Issue 43 Vol II, July 15, 2007

A N A L Y S I S

Poor Abandon Rural Past for Cities
Gobind Thukral

Punjab, we are told, would be a large urban conglomerate in next 75 years. So shall be Haryana, perhaps a little earlier. There could be just pockets of rural population. In the year 2007, already close to 43 per cent population of Punjab lives in cities and towns. This shift is taking place fast and nearly irreversible unless there is a major shift in development strategies. Villages and their folk lore would be seen in museums and though video films or read in books. In Punjab’s sprawling cities, already Sayyed Waris Shah and his classical epic love story of Heer and Ranjha is known through a poorly made film by Gurdas Mann.

Migration from rural to urban centers has always been taking place. But the preset speed due to industrialisation and better opportunities and facilities in towns and cities is unmatched. At the national level, estimates show by 2030 many of the Indian cities would double their size. As the people begin to leave their traditional rural habitat, more than half the global population, projected at 3.3 billion, is expected to be living in towns and cities by 2008. By 2030, Asia's urban population will increase from 1.36 billion people to 2.64 billion, Africa's from 294 million to 742 million, and that of Latin America and the Caribbean from 394 million to 609 million.

As a result of these demographic shifts, some developing countries will have 80 percent of the world's urban population in 2030. By then, Africa and Asia are expected to include almost seven out of every 10 urban inhabitants in the world. Urbanisation has already stabilised in Europe and North America [USA and Canada] with about 75 percent of the population living in urban areas.

U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) admits in a report released last month that dramatic population explosion in the world's urban centres will be the single largest influence on development in the 21st century. Punjab and Haryana would be classical case of that. The battle lines would be more clearly drawn between the well to do and the poor who mushrooming in extensive slums. The burden on  infra structure like water supply, electricity, hospitals, educational institutions and means of communication like roads telephone system would be tremendous. Punjab Cooperation Minister Capt. Kanwaljit Singh recently noted rural urban dividing was reaching alarming proportions with more and more people migrating to cities in search of jobs and better life. Slum colonies are expanding rapidly.

And, yet there is no escape from this fast urbanisation. Single most important factor is industrialisation that is leading a fast growing trade and service sectors. This offers greater opportunities to lead improved life. The UNFPA study, "State of World Population 2007", expresses optimism because "no country in the industrial age has ever achieved significant economic growth without urbanisation." This optimism is derived that urbanisation can potentially help solve some of the world's most serious challenges in the 21st century. By comparison, only 35 percent of Africa and Asia's current population is urban. But the developing world is projected to absorb 95 percent of the world's urban growth over the next 20 years. Consequently, by 2030 the population of Asia and Africa is estimated to be 50 percent urban.

Urbanisation is vital for economic growth, for reduction of poverty, and for long-term sustainability. But then as this study points out fulfilling this potential will require a different mindset, a proactive approach and good governance. If we look at the badly planned towns and cities and mushrooming of new colonies and clusters of jhuggis all around Punjab’s cities and towns, orderly growth has been given a good bye. Haryana presents a much better picture. Once you cross Zirakpur on the Kalka- Shimla highway towards Panchkula, you can feel the difference. It is chaotic in Punjab and much orderly in Haryana where proper planned growth of cities like Gurgaon, Faridbad, Panchkula and later all other towns and cities was initiated  by the late chief minister, Bansi Lal and many others followed it up. Punjab politicians have wrecked whatever system was initiated by the town and country department. Master plans were drawn sometime 20 years back and dumped in storerooms. Punjab was 20 years late in starting PUDA and that too when it felt some sense of shame as HUDA had done so well.

Now we are told that chief minister Parkash Singh Badal has asked for new master plans. He should not wait for the plans as these would take  years and order that no colonies would come up till government has plans  for roads, education and health facilities and other infra structure  ready. It is difficult to demolish even a single house later. Shall the vote bank politics allow him? We would end up creating slums and haphazard buildings and lanes.

Experts at the United Nations are convinced that much of the misery and degradation that we encounter in cities could have been prevented. Therefore, if the proper policies are put in place we can, in the future, make cities more effective in helping to reduce poverty, improve people's lives and reduce the negative environmental impacts of city growth. A major issue is land. Providing minimally serviced land for the poor will help meet present and future needs. With secure tenure, street access, water, sanitation, waste disposal and power, poor people can easily do their own building. Urbanisation is one big challenge for the four time chief minister of Punjab now in his 80th year. And as congress MLA from Abhor a young Sunil Jakhar pointed in the assembly, Mr Badal should leave a rich legacy of a statesman.

As the size of land holdings fragments further  in Punjab, more and more people would be migrating in search of work and  future growth is expected to take place in smaller cities of half a million people, or fewer and less in mega cities. Urbanisation also portends a multitude of problems: traffic congestion, air pollution, epidemics of disease, violence and crime. The overriding concern regarding the urbanisation of developing countries is the proliferation of poverty. Among the more than three billion people currently living in cities worldwide, one billion live in slums and squatter settlements. Punjab has an adequate share.

Whether we like or not there is bound to be enormous increase in urban population during the near future. But somehow the policymakers are averse to urban growth. It is interesting that those who live in the comforts of the cities are less keen for others to come. This will have to change. With a more proactive approach and good policies, urbanisation can definitely help reduce poverty and improve sustainability.

Urban life offers the promise of a whole host of economic and social advantages, including employment availability, whether in the formal or informal sector; better health care; a wide range of social services, as well as educational opportunities. Let us make this happen.

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Biased moralities
Ishtiaq Ahmed

THE custodians of public morality and national honour are incensed by the fact that two South Asian women, Miss Nilofer Bakhtiar from Pakistan and Miss Shilpa Shetty from India, taking part in charity shows came into physical contact with men in ways they think are unacceptable. Control and possession of women is a major marker of the level of civilisation a society has achieved. It is also an indicator of the sense of equality and freedom that has been internalised by a society.

Miss Bakhtiar's folly was that she had parachuted in France during a charity show whose money collection would have gone to help the earthquake victims in the Pakistani Kashmir. She was then the minister of tourism in the Punjab government when she parachuted. She apparently hugged her coach to thank him for his help in training her to parachute. The mullahs found that as a major breach of Islamic chastity and threatened her with dire consequences.

But much worse was the fact that she was dropped from the position of head of the women's wing of the Pakistani Muslim League (PML-Q), which is supposed to be a moderate political party supporting President Musharraf. Her party colleagues reportedly condemned her for "irresponsible behaviour". If the rumours are to be believed it was the Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain who made the decision after party cadres complained to him. The latest is that she has resigned as the minister for tourism.

I remember some years ago the playwright, Madiha Gauhar, was given a very affectionate hug by the veteran Indian statesman and former prime minister, Inder Kumar Gujral, after her troupe had performed some Punjabi play in Delhi. Gujral Sahib's gesture should not have come as a surprise to anyone who knows how deeply he values his West Punjabi roots: Jhelum where he was born and Lahore where he was educated and joined the progressive students' movement.

Then too the mullahs issued a damning fatwa against her. I even remember some person by the name of Warriach, not my old friend Akram Warriach but a younger man, being introduced as an artiste and interviewed on the Pakistan television about his views on the Gujral hug. To my great disappointment his views were close to those of the mullahs.

On another occasion in a play shown on Pakistan Television a well-known actor couple from real life played the roles of husband and wife in the play as well. The husband divorces his wife in the play, as required by the script. He did it in the traditional verbal fashion of pronouncing talaq. Next day some cleric issued a fatwa saying that since the talaq had been pronounced the two could not live together as husband and wife.

Now according to dogmatic Islamic law once the talaq in a real situation has been pronounced the husband cannot recant so that things can return to normal. The required procedure is that the woman must marry another man and then if he agrees to divorce her, she can remarry her previous husband. The mullah often acts as the transitory husband, presumably after charging some fee, but there are many cases reported when he has refused, probably because he took a fancy to the woman, and in that case the woman was stuck with her husband of convenience.

If we return now to the fallout of the hug that Miss Nilofer Bakhtiar was seen to give her instructor one can wonder why President Musharraf put his foot down on Chaudhry Shujaat's decision and supported Miss Nilofer Bakhtiar?

I was thrilled when he came to power and announced that the great Turkish reformer, Ghazi Mustafa Kemal Ataturk was his ideal. I thought Pakistan would change course. But that was not to be. Now, with his mounting difficulties we will have to wait for someone else to carry forward the legacy of that legendary Turkish leader.

Miss Shilpa Shetty, a stunningly beautiful Indian filmstar, very recently won great sympathy across the religious, national divide in South Asia, when she was insulted by some racist British women in a TV show in United Kingdom. Many Pakistani columnists wrote sympathetic articles in favour of Shilpa Shetty.

Then something happened which exposed Miss Shetty to protests and threats from her co-religionists. She and the Hollywood superstar Richard Gere volunteered to educate and entertain truck drivers how not to contact AIDS. Richard Gere warmed up to the occasion and planted some friendly kisses on Shilpa's cheek in front of thousands of men who seemed very pleased.

That, however, was not the reaction of Hindu purists who took to the streets, burning the effigies of both Shilpa Shetty and Richard Gere because he had allegedly violated the strict rules of dharma which require the Indian woman to remain untouched by any other man except those approved by the caste and religious criteria.

If this moral force was really serious, it would have invaded the red light district of Mumbai to begin with because it is one of the biggest if not the biggest centre of sex trade in the world.

Several cases have been registered in courts in different parts of India and notices were served on Shilpa Shetty to appear in court. Her lawyers have requested the High Court in Mumbai that all such cases should be tried in Mumbai because she can't travel to all those provincial towns and her life could be in danger.

What is most heartening and encouraging is that neither Nilofer Bakhtiar nor Shilpa Shetty has become defensive and apologetic. Both are committed to preserving their freedom to decide how they will relate to their cultural and moral obligations. Both are career women and are used to working with men. They deserve our sympathy and solidarity.

The writer is professor of political science at the University of Stockholm, Sweden.
Email: ishtiaq.ahmed-@statsvet.su

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