Poster Paper Proc. of Int. Conf.

on Advances in Civil Engineering 2011

Inclusive Urban Planning: Challenges and Strategies of Karnataka State

Dr. B. Shankar1
1

Associate Professor in Urban and Regional Planning, Institute of Development Studies, University of Mysore, Mysore, Email: doddi43@gmail.com

Abstract: In India, urban planning emphasizes spatial landuse planning but, it has to yet to gain momentum for recognition of social dimensions in planning. The Seventy Forth Constitutional Amendment Act aims at socio-economic planning, social welfare, and slum development for social inclusion and inclusive urban planning. Therefore, urban planning needs to be oriented towards social inclusion. The paper presents the Karnatakas experience of community development initiatives in poverty alleviation, key challenges and strategies for inclusive urban planning. Index of Terms: Social Inclusion, Urban Planning, Urban Poverty, Community and Development.

I. INTRODUCTION In India, the urban poverty has been addressed by the central and state governments in their five year plans. The Government of India has introduced community development approach in its poverty alleviation programme. The community structures were created and capacities were developed to identify their felt needs, prioritize them, and develop community plans and city plan of action. The community based organization (CBOs) have involved actively in mobilizing resources, coordinating and collaborating, implementing the projects including monitoring the community plans for achieving the social sector goals and improving their quality of life. On contrary, the urban poverty is yet to get due recognition in Master Plans, which were prepared by the Planning Authorities. The Planning Authorities neither they have mechanism to consider the urban poor nor they involve community based organizations in the planning processes. As the urban planning, urban poverty and social welfare have become mandatory functions of the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) as per the 12 th Schedule of 74 th Constitutional Amendment Act, the inclusive urban planning for social inclusion is need of the hour. The paper presents the Karnatakas experiences of community development initiatives in empowering the urban poor, and key challenges strategies of inclusive urban planning for social inclusion. II. COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT IN KARNATAKA The community development approach was initiated in Urban Basic Services (UBS) in a centrally sponsored programme during the year 1985-86 on a pilot basis in Tumkur district of Karnataka State. The approach was continued in the Urban Basic Services for the Poor (1991) and Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana (1997) programmes. The 2011 ACEE DOI: 02.ACE.2011.02.14 40

Government of Karnataka fixed Rs.23,124/- as BPL line and the survey was initiated in 1998 for identifying the urban poor. A composite matrix of parameters was adopted in a survey format to assess the income of each of the family. There were 8,91,771 BPL families in 1998, increased to 9,00,431 in 2003. In order to facilitate community development approach in the poverty alleviation, the posts of Community Affairs Officers and Community Organizers posts were created and appointed in ULBs by the Government of Karnataka. The slum was considered as a neighbourhood unit for overall socio-economic and physical development of low income settlements. The community structures were established to consist of a Neighbourhood Group (NHG) for 20-25 families and Neighbourhood Committee (NHC) for 8-10 NHGs at slum levels. A woman who represents the NHG is a Resident Community Volunteer (RCV) and Neighbourhood Committee is a Convenor. The convenor facilitated in conducting meetings, identifying felt-needs, prioritizing and developing slum at NGC level through action plans including liaising with convergent departments. The Community Development Society (CDS) has been established at ULB level to coordinate the programme at city level and avail the funds from the government directly. A woman from each of the identified urban poor family is a member of the General Body of CDS. The President and Vicepresident of the CDS have been elected by the members in the General Body. The Governing Council is an executive body which consists of twenty thee members headed by a President and member viz. Vice-President, District Project Officer as a Member Secretary, Commissioner/Chief Officer, Project Officers, 10 Convenors who represents NHCs, an NGO representative, two women councilors, who represents urban poor clusters, convergent department officers and four coopted members. The funds of CDS are operated jointly by the CDS president and Chief Officer/Commissioner of the ULB. The CDS receives funds directly from the state government and maintains, audits its accounts from Charted Accountants. The CDS has been assigned the task of preparation of City Plan of Action in co-ordination with convergent departments and stakeholders for addressing the issues related to urban poverty. The Intuitional mechanism has been created to facilitate the programme at state, district, and town levels The State Level Sanctioning Committee headed by the Secretary, Urban Development Department, District Level Committee headed

Poster Paper Proc. of Int. Conf. on Advances in Civil Engineering 2011 by the Deputy Commissioner and Town Level Urban Poverty Eradication Cell (TUPEC) headed by the Municipal President or Mayor. The Community Structure Model is given in the fig.1. Municipal President of ULB were issued by the Government. E. CONVERGENCE Co-ordination committees were constituted at town, district and state levels and to strengthen the processes of convergence. F. STAKEHOLDERS PARTICIPATION The stakeholders namely NGOs, Politicians, Philanthropists, urban poverty experts and senior citizens were engaged in planning and implementation. G.. SINGLE WINDOW AGENCY The State Government issued guidelines for constitution of single window agency at ULB level to facilitate the self employment ventures. H. CAPACITY BUILDING AND TRAINING The tasks of capacity building and training for empowerment of women have been carried-out. Skills have been developed identifying their needs through community self survey, Participatory Learning and Action, conducting of group meetings for planning and implementing the community action plan. I. BOTTOM-UP PLANNING PROCESS The bottom-up planning process has been initiated and the community was involved in the planning process to i) identify the needs of urban poor both at neighbourhood group and neighbourhood committee levels, ii) prioritize the needs, iii) identify the resources iv) develop plan of action for slums and city level in co-ordination with stakeholders to achieve the social sector goals. J. PROMOTION OF MICRO-FINANCE The guidelines for formation of thrift and credit groups (TCGs) were issued to promote micro-finance. The Federation of TCGs and Shree Shakti were formed for promoting selfemployment ventures and bank linkages. K. MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM The Municipal Administration Department has developed web-enabled electronic- Management Information System (eMIS) for effective monitoring. IV. INCLUSIVE CITIES The Inclusive Cities aims to improve the quality of life of urban poor. It builds the capacities of urban poor communities. The urban poor have very little representation or voice in the municipal policy and urban planning processes that significantly impact their everyday lives. Involving community ensures that urban poor will have the necessary tools to make them heard within urban planning processes. Therefore, urban poverty requires reversing the current exclusionary trend of cities. This requires fundamental rethinking and reshaping of urban plans, regulations, and policies to incorporate the urban poor. 41

Fig 1. Community Structure Model of Karnataka State

The Government of Karnataka has initiated capacity building and training from community level to state level project functionaries and all the stakeholders through the State Institute for Urban Development (SIUD), Mysore, As a decentralized door-step training strategy was adopted to train 25,000 RCVs and convenors at slum level by adopting innovative training methods such as participatory learning and action (PLA), leadership development, and role play methods. Intensive III. IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY The Government of Karnataka adopted the following strategy for implementing the urban poverty alleviation. A. IDENTIFICATION OF B ENEFICIARIES A whole town approach was followed for identifying the urban poor and periodic revisions were carried-out to update the urban poor list. B. CDS BYELAWS The CDS bye-laws were introduced for formation of Community Development Society (CDS) for building the strong institutional community structure. The CDS has been given adequate powers for planning, implementation and monitoring the SJSRY programme including the selection of beneficiaries to self employment ventures. C. FACILITATORS The Community Affairs Officers and Community Organisers and Project Officers were appointed to ULBs and these posts brought in the Municipal Cadre. D. TOWN URBAN POVERTY E RADICATION CELL (TUPEC) The guidelines for constitution of Town Urban Poverty Eradication Cell under the chairmanship of Mayor or 2011 ACEE DOI: 02.ACE.2011.02.14

Poster Paper Proc. of Int. Conf. on Advances in Civil Engineering 2011 V. SEVENTY FORTH CONSTITUTIONALAMENDMENT ACT The Seventy Forth Constitutional Amendment Act (74th CAA) mandates the functional domains viz. urban planning, urban poverty, socio-economic development and welfare programmes to Urban Local Bodies. It has scope for preparation of city development plan for meeting the aspirations of urban poor. The State Government is yet to transfer these functions and these functions are being managed by line agencies and department. The state government is working out the modalities for transferring these functions to urban local bodies. VI. PRO-POOR PROJECTS The Government of Karnataka has initiated many projects under its Karnataka Municipal Reforms Project (KMRP) of World Bank and Asian Development Bank and Nirmala Nagar projects to provide basic sanitation, and to promote microfinance and micro-enterprises in selected urban local bodies. The empowerment of women and formation of shree-shakti (thrift and credit groups) have focused in these programmes. In order to tackle the issue of urban poverty, the state government has amended the cadre and recruitment rules of municipalities for creation of posts of Community Affairs Officers and Community Organizers. The persons, who were already working in the SJSRY programme have been appointed for these posts. The City Corporations of Bangalore and Mysore have entered into Memorandum of Understanding jointly with the state government to include urban poverty in their municipal budgets for availing funds from Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission Project of Government India. VII. KARNATAKAS DRAFT URBAN DEVELOPMENT POLICY 2009 A draft Urban Development Policy 2009 has been prepared by the state government for providing holistic view and suggesting the appropriate steps for urban future. It emphasizes programs by which the welfare of the urban poor is protected with a great concern in providing adequate housing for the poor, sanitary conditions, and opportunities to education and jobs in the state. The policy intends to improve the economic productivity of cities/towns to ensure that the growth is inclusive of all economic sections to promote environmentally sustainable choices for strong local governments to meet the needs of citizen. A new approach to urban planning policy framework has been suggested to ensure that the proper development of cities shall take place by replacing the local planning method with a broader spatial approach. The strategies to include; a) channelising the social and economic activities to second order cities b) concentrating new investments in clusters that can have a multiplier effect, 2011 ACEE DOI: 02.ACE.2011.02.14 42 c) recognizing the need for integrating industrial development with social development too, d) programming social infrastructure (school, colleges, parks, hospitals, housing are co-developed along with industries e) ensuring an adequate supply of land use that all sections of society have access to land and shelter. The key component of development strategy is to reduce and eliminate poverty. The pro-poor policies to include: a) The programmes for shelter, employment, education, health and community development must be developed after the due assessment of the extent of urban poverty, b) The Urban Poverty Alleviation Cell has to take the responsibility for initiatives of poverty management covering all aspects of poverty viz. livelihoods, skills, access to credit. c) An extensive program of urban slum housing must be developed. d) Legislation to recognize the tenurial rights of the urban poor to be introduced. e) Public-private partnerships that allow an effective transition from slum housing to properly developed alternatives should be put in place and these should be linked to skills development and employment training so that the urban poor become self-reliant. VIII. SWOT ANALYSIS

IX. KEY CHALLENGES AND PROPOSED STRATEGIES The challenge is to promote inclusive cities that embrace the informal sector economy as a vibrant and key component of the urban economy. Inclusive cities require an inclusive, rather than exclusive, approach to urban infrastructure and services; urban spatial planning and zoning; urban regulations and laws; and urban policies.The key challenges and strategies for introducing inclusive urban planning in ULBs are: i) The Planning Authorities and Urban Development Authori

Poster Paper Proc. of Int. Conf. on Advances in Civil Engineering 2011 ties have been established under the Planning Authorities Act and Karnataka Urban Development Authorities Act.These Authorities are working in isolation with Urban Local Bodies, but the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act mandates to bring these planning authorities under the umbrella of ULBs. The State Government has to evolve suitable legislation to bring these planning authorities under the purview of the ULBs. ii) Planning Authorities and Urban Development Authorities are preparing the Master Plans for cities and towns as per the Karnataka Town and Country Planning (KTCP) Act, 1961 which has an objective of socio-economic development of towns and cities. The Act emphasizes only on physical planning in particular to land-use planning. The urban poverty issue has not been sufficiently addressed in the Act either to prevent slums and squatters settlements or to make slum free cities. Therefore, the KTCP Act needs to be amended to include urban-poor-cluster settlement planning covering separate zoning regulations, subdivision regulations, and building bye laws for both planned and unauthorized and revenue layouts taking into the account of work-home concept and inclusive urban planning. The Act needs to have the scope for formulating the rules for inclusive urban planning. The planners skills are to be developed to meet the challenges of Participatory Planning Processes through capacity building and training programmes. The planners role have to be re-defined for facilitating in articulating the community needs for developing vision, perspective, development and community action plans. iii) There is no comprehensive policy to tackle Urban Poverty for promoting Community Development on a participatory mode in Urban Local Bodies. The State Government has to introduce Community Development Bill for promoting and strengthening the community based organizations. iv) The Planning Commission and Finance Commissions are addressing urban poverty by meager allocation of funds to urban poverty. Alleast, 20-30 per cent of the total grants need to be earmarked as un-tide funds and channeled through Town Urban Poverty Alleviation Cell. v) The number of slums is increasing from decade to decade. The majority slums have not been able to cover for development schemes because of tenure issue. A separate legislation need to be introduced to address this issue. Also,land banks are to be created to meet the challenges offuture migrant poor to the towns and cities for making cities as slum free cities. vi) There is no State Plan of Action for the Urban Poor and urban allocation for achieving the social sector goals. Many of the sector sectoral departments are working under the Rural Development Department and funds are directly released to Zilla Panchayats.As there is no specific allocation to urban sector for meeting the social sector goals, which need to be addressed properly. Therefore, the State Plan of Action for the Urban Poor has to be prepared in coordination with sectoral departments and Urban Local Bodies for achievement of millennium development goals. The state 2011 ACEE DOI: 02.ACE.2011.02.14 43 government has to make efforts to allocate urban share for social sectoral goals and routed through TUPEC and CDS. vii) The functional heads of Urban Poverty, Urban Planning, Socio-Economic Planning and Social Welfare to be incorporated in the ULB budgets. viii) Public Private People Partnership (PPPP) to be encouraged. ix) Town Planning Department has to be given the role for preparation of Draft Development Plans, Perspective Plans and Action Plans to support at District Planning Committee and Metropolitan Planning Committee. CONCLUSIONS The urban planning has been addressed in isolation with urban poverty. However, the efforts of community development initiatives in ULBs need due recognition in urban planning for which the Planning Authorities have to be brought under the purview of Urban Local Bodies for inclusive urban planning. The legal provisions are to be made for inclusive urban planning in the Karnataka Town and Planning and Municipalities Acts with proper budgeting for meeting challenges of inclusive city. REFERENCES
[1] B. Shankar and Chidambaraswamy, Urban Poverty Alleviation

Experiences of Community Development Initiatives in Karnataka, International Journal of Recent Trends in Engineering, Vol.1, No.6, ACCEE, Finland, pp 72-76, 2009. [2] Shankar B, Empower the Urban Poor Karnataka Challenges of Inclusive Planning, Proceedings of Technical Papers, ITPI, New Delhi, Jan. 2010. [3] Government of Karnataka, Urban Development Policy 2009 Draft, Urban Development Department, Bangalore, 2009. [4] Government of Karnataka Report of SJSRY, Directorate of Municipal Administration, Bangalore, 1997. [5] Government of Karnataka, CDS-Bye Laws, Urban Development Department, Bangalore, 1998. [6] Directorate of Municipal Administration, Guidelines of Thrift and Credit Groups, Government of Karnataka, Bangalore, 2000. [7] Mitlin, D, Understanding Urban Poverty: What the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers Tell Us, Poverty Reduction in Urban Area Series, Working Paper 13, IIED, London, 2004. [8] Satterthwaite, D, The Under-estimation of Urban Poverty in Low and Middle-income Nations, Poverty Reduction in Urban Area Series, Working Paper 14, IIED, London, 2004.

BIOGRAPHY B. Shankar received the B.E. degree in Civil Engineering in 1984, M.U.R.P degree in Urban and Regional Planning in 1989 and Ph.D degree in Urban and Regional Planning in1997 from the University of Mysore, Mysore. He is working as Associate Professor in Urban and Regional Planning at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Mysore, Mysore.. His research interests to include Urban Planning, Urban Poverty, Community Development, Heritage Conservation, and Planning.