Q5(e) · UPSC Civil Services Mains 2019 · Sociology GS 2 · 10 marks · 1 min read

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Elucidate the concerns of growing urban displacement dynamics in India

Topic: Industrialization and Urbanisation in India. Syllabus: Industrialization and Urbanisation in India: Evolution of modern industry in India; Growth of urban settlements in India; Working class: structure, growth, class mobilization; Informal sector, child labour; Slums and deprivation in urban areas. Same official PYQ from year-wise 2019 and Industrialization and Urbanisation in India.

Revision summary

Urban displacement is eviction for projects and real estate. The informal poor lose central work access. Rehabilitation and title are weak. Caste and migrant status shape who is moved first. The master plan often ranks bodies while naming the public good.

Model answer

Introduction

Urban displacement in India is the forced shifting of the poor from inner land to the edge. Growth of cities has made eviction a routine development tool.

Body

Dynamics

  • Slum clearance, metro, and waterfront projects treat informal settlers as illegal, even when they are the service class of urbanism.
  • Gentrification and real-estate capital recast mill lands and old chawls, a class process A. R. Desai would recognise.
  • Disaster and climate floods add ‘natural’ displacement on the same vulnerable map.

Concerns

  • Loss of work access when the poor are dumped at the periphery without transport.
  • Break of kin and caste support that made city life livable.
  • Adivasi and Dalit migrants are first to go, last to get title.
  • Legal notice and rehabilitation are thin; the right to the city is not a statute.

Sociological reading

  • Displacement is planned inequality, the disharmonic city: civic master plan, ranked bodies.

Flow diagram

flowchart TD
  P[Projects real estate] --> E[Eviction]
  E --> PE[Periphery job loss]
  T[No tenure] --> E

Conclusion

Growing urban displacement concerns livelihood, citizenship, and who the city is for. Without secure tenure and in-situ upgrading, Indian urbanism will keep exporting its poor.

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