(a) Evolution of Modern Industry in India

Industrialisation in India can be divided in two phases: (a) During British rule, and (b) Post-Independence India.

1. During British rule:

Disastrous results of colonialism on the indigenous economies, completely taking it out of competitive edge it had in textile industry.

However, to aid trade to England, infrastructure like railways, telegraphs, post etc. were introduced.

The capital investment which followed eventually was from English entrepreneurs and capitalist.

Very few Indian entrepreneurs started manufacturing business as British polices did not favour them and they were reluctant to enter in to unknown fields.

Initially the collaborators and middlemen with the British, communities like the Parsis and Marwaris who ventured in to setting up industries.

Apart from these communities the bankers of Ahmedabad without any British intervention or association started setting up mills. After these initial attempts many trading families started to invest in industrial enterprise.

The Indian capitalist organized themselves in to Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

2. Post-Independence India:

In the initial phase of economic development saw setting up heavy industries and the construction of dams.

In 1980 the first steps towards liberalization were taken up by Indira Gandhi and followed by Rajiv Gandhi, this involved easing restrictions on capacity expansion for incumbents, removed price controls and reduced corporate taxes.

The economic liberalization of 1991, initiated by then Indian prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao and his finance minister Manmohan Singh in response to a macroeconomic crisis did away with the Licence Raj (investment, industrial and import licensing) and ended public sector monopoly in many sectors, thereby allowing automatic approval of foreign direct investment in many sectors.

Industrialization in the Early Years of Indian Independence

The first modern industries in India were cotton, jute, coal mines and railways at independence, the government took over the ·commanding heights of the economy.

Government tried to ensure, though it's licensing policy, that industries were spread over different regions.

Globalization, Liberalization and Change in Indian Industry

Since the 1990s, however, the government has followed a policy of liberalization. Private companies, especially foreign firms, are encouraged to invest in sectors earlier reserved.

(b) Growth of Urban settlement in India

The first phase of urbanization in the Indus valley is associated with the Harappan civilization dating back to 2350BC. This great urban civilization came to end at about 1500 B.C, possibly as a result of Aryan invasion.

The second phase of urbanization in India began around 600 BC. The architects of this phase were the Aryans in the North and the Dravidians in the South.

From this period onwards, for about 2500 years, India has had more or less continuous history of urbanization.

This period saw the formation of early historical cities and also the growth of cities in number and in size especially during the Mauryan and post-Mauryan eras.

The Mughal period stands out as a second high watermark of urbanization in India (the first occurring during the Mauryan period), when many of India’s cities were established.

The early part of British rule saw a decline in the level of Indian urbanization. The main reasons for the decline of cities during this period are:

1. The lack of interest on the part of the British

2. The ushering in of the industrial revolution in England.

During the latter half of British rule, Indian cities regained some of their last importance;

1. The military-political town, serving as a center for the flow of cash nexus in the society and often for the redistributive system, and

2. The temple or the full-fledged temple town.

Facets of British Influence on Urbanization

1. Ports

2. Hill stations

3. Introduction of the Civil Lines and the Cantonments.

4. The introduction of the railways and modern industry.

5. The improvements in urban amenities and urban administration.

Urbanization in the Post-Independence Period

This period has witnessed rapid urbanization in India on a scale never before achieved.

1. The influx of refugees and their settlement, primarily in urban areas in northern India

2. The building of new administrative cities, such as Chandigarh, Bhubaneshwar and Gandhinagar,

3. The construction of new industrial cities and townships near major cities,

4. The massive growth of slums and the rural-urban fringe and

5. The introduction of city planning and the general improvement in civic amenities.

In 1901, 10% of population was urban by 1941; it rose to 13%, but only 3% in 4 decades. In 1951, we had 17% urban population. But, after that, pace of urbanization gathered momentum. In next 30 years i.e. by 1981, we had 23%, urban population. 1991: 26%, 2001: 27.8%, 2011: 31%.

From 1901 to 1991 urban population has increased by 600% in terms of absolute numbers, but number of urban settlements increased by only 80%.

This implies that, most of population is growing only in pre-existing cities.

As per 1901 census percentage of population in class I cities were 26%. According to 1991 Census, about two third (65%) of the countries urban population lived in Class -1 cities with more than 100, 000 population. In 2001 it was 69% and 2011 it has increased to 74%.

Social Effects of Urbanization in India

1. Family and kinship

2. Urbanization and Caste

3. Urbanization and Status of Women

4. Urbanization and Rural Life

5. Urban Politics

Problems of Urbanization

The patterns of urbanization in India has been marked by regional and interstate diversities, large scale rural to urban migration, insufficient infrastructural facilities, growth of slums and other allied problems.

1. Housing and Slums:

2. Over Crowding:

3. Water supply, Drainage and Sanitation

4. Transportation and Traffic

5. Power Shortage

6. Pollution

(c) Working class: Structure, growth, class mobilization

Concept of working class has emerged in wake of rise of industrial societies. Based on

Marxist idea, working class are those who don’t own capital and contribute their labor, is

a contractual relationship and are directly involved in value addition.

But this definition is unsuitable today. Marxists themselves are in a quandary. With

emergence of joint stock companies and with managerial class exercising role of owners,

this definition becomes primitive.

Powkenzar gave a minimalist view saying that, working class has grossly shrinked today.

All white collar job holders became part of petty bourgeoisie and bourgeoisie. Paul Baron

gave a maximalist view saying that, except for Rentier class, all those engaged in process

of production constitute working class. They say it is the new working class.

We confine our discussion to those workers who are engaged in contractual relations and

are engaged in process of production leading to value addition i.e. blue collar jobs.

This kind of working class traditionally didn’t exist in India. Traditionally work was

organized in terms of caste in village communities. In ancient times it was organized in

terms of guilds. Each worker belonged to a different group and had a separate identity

and membership was based on birth. Entire labor force was highly fragmented in terms of

occupational and working class. So, no working class as such, there were no system of

wages, only a share was allowed to take which was decided on ascriptive basis but not on

economic value of product. There was no existence of a labor market.

It is after establishment of British rule, that we find factory organizations coming into

existence though rather slowly. Initial consequence of British rule was

deindustrialization, ruin of artisans, migration of artisans to rural areas due to tariff policy

of British. Although in the initial phase East India Company used urban artisans, but by

19th century, British destroyed manufacturing activities in urban India and so there was

lot of migration to rural areas.

In the second half of 19th century, industrial production started in plantation, textile and

jute, and with that we find gradual migration from rural to urban areas due to increasing

pressure of land. According to Buchanan, in initial phase, factory workers came from

hungry section of agriculture laborers. In fact, a ‘fact commission’ appointed by British

in 1890 reported that most workers belonged to lower castes and that they were existing

at level of mean starvation in rural areas. Similarly coal miners provided another source

of employment. Here also large number of tribal (for example: - Santhals) migrated to

work in mines.

Some studies also say that, not all working laborers were from lower classes. To migrate,

it involved very high cost of transportation and also wages were meagre in mines which

wouldn’t allow them to survive. So, we can say that people who migrated were small land owners. So, for them, factory work was additional income. For example: Mahars

used to work in Bombay Textiles. So, there was more of migration from lower rung of

middle caste like Khurmis, etc.

Process of growth gathered momentum in 20th century. It is this time pace of

industrialization gathered momentum in India. So, for British, the policy was to use India

as a captive market. But due to blockage of sea routes by Germany during World War-I,

British realized that having industries in India is essential. So, limited industrialization

started. By this time, there were also demands for indigenous industrialization.

By 1919, strength of industrial labor increased to 1.3 million. Majority of jobs were in

Jute, cotton industries. As size of working class started increasing, so did developed the

process of mobilization of working class. There were many issues confronting there

laborers. Long working hours, minimum wages, working in inhospitable conditions, no

rest days etc. Gandhi was also a trade union leader. Lala Lajpat Rai addressed ILO on this

issue. So, due to it, Congress started to address their issue to bring them within its fold.

Mobilization of workers began at hands of political parties rather than working leaders. It

was Congress strategy to bring everyone to launch as mass movement. But this

mobilization was mainly intended for anti-colonial struggle.

Because of pressure from nationalist pressure, international pressures and due to

influence of many members of intelligential, British passed a law, in 1926, which was the

trade union Act. This law accorded ‘Right to protest’.

In 1924, CPI was formed. They decided to work for working class. Massive

radicalization of working class which also increased militancy. In 1926, INTUC was also

formed. So, there was growth of multiplicity of trade union.

1930’s saw further price rise due to American depression. Often problem of working

class to be subordinated to political objectives. So, working class participated in the Civil

Disobedience movement raising their problems under the banner of Congress in the

pretext of anti-colonial movement.

Problem of working class increased aftermath of World War-2, due to surplus labor force

entrenched after the war. After independence there was proliferation of trade union.

There was also massive increase in size of working class. Excessive politicization led to

neglect of genuine cause of workers. Unions also increased criminal activities. Somnath

Dutta was killed in Bombay strike. Also competitions increased among trade unions.

However, after 1990’s militant nature of trade unions decreased?

Structure of Working Class

There is a fourfold division of working class

(1) Aristocracy of workers

(2) Workers of traditional industry where entire family takes employment in informal

sector due to low wages.

(3) At the bottom of wage scale there are casual workers

(4) Reserve army of labor.

They are engaged mainly in informal sector. They constitute the camper part.

(d) Informal sector, child labour

Hart has noted certain characteristics of the informal sector that make workers in this sector different from the formal sector. These are:

1. Low levels of skill.

2. Easy entry.

3. Low paid employment.

4. Largely composed of immigrant labour.

Why is there such a large informal sector in India?

(1) India was rather late in terms of growth of industrialization and pace of growth of

industrialization also remained slow due to dependency and colonial policies. For

example: - Japan and India started to get industrialize by the same time. But by

1950, Japan went ahead.

(2) Even after independence, kind of industrialization we adopted was capital

intensive. Economic growth was also low till 6th FYP (=3.5%) and after that

though growth crossed 6%, it was skewed, jobless and lopsided growth.

(3) We neglected agriculture and rural industrialization Ability of agriculture to

provide employment for young people remained limited.

(4) In 1960’s as we went for rapid food growth and strategy i.e., green revolution, it

led to premature mechanization of agriculture leading to labor displacement.

(5) So, labor in numbers was growing, but demand was shrinking. Along with this,

there was polarization of small and marginal farmers.

(6) We failed as far as population control was concerned. Population was burgeoning

while employment opportunities closed. Even consumer goods industries tended

to be capital intensive except small scale industries. Even then 80% of small scale

industries suffered from perpetual sickness.

Child Labour

Definition

According to the Census of India definition a child worker is one who works for the major part of the day and is below the age of 14 years. There is no agreement about the definition of the ‘child’. The 1989 UN Convention on the ‘Rights of the Child’ sets the upper age at 18. The International Labour Organisation refers to children as those who are under 15 years. In India children above the age of 14 years are old enough to be employed.

Estimates

As per census 2011 there are 33 million child labour in India and 60 million as per ILO.

Literacy Levels

Most of the studies have found a strong correlation between low literacy levels and work participation rates. In rural areas only 4.1 per cent boys and 2.2 per cent girl child workers were literate. Similarly in urban areas 7.0 per cent boys and 2.5 per cent girl child workers were literate. The main reason for not sending these children to school is the opportunity costs to parents who lose the wages earned by the child.

Socio-Economic Background

The problem of poverty in India has been described in terms of social classes and castes. In rural areas landless agricultural labourers, marginal landholders, and artisans constitute poor households. Landless labourers mostly belong to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. In urban areas the poor people live in slums or in temporary hutments or on pavements. The problem of poverty in India has also been discussed in terms of its magnitude e.g. according to official figures about 40 per cent people in India live in object poverty. Rural poor unable to earn a living often migrate to towns in search of work. The face of urban India is changing, as 65 million people including 9.75 million children are living in slums. Millions of children from these poorer households in rural and urban areas are forced to work at an early age to supplement the family’s inadequate income. Child Labour is used as a survival strategy by poor households. Thus, India has the largest child labour force in the world.

Causes of child labour

1. Poverty

2. Cheap substitute of adult labour

3. Poor quality and availability of schools

4. Dynastic trap.

5. Poverty, Parental illiteracy, Social apathy, ignorance, lack of education and expose, exploitation of cheap and unorganized labor.

6. Absence of compulsory education, parental ignorance regarding bad effects of child labor, in affectivities of child labor laws in terms of implementation, non-availability and non-accessibility of schools, boring and unpractical school curriculum.

7. Overpopulation.

8. Adult unemployment and urbanization.

9. Children born out of wedlock, orphaned, abandoned are especially vulnerable to exploitation. Livelihood considerations can drive a child into distinct forms of child labor like prostitution etc.

Child Labor Laws (India)

India has all along followed a proactive policy in matter of tackling the problem of child labor. India has always stood for constitutional, statutory and developmental measures required to eliminate child labor.

Art 39(a), Art 39(f), Art 45, Art 39(f), and Art 14 of the Constitution.

India is a party to the UN Declaration of the Rights of child, 1959’

India adopted National policy on children, 1974’. Policy reaffirms constitutional provisions. Policy states that state is committed to provide adequate services to children, both before and after birth and through the period of growth, to ensure physical, mental and social development.

India has also ratified in 1992, the convention on Rights of child, 1990. It implies that, governments Endeavour is to meet the goals of the convention and to amend all legislation, policies and schemes to meet standards set in convention.

Child labor (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 of India prohibits employment of children below age of 14 in factories, men and in other form of hazardous

(e) Slums and deprivation in urban India

Nature of the Slum

Slums may be characterized as areas of substandard housing conditions within a city.

The slum is a complex product of many products as it is true of many other social phenomena. But poverty is the foremost one, interplay of objective economic facts and subjective group standard. Slum residents are negligent and do not mind dirt. They have neither money nor time to their area clean or clean if themselves. Lack of basic infrastructure, like drains, drinking water, electricity and location gives the slums a very ungainly picture.

Types of slums

There are three main types of slums;

1. Original slum.

2. Slums consist of slums created by the departure of the middle class families to other sections and subsequent deterioration of the area.

3. A phenomenon of transition.

Characteristics of the Slums

1. Housing conditions

2. Overcrowding and congestion

3. Neighborhood facilities:

4. Poor Sanitation and Health Slums are generally been dirty and unclean places which is defined largely in terms of the physical deterioration, stressing particularly unsanitary conditions and lack of sufficient facilities like water and latrines.

5. Deviant Behavior

6. The Culture of the Slum- a way of life

7. Apathy and Social Isolation

Functions of the Slums

1. Housing for lowest income groups

2. Place where group living and association on the basis of villages, regions, tribes or ethnic or racial groups may develop.

3. Organized way of life in slums, which offered satisfaction to its residents.

4. A type of “School” to educate newcomers to the city.

5. Offering a place of residence to those who prefer to live an anonymous life.

Approaches to the Slum Problems

Some experts advocates the policy of slum clearance while others believe proving welfare services to slum dwellers. Still others stress providing greater economic opportunity for slum dwellers. All however have serious limitations as solutions either alone or together to the slum dwellers.

The approach to the problems of the city slums through urban community development involves the following elements:-

1. Creation of a sense of social cohesion

2. Encouragement and stimulation of self-help

3. Stimulation by outside agencies

4. Reliance upon persuasion rather than upon compulsion to produce change through the efforts of people.

5. Identification and development of local leadership.

6. Development of civic consciousness and acceptance of civic responsibilities.

7. Use of professional and technical assistance

8. Coordination of city services to meet neighborhood needs and problems.

9. Provisions of training in democratic procedures that may results in decentralization of some govt. functions.

The Marxist and Socialist approach to the problem of slums clearly points out that if only the land in urban areas is nationalized and removed from the orbit of market operation.

Slums and Deprivation in Urban Areas

According to Aashish Bose: A slum is a deprived human settlement, a settlement which is demographically, socially, economically and environmentally vulnerable, over-crowd, lawlessness, crime, pollution, lack of drainage plague slums. Slum is a center of deprivation in cities. Pauper section of the informal sector resides in the slums. As all are migrants, they lack ‘community integration’. As people are from different castes, kinship etc., the integration mechanism is on religious lines giving rise to communalism. Communalism is mainly an urban phenomenon. This is how it is an area of darkness. The census of 2011 recorded 1.3 crore urban slum households. So, if a household is estimated at five members, the urban slum population would be around 65 million.

In other words, slums are habitats that have come up in urban areas and can be objectively identified by the condition of built environment in the area. A few notable characteristics of slums are:

1. Built environment: Houses are in deplorable condition, lack ventilation and sanitary facilities. They are mostly squatter settlements that are not part of city planning and are unsystematically developed. Houses are built in close proximity and open spaces are few.

2. Households: The dwellings are characterized by over-crowing. Rooms are very small, and whole families sometimes stay in single room houses. There is an acute lack of personal space.

3. Municipal support: Basic amenities such as drinking water, power and community infrastructure are non-existent or minimal. There is a general absence of social services and welfare agencies.

4. Culture: Society in these slums is characterized by a sub-culture of poverty, details of which will be discussed in subsequent sections.

5. Natural environment: Both water pollution and air pollution are rampant. Facilities for recreation such as parks are absent. Open spaces are rare and where available are used as dumping ground for solid wastes. Census 2011 has defined slums as following (regardless of legal status or notification): Notified Slums declared as such under any stature including Slum Acts.

Recognised Slums that may not be notified under statutes but are acknowledged and categorised as slums by state or local authorities. Identified Slums “of at least 300 residents or about 60-70 households of poorly built congested tenements, in unhygienic environment usually with inadequate infrastructure and lacking in proper sanitary and drinking water facilities” that are identified by the charge officer and inspected by a nominated officer by the Directorate of Census Operations (Registrar General 2011b).

Causal Factors

More the industrialization of a city, more the housing problems it has. No doubt industrialization is followed by high population density and lower space for an individual. However, this idea is simplistic because development of slums is the result of interaction of many factors. Some important factors in Indian context are:

1. Migration: Trends of migration in India suggest that rural to urban migration is more because of push factors than pull factors. Rural folk migrate to cities not because there are better opportunities in cities but because there are no opportunities in villages. Unfortunately, there is a scarcity of jobs in cities also. Huge in-migration makes the labour market huge. The migrants either stay unemployed, or get employment at very low wages in the informal sector. On top of this, real estate prices are sky-high in cities. Due to inability to pay rent, they develop squatter settlements on pavements and in public lands.

Another point to note is that in India when rural folks migrate, they do not migrate to small towns but to large cities. Already over-populated cities become even more populated. The municipal corporation's challenge to provide basic amenities becomes all the more challenging.

2. Urban growth: In the early phases of urban growth, the Central Business District (CBD) is populated by urban classes. However, as population grows, they shift to suburbs (outskirts of a city) and prefer to travel to work. The poor can't afford the cost of travelling; hence all new immigrant population get concentrated in CBT. While the periphery is less dense, the CBT has high density. The municipalities concentrate on the "posh areas" leaving these overcrowded areas to neglect.

Hence, there are 4 Ps - protection, prestige, proximity and poverty. The rich shift to posh suburbs because of issues of protection and prestige (crime is low in suburbs), while the poor remain in CBD because of proximity to business areas and general poverty.

3. Governance and Public Policy: Slums are a result of unplanned growth. Slums result when municipal authorities are unable to plan housing projects correctly, or are unable to make the right usage of available resources. For example, if proper urban planning is made, there can be multiple business nodes rather than a single CBD. There are other measures for preventing over-concentration of population in one area over other areas in the city. Marxist Scholars like A. R. Desai reason that there is no dearth of space in urban areas. Prof. Desai pins the blame on inability of authorities to control private land and real estate business. 62% of citizens of Mumbai live on 6-8% land area.

4. Slum dwellers: The denizens (person who inhabits a particular place) of slum dwellings are no less to be blamed for condition of slums. Take the case of Kherwadi slum of West Bombay. Around hundred families had been settled there by government and given a good plot per family. But instead of taking advantage of the modern facilities, they built small stingy sheds, rented these out, and turned landlords. As a result, where a hundred families were supposed to live, now a thousand live. Perhaps this is because slum dwellers have low purchasing power and have to take every opportunity to add on to their income. Alternately, this may be because people of India, particularly, those with low socio-economic status, are not civic-minded.

Consequences

Habitats, to a great degree, determine the social, cultural and psychological development of a person. Slums have led to numerous health, security and economic problems. Sub-cultures have developed within slums that encourage crime and juvenile delinquency. Anthropologist Oscar Lewis calls this subculture the 'Culture of Poverty'. Various socio-psychological effects of this culture of poverty are:

1. Society level: The culture of poverty is a vicious circle which leads to deprivation, dependency, low achievement motivation, deviant goals, and finally more poverty. Slums are the "breeding grounds" of social problems such as drug addiction, crime, alcoholism and child labour.

2. Family level: Childhood is a well-marked protected stage in life. In slums, due to high population density, and the prevalence of so many social problems, children are exposed to what they should not be ideally. Early exposure to drug use, sex, slangs, household violence etc. have a negative impact on their psyche. Since whole family stay in single room households, children may be initiated to sex pretty early. Also, there is relatively high degree of abandonment of women and children. Wifebeating

is common.

3. Individual level: Denizens of slum experience inferiority complex, helplessness and fatalism. They are extremely dependence prone and have low levels of aspiration.

Solution

There are broadly two approaches to solve the problems of slums

1.Direct approaches

2.Indirect approaches

Direct approaches refer to efforts towards slum clearance and slum improvement. In slum clearance, old decrepit (worn and broken down) housing are cleared and replaced with modern housing. However, in the process slum dwellers are displaced. Suppose a slum has to be cleared. The government makes better housing at some location on the periphery of the city and relocates slum dwellers there. Problem here is that new housing projects are on the periphery of cities far from where livelihood opportunities are available. Due to this, many slum dwellers are hesitant to relocate. When forced to, they militantly oppose relocation.

Indirect methods refer to aims at restricting influx of migrants. This can be done by making rural life and semi-urban life attractive. Alternately, balanced regional growth can be pursued. Cities in India are enclaves within rural areas. A city village dichotomy exists in Indian rather than a gradient from rural life to urban life. Hence, rural folk do not migrate to small town but directly migrate to cities. Balanced regional development, with focus on small towns for investment and industrialization, will go a long way in solving the problems of migration all slum life.