First urbanisation in India started arond 3000 BC centered around Harappa, Mohenjo-Daro, Lothal, Dholavira etc. These cities were not fortified and agricultural techniques were not developed but still there was trade and commerce with the corresponding civilisations such as mesopotamia and roman.
Today’s Urbanization in India began to accelerate after independence, due to the country’s adoption of a mixed economy , which gave rise to the development of the private sector. Urbanisation is taking place at quite a rapid rate in India. Population residing in urban areas in India, according to 1901 census, was 11.4%.Globalisation and liberalisation accelerated the process of Urbanisation and we have the present scenario where private sector is playing a bigger role in economy.
In 1990s Economic liberalization came up with loads of hopes and aspiration to whole nation. India witnessed economic growth mainly from service sector and more migration to cities in the search of opportunity,but there is a dark side too. In the period 2006 and 2015 ordinary workers saw their income rise by an average of just 2% a year while billionaire’s wealth rose almost six times faster leading to high economic inequality which opens up social and political barriers too.Economic liberalization , globalization and urbanization are interdependent but their benefits are not being distributed uniformly causing distress and unhappiness in society.
People migrating from rural to urban, urban to abroad in the hope of better livelihood. In Punjab and Kerala there is huge out-flux to abroad and the space created by this out-flux is being filled by people from other states and it creates a chain where one group of people moves out and other moves in. In such scenario it becomes difficult to maintain social peace for some group of people who are taken for granted. But the latest outbreak of Corona Virus has shown how these people are important for smooth economy. Migration is requisite and nobody belongs to one state or district anymore.
Cities today have different problems whose solutions are yet to found. We are in a urban space where level of crime has been gone to extreme level than before, we are witnessing new diseases like Corona virus, Ebola , struggling with climate change and calamities.Psychological set up has been mutated.
My husband said rightly that everything we have is smart viz. computer, laptop,mobile, TV,washing machine name any electronics everything is smart but we don’t live smartly with nature.We eat more, we waste more by overusing the resources. we are very much away from mother nature . More we are away more we would be in danger and chaos in one or other form.Latest outbreak of Corona Virus raise the question of poor urbanization, misuse of resources by digging through the earth. Earth , our mother nature does require time for recuperation which we never think of but Mother nature has taken it in her own way. It’s our responsibility to take a lesson from the present condition and give time to mother nature to recuperate and rejuvenate because Kudrat sahi hai to hi hum hai.
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