Policy challenges

♤ Tackling rural urban migration–It is closely relate to factors like globalisation and lack of income opportunities in rural areas. Experts estimate that by 2050 approx. 60 % of the population shall live in cities. This invariably requires complimentary schemes to develop smart villages on the lines of smart cities.

♤ Developing social security nets for slum dwellers in cities.

♤ Sustainable urban development-Making cities safe and sustainable means ensuring access to safe and affordable housing, upgrading slum settlements, ensuring basic necessities like clean drinking water, health clinics and toilets. It also includes reducing vulnerability of women and elderly.

♤ Employment generation-need to create opportunities for migrants and avenues for skill development.

♤ Capacity building in urban local bodies- This will include devolution of authority, ensuring availability of funds (for example through Municipal bonds, devolving taxes like entertainment tax etc.) and developing human resources.

♤ Affordable housing- With rising cost of land there exist an urgent need to develop affordable housing for slum dwellers. One of the major components of “Housing for All by 2022” is to utilize in-situ slum rehabilitation, through which the government has devised a strategy to incentivize private developers to use land as a resource. The policy also includes a slum upgradation component.

As SDG-11 talks about making cities sustainable, it is imperative that Government initiatives such as AMRUT, SMART cities etc. must extend the benefits of these initiatives to slum dwellers who are currently excluded from the benefits of social and economic security.