What Future for the Cities Within our Cities?

According to a report from the Mckinsey Global Institute, India is set to witness a leap in urban population by almost 25 crore over the next 20 years. That translates to roughly 35,000 more people in our cities every day! Rural-to-urban migration looks likely to continue unabated given the skewed creation of employment opportunities in cities. Large cities have typically been the center of development in India. They have been the centres of manufacturing, of markets, of consumption and of wealth. But they are also the locus of much inequality. Large sections of the city are home to poverty, hunger and unemployment. The rural poor have migrated to cities with the expectation of better livelihoods and earnings. But the infrastructure of these cities has not kept pace with the demands of such population growth. As a result, the face of most Indian cities today has illness and hunger juxtaposed with glamour and wealth.