A Sustainable Vision For Urban India

After 61 years of the Independence, India still has about one-fifth of its population, a mammoth 250 million, below the sustenance level or poverty line. It raises the question of the relevance of the planning process. It is necessary to have a hard look at the ongoing perceptions, process, plans and programs. The urban and environmental challenges of Indian cities prompts a reconsideration of the values, goals, and means of achieving them. There is a need of abandoning the prevalent reactive tendencies of urban form which follows fiction, finance, fear, and fragmentation. In place of fast-paced economy oriented development mentality, it is necessary to adopt the beauty of simplicity, spirituality, sincerity, and sustainability together with learning from the inherent wisdom of nature and cities of the past, and infusing it with contemporary sensibilities. India, while moving towards urbanization is passing through a rare historic moment in aligning urban growth and development with political, economic, and social trends. What is required is to actively engage and draw inspiration from actual social and physical conditions with an ethics of care, respect, and honesty. A city is like a healthy organisms, always growing and evolving and self adjusting according to new needs that arise.