regional planning and deevelopment

Planning has been defined as the process of thinking through and implementing a set of appropriate actions to achieve some goals

Concept of Rural Growth Centre
Growth centre may be defined as service centre (rural or urban) which has a
potential for further development and hence need to be supported by further public
and private sector investment1. It has been conceived as points of attraction for the
people who otherwise would go to large congested urban areas. Rural Growth Centre
is a centre which provides goods and services to its own population as well as its
surroundings population creating balanced socio-economic development of an area. It
is a powerful strategy for microlevel planning for rural as well as for urban areas.
Mostly it is seen that urban areas have large number of facilities and amenities for the
betterment of the people while rural population have to travel large distance to avail
these socio-economic facilities. Therefore, there is a need to identify existing rural
growth centres in rural areas and accordingly propose new growth centres so that the
rural areas become self-sufficient in its basic socio-economic facilities and amenities.
For the developing country like India where nearly 70 per cent of the population lives
in the rural areas, therefore it is necessary to revitalize the tempo of economic
activities. Thus the growth centre strategies have been adopted in the present analysis
to reduce the regional inequalities and usher balanced development of the region.
Some of the models pertaining to rural growth centres has been discussed in sequent
manner.

Use models as below for rural growth
growth pole
central place theory
Market as focus
               Marketing is the pivot of economic development in rural areas. It is an essential component in income and employment generation in farm and non-farm sectors. Village economy can not be developed without effective and efficient rural marketing. Very little attention has been paid in the planning era towards the development of rural marketing. Some of the market facilities provided by the government for the rural population have been discussed one by one.
                                     1.Public Distribution Shop or Fair Price Shop
                                      2.Local Market or Haat
                                                      Marketing has a crucial role in development of rural non-farm sector and rural haats are an integral part of the rural market system. Rural Haat enables small farmers /rural artisans / producers / traders to sell their agri-produces, handicrafts and other products. Haat encourages face to face contact between sellers and buyers, there by eliminating the middleman




                                                            Growth Pole Model
The main theoretical base of the growth centre concept is the ‘growth pole’ model.
The model originates from the work of Francois Perroux who started from the view that economic growth does not occur everywhere all at once, but starts at a few specific growth poles and spreads through various channels at varying intensities and with varying effects.
Perroux’s original conception had little to do with geographical space.
Rather, he conceived of an abstract economic space in which a growth pole is a large, leading or innovative, industrial firm which, through backward and forward linkages, is capable of spreading development impulses to other organizations

Use
During 1960s, practical strategies based on the growth pole concepts, named "growth pole strategies", had been intensely considered and implemented in developed and developing countries.

By the late 1970’s, the growth pole strategies had been "implemented, provided for, or seriously discussed" in at least 28 developed and developing countries. They were Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, France, Ghana, Great Britain, India, Ireland, Italy,
Kenya, Libya, Malaysia, Nigeria, Peru, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Tanzania, the United States, Venezuela, and Yugoslavia.

FAilure of growth pole
The growth pole theory was largely abandoned in the 1980’s due to growing dissatisfaction with the perceived lack of coherence between traditional notions of growth poles and empirical reality.
Many growth pole policies were shown to fail in their intended objectives of inducing new economic growth in lagging regions It has been observed that inspite creating balanced regional development
growth poles had created regional inequalities.
Stohr and Todtling (1977) synthesised the case studies and found that growth pole strategies could not bring development to the hinter land. They concluded that the growth pole strategies may have been successful in reducing inter-regional disparities, but as local spread effects were weak, moreover, they had at the same time caused intra-regional, in particular rural-urban,
disparities.
For the development of rural areas in the developing country like India, bottom-up approach should be adopted. But growth pole model emphasized on topdown approach by establishing industries in urban areas. Therefore, through this model rural development could not be achieved.

Alternative
For balanced  socio-economicdevelopment of any region (rural or urban) Christaller’s Central Place Theory has been proved much satisfactory than the growth pole model which has been discussed
below




 spatial Planning has been reemphasized. Spatial approach to economic problems provides frame work for complimentarity between micro/local level and macro level planning; allow concrete conceptualization of economic problems in broader perspective and helps addressing non economic variables with equal importance.

Integrated area development programme postulated during this period refers to functional & spatial integration. Functional integration envisages integration of all economic and social activities that influence the society. If spatial relationships among existing activities are observed, it will be noticed that there is a definite pattern in the dispersal or concentration of activities in space. The central place theory advanced by Christaller (1933), and modified by Losch (1954) and Skinner (1965) attempted to provide explanation of phenomenological environment and bringing out orderliness in spatial structure. Prior to this, it was Von Thunen who attempted to formulate certain basic principles to explain spatial distribution of landuse way back in 1826. Dendritic central place system described by Johnson (1970) traces linkage for rural retail market at the bottom to the urban primate center at the top. The basic elements of central place theory are functional centralization, hierarchy, regional complementarity and economic distance.

It was felt that the spatial planning will be accomplished through the growth center development. However, the desired results could not be achieved. One of the major problems is lack of appropriate evaluation of space in development theory. In one hand, social relations are not investigated in depth while dealing with formation of relative space; and on the other hand, sectoral bias in planning process deters " spatialising" in most of the cases. Further, as Souza(1998) quoted Kevin Linch "it is a very common prejudice to assume that the materiality of space is relevant when seen from the viewpoint of the quality of life at the level of scale of home, workplace, even neighborhood, but irrelevant at the larger scale levels like the town or region"

Problems of Application of Growth Center & Spatial Planning

The problems of application & Spatial Planning and growth centre theories have cropped up both at the philosophical/conceptual level and in the application front. When the concept of spatial planning got entrenched in planning, specially in view of providing scientific base to the planning the discussion mostly centered around high level decision making of land allocation, and the social needs were considered localized. This very idea results in postulation of planned space an objective & pure and hence neutral in character like mathematics. As the developed planning addresses the question of societal welfare, the space cannot be isolated from people.

It is not merely a scientific object removed from ideology or politics. Space has been shaped and moulded from historical and natural elements through a political process (Lefebvre, 1975). The political economy operating in a given space has not been given due recognition in growth centre planning or spatial planning. According to Misra (1976) the target groups of needy people require careful attention and when they cluster together in space the focus can be on carefully defined target areas but always the focus should be on people.

Issues that have cropped up in implementation of growth centre pilot project and for other area development programme are briefly presented here.

1. The growth centre project had not addressed the fundamental problem of development administration, which was perhaps beyond its scope. In fact, various planning exercises taken up from time to time have not taken up administrative and institutional issues at any level. There was hardly any focus on skill of project valuation and grass root planning in the real sense of the term.

2. A viable planning unit has hardly been demarcated. The issues like, what is the optimum spatial coverage, What is the lowest unit and at what level the aggregation is viable have not been given due consideration. There was little attempt to use geographical / natural region as planning unit.

3. Inter and intra settlement variabilities are not fully considered as the socio- economic processes that cause societal undulations are rarely captured before spelling out the planning actions. Here, again the conceptual problem of absolute space and relative space crops up.

4. The concept of integrated approach is well accepted in the planning parlance, however, in practice it is found to be very difficult to use. One of the issues that emerges more often than not is how to integrate socio-economic aspects with bio-physical foundation of an area.

5. Data and other information used for the planning are not adequate. There is also lack of quality data while the venture is for spatial planning at the micro level, spatial data at the microlevel are rarely used due to non availability. The result was microlevel spatial planning with macrolevel data. This has severely restricted the scope of planning. Even the ILO had identified the lacunae in data use for planning purposes.

6. Another major issue was related to distribution of execution power down the level. The lower order centres like villages/panchayats were not given sufficient execution power to effectively act in planning process.

7. With all these attempts to plan for the rural area, the people for whom the plan are supposed to be are kept out of the process. This has not only restricted the use of traditional skill but also hindered adoption of plans.

8. Growth centre approach has not spelt out the requirement of industrialization at the rural level.

The various rural development programmes introduced from time to time suffer from certain inadequacies during course of their implementation. These are 1) problems of coordination and integration, 2) problems of organization and 3) problems related to planning techniques & planning machinery.

Guidelines for Block Level Planning". Three sequential steps have been identified for preparation of a Block plan. These are 

i) working out a general service center plan 

ii) Preparation of sectoral plan and 

iii) preparation of an integrated area development plan.

Squatter

SQUATTER

"Slums" are highly congested urban areas marked by deteriorated, unsanitary buildings, poverty, and social disorganization.

"Squatters" settle on land, especially public or unoccupied land, without right or title. Squatters include those who settles on public land under regulation by the government, in order to get title to it.

Simply out, slums refer to the environmental aspects of the area where a community resides, while squatters refer to the legality of the land ownership and other infrastructure provision.

.Definition of a Squatter Settlement:

A squatter settlement therefore, can be defined as a residential area which has developed without legal claims to the land and/or permission from the concerned authorities to build; as a result of their illegal or semi-legal status, infrastructure and services are usually inadequate. There are essentially three defining characteristics that helps us understand squatter settlement: the Physical, the Social and the legal with the reasons behind them being interrelated.

Physical Characteristics:

A squatter settlement, due to its inherent "non-legal" status, has services and infrastructure below the "adequate" or minimum levels. Such services are both network and social infrastructure, like water supply, sanitation, electricity, roads and drainage; schools, health centres, market places etc. Water supply, for example, to individual households may be absent, or a few public or community stand pipes may have been provided, using either the city networks, or a hand pump itself. Informal networks for the supply of water may also be in place. Similar arrangements may be made for electricity, drainage, toilet facilities etc. with little dependence on public authorities or formal channels.

Social Characteristics:

Most squatter settlement households belong to the lower income group, either working as wage labour or in various informal sector enterprises. On an average, most earn wages at or near the minimum wage level. But household income levels can also be high due to may income earners and part-time jobs. Squatters are predominantly migrants, either rural-urban or urban-urban. But many are also second or third generation squatters.

Legal Characteristics:

The key characteristic that delineates a squatter settlement is its lack of ownership of the land parcel on which they have built their house. These could be vacant government or public land, or marginal land parcels like railway setbacks or "undesirable" marshy land. Thus when the land is not under "productive" use by the owner, it is appropriated by a squatter for building a house. It has to be noted here that in many parts of Asia, a land owner may "rent" out his land for a nominal fee to a family or families, with an informal or quasi-legal arrangement, which is not however valid under law.

Other names

Bastee, Juggi-johmpri = India

Informal settlements ,Low-income settlements, Semi-permanent settlements, Shanty towns, Spontaneous settlements, Unauthorized settlements, Unplanned settlements , Uncontrolled settlements

The Development Process of a Squatter Settlement

The key question to be asked here is why do people squat? There are two reasons for this: one is internal to the squatter, and the other is external. Internal reasons include, lack of collateral assets; lack of savings and other financial assets; daily wage/low-income jobs (which in many cases are semi-permanent or temporary). External reasons include, high cost of land and other housing services; apathy and anti-pathy on the part of the government to assist them; high "acceptable" building standards and rules and regulations; lopsided planning and zoning legislation.

Future Role of Squatter Settlements in Urban Housing.

Squatter settlements in urban areas are an inevitable phenomena. As long as urban areas offer economies of scale and agglomeration economies, large cities will always continue to grow attracting migrants from rural and smaller urban areas, leading to more squatting. There is no universal "quick-fix" solution that can solve all the problems of squatting in all parts of the developing world. Considering the inevitability of squatting, the need is primarily for a change in attitude towards squatting, squatters and squatter settlements. One such approach that has been receiving considerable attention from various government and public authorities has been the "enabling" approach, where instead of taking a confrontationist attitude, governments have strived to create an enabling environment, under which people, using and generating their own resources, could find unique local solutions for their housing and shelter problems.

Ghetto

 

GHETTOS

                

A ghetto is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially because of social, legal, or economic pressure.^[1] The term was originally used in Venice to describe the part of the city to which Jews were restricted and segregated.

Indian example 1- Uprooted from Mumbai after the 1992-93 riots, thousands of Muslim families found safety in Mumbra on the city’s outskirts. The Bombay riots of December 1992, which overwhelmingly killed Bombay Muslims, and the retaliatory bomb blasts in January 1993 by the Muslim underworld, reconfigured the social geography of the city. Bombay Muslims from riot-hit areas sought safety in numbers and found it in Mumbra, where Muslims from the Konkani coast had a long-standing presence. Through a combination of the desire for safety among Muslims, the relatively cheaper price of apartments, and continued rural-urban migration, Mumbra’s population grew 20 times from about 45,000 before the 1992 riots to more than 9,00,000 in the 2011 Census — possibly one of the fastest expansions of an urban area in India.

Indian example 2- This is one of the very few mixed neighbourhoods left in communally divided Ahmedabad, with more ghettos coming up over the last decade. Muslims from many areas who used to be scattered across the city are now flocking together in ghettos like Vatwa, a disorganised, industrial suburb.

Features

·         Power and water supply was feeble. There was little public infrastructure. The crisis provided a business opportunity for Mumbra builders; they set out to build illegal and substandard apartment blocks, which were (and still are) a lot cheaper by Mumbai standard

·         The poor building quality exacted a terrible cost in 2013 when a building collapse killed more than 70 people

·         Desire for upward mobility

The impatience with the status quo and the desire for upward mobility screams from roadside billboards advertising the achievements of Mumbra boys and girls in coaching classes and private schools.

·         Neglect and discrimination

Along with the strivings, a sense of neglect and discrimination pervades Mumbra, which does not have a single public hospital

·         Mumbra also lives with a hostile relationship with the police