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The United Nations seventeen Sustainable Development Goals, which were
Chairman & Managing Director
Mr. Kamran Rizvi, IAS
Directors
Dr. D. Subrahmanyam
adopted in 2015, include a dedicated goal for urban development, SDG11, which
calls to 'make cities and human se lements inclusive, safe, resilient and
sustainable' and is central in achieving the other SDGs. In this context, the theme of
this issue of Shelter 'inclusive and resilient cities' is of vital importance to create
awareness to transform and strengthen our cities to handle every natural or
manmade hazard effectively so as to save human lives while enhancing socio-
economic equity through resilient infrastructure and inclusive urban
development.
Rapid urbanisation puts pressure on land and services and needs to be managed
and handled with sustainable planning, suitable land-use allocation and inclusive
cities. Inadequate planning and lack of resources lead to migrating population
se ling in informal se lements, often located in hazard prone areas, making them
very susceptible to disasters. Urban infrastructure is often inadequate and needs to
be retrofi ed to withstand the impacts of hazards and climate change. The Indian
cities are largely car-car-dependent cities and hence reveal the vulnerabilities of
being over dependent on fossil fuel.
Inclusive and resilient cities are expected to reduce oil consumption while
improving the cities liveability and opportunities for each and every one at the
same time, as these cities will have the ability to absorb, recover and prepare for
any future shocks- economic, environmental, social & institutional. Resilient cities
adapt structurally, integrally and culturally to changing situations through good
governance, renewable energy use, carbon neutrality, biophilic planning, eco-
efficiency, place making in the city and sustainable transport system. Resilient
cities promote sustainable development, well-being and inclusive growth.
Therefore, it is imperative that building inclusive and resilient cities should be at
the heart of a sustainable urban development strategy to strengthen our cities for
food security, water management, energy generation & use, communication,
production, education, social habits, law and order. Towards this, the Government
of India has been promoting inclusive, resilient and sustainable cities in a Mission
mode through implementations of key Urban Missions such as Smart Cities
Mission (SCM), Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation
(AMRUT), Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), Heritage City Development and
Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY), Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Urban
Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM) and National Rurban Mission (NRuM). All
these programmes augur well for transforming our cities into inclusive and
resilient cities.
This special issue of 'Shelter' is aptly focused on 'Inclusive and Resilient Cities'
which aims to give wider coverage to the various aspects involved in making cities
inclusive and resilient. The theme papers highlight a range of issues such as
making India slum-free; wind energy; value increment financing for urban
development and modern construction technologies for building inclusivity and
resilience in cities. The policy review section contains four articles which review
Union Budget 2021-22 steps to address the challenges of Cities amidst the
pandemic and towards transforming urban India; provision of safe and resilient
public spaces in cities; ease of living index as a tool for making cities inclusive; and
rethinking affordable housing on a metropolitan scale in India. This volume also
presents two case studies of 2 different cities on affordable housing such as
initiatives by Jamnagar Municipal Corporation with respect to PMAY-HfA; and
the case of Shukhobrishti affordable housing project through PPP. Two book
reviews are also presented in this volume.
The volume of Shelter presents a bouquet of thought provoking articles and case
studies on inclusive and resilient cities. Hope this will trigger further discussions
among urban stakeholders. And as always, readers are encouraged to send in their
responses (critiques, observations, suggestions etc.) and we would try to publish
some selected responses in the subsequent editions of this journal. Finally, the
editorial team acknowledges and extends sincere thanks to Ms. Varsha Punhani,
Fellow and Dr. Sukanya Ghosh, Senior Fellow, HUDCO's HSMI for extending
editorial support to this volume of Shelter.