India is the second most populous country in the world. Cities and villages have co-existed here for centuries. But that co-existence is now being left behind. Gandhi thought of Indian villages as tiny independent republics. That dream seems to have been forgotten. This rat race towards destruction which we call development, is leading us to a point from where we cannot return, no matter how much we regret.
Performance of India in Environmental Indices
India ranks 10th out of 11 Asia Pacific Countries in the Economic Intelligence Unit(EIU) ‘Asia Pacific Personalized Health Index.’ The report was published in January 2021. The findings of the report are totally aligned with what we can evidently see on the streets of Indian metropolis. The catastrophic killings of the Indian villages and agrarian economies have led to a rapid rise in the levels of congestion in the Indian cities. This agglomeration in turn has led to an increase in infectious and vector-borne diseases in urban India. The agglomeration of Indian cities directly leads to multiplication of synanthropic mosquito species. This is one of the primary reasons for the dengue and chikungunya outbreak throughout the country.
No doubt that in the past century, we have made a significant decrease in the number of infectious diseases and the hazards they cause. But we have new challenges lying ahead. Our cities are serving as breeding grounds for vectors, and the mosquitoes are becoming better adapted for causing the spread of diseases. The spread of diseases is now a constant phenomena in India. As of this year, upto the month of September, over 1.3 million dengue cases were recorded worldwide. Brazil topped the list, and India ranked second. It seems like we are intentionally nourishing the disease. A 2018 article by Business Standard mentions that globally chikungunya has seen a 390% rise between 2015-28 It is scientifically proven that the vector for dengue and chikungunya is better adapted to urban environments, and yet we are not doing what we actually need to do.
We just witnessed the wrath of a pandemic and are still not over it. Although the pandemic served several lessons about our urban planning, they all are ignored. The images of millions of migrants walking barefoot for hundreds of kilometres were heart wrenching. But as soon as the cases started to fall, they again had to come back to the same cities, who left them to die.
Although the people living in the slums and on the peripheries of the cities receive no basic amenities for their lives. But when it comes to diseases and infections, the hyper-connectivity causes the infections to spread to both, the privileged and the deprived. These diseases are not the same for both rich and poor. According to the National Health Profile(NHP), 23% of the sick in India cannot afford healthcare. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, 0.38 million people committed suicide in India due to lack of treatment facilities.
Structure of Cities
The structure of Indian cities is such that there is no space meant for the co-existence of rich and poor. The lowest class-wise strata of the big cities, often are reduced to slums. These slums are no less than hell. Forget a healthy lifestyle, imagining a life is difficult in the slums of an Indian metropolis. With massive rural-urban migration, the cities are growing in a haphazard manner. There is no space left for a planned and systematic growth. It is a known fact that well-planned cities are easier and efficient to handle in case of pandemics and other emergencies. India was down on its knees during the COVID pandemic, yet we seem to have forgotten all those horrors that were inflicted upon us. India, as a nation is developing into an ‘anti-poor’ state. Despite the fact that the number of people below the poverty line are surging, our policymakers are blatantly ignoring their needs and necessities. The poor are deprived of even the services that nature offers us just by the virtue of being a living being. It is the top 5% of the population who are responsible for the transformation of once clean and pure rivers and groundwater into reservoirs of toxic components. The irony lies in the fact that the class that is responsible for the pollution of rivers and groundwater have installed water purifiers in their homes, and have access to pure and healthy water. On the other hand, the lower strata of the society, who have no involvement in polluting the water, are compelled to rely upon the toxic water. We need to remember the fact that there is no social justice without environmental justice and vice-versa.
Way forward
We need to stop and rethink the issue of our urban planning and development. The unearthing of Harappan cities shows us what has been the Indian way of urbanisation. The cities and villages are together. There is a city and on its periphery it is surrounded by villages. We cannot just think of developing one and leave the other. It is not possible. We need to carry both rural and urban India together, because they always have been so. We cannot develop one and leave the other to rot, because they both fulfil each other.
Our path towards development cannot be monotonous. It has to incorporate all the social structures into it. To curb the spread of infections, and to enhance the health of the nation, we cannot just rely upon the enhancements in medical sciences. We have to be rational, and base our plans on proper epidemiological study of these diseases. The cause for increased adaptability of vectors needs to be studied and abolished.
The development of urban india and rural india should be viewed as two different entities. Villages need to be provided with basic amenities like school, hospitals, library, pure drinking water, etc. We need to work towards generating employment opportunities within the village. These steps will distribute the crowd in the cities. The reduction of migration will not only enhance the cities, but will all improve the rural economy.
Now is the time to work things out. In addition to the above things, the government is expected to increase the percentage share of the budget on public health. Further in such cases the role of local self government is crucial. We need to find simpler ways to curb the spread of mosquitoes, and these ways should be thoroughly communicated with the local municipality officers or gram panchayat. We also need to work towards making our cities sustainable and co-existing. Last but not the least, we need to ensure the fact that these programs reach the very last person of society, and not just shining colonies with luxury apartments.