Out of more than half the world population that are wannabe urban Bourbons, larger number of women and children will have to rough it out
IT is definitely a small world that we live
in today, and Damocles' sword never
shone so ruthlessly before. This fact has
been highlighted by the startling revelations in the recently released The State of
World Population, 1996. Within 10
years, more than half the people of the
global village will become city dwellers,
comprising 3.3 billion of the 6.59 billion
urbanites. states the report. The report
examines "the causes of urban growth
and the implications of expanding
urbanisation" that would inevitably face
neo-urbanites.
This may not necessarily be a "bad"
development, assured Wasim Zaman,
United Nations Population Fund
(UNFPA) representative, while releasing
the report. "But it is also true that in
developing countries some 600 million
of today's 1.7 billion urban residents do
not have the means to meet their basic
needs for shelter, water and health," he
said.
Zaman stressed that poverty will
threaten the growth of urban future; for
the poor, their environment will emerge
as overcrowded, violent and unhealthy,
where millions of urban children may
be at the risk of being school drop-outs
and becoming victims of labour
exploitation, sexual exploitation,
unwanted pregnancies and sexually
transmitted diseases (STD). In the foreword to the report, UN secretary-general
Boutros Boutros-Ghali says, "To be sustainable, development should be better
balanced between rural and urban areas,
and among small, medium-sized and
large cities."
The report pinpoints increased
mobility as one of the major features of
rapid urbanisaton. Migration, in fact,
accounts for some 40 per cent of the
citywards exodus, where the effects of
international migration (although
insignificant by comparison with internal movement) would have more serious implications.
The possible threats to urban health
conditions are more or less unknown to
rural surroundings, most important
among them being air and water pollution - the direct result of industrial
activity, transportation and cooking
exhausts. The neo-urbanites will thus be
exposed to hazards which their natural
immune system is unaccustomed to,
making them much more susceptible.
The report states: "The demands of
the urban future will test the pledges
made by the world's governments at the
series of global conferences on social
development, which started in 1992 and
concludes in June 1996 with the
International Conference on Human
Settlements (Habitat ii) in Istanbul.
Meeting their universally agreed goals is
vital for the future of cities and for all
prospects for human development."
It also says: "Among the most specific goals are those of the International
Conference on Population and
Development (ICPD), held in Cairo in
1994). The 1CPD aims at achieving primary goals of providing universal primary health care including reproductive
health care, family planning and sexual
health by 2015, closing the gender gap in
education and providing education for
all by then , and ensuring equality and
autonomy for women as essential for
dynamic urban growth."
Interestingly, the report documents
the composition and distribution of the
World's largest cities that have undergone dramatic changes over the past 45
years. Bangalore, Mumbai, Calcutta and
Delhi are among those metropolises
'projected to become megacities by AD
2015, registering a more than three per
cent growth rate per annum between
I @90 and AD 2000. Zaman specifies, "By
the year 2000, it is projected that
Mumbai will be the second largest city
of the world and there will be three
Indian cities with population of 10 million and over."
Several recent studies, according to the
report, show that a growing proportion
of the rural-urban migration patterns
comprises women; and if individuals
migrate, they do so as "part of a complex family and community process". It
is evident, then, that the gender factor
plays a significant role in determining
migration streams. But this aspect
remains somewhat elusive - "obscured
by conceptual problems and measurement difficulties".
The report discusses the policies,
strategies and issues for improving the
cities, which have been further refined
by the ongoing Habitat ii conference
which has focussed on shelter for all; it
was attended by a representative of the NGO Waste Wise from Bangalore in
India which presented an alternative
approach to solid waste management.
The ICPD'S main concerns are families and children, health and environment, population distribution, urban
management and ensuring access to
information. The UNFPA strategies
encompass improved family planning
and health care for all, and advocates
empowerment of women. But questioning Turkey's right to hold the conference, 35 NGOS organised an Alternative
Habitat ii to highlight problems not
adressed by the official event.
The urban future is feared to carry
several risks towards our physical environment and natural resources, for
social cohesion and human rights.
However, considering the opinion Of
sociologists, that cities - already
accounting for 60-80 per cent of the GNP
of many developing nations - could
serve as hubs of human creativity, this
growth could open up a lot of developmental avenues.
Despite the speculated setbacks, the
phenomenal urban growth is seen as a
very heartening "secular shift in societies and economies, on a scale never
experienced before", asserts the report.
The need of the hour is a cohesive society where women's role will be well-defined. To meet existent needs and
anticipating new ones would be the crux
of the agenda in building a "civic society", it envisions.
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