Navigating Urban Futures: Assessing India’s Progress and Policy Prospects for Sustainable Cities and Communities

Introduction

Sustainable cities and communities are the need of the hour. Half of humanity–more than three billion people, lives in cities today. According to the United Nations, projections of the world’s population show that by 2030, about 56.2% of the global population will live in cities. Considering the role of cities, in 2015, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) decided to include “sustainable cities and communities” as another objective of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. “Sustainable Cities and Communities,” one of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations as target 11, seeks to “make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable”. This can be achieved through the elimination of slum-like situations, provision of affordable transport solutions, combating urban sprawl, increasing effective community participation in city governance, protection of heritage, dealing with urban vulnerability and climate change, dealing with pollution and waste management, providing for security, and judicious distribution of energy. and implementing green–energy systems.

Important Indicators to Spearhead India’s Urban Future

The extent of the urban population living in slums indicates urban poverty and poor housing. The slum dwellers are usually cramped in their houses, have poor infrastructure, and are often unable to access basic amenities. It is, therefore, important to address slum conditions to enhance living standards in urban areas. However, easy access to public transportation is always important to improve mobility, decrease traffic congestion, and limit negative environmental impacts. It facilitates social inclusion by providing equal opportunities to all demographics in urban settings. The existence of open spaces is beneficial to the social, physical, and environmental well-being of the country. Creating sustainable cities involves creating employment opportunities, affordable, secure housing, sustainable communities, and a sustainable economy. These indicators summarise the developmental objectives of poverty reduction, social justice, and conservation of the environment.

Where does India stand in terms of implementing SDG 11?

The percentage of population in urban areas living in slums and/or inadequate housing and/or informal dwellings shows that India has progressed in improving the population living in slum areas in the urban areas from 54.9% in 1990 to 24.0%in 2015. However, by 2022, the percentage of the population living in slums had risen to 35.2%, which indicates the possibility of the emergence of more such areas in the future due to rapid urbanisation, inadequate housing stock, or an unfair share of the national income.

India’s gender gap in access to safe, affordable, accessible, and sustainable transport systems is slightly higher than Bangladesh and the USA but lower than China and South Korea. Unfortunately, India has maintained this gap since 1990, while others, such as the United States, have eradicated it. There has been a rise in accessibility for the majority of the population in India, from 30% to 60 % for youth and 20% to 45% for the elderly. While both groups have become less excluded than in the past, the rates remain lower than most other countries. Although India has displayed a progressive enhancement in the accessibility of public transport to all categories of its population, the problems regarding inequality for women, older people, and disabled people still remain.

Regarding municipal solid waste collection and management, India has shown good progress since 1990, and this improvement rate is one of the highest in the countries mentioned above. Bangladesh has also demonstrated steady progress, 45% in 2022, but still lower than India’s. Sri Lanka was slightly lower than India in 1990, 20%, yet has grown much faster than India, to 65% in 2022. India has done better than Sri Lanka by 45 per cent points, but it has not done as well as China. While India has achieved significant advancements in MSW management, it demonstrates the highest increase compared with the other countries mentioned above. India has dramatically improved from where it started and has gone far in catching up with developed countries like the US and South Korea. By 2022, India’s performance stands at 75%; it is almost at par with many of its competitors but still lags behind competitors like South Korea with 98% and the US with 90%. The upward trend of India indicates that the country has firm intentions to enhance the practices of waste management by the goals of SDG 11.

Policy Suggestions:  Way Forward for India to Achieve the SDG 11 Agenda by 2030

India should follow the strategy of scaling up and fast-tracking the implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) to ensure more urban poor get affordable homes, supporting the rent-to-own schemes to help the low-income families move from slum homes to formal housing, and incentivising the private players through tax benefits and subsidies for developing low-cost homes. Expansion of public transport infrastructure is also essential. Some ways of doing this are expanding the construction of metro rail systems for prominent cities and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) for small urban centres and adding more low-floor buses to the fleet to enhance access to elderly and disabled persons. Thus, smart mobility can be achieved by integrating real-time tracking and information systems for public transportation.

There is an urgent need to enforce source segregation, punitive measures for non-compliance and increased door-to-door waste collection services in all cities. It is possible to take the initiative to invest in modern waste-to-energy plants as well as composting facilities and to encourage the decentralised waste management of biodegradable waste. Undertaking circular economy initiatives is an effective policy intervention. One way to meet  the targets is by providing tax exemptions or subsidies to the recycling industries and enforcing Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes on packaging waste.

Employing Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach to Augment Sustainable Cities and Communities

Enhancing the inclusion and accessibility of the smart-city society through the capability approach, emphasising the first and second digital divide groups, is one way to ensure India meets the targets by 2030. Users’ ability, involvement, and efficacy in managing technologies are related to the latter, whereas the former speaks of internet connectivity. Sen emphasises how important it is to consider people’s talents and choices when living the lifestyles they desire to enhance the quality of their lives. Sen’s critics indicate that he has not developed policies using this approach. However, the UNDP has used the capabilities approach to calculate the Human Development Index (HDI), which includes components like per capita income, education, and life expectancy. He also sheds light on the reality that Information and Communications Technology (ICT) can be successfully enhanced and used to help achieve sustainable development objectives.

Conclusion

It is crucial to create a single authority or a governing body responsible for the operation, assessment, and improvement of sustainable cities and communities in India. This requires developing new institutions that will encourage bottom-up participation; this will require vigorous participation from the public sector and civil society organisations. Based on the findings of the analysis, there should be improved and systematic reporting on the implementation of SDGs across the world; further efforts should be directed to the dimensions of SDG11 that have to do with social inclusions. More efforts should be made so that the public sector can lead the implementation and reporting of the SDGs in developed countries. Even as some improvements have been made in slum eradication and public transport accessibility, there are still major deficiencies in access to open space and general urban integration. By implementing specific policies that would seek to improve the sustainability and resilience of urban environments in India, it is possible to build sustainable cities for everyone by 2030.