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Urban
Villages: Problems and Prospects
Definition
An urban village could be defined as a village that
has acquired urban character by virtue of reduction in its agricultural base by
the process of acquisition of land holdings for public purpose or by its
transformation into residential or industrial colonies.
The urban villages, or villages within cities, are an
inevitable byproduct of urbanization.
Approaching
towards the problem
“Neither urban nor a
village” this should be the appropriate definition of the Urban Villages, as it
is evident in present day cities that urban villages have lost their original
rural character and no urbanization has entered in the “lal dora” limits except
the migrant population. They lack infrastructure facilities of roads, water
supply, sewerage etc. and no development controls of the city are applied to
them as they come under jurisdiction of no planning/development authority.
Once a revenue village
is added in urban area /planning area boundaries and is notified as urban, the
open/ agricultural lands are acquired by the development authority and the
compact residential built up area (abadi area) is left out. This abadi area is
delineated by a red line demarcation (commonly known as “lal-dora”) in the map.
Beyond this line everything is well planned urban development and unfortunately
whatever comes under “lal-dora” remains as unplanned/uncontrolled rural area.
Prior to the
transformation from rural to urban the villagers have agriculture base as their
primary occupation. But when the transformation occurs farmers have to surrender
their land and since they are unskilled they are not able to engage in other
employment sectors. They remain as unskilled labourers or self employed.
The compensation which
they get in the exchange of their land makes them able to get land in some
other areas in the city and they tend to migrate. Their properties in the
villages are rented out and due to no development controls in the abadi area,
land mafia becomes active and land transformations occur at a very fast pace.
This is the case with all mature/ old urban villages. Land gets subdivided to
non-habitable size and it creates slum like densities in the urban village.
Due to no provision of
adequate infrastructure in urban villages, the living conditions become very
unhealthy.
Where the urban
villages have completely touched the urban fabric and are mature urban villages
in the core city areas, there comes the major problem. In such areas the original
land owners rent out their properties and due to inefficiencies of Rent Control
legislation, the tenants in such properties do not take care of the buildings.
They tend to make maximum profit out of it. So, the residential environment
gets decayed and commercial/ industrial setup comes up. Such areas create
nuisance in healthy urban environment due to augmented infrastructure
provisions and no development controls.
The case of urban
villages is like a settlement which exists nowhere in the Master Plan. The
location is identified and a red line is marked and inside it everything goes
beyond controls. The layout plans for the villages are not available.
Unfortunately, this is
the fate of settlements which are very old in age and are ruined by urban
settlement which is just notified and the old settlement gets died.
Finding
a Solution
So, there should be
some policy interventions for the abadi area inside the “lal-dora”. This may be
the first initiative to be taken. There should be either an integrated Master
Plan including urban villages or there should be village development plans at
village level.
The land sub-division
controls should be applied in the urban villages. The minimum limit of a land
parcel to be sub-divided should be identified for avoiding the congestion, high
densities and slum like environment.
If an urban village is
still inhabited by its original land owners and they are in position to remain
there only, the provisions for adequate infrastructure should be made available
there itself. This may be the case of the urban villages on urban fringes. The
conservation and preservation strategy should be applied in such cases.
For urban villages in
core city areas, complete set of development controls should be formulated and
implemented strictly. There should be no addition in existing buildings.
Reforms in Rent Control Act are also required for such areas to maintain the
buildings as the tenants do not maintain them as they do not belong to them.
While delineating the
abadi area there should be some buffer zone to this boundary and some areas
should be marked for the infrastructure provisions and open spaces.
There should be a
mechanism which can generate some employment for villagers so they do not have
to move out from the village for employment (which they never want) because
this tendency leads to a situation where villagers start living in slums near
their work place. For this purpose, Land Acquisition Act, 1894 should be
revised. Since the public transportation is also not efficient, it leads heavy
traffic flow on roads.
There should be some
initiatives of literacy campaigns and campaigns for healthy living habits which
can encourage the villagers to merge with urban fabric.
Rural settlements are
best examples of a healthy and sustainable neighbourhood, so the character of
the urban villages should be maintained just by adding adequate facilities to
them. The villages should be treated as a neighbourhood at city level. They should
be preserved with their own character.
