Essay on urban livelihood
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Answer:
Urban society is characterized by a sharp economic disparity between a small number of wealthy families and a large number of petty traders, artisans and the poor. Urban planning is, therefore, necessary to reduce this disparity. Urban, city or town planning deals with the design of the built environment from the municipal or the metropolitan perspective. It is also concerned with the smaller scale of development in the city or town including architecture and urban design.
The Greek Hippodamus is often considered the Father of City Planning for his design of the city called Melitus, though examples of cities permeate antiquity. In India, people built planned cities right from the ages of the Harappan culture. But all these cities of antiquity were based on agricultural income and were built mostly because of the rise in population. Gradually, the nature of settlements or urban centres underwent a qualitative change, a transition from a locally focused, isolated, economically and socially self-contained, and basically agricultural community to global, economically and socially dynamic and basically industrial or service-oriented community.
Today’s urban centres are the basis of economic activities. People mostly migrate to these centres to earn their livelihood. Among the migrants, some settle down and some others move on to larger cities or towns in search of better opportunities. To improve the economic and physical infrastructure and also to provide essential services and facilities to the existing and forthcoming population, planning is essential.
Planning is also required to condense the load of larger cities or towns including metropolitan areas as it is observed that people usually migrate from rural areas to small urban centres, from small and medium towns to larger cities or metropolitan centres in search of livelihood. This can be done by providing similar employment opportunities and standard of living in the smaller towns and cities.
Urban planning is mostly concerned with the physical development process; spatial planning plays a significant role in the identification and development of new areas. It helps in creating a new spatio-economic order leading to the rational use of land and other resources. From the late 19th century, modern urban planning started placing stress on the socioeconomic aspects of the urban centres.
People in urban areas earn their living in various ways. They are either self-employed or work for someone.
Several people also travel from rural to urban areas in search of work. Most of these workers are self-employed and work on streets selling goods, repairing items or providing services. They build temporary shops, use carts or simply spread plastic sheets. Initially the hawkers weren’t allowed to do business in certain areas.
However, the government has now allotted areas in the city where they could set up their shops. A large number of people work in factories and industries in and around the city. They may either be permanent or temporary, called ‘casual basis’.
These temporary workers are forced to search for other jobs when they go out of job. There is no job security for them. In cities, there are groups of people sitting or standing in chowks waiting to be employed by someone. Such places are called “labour chowk”.
Some people also run shops, showrooms and supermarkets which are licensed by the municipal corporation. These people hire supervisors and helpers to run their business smoothly.
Several workers are permanently employed in private companies, factories, offices and government departments. They get a regular monthly salary.
These employees are also entitled to other benefits such as savings for old age, holidays as well as annual leave and medical facilities.