Revision summary
Slums and insecure tenure are the housing face of Indian urbanisation. Informal work without social security is the labour face. Congestion, pollution, and weak municipal services hit poor wards first. Structural replies are tenure, public rental housing, buses and metro, and the 74th Amendment with real property tax. Climate-ready water and waste are part of sustainability, not an extra.
Model answer
Introduction
Indian urbanisation is fast, large, and uneven. Socio-economic problems appear in housing, work, services, and inequality, and sustainable urban development needs structural measures, not only a new flyover.
Body
Socio-economic problems
- Informal housing and slums grow faster than planned plots, so tenure, water, and toilets stay insecure.
- A large share of urban work is informal, without a written contract, which means low wages and no social security.
- Congestion, air pollution, and long travel times tax health and household time, especially for women who combine paid work and care.
- Municipal bodies are short of staff and own tax, so garbage, drainage, and bus systems fail first in poor wards.
- Urbanisation can raise land prices and push the poor to the periphery, which is spatial inequality, not only income inequality.
Structural measures
- Secure tenure, in-situ slum upgrading, and a public rental stock treat housing as infrastructure, not only as a private plot.
- Formalisation of work through e-shram, boards for construction labour, and enforceable minimum wages reduces the income side of urban poverty.
- Compact land use, public buses and metro, and walking access cut congestion more reliably than extra private cars.
- The 74th Amendment, property-tax reform, and predictable Union–state–city grants are the fiscal structure without which smart-city projects do not last.
- Water, sewer, and solid-waste systems have to be designed for climate heat and flood, which is the environmental half of sustainable urban development.
Matching the two
- Each problem has a structure behind it: land markets, informal labour, weak municipalities, and carbon-heavy transport.
- Measures that only beautify a central street leave the same structures in place, so they are not sustainable urban development.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD U[Urban growth] --> S[Slum informal work] U --> C[Congestion pollution] M[74th tax transport housing] --> D[Sustainable city]
Conclusion
Urbanisation in India produces slums, informal work, congestion, and weak municipal services. Sustainable urban development needs tenure, public transport, municipal finance, and climate-ready water and waste, not only surface projects.
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