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Challenges in Urban Governance

The document discusses the challenges of urban governance in India during the COVID-19 pandemic. Major challenges include shortages of PPE, testing equipment, and hospital resources. It also discusses the impact on migrant workers, many of whom lost their jobs and livelihoods and faced food insecurity. Solutions proposed include increasing quarantine facilities, monitoring human movement through drones, and strict lockdowns in virus hotspots. Food supply chains were also disrupted, but the government took steps to launch trains to transport migrant workers and subsidize costs. Overall the pandemic has created unprecedented difficulties, but people have come together in response and governments have so far done reasonably well if social distancing continues.

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DrAshok Kumar Tiwari
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65 views

Challenges in Urban Governance

The document discusses the challenges of urban governance in India during the COVID-19 pandemic. Major challenges include shortages of PPE, testing equipment, and hospital resources. It also discusses the impact on migrant workers, many of whom lost their jobs and livelihoods and faced food insecurity. Solutions proposed include increasing quarantine facilities, monitoring human movement through drones, and strict lockdowns in virus hotspots. Food supply chains were also disrupted, but the government took steps to launch trains to transport migrant workers and subsidize costs. Overall the pandemic has created unprecedented difficulties, but people have come together in response and governments have so far done reasonably well if social distancing continues.

Uploaded by

DrAshok Kumar Tiwari
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Challenges in Urban Governance in Time of Corona

and Way Forward in The Urban Spectrum

**************************************************

Introduction-
India was already in the throes of a slowdown when the COVID-19 pandemic struck,
and now the country faces a period of significant economic disruption as the country
locks down to slow the spread of the virus.

As the world scrambles to ease the immense healthcare burden of the virus, most
economies are bracing for the havoc the virus is likely to leave in its wake. Many
countries have already announced several rounds of ‘economic packages’ so far to
aid businesses, workers and healthcare systems engulfed by the crisis.  The Indian
government and the RBI have also put in place a slew of measures to help fight the
COVID-19 menace and ameliorate its economic fallout.

Being the second most populous country in the world, our problems get magnified in
a pandemic of this type. Besides weaknesses highlighted above, negative factors
include extreme poverty in many areas; densely populated cities with huge floating
populations as workers travel to them from surrounding mofussil towns and villages
as also travel between different states for work.

Although we are the largest democracy in the world and probably have the world’s
best Constitution, our political systems have been degenerating for decades,
affecting good governance.

Challenges in Urban Governance -


The effects of India’s 55-day lockdown are reverberating, with varying degrees of
severity, across all the sectors of the Indian economy. The services sector,
especially segments such as retail, aviation and entertainment, have been directly
(and severely) hit. The manufacturing sector, too, has suffered. Production
shutdowns, labour and supply chain disruptions - especially for companies exposed
to international trade-as well as falling consumption, have raised serious concerns
about the short- to-medium term viability of many businesses, including the MSMEs.
The infrastructure sector, which was already buckling under immense stress, has
been among the worst hit; with stoppages in toll collections, discoms struggling to
pay gencos, and the compete shut down of air travel hitting airport operators. The
dramatic fall in demand across most infrastructure segments has further
compounded the sector’s woes.
The current situation has also led to significant volatility in asset prices,
especially for financial assets including publicly traded debt and equity. This, in turn,
has had a mark-to-market impact requiring investors, such as global funds, to review
the health of their portfolios. Falling asset and commodity prices (oil falling to USD25
per bbl) have directly impacted portfolios, which have also taken an indirect hit from
investee companies. As a result, this situation will lead to repricing of financial assets
and churning of fund portfolios, while generating new investment opportunities, as
demand for alternative capital picks up and need-based M&A (disposal of non-core
assets) gains momentum.
Compounding such problems, we have a weak health-system and extremely low
capacity of hospital beds. We also do not have enough health-care workers; these
will inevitably deplete as the virus spreads. Diseases like tuberculosis, respiratory
problems, pneumonia, diabetes and hypertension are common; these are
compounded by high rates of smoking and air pollution. With the entire health
system geared for COVID-19 response, as it correctly should be, the danger is that
some other diseases may get out of control.

Successive governments have made promises about improving India’s health


system but budgetary allocations have been inadequate. Despite this, there has
been improvement in some facets in the past couple of decades. These include
large-scale immunization and better hospitals in cities, but the system itself is not
particularly strong, and it is highly variable across states.

Major ground Challenges in Urban Areas toward fighting COVID 19 in front of


government are-

a) Shortage of Personnel protective equipment


Eg: Low-cost masks which can capture virus from the air and absorb respiratory
droplets and other PPEs should be available to all citizens and hospitals in sufficient
quantity
b) Supply of Testing Equipments and rapid testing facilities at all cities
Eg: Cost-effective thermal scanning devices and rapid diagnostic kits (paper-based
and other point-of-care devices)
c) Availability of Critical- care equipment in hospitals
Including portable oxygenators and hospital and home-based ventilators to monitor
and control the spread of the new coronavirus
d) Large area sanitization and sterilization
Including electrostatic spray and Ultra-Violet treatment for various available surfaces
like glass, ceramic, wood, textile
e) AI-based technology for contact less entry
Eg: Facial recognition tools to assist in contact less entry of officials, doctors, and
others. 
f) Movement tracking
Using mobile apps to diagnose contagion and track people movements in quarantine
areas/ lockdown regions
g) Geo-fencing
Including solutions that can assist the officials in monitoring those under compulsory
home quarantine
h) Crowd management
Eg: To compel citizens following social distancing with check by Drones armed with
heat-sensing cameras
i) Fake news detection
As information gets passed on social media, it becomes difficult to discern its
authenticity and may mislead people
j) Logistics
To provide essentials to all citizens during this time and no contact delivery of
medicines
k) Migrants workers
An estimated 139 million migrant workers from the countryside work in India's cities
and towns. With factories and workplaces shut down, they were left with no
livelihood.  Following this, many of them and their families went hungry. While
government schemes ensured that the poor would get additional rations due to the
lockdown, the distribution system failed to be effective as the ration cards are area-
specific and fair price shops were largely inaccessible. Additionally, the 'One Nation,
One Ration Card' system has been implemented in very few states.  While the
scheme allowed migrant workers to retrieve foodgrains for free anywhere across the
country, very few are aware of the scheme. In addition to this, the scheme also
requires biometric authentication, which was discontinued due to fears of spreading
the virus through common fingerprint sensors.
With no work and no money, thousands of migrant workers were seen walking or
bicycling hundreds of kilometres to go back to their native villages.  Many were
arrested for violating the lockdown, after being caught at inter-state borders, forests
between states and even on boats to cross rivers.[59] Some of the migrants died of
exhaustion.  Others died in accidents on the roads after walking or hiding in vehicles.
On 31 March, as many as 120 migrant workers were allegedly beaten up by the
police in Gujarat and forcefully rounded up in a single lorry and dropped in
Maharashtra, despite being wounded.  In Aurangabad, 16 migrants were killed on 8
May after a freight train ran over them while they were sleeping on the tracks,
exhausted from walking.

Way Forward in The Urban Spectrum


Food supply chain

The order issued by the Home Ministry on 24 March allowed the functioning of shops
dealing with food items as well as the manufacturing units and transportation of
"essential goods". However, the lack of clarity on "essential goods" meant that the
policemen on the streets stopped workers going to factories and the trucks carrying
food items. Food industries also faced shortages of labour because the workers
were unable to reach workplaces and the factory managers faced the fear of legal
action. All these factors combined to result in shortages and a raise in the prices of
food items.

Migrant workers

On 1 May, the central government permitted the Indian Railways to launch "Shramik
Special" trains for the migrant workers and others stranded. The government then
announced that the Railways would offer an 85% subsidy on the train fares, with the
state governments funding the remaining 15%

Quarantine Facilities

We must increase our quarantine facilities and ensuring that our hotspot areas and
containment zones have a regular supply of food and medicine requirements in order
to make sure that people in these areas do not step out of their homes. 

Monitoring Human Movement

Another method of containing the outbreak in these areas is monitoring human


movement with drone images, and carefully inspecting feed from them for any
crowding, lathering, or even one or two stray humans walking around. Police or ward
staff should immediately have intimated, and these people are moved indoors. Food
packets should be delivered on time to ensure people are not prompted to venture
out of home for any food.

Quarantine and strict lockdown only way forward for urban hotspots.

Conclusion

COVID 19 has created an unprecedented situation that has affected our families,
businesses, communities and our daily life in many ways. In these difficult times, it is
heartening to see people coming together to face the situation with solidarity.

We are truly inspired by the selfless healthcare and essential services workers on
the front-line, working tirelessly and caring for the people in need. Our populace,
along with governments have so far done a good job, despite some quirks. We might
just yet be able to escape a catastrophe, if we remain disciplined. We can learn and
implement what Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore have achieved.

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