Access of Urban Poor to Basic Services: Concerns of Sustainability and Equity

Abstract

Sharp inequality in India’s urban economy, coupled with an increasing reliance on the market system for infrastructure and basic services, has led to inadequate access to and poor quality of amenities for the urban poor. Disparities in welfarist interventions by central and state governments, manifest in changing administrative paradigm, have impacted inequality trends and patterns. Given this macro scenario, this article is designed to achieve two objectives: one, an analysis of the differential access of urban poor to select basic amenities and changes therein over time at the national level. An attempt is also made to bring out the deficits in amenities for households in different asset quintiles within the framework of India’s inclusive development strategy. Two, to analyse the pattern of access to basic services across the states, their changing pattern over time, and probe into their interdependencies with indicators of environmental sustainability. The basic idea is to examine quantitatively the complex relationship between the utilisation of natural resources, environmental degradation, and the provisioning of basic amenities to the poor. The possibility of the poor being forced to use non-renewable resources, posing serious threats to their micro-environment and its long-term implications are discussed using available secondary data and over-viewing empirical research on the subject. The article concludes by proposing broad directions in which solutions to the twin problems of providing a decent living environment to the poor and ensuring ecological sustainability can be sought.