation of income but also deprivation of secure living conditions and basic services.
Recent data suggests that both urban poverty and inequality have declined in India, but the data needs a closer examination. For instance, between 1955 and 1975, urban inequality (indicated by the Gini Coefficient 1) increased from 0.392 to 0.416, while rural income Gini increased from 0.341 to 0.388.
By 1995, both rural and urban income inequality declined, with rural Gini falling to 0.376 and urban Gini to 0.390 – a relatively modest decline compared to rural areas. In the post-liberalisation period, the urban Gini coefficient rose to 0.455 by 2005, while rural areas indicated a similar rise in inequality. By 2023, the rural Gini coefficient declined to 0.405 while urban Gini coefficient fell sharply to 0.382, after a peak of 0.532 in 2020.
Two important things should be noted here. First, urban inequality rose sharply after the liberalisation of the Indian economy in the early 1990s. Economic reforms spurred growth in sectors like banking and Information Technology, and poverty declined from 36 per cent in 1993-94 to 26.1 per cent in 1999-2000.
However, these reforms were mostly carried out in the formal sectors of the economy. As a result, the urban informal sector – which employed more than half of the urban population – couldn’t reap the benefits of those reforms. Informal workers faced displacement, rising living costs, and greater vulnerability as uneven urban growth continued to persist.
Second, the period between 2005 and 2020 saw tremendous growth in urbanisation, increasing rural-urban migration, and the rise in the number of slums and slum dwellers. The construction sector boomed and created the majority of the non-farm jobs. However, such jobs are precarious, low-paying, and uncertain.
Thus, better opportunities were created for some sections of the society through private investment, banking, digitisation, etc, while leading to casualisation of other non-farm work. Informal workers like street vendors are also vulnerable to displacement.
Migrant workers in cities often lack access to health care and education, which make them more vulnerable to deprivation. For instance, workers from states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal who migrate to metro cities like Delhi are largely absorbed into the informal sectors and remain concentrated in informal dwellings.
Neha Dixit’s The Many Lives of Syeda X depicts these vulnerabilities of informal migrant workers who are pushed into numerous but precarious odd-jobs. Such migrant workers are also more likely to be land-poor or belong to marginalised communities.
This can also be understood with the help of the concept of the ‘poverty paradox’. The paradox of poverty can be defined as a situation in which countries that experience economic growth find large sections of people trapped in poverty. This is mostly visible in middle-income countries like India and China where the rise of a country’s income per person does not automatically eradicate poverty for the poorest.
Therefore, urban development needs to be about inclusivity and sustainability. The Smart Cities Mission was launched in 2015 with the goal of developing 100 smart cities across the country between 2019 and 2023. The project was officially shut down in March 2025.
A smart city refers to an urban area or unit that utilizes digital technologies, data-driven solutions, and efficient resource management to improve the quality of life of its residents. It is also referred to as “intelligent city”, “digital city”, or “knowledge city”.
Smart cities are deemed to be sustainable and address the challenges of urbanisation. They offer business opportunities and attract investments from multi-national corporations, real estate developers and investors.
A smart city is also linked to digitalisation and technology as well as job creation, with a belief that technological progress can advance social justice. Smart cities are seen as a gateway in achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, such as:
— Promoting sustained and inclusive economic growth.
— Making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable.
— Promoting peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development.
The Smart Cities Mission seeks to renovate existing cities and provide facilities like housing, clean water, power, and transport.
While the idea of smart cities rests on inclusivity, heavy infrastructure – such as urban highways or flyovers – may not necessarily lead to poverty reduction. For example, a comparative study of two provinces in China found that the province that built accessible roads for poorer and remote populations achieved greater poverty reduction. Improved road networks and bus routes helped the poor better connect with urban areas, explore jobs, migrate, and receive information.
On the other hand, the province that invested heavily in building highways and freeways did not fare well in reducing poverty. This province also focused on tourism through the building of bigger hotels and resorts, but ignored community-driven tourism. While the urban highways and freeways connected the capital city of the province with other major cities, they excluded the poorer sections of the population. The province witnessed economic growth but without poverty alleviation.
India has invested heavily in its Smart Cities Mission but the project has not yielded the desired benefits. Only 18 cities out of 100 have completed all their projects. However, all 100 cities, according to data, have fully functional Integrated Command and Control Centres, which help city officials in making real-time smart decisions. Over 84,000 CCTV cameras have been installed across these cities to monitor public spaces and reduce crime. Water pipelines are also being monitored to minimise water leakages, while eco-friendly transportation, smart classrooms, and e-health centres and clinics are also being promoted.
The Government of India has also launched several policies and schemes targeting the urban population, including Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Urban (PMAY-U), and National Urban Learning Platform. These initiatives aim to improve housing, water supply, sanitation, and proper drainage and sewage systems. However, the real impact of these policies and their coordination with the Smart Cities Mission remains unclear.
Digitization, information technology, private investment, banking, and highways and freeways are often seen as important markers of urban infrastructure and development. However, understanding the inherent structure of the society is also important for policy makers. Better jobs for the poor, accessible roads for the marginalised sections, affordable health care and education, and inclusive transportation are equally essential for sustainable urban development. In addition, precise data and surveys on urban areas would be crucial to understand how cities fare across these indicators.
Inequality in the ownership pattern of resources is one of the major causes of poverty. Discuss in the context of ‘paradox of poverty’.
How do highways and freeways differ from accessible local roads in terms of their impact on poverty reduction?
How can informal workers and migrant populations be better integrated into urban planning policies?
Are smart cities inherently inclusive? How can smart cities contribute to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)?
(Ritwika Patgiri is a doctoral candidate at the Faculty of Economics, South Asian University.)
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