About 28 percent of the 110 crore people in India live in urban areas, this proportion is expected to rise to 42 percent and the absolute numbers of urban people to rise to about 65 crores by 2050. This urbanization is lop-sided: cities and towns in ‘boom states’ in the North, West and South are growing very rapidly while small towns in most parts of the country and cities in the East are decaying. Urban and rural poverty are connected, given the stagnation in the rural economy, seasonal and permanent migration to urban areas is inevitable and the influx of migrants compounds the problem of crowding as well as living and working conditions in urban areas. There is a large-scale migration from rural areas to the boom towns as agriculture stagnates and rural people search for better livelihoods, and this trend will continue and it needs to be recognized not as a problem but as a possible area of work for a better economy and society.

The pattern of unplanned urbanization has thrown up three major issues. The first deals with harmonious city development in a manner that looks after the interests of all the city dwellers. The second deals with the creation of infrastructure needed for the smooth running of the cities. The third deals with ensuring good governance in these cities.

With this context, the Trusts evolved a draft Strategy Paper on Urban Poverty and Livelihoods to which the Trustees gave a clearance 2007 to evolve this portfolio in a phased manner over two to three years.

The major thrust areas of the portfolio are:

The approach thus far has been exploratory in nature, specifically focusing on work in three cities – Mumbai, Kolkatta and Delhi; and the states of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh (MP). All efforts were directed towards looking for good examples of work in these locations in the identified thrust areas and the possibility of supporting them.

Under the thematic area of Livelihoods for the Urban Poor, what is emerging through interactions with groups working in the urban sector is to reduce the vulnerability of the informal sector groups such as rag pickers, conservancy workers, home-based workers, vendors, domestic workers, construction workers and sex workers by organizing them so that they are able to better negotiate with the government.

The Trusts have initiated discussions with groups specifically working with conservancy workers; and this would be one of the focus groups for interventions in the future.

Most of these groups belonging to the informal sector are migrants and to maintain the income level, the population engages in one or more of the informal sector activities. The Trusts have been supporting Aajeevika Bureau and Prayas in Rajasthan to set up their regional resource centre and labour exchanges for rural migrants. Efforts are being made to take the learnings from their experiences to other states like UP, Orissa and Bihar.

Under the Urban Governance theme, the Trusts have supported efforts of organizations that are involved in the socio-economic survey and livelihoods of the slum communities as part of the slum rehabilitation process of the government. Besides that, the Trusts have funded pilots on district planning processes in the peri-urban regions.

The challenge for the Trusts have been to identify organizations working on the urban governance issue as part of the urban planning processes in large cities and even small towns.

In the future, the effort of the Trusts would be to evolve the thematic area of ‘Migration’ and work with the informal sector groups; additionally efforts will also be made to evolve a better understanding of work on the urban governance issues.