Urban poverty has emerged as a major development challenge in India. With rapid urbanization, a growing number of urban poor face dislocation, economic insecurity, and lack of adequate housing, services, and livelihood options. In Odisha too, urban poverty remains a policy concern needing urgent solutions.
This article will examine the multifaceted issues and impacts of urban poverty, with a focus on Odisha. It will also analyze potential strategies to address the problems of the urban poor and create more inclusive, resilient habitats.
What is Urban Poverty?
Urban poverty refers to the multidimensional deprivations and vulnerabilities faced by economically disadvantaged households in cities and towns. It encompasses a lack of adequate income, assets, housing, basic amenities, social protection, and political voice.
The urban poor have to contend with higher costs of living in cities without access to commensurate stable incomes and livelihood options. Key indicators of urban poverty include overcrowded, insecure housing, informal slum settlements with a lack of land rights, homelessness, and lack of access to clean water, sanitation, electricity, healthcare, and education.
Deprivation thrives in the midst of poor urban infrastructure and planning. Being disconnected from social networks and political participation, the urban poor lack the collective bargaining power to demand their rights and entitlements from city governance systems. Their poverty is exacerbated by high risks of disease, crime, violence, exploitation, hunger, and malnutrition.
Lack of income stability, assets, and social security entraps the urban poor in inter-generational cycles of poverty. Addressing urban poverty requires interventions across all these multidimensional factors – from housing, infrastructure, and service delivery to livelihoods, social security, political inclusion, and good governance.
Why Is Urban Poverty a Major Concern Today?
Rapid urbanization across India including Odisha has increased urban poverty in an environment characterized by weak governance, inadequate planning, and poor infrastructure development. Rural distress factors like agrarian crisis, landlessness, unemployment, and climate change impacts are driving large-scale migration of the rural deprived to cities in search of livelihoods.
However, cities lack adequate affordable housing, tenure security, jobs, and amenities to absorb these migrants. This has led to a proliferation of informal slums and settlements with poor living conditions. Weak implementation of land rights and housing schemes has also exacerbated homelessness.
Joblessness, food inflation, stark inequalities, discrimination, and lack of social security further marginalize the urban poor. Urban poverty spawns public health risks like epidemics, crime, conflict, and social tensions due to a lack of infrastructure and denial of basic needs. It limits access to education, healthcare, and welfare services, undermining human capital development.
Thus urban poverty has become a pressing policy concern today since it severely hampers poverty alleviation, human development, and overall sustainable economic growth. Tackling this crisis requires strengthening urban governance, planning, and infrastructure as well as social protection and inclusion of the marginalized to foster inclusive, equitable habitats.
Urban Poverty and Odisha: What All Are We Looking At?
In Odisha, multiple factors converge to drive urban poverty, marginalization, and lack of dignified living conditions for the urban poor. Joblessness, rural-urban migration of unskilled workers, and displacement caused by industries, mining, dams, and natural disasters are key dynamics forcing the deprived into city slums. Within urban spaces, the urban poor including slum dwellers, homeless persons, migrant laborers, and marginalized social groups face multidimensional challenges.
As per government data, Odisha has a high slum population of over 1.6 million people crammed into makeshift housing across 113 towns. Lack of tenure rights, assets, social security, education, healthcare, and basic amenities like clean drinking water, sanitation facilities, and electricity connections mark slum conditions. Public health challenges are rife – from high maternal and infant mortality to child malnutrition.
Over 13,000 people live on the streets sans housing. Distress migration and child labor are other concerns. Lacking bargaining power and voice, the urban poor face difficulties in accessing fair wages, education, formal credit, and grievance redressal forums. They remain trapped in inter-generational cycles of deep poverty, vulnerability, and social exclusion. Targeted policy interventions are needed to create an enabling habitat that provides the urban marginalized education, health, housing, livelihoods, safety nets, and a life of dignity.
How Does Urban Poverty Affect Lifestyles and Life Choices?
Urban poverty diminishes the quality of life and limits opportunities for education, healthcare, social mobility, and political participation. It increases vulnerability to harassment, crime, violence, abuse, and exploitation due to a lack of voice, rights, and collective bargaining power.
Women and children are disproportionately affected. Lack of income stability, assets, and social security entraps the urban poor in inter-generational cycles of poverty. It leads to adverse coping mechanisms like child labor, early marriage of girls, and dangerous, degrading work like rag-picking or sex work. The impacts are thus multifaceted on health, psychology, women’s empowerment, and children’s futures.
How Do We Address Urban Poverty: An Analysis Of Things To Do In Odisha
Tackling urban poverty requires a holistic, integrated policy approach spanning multiple dimensions. Slum redevelopment, affordable housing provisions, and upgraded basic amenities for the homeless and informal settlement dwellers can provide secure housing.
Strengthening legal land rights and universal access to social security entitlements like food, healthcare, and old-age pensions can safeguard the poor against deprivations. Improving last-mile delivery of health, education, skill training, and child protection services can build human capital.
Reliable public distribution systems and food schemes can ensure nutrition and food security. Inclusive urban planning, participatory governance, and community partnerships can give the marginalized greater voice and agency. Gender and child budgeting provides targeted allocations for women’s and children’s welfare.
Promoting self-employment, micro-enterprises, vocational skills, and decent youth employment can expand livelihood opportunities. Strengthening local government finances and administrative capacities facilitates effective implementation. Robust social audits, transparency norms, and grievance redressal mechanisms promote accountability. Thus a comprehensive, coordinated policy approach is vital to address the multidimensional challenges of urban poverty.
Odisha has seen some initiatives like urban wage employment and slum development schemes. However, execution needs monitoring at ground level to ensure intended coverage and last-mile reach to the marginalized. With focused priorities, optimal budgets, and people-centric processes, urban poverty can be reduced to create more equal and caring cities aligned to the Sustainable Development Goals.
Sources / Further Readings:
- Introduction to urban poverty | International Institute for Environment and Development
- Fighting Urban Poverty | Asian Development Bank
- Reducing urban poverty – lessons not learned? | International Institute for Environment and Development
- Urban Poverty | Cities Alliance
- Tackling the legacy of persistent urban inequality and concentrated poverty | Brookings
- Addressing Urban Poverty in America Must Remain a Priority – Center for American Progress
- Urban Poverty – Urban Studies – Oxford Bibliographies
- Urban Poverty – Finance & Development, September 2007
- Urban Poverty in Asia | Asian Development Bank
- Oxford Academic – Book Chapter
- Poverty and inequality in Odisha, India – Panda – 2021 – Journal of Public Affairs – Wiley Online Library
- An Innovative Jobs Program in Odisha, India Helped Informal Workers Through COVID-19 and Beyond
- Poverty Alleviation and Pro-poor Growth in Odisha: A Disaggregate Analysis | Economic and Political Weekly
- Urban Poverty Alleviation – Bhubaneswar