April 4, 2019: 14 parties and 150 organizations have signed a charter demanding housing, jobs, migration, sanitation, safe drinking water and other livelihood issues.
These issues are not considered political and not spoken of by many political parties, prompting activists, scholars, and urban workers’ collective to come together and present their charter of demands for inclusive and just urban development to active political parties.
As many as 14 political parties have endorsed the citizen’s charter.
Evita Das, Independent Urban researcher who helped prepare the charter, told TwoCircles.net, that all 12 demands in the charter are important to have a just, inclusive livable city.
“But the highlights would be ‘Right to housing and land title for slums’ which is to provide land titles to the slum dwellers to protect their interests,” she added.
More than 30 percent of India’s population in cities lives in slums that are bereft of basic amenities. And in contrast they are occupying only 5 percent of the land but still referred to as land encroachers.
The charter also demand zero-eviction policy. The cut-off dates set up the regressive government policies to determine the legal status of the settlements should go. These policies drive the poor to the outskirts of the city rendering them homeless.
The other main demand is the implementation of the 74th Constitutional amendment Act that confers autonomy to the Urban Local Bodies. These bodies should be given funds and staff to help localize urban planning and ensure transparency.
The charter also demands allocation of gender budgeting to address the lack of representation from Dalit Bahujan women. And protection of informal workers who have migrated to cities through social security schemes such as healthcare, maternity benefits and pensions should be extended to the migrant workers as well who form part of the urban populace.
Das says: “Smart Cities or the SPV model has worked against the urban poor. The SPV (Special purpose Vehicle) model aimed at creating smart cities has bypassed the 74 CAA ignoring the local bodies. We are demanding that ULB’s should be at the helm of the development planning and the SVP model should go”.
The SVP and ULB are supposed to have 50:50 equity shareholdings but it has not happened.
Through this charter of demands the urban poor and the 200,000 individuals who have drawn the demands are promoting a gender just inclusive society with sustainable growth thus giving Indian cities a new design that makes them both livable and smart.
(twocircles.net)