New urban scene
From page 11
bidders determine the nature of urban development rather than citi zens. The interest of the former is purely financial while that of the latter is related to larger environ mental concerns.
In many Asian cities, urban trans port is increasingly being handed over to the private formal and informal sectors. As a result, sort of “deregularisation” is taking place. With increases in demand and com muting costs, transportations is also becoming increasingly diverse. There are airconditioned buses for the more affluent, run-down inhu man systems of transportation for the poor, and a number of other levels in between. Low income com munities now have only two choic es. One, of living in polluted, unhealthy and insecure zones near-er to the city or, two of moving to environmentally healthier areas on the city fringe. In the later case, they have to pay extra for ineffi cient and inhuman transportation that takes them to their places of work, and in the process lose many hours in travel. Not much of a choice.
In recent years there has also been a phenomenal growth of pri vate schools, universities and pro-fessional colleges in Asian cities. These institutions charge high fees which can only be afforded by the rich. Over the years a very sharp dividing line has been established between these and government institutions. This, again, is increas ing the rich-poor divide and limit ing the space for shared experi-ences between different classes. Data also indicates that most of the outstanding graduates of private institutions subsequently work in the private sector, specially in fields related to financial manage ment and decision-making. On the other hand, outstanding graduates from government institutions work in the public sector. And increas ingly, it is the private sector that is determining the form and shape of our cities.
The negative trends which have been discussed above are further promoted by urban planning con cepts which divide land-use into commercial, residential and indus trial areas. The result of planning based on these concepts is that commercial areas die in the evenings, thus under-utilising expensive infrastructure and space and effectively killing the city cen
tre. Residential areas are at long distances from work places, increasing transport problems and road networks. Residential areas are further subdivided into higher and lower income areas a factor which promotes class divisions. And then there is the informal city, which develops wherever it can find space at an affordable price or on a temporary arrangement, and which is seldom sure that it will sur vive in the location on which it has developed.
The new urban scene, as described above, points towards the necessity of seeing housing as part of a larger city planning exercise which must relate to land-use pat-terns and their causes, transporta-tion, formal and informal processes, employment and sociological and economic distortions both at the macro and micro levels. Given the promotion of and support given to free market mechanisms by nation-al governments, it is going to be increasingly difficult to look at housing in this larger context. However, the struggle to fight back against a system that alienates the poor, and which they cannot change immediately, is in progress. If poor households cannot raise funds individually or access formal sector support systems meant for them, then poor communities act-ing as a group can. On this princi-ple, savings groups mainly centred around women have developed in a number of Asian cities and there is sufficient evidence to suggest that the funds that they have saved can be used as collateral for collectively acquiring land for housing and thus accessing the formal credit market. In addition, the process of develop-ing saving groups organises people. and this, in turn, empowers them and makes it possible for them to access government funds and subsi-dies. But then, there is also evi-dence to suggest that unless these groups are supported by NGOs and professional inputs, they cannot deal with a hostile officialdom and pro-market trends. The inputs required are also intense and time consuming and the number of indi-viduals and NGOs involved in this
type of work at present are far too small to deal with its scale. In spite of these constraints, however, wom en’s savings groups are, perhaps potentially the most effective vehi cle of fighting poverty, combating alienation and building homes.