Cities of India: Achieving climate resilience through participatory creativity

By Bharat Dogra  

Improving climate mitigation and adaptation in Indian cities is a critical objective of modern urban planning. This endeavor can be highly creative and impactful, especially when pursued with a justice-based approach that simultaneously enhances the living and working conditions of the working classes, including women and youth, while securing their enthusiastic participation. Their potential, if thoughtfully encouraged, can contribute significantly.

The agenda for climate resilience must align with the realities of Indian cities. While learning from diverse sources is valuable, superficial attempts to impose Western ideas are unlikely to yield positive results.

A crucial aspect of any major environmental initiative in India, and broadly across the Global South, is the seamless integration of environmental protection with justice and equality.

Such a framework is intrinsically linked to improving the conditions of the urban poor (local and migrant workers, self-employed individuals in challenging conditions, slum-dwellers, and the homeless). Climate resilience efforts should actively support, not impede, the urban poor. Furthermore, their creativity and skills, particularly those of women, can be leveraged to advance climate resilience and create new livelihood opportunities.

Many ideas that improve the lives and livelihoods of the urban poor can also enhance climate adaptation and mitigation. For instance, on-site improvements to slums, rather than demolition and displacement, benefit daily life and simultaneously contribute to climate adaptation. Conversely, pushing slum-dwellers to distant parts of the city hinders adaptation.

Mobilizing slum-dwellers to create local parks with diverse indigenous tree species not only aids climate mitigation and adaptation but also improves their daily lives.

Water conservation, protection, and rejuvenation of water bodies present creative opportunities where rural-to-urban migrants, with their often-untapped skills, can contribute immensely. Unfortunately, this potential is frequently overlooked. I once documented a Delhi community with significant water management skills whose members were being displaced instead of having their expertise utilized.

A unique characteristic of Indian cities is the vital role of peri-urban areas and 'urban villages.' These regions often possess enormous potential for water conservation and afforestation. Instead of mobilizing local people, especially youth and women, bureaucratic approaches have yielded little, while powerful interests like builders have come to dominate 'development.'

Following recent discontent in Punjab over large-scale land acquisition for urban estates, I proposed an alternative approach where villages could retain their essential rural character while accommodating urbanization. This model could also be relevant for improving urban climate resilience more broadly.

Through discussions with working-class communities and daily wage laborers, I've observed an increase in problems related to adverse weather conditions. Open-space workers face tormenting heatwaves, and high humidity during rains adds to their stress. Winter pollution often leads to work closures, causing unemployment and wage loss. Careful climate resilience planning, embedded within a broader justice framework, can mitigate this distress and stress.

While addressing the climate resilience concerns of the poorer sections is paramount, the creative contributions of higher-income sections should not be underestimated. As I recently witnessed in Udaipur, a small group of citizens in an elite colony successfully prevented the concretization of a green area and transformed it into a beautiful biodiversity park.

Therefore, improving climate resilience within a justice framework should ideally involve all sections of society, with a particular focus on safeguarding the concerns of the vulnerable sections.

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The writer is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Saving Earth for Children, Man over Machine, Planet in Peril, and Guardians of the Himalayas—Vimla and Sunderlal Bahuguna