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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | What's in a name? urban or rural? by Kala Sridhar

What's in a name? urban or rural? by Kala Sridhar

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published Published on May 20, 2011   modified Modified on May 20, 2011

What is rural and what is urban is largely an artefact of definition and relative. See the table below. Most of India's 'rural' population resides in villages that contain between 500 and 5,000 inhabitants. Some argue that in other countries, many of these villages would be classified as urban. These studies point out that if India were to be a little more liberal in its definition of urban areas (minimum of 75% non-agricultural employment), then a majority of India would be urban today. But do we want this?

Cities and towns have emerged as centres of domestic and international investments and commerce. They contribute about 65% of GDP as of 2011. The higher productivity of any urban area depends on the availability and quality of infrastructure services. Hence, if we want more rapid growth of our GDP, then we are dependent on towns.

As one can imagine, smaller settlements of 1,00,000 people tend to be significantly under-served with regard to access to piped water, waste disposal, and electricity. Urban economic activities are dependent upon infrastructure like roads, water supply, power, telecommunication, mass transport, sanitation, solid waste management, etc.

After all, there are a large number of infrastructure programmes for towns ('urban' areas) as well as rural areas in India. First, apart from the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) for the 63 largest cities, there is the Urban Infrastructure Development Scheme for Small and Medium Towns (UIDSSMT), whose objectives are to improve infrastructural facilities and help create durable public assets and quality-oriented services in cities and towns, including through public-private partnership. UIDSSMT supports all urban infrastructure development projects: water supply, roads, parking space, drainage, solid waste management, sewerage, urban renewal, preservation of water bodies and prevention of soil erosion.

Further, at the beginning of the last decade in 2000-01, the government added a new clause in the Income Tax Act of 1961, exempting interest income from bonds issued by local authorities. Funds raised from tax-free municipal bonds are to be used only for capital investments in urban infrastructure for providing potable water supply, sewerage or sanitation, drainage, solid waste management, roads, bridges and flyovers; and urban transport (if this is a municipal function under the respective state legislation). Thus far, very few smaller cities (such as Nagpur and Vishakapatnam) have been able to utilise this.


Besides, regional centres for urban and environmental studies (RCUES) have been established to meet the training and research needs in urban sectors. These centres assist state governments in disseminating information about policies and programmes in urban governance and also undertake research and organise training, seminars, workshops and conferences on topics relating to local self-government, urban development, urban management, water supply and sanitation, property tax, municipal audit and accounting, public housing, low-cost sanitation and urban poverty alleviation programmes.

Bharat Nirman (in the areas of irrigation, rural electrification and rural telecommunication connectivity), Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (for rural roads), Indira Awaz Yojana (rural housing), Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission (water supply) and Total Sanitation Campaign (sanitation programmes) cater to rural needs. Besides, there is also the flagship Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).

The objectives of all programmes, whether rural or urban, are to improve the infrastructure and service provision to raise overall productivity and living conditions. Urban areas are indisputably ahead of the rural areas; hence rural areas of the country stand to benefit with better public services (despite the plethora of rural and urban programmes) if they were to be reclassified as urban, since there are a large number of benefits associated with being eventually urban, as described above.

However, this is difficult to do with a single stroke of the pen and there are a large number of political economy considerations that determine what should be urban and what should be rural. For instance, most of the developed countries are more than 80% urban, China is over 46% urban, with its more liberal definition of urbanisation.

The Census of India, if possible as part of its 2011 exercise, at the minimum, should do some simulations of what would happen if we were to redefine what is urban, so that researchers and concerned policy-makers can examine their impacts on these areas, and to evaluate their implications for the concerned ministries, their budgets, and programmes.

(The author, with the Public Affairs Centre, Bangalore, is currently visiting UNU-WIDER)


The Economic Times, 20 May, 2011, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/guest-writer/whats-in-a-name-urban-or-rural/articleshow/8457553.cms


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