City: A Unique Character

‘Progress’, ‘achievement’, ‘mobility’ and ‘opportunity’ are some of the common terms traditionally associated with the idea of a city. Urban spaces and cities are not defined in mere demographic and geographical terms but are also characterized by a peculiar cultural and economic mode of life. Simmels in his classic essay, ‘Metropolis and the Mental Life’ talked about the mental setup of an urban dweller (Simmels 1950). He mentioned how reason-based reaction, anonymity and individualism along with a special emphasis on factors like money and time define what it is like to live a city life in contrast with rural areas where a deeper sense of familiarity, and collectivist outlook prevails along with an emotion-based reaction to events. Even though the line of demarcation between urban and rural is not rigid anymore with urbanism penetrating the grassroots, most of these observations still hold in the present times which is marked by an enormous proliferation of cities across the globe.

City, as a space began occupying a central position in the capitalist money economy in the aftermath of the industrial revolution. This space provided a conducive environment for the production as well as consumption of goods by exploiting the raw materials from the countryside and availing the cheap labour from the working class that flocked in large numbers to work in factories and gain a livelihood. These cities gave differential rewards and treatment to their citizens in a variety of ways. While the owner class (bourgeoisie) devoured the leisure, comfort, profits and status in city life, the migrants comprising the working class were at the receiving end of hostility, filth and poverty in the same city life.

With the advancement in technological equipment and strengthening of the infrastructures sustaining the capital-driven economy, cities in India, too acquired a life of their own and enticed the aspirational classes by promising them rewards and benefits in commensurate with their talents. The radiant glow of these cities conveniently blanketed the gloomy and despairing lives of large sections of the population and continued to attract people looking for a doorstep to success. With rapid urbanization, complex issues surfaced. This ranged from the planning of cities, equitable access to urban spaces, tussle between the middle class and urban poor, sense of belonging (us vs them), segregation and discrimination based on caste, class, region, and religion.  These are discussed in this article along with the state response to such issues.

City: A Finicky Prima Donna for the Poor Migrants?

The long-lasting myth about the nature of metropolis that captured the imagination of people is the ‘melting pot’ analogy which highlights the assimilating nature of big cities as they welcome people coming from different cultures and religions, creeds and regions has been busted time to time with news articles reporting xenophobic attitudes of the metro population to the migrants and urban poor. Be it the well-publicized ‘anti-Bihari’ sentiments in some metro cities such as Bombay (Mumbai) to the religious discrimination faced by Muslims in job opportunities/rental accommodation leading to ghettoization or more recently, the middle-class associations such as RWAs fencing their spaces by restricting the access of vendors/hawkers in their establishments. Such incidents evidence the deplorable conditions that the underprivileged migrants are subjected to in these seemingly cosmopolitan spaces.

Right from students to working professionals, identities of gender, religion, caste and region act as a hurdle in providing free unrestricted access to urban areas. Their ‘right to the city’ is barely acknowledged as they are somehow seen as ‘infiltrators’ on the land. The migrant populace still negotiates for the everyday existence in these cities right from accommodation, and commute to work opportunities. Highlighting the abuse a Bihari migrant faces, scholar Arvind N Das notes in his work, The Republic of Bihar (Das, 1992), ‘The out-migration of Bihari students, like those of labourers, to places of learning in other parts of India integrates Bihar further into the national labour market even as it produces a quasi-racial backlash in places such as Delhi which have started fearing incursions of Harrys (Biharis) from the east much in the same way as British did in the international realm.’ This is one of the cases of nativist attitude to migrants owing to the ‘regional’ factor.

Neighbourhood Associationism and Poor Migrants

The poor migrant population, arriving in the metropolitan cities, seeks to secure their sustenance and aim for upward mobility. While ascriptive social identities continue to obstruct their path, elite communities and associations such as Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) pose significant threats to the livelihoods of these migrants. The informal workers such as squatters, hawkers and street vendors are at the mercy of the elite society. Many hawkers are not permitted in the posh colonies as the space is exclusive for the residents and ‘security’ is their topmost priority. However, these societies are overly dependent on the hawkers for their daily essential items like vegetables, fruits or for services such as domestic help, waste picking, nannies etc. These hawkers however have to negotiate their use of urban spaces with the RWAs for their presence is a potential threat to the safety of the residents of these ‘gated communities’. These hawkers are issued a license by the RWA members which permits them to work in the localities. The noteworthy point is that these licenses are not recognized by the Municipal authorities, they can be revoked at any time and hawkers might be reported to the authorities, if residents choose to. A fieldwork conducted by Seth Schindler in 2011 in the posh colony of Krishna Nagar in South Delhi, revealed the plight of hawkers, one of whom said, ‘If RWA complains MCD can come and take me away’ while another mentioned, ‘People who have good behaviour are selected for a License’. These statements signify the plight of the hawkers who are rendered helpless and must be subordinate to the association, where the absolute power rests. In representational terms too, the RWA members are not diverse as most of these members are upper caste Hindu males.

As Coelho and Venkat, in their article on The Politics of Civil Society (2009) discussed, even the agendas of RWA are purely Brahminical in their nature driven by the emphasis on spatial segregation and cleanliness. The contempt that the RWA association carries for the urban poor is also evident in numerous cases such as the RWA of an upscale suburb of Besant Nagar in Chennai which opposed the corporation’s beach beautification drives for environmental concerns but were reluctant to join the resistance with the hawkers/fishing communities who also opposed the same beautification drive out of the fear of eviction and loss of livelihood. The middle class that constitutes these residential associations have time to time exhibited a tremendous indifference to the concerns of the urban poor and many times, have extensively voiced their eviction from the sight of their beautifully fenced and exclusive spaces out of an alleged fear of these ‘urban poor’. The disgust is sometimes expressed, at times, with such vehemence that it is hard to digest. In one such case, a poor young man was beaten to death for defecating in a public park frequented by the residents (Baviskar 2003; Kishwar, 2006).

Most of the migrants who are part of the informal economy are harassed by the authorities and accused of ‘appropriating’ the urban land. This does not undermine the immense contribution of the informal sector to the economy as the large population churns out a living from activities like street vending. Recognizing this, the Supreme Court declared street vending as a constitutionally protected practice, subject to reasonable restrictions in 1985 and The Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014, was also passed in the year, 2014. Both these rulings claimed to legalize the occupation of street vending and provide much-needed relief from the harassment of local police and Municipal officials. It also gave a promise to end the encroachment and put a stop to the practices of extortion and a constant threat of eviction. However, the picture was not as rosy as many of these hopes could not be realized owing to factors like inefficient implementation strategy, lack of awareness among vendors along with a complicit state network.  The insecurity and threats clouding the lives of these migrants/urban poor leads to dwindling of income which in turn, deeply affects their family and overall survival.

Out Of Sight, Out of Mind: Invisibilizing the Urban Poor and Slum Clearance

By creating an exclusive, safe space and restricting the accessibility of such spaces, gated communities and posh localities have further exacerbated the already skewed space distribution in the areas. The poor population, engaged largely in informal sectors has no option but to occupy the neighbouring slum areas at the periphery of the enclaves where resources are scarce, lack of sanitation, no government aid and not to forget, the haunting sound of bulldozers.

 The Central Government, in 1956, approved a Slum Clearance Plan, which was not acted upon till 1972, when a Slum Development Board was set up to implement the scheme. Initially, the government worked towards evicting the slum dwellers and demolishing their ‘illegal’ structures. After the Supreme Court ruling, the right to city of pavement/slum dwellers was also recognized and then the approach took a paradigm shift with the emphasis on relocation, upgradation, and environmental improvement of slums (Dupont, 2014). These promises were never fulfilled as the legal loopholes were exploited by the elite class, capitalists, and businessmen for the removal of slums. The clause of ‘Public Purpose’ allowed the bulldozing of slums in the name of beautification drive or infrastructural developments. The evicted slum dwellers were not rehabilitated properly and the bourgeois planning of the urban spaces necessitated the clearance of these slums which were seen as a nuisance, nourishing filth, disease and poverty in the otherwise aesthetically beautiful, economically developed places. Most of the rehabilitation centres for the slum dwellers were situated on the outskirts of the city, a strategy that is in perfect alignment with the aspiration of the middle class, i.e., to turn their place into a world-class city.  This happens when the poor are evicted and situated in the periphery where they are out of sight and in turn, out of mind.

Conclusion: Creating a Sense of Belonging

As discussed in the article, the contestation for urban resources and the differential treatment of the migrants and urban poor has already led to tensions in the city. It is imperative to recognize the ‘right to the city’ of the deprived and resourceless population by welcoming them in and allowing them free and equitable access to the urban space to gain a livelihood and secure sustenance. This would only happen by fostering an inclusive environment and creating a sense of belonging for every city dweller to their land regardless of their socio-economic identities. The discriminatory practices and selfish pursuit of luxury and comfort are bound to widen the gap between the haves and have-nots and create unrest in the country. Efforts from the state towards mitigating these problems and regulating the ‘migrant-native’, and ‘poor-rich’ issues from an unbiased outlook are much needed before retaliations and violent reactions from the subordinate sections become a fait accompli.

References:

Simmel, G. (1950). The Metropolis and Mental Life. In K. H. Wolff (ed.), The Sociology of Georg Simmel (pp. 409-424). New York: The Free Press.

Das, Arvind. (1992). The Republic of Bihar. Penguin India.

Schindler, S. (2014), ‘The Making of ‘World-Class’ Delhi: Relations Between Street Hawkers and the New Middle Class’, Antipode, 46: 557-573.

Coelho, K., & Venkat, T. (2009). ‘The Politics of Civil Society: Neighbourhood Associationism in Chennai’, Economic and Political Weekly, 44(26/27), 358–367.

Dupont, Veronique.  (2008).  ‘Slum Demolitions in Delhi since the 1990s:  An Appraisal’, Economic and Political Weekly, 43(28), 79-87.

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Ashay Raj is an undergraduate student pursuing Sociology from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.