“India’s Dream toward 2030”
India offers a significant number of urban centres, contributing to its substantial population.
For instance, according to UN estimates, India has overtaken China as the world’s most populous nation which is a major Global demographic shift since the records began.
According to the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation's report on migration in India, there is a considerable increase in rural-urban migration[1]. It is expected that between 2022 and 2047, India’s urban population will grow by 328 million exceeding the total population of the United States[2]. At present, India is undergoing a significant wave of urbanization. In the next few decades, the Urban sector would be critical for restructuring the Indian economy and maintaining its robust economic growth[3].
Nevertheless, this rapid urbanization has several challenges ranging from resource strains to environmental degradation. The principle of urban sustainability has emerged as a key paradigm in contemporary urban planning in response.
Venturing into Urban Sustainability
“Urban sustainability refers to practices and guiding ideas in urban planning that help us construct and improve our cities without permanently depleting our resources. Sustainability rests on three pillars: social, economic, and environmental.[4]” A sustainable city encompasses these aspects and takes care of the inhabitants’ well-being, efficient use of resources and environmental conservation. It seeks to offer a stable habitat to today’s residents while not compromising the needs of future generations. In order words ecological conservation should take similar precedence to economic, social and physical wellbeing if cities are going to be called sustainable.[5]
In light of this fusion, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) must be integrated with the National Urban Policy Framework (NUPF).
SDG 11 and the Struggle for a Sustainable Future
All United Nations’ members adopted in 2015, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which outlined 17 global sustainable development goals (SDGs) with Goal 11 highlighting the need to develop inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable cities and human settlements[6]. Being a dedicated supporter of this program India promises to participate actively in SDG progress periodic international reviews. With effect from 2018, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has developed The National Urban Policy Framework (NUPF) as required by the UN Habitat’s mandate.
Blueprint for Urban Evolution: Unveiling India's Urban Policy Framework
The National Urban Policy Framework (NUPF) spells out India’s way of optimizing urbanization towards achieving a five trillion-dollar economy. The framework also includes actions to promote economic enterprises in the urban spaces, increase/enlarge local economies through a range of enablers, and foster sustainable transport systems; strengthen the finances of urban local bodies; establish real-time urban information hubs; and ensure environmental sustainability. India’s response to urbanization reflects international benchmarks like the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, and the New Urban Agenda. This is aimed at driving growth in the urban sector as well as enhancing mobility within cities, through initiatives such as AMRUT, PMAY, SCM, SBM HRIDAY and DAY-NULM. In this sense, NUPF supports an integrated approach to city planning while recognizing that such solutions must be specific to each area rather than being imposed from outside with set formulae or models. It further guides states on how they will formulate their urban policies based on the ten major philosophies contained in the National policy framework on Urbanisation[7].
Urbanization Unveiled: Tackling Tomorrow's Trials
The ‘Integrating the Sustainable Development Goals with National Urban Policy Framework: A challenge and an opportunity for resilient, inclusive and sustainable cities’ is phenomenally multi-faceted but brims over with promises. Those difficulties can be applied to:
The SDGs are interconnected, covering broad areas including poverty alleviation, climate action health and education. And cognitive sciences afford insights about competitive, synergistic and confounding aspects among these goals that continue to pose empirical puzzles. Translating them effectively into a consistent urban policy framework requires balancing trade-offs and setting priorities.
The linkages between the SDGs and NUPF are relatively straight forward, while translating them into policy implementation at the local level is much more complicated. They are challenged to create strategies that address global sustainability objectives within local contexts. Effective Implementation: We localize to account for the reality of different places, leveraging unique urban contexts and challenges.
Developing a NUPF and implementing it requires capabilities at different administrative levels - national, state or local. Coordination between national and sub-national entities can be difficult due to a shortage of experienced staff. This is why capacity-building programs are important, to impart knowledge and skill sets on our stakeholders.
To monitor progress towards SDGs and the NUPF outcomes, there is a need for reliable data collection, analysis and reporting. It is imperative to deal with the challenges such as data availability, quality and harmonization across different sectors. Having reliable data is important for making informed decisions, and monitoring progress.
Cross-cutting policies – environmental, social and economic -Need to put in place process that overcomes silos between sectors. An example - energy intervention related to a tax reform with job creation as well (NUPF + SDGs). Integrated coherent policy frameworks need to be developed that are capable of addressing urban challenges in a holistic manner. The challenge for India is to find integrated solutions that contribute simultaneously to economic growth, social equity and environmental sustainability.
Ensuring that the benefits of NUPF implementation reach all sections, requires a particular focus on ensuring fairness and inclusivity. Tackling inequality of the availability and equality in receiving resources, services, opportunities continues to be a huge hurdle. Policies should be geared to promote social inclusion, gender equality and shared benefits.
Finally, the successful incorporation of these two policy frameworks calls for strong political leadership, commitment and institutional coordination. In this regard, multi-level governance as well as stakeholder engagement is key to achieving policy coherence and lasting efforts towards attaining urban sustainability[8].
Pathways to Urban Sustainability: Future Ready Solutions for Cities
A consistent approach in integrating National Urban Policy Frameworks (NUPF) with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) necessitates a collaborative approach that is contextualized in nature. This can be done through several strategies:
• The first step is to incorporate the entire city in planning activities. For instance, if cities explicitly integrate the SDGs into comprehensive urban plans; they will deal with social economic, environmental and governance aspects. This concurs with integrated planning emphasis under NUPF, thus ensuring holistic approach towards urban development.
• Localized SDGs will help make sure that solutions provided address specific needs and challenges linked to a particular city or town. Localizing their targets and indicators on SDG’s and ensuring inclusion of local priorities within its setting by engaging local governments, communities and stakeholders are critical requirements toward localized implementation.
• Data driven decision making is a must. Furthermore, improvement in data collection, analysis and reporting mechanisms enhances the ability of cities to monitor progress towards SDGs and NUPF results. Reliable data provides evidence for policies and helps in the effective monitoring urban development.
• Moreover, supporting collaborations between multiple stakeholders is necessary. Policy coherence, resource mobilization and knowledge sharing can be promoted through partnerships involving government agencies, civil society organizations, private sector entities and academia.
• Capacity building and awareness also play a major role in achieving effectiveness. Training urban professionals to become knowledgeable on sustainable development issues can be an important tool in this process.
This includes exploring new financing options such as Value Capture Financing (VCF). This generates funds for urban infrastructure and services that support investments linked to SDGs while ensuring sustainable urban development.
• Equally important is integration of climate action into urban policy frameworks. Cities’ sustainability initiatives will have to start embedding climate resilience as well as low-carbon strategies directly into their policies so as to enhance quality of life.
• Last but not least, inclusive governance and participation should be fostered. By promoting participatory decision-making processes involving citizens including women’s groups, areas could achieve equitable access to resources and services thus being successful with regard to SDG 10 & 11.
Conclusion
The Integration of SDGs and NUPF shows a significant step towards achieving the sustainable urban development vision of India. This would result in stronger, inclusive and environmentally sustainable cities which will ensure that future generations are not left behind.
Nevertheless, this goal is very far from being achieved in India. Simply defining and implementing the National Urban Policy Framework (NUPF) will not be enough to achieve the targets for 2030. Although it meets the 2030 Agenda criteria and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it still has several deficiencies. The Indian Government needs to take immediate steps to fill up these gaps by focusing on the actual issues leading to poor performance of various sectors. For this objective, both government agencies and members of society should be engaged in this initiative.
References
Ajishnu Roy, N. G. (Oct. 19, 2023). Exploration of Urban sustainability in India through the lens of sustainable development goals. Discover Sustainability.
Chatterji, H. V. (Dec. 28, 2023). Navigating India’s Urban Future: 7 Resolutions for Urban India for 2024. The Economic Times, ET Gov.
Department of Economic and Social Affairs, S. D. (2015). Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for sustainable development. United Nations .
Division for Sustainable Development goals, U. D. (May 12 & 14, 2020.). Integrating the 2030 Agenda into national plans and strategies: Covid 19 response and recovery. United Nations, Economic and Social Affairs, .
Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, G. o. (2020). National Urban Policy Framework – Strategic intent. PIB.
Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation, G. o. (Dec. 28, 2023 ). Migration in India, 2020-2021. Press information bureau - Delhi.
Citations
Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation, Government of India, “Migration in India, 2020-2021”, PIB-Delhi Jun. 14, 2022.
Hitesh Vaidya & Tathagata Chatterji, “Navigating India’s Urban Future: 7 Resolutions for Urban India for 2024”, ET Gov., Dec. 28, 2023.
Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India, “National Urban Policy Framework – Strategic intent”, PIB, 2020.
Ajishnu Roy, Nandini Garai, Jayant Kumar Biswas, “Exploration of Urban sustainability in India through the lens of sustainable development goals”, Discover Sustainability, Oct. 19, 2023.
Ajishnu Roy, Nandini Garai, Jayant Kumar Biswas, “Exploration of Urban sustainability in India through the lens of sustainable development goals”, Discover Sustainability, Oct. 19, 2023.
Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Sustainable Development, “Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for sustainable development”, United Nations, 2015.
Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India, “National Urban Policy Framework – Strategic intent”, PIL, 2020.
Division for Sustainable Development goals, UN DESA, Integrating the 2030 Agenda into national plans and strategies: Covid 19 response and recovery, United Nations, Economic and Social Affairs, May 12 & 14, 2020.
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