Comparisons are often salutary. Just when we think that the challenges around poverty, inequality and under-development in South Africa are daunting, you realise that somewhere else, the scale of the problem is 100 times greater.
I had the opportunity to meet recently with Aromar Revi, Director of the Indian Institute of Human Settlements (IIHS) and his colleagues at a meeting arranged by UCT’s African Centre for Cities (ACC). India is facing an urban revolution on a scale that makes challenges in Cape Town and other South African cities seem minor in comparison.
Dharavi slums in Mumbai, photograph David Levene, from www.guardian.co.uk 04 May 2007
India already has 5000 cities and towns. Yet over two-thirds of its population still live in 600 000 villages. This is about to change. In the next 50 years, India’s urban population is expected to increase by 500m people. That will mean 800m people living in urban areas, over half India’s total population. The Mumbai-Pune mega-region is likely to have a population of 50m, while Delhi will have 35m people. As the IIHS says, “This will be more than just an economic transition. It will result in the transformation of Indian society, culture, natural and built environments, and politics.”
Is India currently geared up for this urban transition? No. Are they doing something about it? Yes.
The IIHS has been specifically established to train sufficient numbers of “well educated professionals, entrepreneurs and change-makers” to tackle the urban issues as they present themselves. The IIHS aims to become India’s first independent National Innovation University, focusing specifically on the challenges and opportunities of urbanisation. In its first six years, it hopes to produce 1 100 undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students, and reach out to 25 000 distance learners and 10 000 executive education participants annually, in order to train urban practitioners to prepare Indian cities and towns to deal with the expected urban growth.
The IIHS is teaming up with urban experts from around the world including South Africa in order to realise their vision. As Aromar says, “with India about to become one of the largest and most interesting urban laboratories in the world, who wouldn’t want to get involved?”
