India Urban Conference to address problems of city life

Bangalore: Indians today are no longer willing to be a passive audience when it comes to governing the country. The likes of Anna Hazare have proved that gone are the days when taking a backseat was a norm.

With urbanisation comes its own share of problems, be it the matters concerning civics or the manner in which the local bodies function.

The India Urban Conference is a platform that addresses problems that fall within the purview of an urban city life.

India Urban Conference 2011 (IUC) is organised by Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy (JCCD) and the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS), in partnership with the South Asian Studies Council at Yale University.

It is a four-part event which is designed to raise the salience of India’s urbanisation challenges and opportunities within the ongoing debate on the country’ development.

It seeks to create an open-frame ‘space’ for a multi-level dialogue that informs policy, practice and civil society action.

While the first conference in New Haven, USA was an academic one, its counterpart in November will incorporate the practitioner perspective in Mysore (17-20 November, 2011) and present focused discussions for policy impact in Delhi (22 November, 2011).

The Mysore leg will engage a large group of urban stakeholders including academics, policymakers, private sector, students and citizens in examining ways in which research can inform and enable urban policy and practice.

The Delhi part of IUC will focus on creating a foundation for evidence-based national policies and responsive governance institutions to support urbanisation.

Apart from engaging the public and creating a foundation to accelerate action oriented research on the topics of relevance, it also aims to highlight the increasing political consensus that cities and urbanisation are important.

At the conference creative solutions will also be discussed for resolving some of the governance and policy implementation gaps that must be addressed in advance of, and parallel to the XII Plan.

Aromar Revi, director, Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) explained that the conference aims to gather evidence on micro and macro level and also take into account their experience to look at things in a more systematic way.

“It will enable us to open a dialogue between the stakeholder and the people.

It will also pave the way for urban transformation which is a necessity,” he said.

He further added that it is not just the problems that they are trying to find a plausible solution to, it is also to understand the position of the urban man.

“Thirty per cent of the country’s population is urban.

Though the fine line between urban and rural is still hazy and debatable, 65 to 80 per cent Gross Domestic Product comes from the urban sector.

They play a large role in the country’s economic.

Hence, it is important to look into matters that concern them.

It is very unfortunate to see that the system of governance adopted by the rural panchayant fares higher when compared to that of the local civic bodies in the city,” he opined.

According to Revi, the reason for this disparity is that the local bodies are trained and adequately are not well equipped in terms of technical know-how as well.

“We have not invested enough on our local bodies.

They need to understand and be educated about how the system must be run and should also have an opportunity to learn from those in the same field, but with much more experience.

Understanding and comprehending the challenges and the skills required is very important,” he said.

The conference will not only provide a platform for an open discussion on the problems and their solutions, it will also provide and opportunity to learn from others.

“What works for one city may not work for another.

But there is a possibility of improvising on their system and implementing it in ours.

The Mysore leg will have many experienced speakers who will highlight methods and phenomena that helped their city to progress and develop,” he added.

Revi feels that listening to others is crucial when it comes to the growth and progress of a city and a nation.