Abstract
The pattern of urbanization in Asia is increasingly becoming diverse. An emerging phenomenon in recent years is the increasing concentration of population in the peripheries of metropolitan cities with a resultant slowdown of population growth in central areas. Also, there has been a distinct trend towards urbanization of poverty in most cities, throwing up challenges for the provision of basic amenities, including maternal health, urban governance and planning. Lack of proper planning norms and enforcement of building byelaws have resulted in the emergence of several forms of informal settlements with associated types of informal rental housing. Moreover, environmental protection regulations are often not followed in most cities and only a few are adopting eco-friendly technology for urban development. Debating on these contemporary themes, the articles in this volume try to capture various dimensions of urban landscapes and their complexities.
Dipendra Nath Das and Debarshi Guin attempt a detailed geographical analysis of the emergence of new census towns in 2011 in their article on ‘Spatial Perspectives of the New Census Towns, 2011: A Case Study of West Bengal’. The analysis brings out the fact that the new census towns follow the urbanization pattern of the existing city centres. The concentration around the Kolkata urban agglomeration has occured in the periphery, indicating a trend towards a declining core. Simultaneously, several new pockets of urban concentration have emerged, of which majority are centred around small- and medium-sized cities. Contrary to the urban concentration, emergence of new census towns also resulted in, albeit in a limited extent, urban dispersal. The study suggests that to make this emerging organization of space most efficient, it is necessary to have effective urban governance and planning in the newly emerged as well as existing census towns.
Based on her study of Kolkata Metropolis, Annapurna Shaw in her article ‘Inner City and Outer City Neighborhoods in Kolkata: Their Changing Dynamics Post Liberalization’ puts forth a similar argument. She shows that the demographic growth of the central areas of Kolkata metropolis is slowing down. Shaw argues that outer suburbs continue to grow but the inner city comprised of the oldest wards is stagnating and at times losing population that needs to be studied carefully, as its implications are deep and far reaching. The article tries to bring forth the changing dynamics of inner and outer city neighbourhoods in Kolkata in the post-liberalization era.
The question whether urban poverty is more challenging than rural poverty has been analyzed by Kala Seetharam Sridhar in her article ‘Is Urban Poverty more Challenging than Rural Poverty? AReview’. The article reviews the conceptual arguments and the existing literature on the intensity of urban versus rural poverty, urban and rural inequality, and whether urban poverty lines should be higher than those for rural areas. The article shows that the share of urban poor is rising and that the ratio of urban poverty to total poverty has increased with urbanization. Based on the review, one finds that in many countries including India, urban inequality worsened during early 1990s to the late 2000s. The author concludes that urban poverty can impose significant challenges on human capital, climate change mitigation strategies and donors and governments.
Amita Bhide and Smita Waingankar in their article ‘Comparing Informalities: Slums, Gunthewaris and other informalities in Maharashtra’ compare various forms of housing informalities, especially slums and Gunthewaris that are present in Maharashtra. The comparative stance enables an insight into the dynamics that generate informalities and the disjuncts in the policies that have chosen to deal with them as specific forms that merit distinct response. Such a policy response that does not address the basic causes that generate these informalities attenuates a policy environment that continually creates a state of exception. In fact, it seems to be leading to a scenario where planning and production of affordable housing becomes increasingly difficult.
Mukta Naik argues that informal rentals remain an understudied area in her article ‘Informal Rental Housing Typologies and Experiences of Low-income Migrant Renters in Gurgaon, India’. Through an empirical analysis, the study illustrates the typologies of informal rental housing in urban villages and unauthorized colonies in Gurgaon, a city of 1.2 million people located within India’s National Capital Region. Further, through qualitative fieldwork, the article sheds light on how renters, usually low-income migrants, leverage informal rentals. The research finds that while informal rentals offer advantages of affordability, flexibility and proximity to livelihoods for migrants, they are also sites of exploitation and poor living conditions. Moreover, social networks that carry over from places of origin as well as household migration strategies strongly influence housing choices in the informal rental market.
Venkatesh Dutta and Vivek Kumar Tiwari in their article ‘Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of Housing Colonies in Lucknow City, India’ argue that poor performance has been noticed in the follow-up activities in EIA. This is considered to be a major weakness of EIA, not only in Indian cities but also in many other cities of developing countries. This study uses the EIA framework to evaluate current and future environmental impacts on developing housing projects in Lucknow and also to evaluate the post-project issues. The study reveals that EIA regulations are not adequately implemented in housing projects and there are conflicts with respect to post-project compliance. The study also highlights that zoning regulations and land-use suitability is not accounted for while deciding upon housing projects.
Rafia Afroz et al. in their article ‘How Individual Values and Attitude Influence Consumers’ Purchase Intention of Electric vehicles—Some Insights from Kuala Lumpur Malaysia’ observe how the individual values and attitudes of the consumers in Kuala Lumpur influence their purchase intention of electric vehicles (EVs) using the well-known Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA). This study is based on an analysis of data collected from 200 respondents from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. These respondents were asked about their views on their values, attitudes and purchase intention of EV using the structural Equation Modelling Technique. The study indicates that individual consequences relating to cost and convenience of consumers are negatively related to the intention to purchase EVs. Environmental consequences are not a significant predictor of purchase intention. This article has shown that the extended TRA might be applicable to the Malaysian context. The results of the study also suggest that domestic and foreign manufacturers of EVs should also take into consideration the perceptible easiness and convenience of users to recycle and reuse battery by using special materials that are recyclable and not harmful to the users.
Sujoy Kumar Mojumdar in his article ‘Trends in Maternal Care Utilization in Urban India: A Temporal Analysis’ observes the recent changes in the Indian health care utilization pattern based on secondary data from three National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) rounds. The study focuses on urban households across different classes of towns, emphasizing the most recent births to married women within a recall of period 365 days. Three dimensions of maternal care services have been discussed in this study, namely, prenatal care services, utilization of delivery services and post natal care services. Itis found that the utilization of prenatal, postnatal and delivery services show positive and high correlation with the economic status of households. It is also noted that the household educational and employment indices are highly positive and correlated with the level of prenatal and post natal care utilization. But in case of delivery services, this correlation becomes weak, that is, the degree of correlation has changed from being highly positive to negative, specifically in case of household employment index.
This issue covers diverse themes analyzing empirical data on urbanisation, housing, poverty, health and environment. We intend to bring out a special issue on peri-urbanization during the next year. In this regard, we solicit original research on issues and challenges of peri-urbanization in Asia. However, we accept articles on a regular basis on contemporary environment and urbanization issues and the challenges laid as a result of them, with a special focus on Asia.