City Profile: Ahmedabad 9 0 0 0 8 3 - Darshini Mahadevia d a Renu Desai b a Suchita Vyas d e m h A , a r u p g n a r v a y t N i s , r d e a v o i n R U y t i T s P r e E v i C n U , s u p m a C i a h b l a L i a h b r u t s a K CUE Working Paper 26 September 2014 Centre for Urban Equity (CUE) City Profile: Ahmedabad Darshini Mahadevia (Centre for Urban Equity, CEPT University) Renu Desai (Centre for Urban Equity, CEPT University) Suchita Vyas (Centre for Urban Equity, CEPT University) CUE Working Paper 26 September 2014 Centre for Urban Equity (CUE) About Centre for Urban Equity (CUE) CUE was established at CEPT University in 2009, evolving from the Urban Poverty Alleviation (UPA) Cell established in 2008. CUE advocates a human-centered and equitable urban development paradigm. CUE undertakes research and advocacy; conducts training and capacity-building; imparts education; and networks with stakeholders on various aspects of human settlements with a focus on urban equity. Contact Centre for Urban Equity (CUE) CEPT University Kasturbhai Lalbhai Campus University Road, Navrangpura Ahmedabad - 380009, India Email: [email protected] Website: www.cept.ac.in/cue CUE Working Paper Series © Centre for Urban Equity 2014 Disclaimer The comments and opinions in this paper are of the author(s) and not of the Centre for Urban Equity or CEPT University. Abstract This paper profiles Ahmedabad, the seventh largest metropolis in India and the largest city of Gujarat State, to develop a background understanding of the city for the research project “Poverty, Inequality and Violence in Indian Cities: Towards Inclusive Planning and Policies.” The paper comprises of two parts. Part I lays out the relevant urban context by discussing the city’s demography; transformations since liberalization and their impacts for urban poverty and inequality; the historical growth of the city and the resulting spatial segmentation; the status of housing amongst the urban poor and low-income groups; and the urban development paradigm in terms of planning, housing, basic services, street vending and public transport. Part II identifies and discusses some of the key arenas of conflicts and violence that are linked to land, planning and governance regimes in the city, namely, slum resettlement, informal urban peripheral settlements, and women’s safety and public transport. These arenas of conflict and violence will be the focus areas for the research project. i Acknowledgments This City Profile of Ahmedabad has been prepared under the research project “Poverty, Inequality and Violence in Indian Cities: Towards Inclusive Planning and Policies.” This work was carried out with financial support from the UK Government's Department for International Development (DFID) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada. We are grateful to them for funding this project under the global research programme on “Safe and Inclusive Cities.” The opinions expressed in this work do not necessarily reflect those of DFID or IDRC. We would like to acknowledge numerous people who gave their time to discuss Ahmedabad with the CUE team and organize field visits for us in different parts of the city during June- December 2013: Karen Nazareth, Niraj Jani and SAATH staff Bijal Bhatt and Mahila Housing Trust (MHT) staff Sara Baldiwala, Ahmedabad Women’s Action Group (AWAG) Father Rajeev, St. Xavier’s Social Service Society Sanchetna staff Sudhir Katiyar and Prayas staff Reena Parmar, Sejal Dave and Ajeevika Bureau staff Gazala Paul, Afrozben and Samerth staff Rafi Malek, Meera Malek and Centre for Development (CfD) staff Beena Jadhav Noorjahan Diwan Urvish Kothari Prashant Dayal Gagan Sethi, Janvikas Martin Macwan, Dalit Shakti Kendra, Navsarjan Trust Manjula Pradeep and Navsarjan Trust staff ii Contents Abstract ....................................................................................................................................... i Acknowledgments...................................................................................................................... ii INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 1 PART I: CONTEXT .................................................................................................................. 5 1. Demography ........................................................................................................................... 5 2. The Liberalizing and Globalizing Economy .......................................................................... 6 2.1. The Gujarat Context ........................................................................................................ 6 2.2. Economic Changes, Labour Informalization, Poverty and Inequality in Ahmedabad ... 9 3. Spatial Segmentation ........................................................................................................... 12 4. Housing, Poverty and Inequality.......................................................................................... 16 5. The Urban Development Paradigm ..................................................................................... 19 5.1. Urban Planning: Town Planning Schemes and Urban Projects .................................... 21 5.2. Housing and Basic Services for the Urban Poor: Policies and Programmes ................ 24 5.2.1. Reservation of Land for SEWS Housing in Town Planning Schemes .................. 24 5.2.2. Slum Networking Programme (SNP) .................................................................... 25 5.2.3. Slum Sanitation Schemes ....................................................................................... 25 5.2.4. Basic Services for the Urban Poor (BSUP) ........................................................... 26 5.2.5. In-Situ Slum Rehabilitation Schemes .................................................................... 28 5.2.6. State Government Housing Policies and Programmes .......................................... 30 5.3. Urban Policies and Legislations affecting Street Vending ........................................... 31 5.4. Public Transport Approach ........................................................................................... 34 PART II: URBAN PLANNING, CONFLICTS AND VIOLENCE ........................................ 38 6. Slum Resettlement ............................................................................................................... 38 7. Informal Urban Peripheral Settlements ............................................................................... 42 8. Public Transport and Women’s Safety ................................................................................ 48 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................ 50 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................ 55 iii iv INTRODUCTION Inspite of low rate of urbanisation in India1 in the last two decades, cities have not been able to provide the growing urban population with viable housing, potable water, adequate sanitation, employment at reasonable wages, access to education and healthcare, accessibility to work and other opportunities and social security. As a result, a large proportion of the urban population is constrained to live in slums or informal settlements, depend on the informal sector for their livelihood, access water supply, education and healthcare in the private informal sector and use informal transport options. Parallel to this, over the past decade or two, governments and elites have been pushing for urban development that would transform Indian cities according to their images of a world-class or global city (see, for e.g. Dupont 2011; Desai 2012a; Mahadevia 2011a). This has resulted in urban exclusions through land-use planning, inequitable land allocations, increasing commercialization of land, implementation of infrastructure and beautification projects, privatization of urban services, criminalization of the informalities of the poor, and urban governance processes in which only the influential and organized sections have a voice (see, for e.g. Benjamin 2008; Mahadevia and Narayanan 2008; Anjaria 2009; Bhan 2009; Graham et al 2013; Kundu 2009). Researchers have also claimed that the urban elites are capturing urban resources, land, finance and water, through various means, forcing the poor to depend on and contest over available resources, for which they pay high economic and social costs. One of the costs that the poor pay are facing and negotiating conflicts in their daily life over survival. These forces of neo-liberal globalization are leading to evictions of poor and marginalised groups from their informal habitats and livelihoods, withdrawal of state actors from the delivery of urban services with this space being filled up by non-state actors (some call this as the emergence of a proto state) creating “ungoverned territories” and increasing segmentation on account of speculative land markets overlaid on the base of caste- and religious segmentation. As a result, the poor and marginalised face more violence than before from state and non-state actors in the places where they live and work. They respond through coping strategies, non-violent mobilizations in some instances, and counter-violence in other instances. Many Indian cities have also become more segmented along