Humans transform through their socioeconomic interactions, eventually altering the environment in which they reside. They make continuous efforts to mould their surroundings which unfold as an amalgamation of their social ties, values and desires that eventually gives them the agency to change themselves through transforming their city (Harvey, 2003). This takes the shape of urbanisation resulting from the collective action of the individuals seeking a change in themselves. Harvey, in his eminent work, Right to City argues that urbanisation stems through techniques of exploitation and dispossession employed by the capitalist class against the vulnerable working population and a classed phenomenon that rises based on certain ‘social and geographical concentrations. Such an exploitative process forms the basis of capital accumulation leading to an unequal urban landscape that caters only to those who hold the reigns of economic power.

Scholars argue that innovation of technology and mechanisation has been critical to the economic growth of many countries ensuring the continuous need to ensure surplus production, made possible by scientific developments that generate creative destruction^[i]. John Schumpeter coined this paradoxical term describing how innovations replace existing ones that have become obsolete (Pfarrer & Smith, 2015). Further, he highlighted that the capitalist system draws its efficiency from continuous renewal, wherein creative destruction forms the central dynamic. The closure of certain industries, casualties in terms of lost investment and termination of employees is inherent in this progressive mechanism.

The increasing involvement of heavy, technical machinery and equipment in the industries, replaces workers, subjecting them to further proletarianisation^[ii]. Harvey argues that restructuring urban landscapes as cities have dispossessed the working class, and the brunt of this burden is mostly faced by migrant and informal labour. With increasing mechanisation, workers lose their bargaining power, and agency. And eventually lose their ‘right to the city, which forms a crucial component in the process of urbanisation. Thus, creative destruction undermines the existing skills of workers. They thus get displaced often without acquiring new skills and thus limiting their agency.

In this context, it is imperative to understand the paradoxical nature of the formation of cities; on one hand, transformation through modernisation and scientific developments is essential for progress and on the other, residents of slums and squatter settlements have to be excluded and dispossessed for urbanisation, as socio-economic development occurs mostly with a displaced population. Hall and Pfeiffer argue that such a scenario is of concern as it leads to the hyper-expansion of cities with limited infrastructure. The notion of space is important to understand the categorisation of urban planning as growing cities attract informal work and temporary housing facilitates growing urban economies, but aren’t an attractive component of the urbanisation process. (Hall & Pfeiffer, 2000).

While their perspective claims that the ‘urban poor’ have constructed their space by fighting the shackles of the bureaucratic planning apparatus, De Soto terms this infiltration as an approach by the informal workers to move to the cities as a response to highlight the state’s incapacity to fulfil the basic needs for such large masses of people (DeSoto, 1989). Both viewpoints present compelling arguments but tend to equate informality with poverty, forcing the poor to integrate into the urban fabric through their means. In India, urban planning revolves around the regulation of land. But the intended outcome of socio-economic development for all becomes lopsided benefitting only a select few, giving rise to several squatter settlements and slums (Roy, 2005). Scholars see this as a failure of urban planning with the chaos caused by infrastructure development, compounding the system of existing inequalities that includes spatial disparities.

To illustrate this scenario of deprivation faced by informal workers, coupled with creative destruction Delhi with its multiple plans of redevelopment substantiates the argument. The developmental aspirations, the weight of being the capital city and the hope to become a metropolis, were reflected in the Delhi slum policy of the 1990s. A similar attempt was made in the 1950s by Delhi Development Authority. It did not cater to those among the lowest on the socio-economic ladder, making them resort to making temporary, informal housing arrangements in public lands, the 1990-91 plan comprised of a three-pronged approach – in-situ upgradation of encroached settlements not in immediate need for project implementation, relocation of the slum clusters to implementation of projects of public interest and the access to basic amenities to urban slums at an entirety (Dupont, 2008). Despite such interventions, Delhi has witnessed an increasing trend in the growth of these squatter settlements, with more than one-fourth of the urban population residing in such arrangements.

Further, the idea of larger public interest began diminishing with the functioning of legal mechanisms. Many petitions were filed by industrialists and welfare resident associations to remove the slums under the guise of environmental and sanitary concerns. The pretext of a ‘green agenda’ to evacuate the slum dwellers could be witnessed in the case of the slum clusters near the banks of the Yamuna River where the emergence of an idea of bourgeoisie environmentalism began to influence the urban planning mechanism in the city (Dupont, 2008). 

Other resettlement policies formulated in Delhi were to shift the inhabitants of slums and informal settlements to the periphery of urban habitations. The case of Sundar Nagri is pertinent in this setting, a working-class colony located in the margins of North East Delhi. Rahul Roy in his documentary, The City Beautiful (2003) narrates the depiction of the lives of the residents of Sunder Nagri belonging to weaver communities. The disintegration of the handloom sector and the gradual disappearance of traditional weaving techniques under the guise of globalisation side-lined weavers from the active workforce compelling them to take up odd jobs for their sustenance. Such irregular incomes made them resettle in temporary settlements like Sunder Nagri, a poignant illustration of how ‘creative destruction occurred with the gradual decline of the handloom sector with growth of machine-made garment industries, nudging displaced workers to turn to precarious means of livelihood and settlement.

Capitalist notions of growth and urban development are based on the foundation of livelihood losses for a large faction of workers and the compulsion for resettlement which often makes them dispossessed without any gainful development. The Indian Constitution is enshrined with the idea of welfare, obligating the state to guarantee rights to housing for all and the access of the ‘right to the city is not just in terms of property acquirement, but rather as a claim of rights as citizens. The urban planning process is constitutive of economic, spatial and socio-political contexts. It determines the governance mechanism. Not surprisingly, many slum redevelopment projects have been exclusionary for the inhabitants which in turn results in mushrooming of more such informal settlements. Hence, attempts at governance combining the state apparatus and corporate interests that would utilise capital surpluses in the formulation of better welfare schemes could promote inclusive development.

References:

DeSoto, H. (1989). The Other Path. Harper and Row Publishers.

Dupont, V. (2008). Slum Demolitions in Delhi since the 1990s: An Appraisal. Economic and Political Weekly.

Hall, P., & Pfeiffer, U. (2000). Urban Future 21- A Global Agenda for Twenty-First Century Cities. London: Routledge.

Harvey, D. (2003). The right to the city. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 27(4).

Pfarrer, M., & Smith, K. (2015). Creative Destruction. In Wiley Encyclopedia of Management.

Roy, A. (2005). Urban Informality: Toward an Epistemology of Planning. Journal of the American Planning Association, 147-158.

^[i] Creative destruction describes the deliberate dismantling of established processes in order to make way for improved methods of production.

^[ii] As per Marxist literature, it is a form of downward social mobility where  people move from being an employer, unemployed or self-employed to being employed as wage labour.

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Kirti Koushika has completed her MA in Development and Labour Studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. She is currently working as a Legislative Researcher.