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PHOTO CREDIT| Sohaib Ilyas
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Issue #02, June 2020
New Delhi, I ndia
Team Sheher Intekhab Alam Nomaan Khan Ishleen Dheer Anshul Abbasi Subarna Sadhu
Supported by Vishakha Jha Sohaib Ilyas To get in touch with us, Please mail us at: urbanregenerationindia@gmail.com
STAY IN TOUCH WITH US AT OUR FACEBOOK PAGE https://www.facebook.com/urbanregenerationindia/
SHEHER- ‘Strategies for Habitat, Economic, Heritage and Ecological Regeneration’ is an initiative by the Association of Urban Regeneration Alumni. -AURA (M.arch), Faculty of Architecture & Ekistics, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. This bi-annual publication has been initiated to highlight the pressing issues existing in urban areas and provide solutions in the form of policy/ program analysis, planning strategies and design interventions. The aim is to create awareness and provide a platform for exchange of ideas, innovations and forming collaborations for regeneration of urban areas. Sheher primarily looks at sharing learnings and on-ground experiences of the Urban Regeneration alumni fraternity, thesis/ research topics of the current batches and any events/accomplishments of the AURA members. It also has a dedicated guest column inviting contributions from urban professionals from diverse backgrounds to bring forth new understanding and innovative concepts. In this issue, we have tried to put together reflections, experiences and intriguing ideas from an eclectic line up of authors and urban professionals on how they perceive the new normal for our cities post the COVID19 pandemic.
“Our mind and body needs regeneration regularly and so do our cities.” So let’s converge and innovate in a collective effort towards ‘SHEHER’.
CONTENTS
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NURTURING THE COMMONS RESPONSE FOR AND BY THE CITIES Nidhi Batra | Guest Column
THE CHANGEMAKERS: IN COVERSATION WITH Mriganka Saxena | Puneet Khanna
The ‘new normal’
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IT’S SOMETHING IN THE AIR HOW THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC HEALED ASIA’S TOXIC AIR Ann Sandra Godly
POST-PANDEMIC CITYSCAPES Srishti Prabhakar
POST-PANDEMIC PUBLIC SPACES MoizUddin
URBAN DISTANCING HOW HUMANS DISCONNECTED FROM EARTH’S ECOSYSTEM Abhishek Singh Yadav
Lockdown reflections
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BIRDING IN TIMES OF COVID Piyush Sekhsaria
THE PANDEMIC PICKLE Neha Abbasi
THE PANDEMIC IS A PROMO Batool Fatima
The road to recovery
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RE-STARTING THE ‘ENGINES’ OF ECONOMIC GROWTH Vikash Chandra
USING TOOLS OF COMPASSION FOR CRISIS RESPONSE- A 1000 DAY ACTION PLAN Ikra Syed | Nomaan Khan
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ICCCS: TOWARDS SMART MANAGEMENT
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RESILIENCE TO COVID-19
Avikarsh Bhatnagar
THE WAY FORWARD IN A POST PANDEMIC WORLD The Multilogue Collective 2
Nidhi Batra |ar.nbatra@gmail.com
NURTURING THE COMMONS
RESPONSE FOR AND BY THE CITIES
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J
ust before Coronavirus outbreak struck our lives, I was binge watching The Handmaid’s Tales, a futuristic series set in a world suffering from climate change led catastrophe, where survival is increasingly impossible, where children have no place, and the human species is rapidly moving towards extinction due to their ‘karma’, yet the governance of the city/nation is still in the hands of the capitalist few, the elitist, the corporations, who control and choose the ‘rights’ that citizens may or may not get. Unfortunately, this isn’t a futuristic dystopia – it has almost become a reality in 2020. In India and in many other parts of the world, the outbreak of COVID19 was preceded with incidents of water wars, the climate refugee crisis, fight over the right to citizenship, right to equal pay, women’s right to abortion, voices against capitalists and right-wing ideologies and many more. Fortunately, or unfortunately, cities are always the chosen sites for such struggles and display of dissent and dissatisfaction. Cities the ‘theatre of social action’ as Mumford calls them, is where citizenry engage to express their concerns in ‘voice and acts’ to those holding the strings of the world – be it the corporations, politicians or bureaucracy. In the backdrop of this, I would like to highlight few incidences that have been shaping current Indian urbanism or, if we can call it, Southern urbanism at large. 4
1. An ‘alternate urbanism’ or ‘Southern Urbanism’ In India, planners and policy makers tell us to look at ‘urban’ as a locale of a certain size and density, with a local governing body and with 75% of its male population in non-agricultural economy. However, today more than ever, one couldn’t agree more with Jonathan Metzger, who in ‘The city is not a Menschenpark’ highlighted that ‘the Western idea of the city has generally been formulated as the ideally exclusive dwelling of humans, standing in direct contrast to the savage nature imagined to exist outside of the city walls. Walls that both physically and symbolically have been generating a protective space in which the unique and supposedly superior traits that have been thought to distinguish humans from animals could be cultivated and fostered.’ This phenomenon is not new in India and can be clearly seen in the planning approach of Delhi, right from the first Master Plan in 1962. The existing villages that dotted the Delhi area found themselves in an imaginary municipal jurisdiction laid out on a map – designated as ‘urban villages’, encircled by a ‘lal dora’. Since then they continue to live in a state of a flux, deprived of a quality of life that urban areas offer, yet they continue to feed the city, through informal housing and economy. A similar phenomenon was seen in expansion/development of Gurgaon in the NCR or any other development corridor projects and new master planned cities which displaced the rural residents and their livelihood to make way for ‘urbanization’. These practices are always exclusionary and also, often, ecologically unsustainable. Disappearing drainage paths and ponds leading to urban flooding, deforestation and contestations of the once ‘rural commons’ has become a common phenomenon. However, this notion of a city, where an urban-rural divide and a human-non-human divide exists, is certainly not the only way of ‘urban life’. The issue of land contestations, tenure rights, socio-economic and environmental justice can be addressed by observing ‘land resources’ as common, that is managed by the collective for the collective. Maybe it is time, that global south defines its own path of inclusive urbanization. 5
“This notion of a city, where an urbanrural divide and a humannon-human divide exists, is certainly not the only way of ‘urban life’. The issue of land contestations, tenure rights, socioeconomic and environmental justice can be addressed by observing ‘land resources’ as common, that is managed by the collective for the collective.”
PREVIOUS SPREAD| Bird’s eye view uplooking Nehru Place precint, New Delhi PHOTO CREDIT Intekhab Alam ABOVE| A scene from The Handmaid’s Tales, PHOTO CREDIT| https://dcist.com/wp-content/ uploads/sites/3/2019/06/THT_ BN_306_0025RT_f-2-768x512.jpg
2. Exploitation of the urban commons In the current lockdown period, we are experiencing wildlife, flora fauna, the sky, stars – everything seems to have re-appeared or shall we say brought back into focus. These non-humans have always been part of our urban environment but were just pushed away due to our uncontrollable exploitation of the ‘commons’ and we simply became blind to their existence. Many urbanists and environmentalists in India are mourning the death of “commons”, through the acts of rampant project clearances by the MOEF (Environment ministry). In times, where the world is in awe of the lower AQI level, the return of the visibility of stars in the night sky, reduced water pollution and probably reflecting on how greed, especially of our cities, has destroyed our environment, the Indian Ministry of Environment And Forests’ expert appraisal committee (EAC) held nine meetings in April’20 6
through video-conferencing where several industrial, mining and infrastructure projects were considered and some were cleared. Significant among them are the: renovation and expansion of the existing Parliament building (part of the Central Vista) in the capital at cost of Rs 922 crore (Jayashree, 2020), the forest clearance given to the Etalin hydropower project in one of India’s most biodiverse zones in Arunachal Pradesh’s Dibang Valley and survey and exploration of uranium over 83 sq. km of forests in Telangana’s Amrabad Tiger Reserve. Further, the Ministry had released draft amendment to the EIA notification early this year,which according to environmentalists and researchers who analysed the draft, legitimizes violations by those who start projects without environment clearance, weakens the public consultation process and gives a lot of discretionary powers to authorities. The Ministry has not, till date, withdrawn the amendments despite the outrage of development professionals. The tragedy of commons is on Live Theatre these days.
3. Act of “commoning” At the time when one of India’s most celebrated public place – The Central Vista, has been dealt a death blow with its redevelopment proposal, the capital city of Delhi has become an exhibit of another characteristic of urban commons – the act of ‘commoning’. David Harvey (Rebel cities: from the right to the city to the urban revolution, 2013) very aptly has defined the distinction between public spaces and urban commons. According to him, public spaces and goods in the city make a common when part of the citizens take political action. Syntagma Square in Athens, Tahrir Square in Cairo, and the Plaza de Catalunya in Barcelona were public spaces that transformed to an urban common as people protested there to support their political statements. Streets are public spaces that have often become an urban common by social action and revolutionary protests. In Delhi, this urban common emerged at Shaheen Bagh, late last year. Shaheen Bagh, which did not exist in mental maps of many of the residents of Delhi – now had many swarming to this site of city spectacle – some in curiosity and some in 7
BELOW| Aerial view of Jama Masjid precinct during second phase of lockdown PHOTO CREDIT| Sohaib Ilyas
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Soon volunteer groups collectivized themselves – some volunteered a library, few legal aid, some medical aid, some helped to set up the stage, some producing the public art, some supporting with food, other with basic services and facilities.
LEFT | Shaheen Bagh Protest Site PHOTO CREDIT| Author
solidarity. Following the attack on students of Jamia Millia Islamia in December, the women of Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh, a little-known locality just ahead of the University, decided to stage a peaceful sit-in protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) 2019, blocking the Kalindi KunjShaheen Bagh stretch. The protests which started against the CAA-NRC slowly embraced issues of women safety, rising cost of commodities, increasing unemployment and poverty. Soon volunteer groups collectivized themselves – some volunteered a library, few legal aid, some medical aid, some helped to set up the stage, some producing the public art, some supporting with food, other with basic services and facilities. The Shaheen Bagh protest then inspired similar Shaheen Bagh-style protests all across the country. Another, aspect of commoning that has later emerged in the COVID response, is the role that Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) have been playing. Decentralisation, acting as a platform for the voices of the community – all which have been the part of the 74th amendment since 1990s have acquired a new meaning with RWAs being the first line soldiers in the ‘war’ against COVID and attempting to make the communities resilient. From providing meals to stranded migrants, arranging vegetable and groceries, serving food to the vulnerable and elderly in the locality, ensuring essential services, helping to maintain law and order and many other roles – the RWAs are exhibiting a sudden ‘spirit of community’ in these times. In most urban settlements, where one doesn’t even bother ‘knowing thy neighbor’ – we all are now tuned in to our local RWA Telegram groups - a return to “mohalladari’. This spirit of coming together to act for the collective and as a collective – be it the women of Shaheen Bagh or RWAs is the act of ‘commoning’ of our urban commons. It is a small upspring, but a defining one. 10
Back to the future? Planning for the common Sitting in the lockdown, many of us have been hungry – hungry for the next meal, hungry for affordable housing, hungry for mobility, hungry for that time in the neighborhood park, hungry for the right to the city… and hungry for all the ‘commons.’ Leif Jerram (Leif, 2015) presents to us another dimension of commons. According to him, urban commons are not simply out there, waiting to be exploited; rather they must first be produced and then constantly reproduced. While we do miss our ‘normal’, we are fully aware that there was nothing normal about it. Our cities have been exploiting the commons, at the expense of the common.
Since my house burned down I now have a better view of the rising moon --Mizuta Masahide
Now more than ever there is no escaping that cities need to plan, invest and nurture the commons. This would require us to relook our dichotomies of nature and man, urban – rural, resident-migrant, public-private, greed-need and many such. There is possibly no ‘back to the normal’. Rather we need to go back to the future by slowing down, enjoying and nurturing co-existence through all the essentials of urban commons – the common resources (built or natural environs), sharing of resources , the act of commoning or collectively managing the resources and the need to plan for the commons (be it common infrastructure or conservation of ecologies). After all we are all ‘stewards of a commons’, commons which we inhabit, manage and hold only temporarily, commons that need to be nurtured constantly, day in and day out. Maybe it is time, that global south defines its own path of inclusive urbanization.
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References De Angelis, M. (2010). The Production of Commons and the “Explosion” of the Middle Class. Harvey, D. (2013). Rebel cities: from the right to the city to the urban revolution. London. Jayashree, N. (2020, May 1). Environment ministry on project clearance spree, activists wary. Retrieved from https://www.hindustantimes.com/: https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/ environment-ministry-on-project-clearance-spreeactivists-wary/story-vv0oGyPPmtPlL6E8mIpZMJ. html Leif, J. (2015). The false promise of the commons: historical fantasies, sexuality and the really existing urban commons of modernity. In K. M. Borch Christian, Urban Commons-Rethinking the City. Oxon: Routledge.
Nidhi Batra is a development practitioner, an architect and urban designer by training. She specializes in environmental urban design, participatory planning, WASH, skill development and public policy. She is the founder director of a platform for urban collective practices called “Sehreeti” and also works as a consultant for government and multilateral organizations. She is a visiting faculty at various architectural and urban studies colleges in Delhi-NCR. 12
IN CONVERSATION WITH THE
CHANGE MAKERS M
riganka Saxena and Puneet Khanna from Habitat Tectonics Architecture & Urbanism (HTAU), Delhi have prepared the “Implementation Framework for Containment Plan for COVID-19 for Indian Towns & Cities (20 April 2020)”. The guiding document prepared by them has been shared with multiple cities and states, stressing the need to delineate containment zones at the micro level to curb the transmission of COVID-19 disease in urban agglomerations. The document also stresses on area specific variations and contextual planning models by the urban local bodies for this ‘containment zones’ strategy to show favorably on the rising number of cases. Understanding the evolutionary nature, the document sets out protocols for the long-term, over different stages of relaxation of lockdown and intensities of spread, up to the resumption of normal life after the complete eradication of Covid-19. The document also makes an effort towards addressing the need for different measures on the basis of different typologies and nature of urban fabric in Indian cities. Most importantly, it lays out the guidelines for categorization and colour coding of urban areas based on the intensity of the spread. We bring to you a comprehensive understanding of the Implementation Framework for the Containment Plan for COVID 19 and future strategies that need to be ingrained in the planning and designing of cities, from Mriganka and Puneet themselves. 13
Mriganka Saxena is an Architect and Urban Designer and Founding Partner of Habitat Tectonics Architecture & Urbanism (HTAU). She has over eighteen years’ experience in the field of urban design and planning in UK and India. Her expertise is in preparing urban strategies and enabling frameworks for city level initiatives. msaxena@htau.co.in
Puneet Khanna is an Architect with over 18 years’ experience and is the Founding Partner of Habitat Tectonics Architecture & Urbanism (HTAU). He has worked on building design and master planning projects extensively in UK, Middle east and in India. Puneet leads City Analytics a data-analytics cell within HTAU established with the vision to become the most credible platform for comprehensive, up-to-date high-caliber geo-linked analytics on Indian cities, identifying behavioral trends across scales. pkhanna@htau.co.in
Q.1 In early April, you prepared an Urban Planning Strategy for the Containment of Covid-19 in Indian Cities. We believe this led to the formulation of the Implementation Framework for Containment Plan for Covid-19 for Indian Towns and Cities. Can you tell us about how it all started and the journey so far?
MS: It was immediately after the Janta Curfew that we started deliberating on how we, as urban practitioners, could use our skills and contribute‌assist city administrations to deal with the crisis. The lockdown that followed gave us the necessary impetus and over the next week or so we prepared the Urban Planning Strategy for Containment of Covid-19 through Incremental relaxation of lockdown in Indian Cities. It was an ‘Area’ based approach. We believe that the best scale at which to contain the spread is at that of Residential Areas, the origin of all trips within a city. We then went about identifying Residential Area Types (RA)s typically found in Indian cities and established seven different RA Types based on criteria such as population densities, dwelling size, household size, available street widths (for access to services), levels of amenity, demographics etc. These also broadly represented community needs, constraints and existing governance structures such as RWA / panchayats, (or lack thereof), which become essential to our response strategy at these times. PK: The aim, back then, was to align the WHO framework of intensity of transmission - zero, sporadic, cluster, and community - to RA types and introduce the idea of colourcoding these areas as Green, Yellow and Red for ease of monitoring and management. We really wanted to ensure that in areas with 0 Transmission, pre-emptive measures could be implemented so that unaffected parts of the city could be retained as such and resources could be channelized in affected areas more effectively. This approach would also help in the incremental relaxation of lockdown. Similarly, the aim was to prevent other areas from transitioning into higher levels of spread. The Strategy set out protocols for different RA Types and focused on aligning the allocation of health services, essential supplies, food for the needy and constraints of a specific Residential Area. We really believed that this approach would prepare the city for early detection and timely containment through an agile response strategy. We still do! 14
Q2. So why did you feel the need to prepare an “Implementation Framework for Containment Plan for Covid-19 for Indian Towns and Cities”?
MS: The Urban Planning Strategy we had prepared earlier was shared widely - with Niti Aayog, Central Ministries, multiple State Governments including Delhi, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra as well as City administrations of Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Bangalore etc. Soon after, in early April itself, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) released the Containment Plan for Large Outbreaks, Novel Coronoavirus Disease (Covid-19). This Plan also proposed geographic quarantine, but recommended large areas spread over multiple blocks of one or more districts as containment zones. We realized this would be really difficult for cities to implement and looking at the way cases were spreading, in the long run would put large parts of the city under lock down. We then decided to extend the approach and recommendations of the Urban Planning Strategy, link it to the MoHFW Plan and clearly define the containment zone at a smaller scale making it easier for the cities to implement it. That gave birth to the Implementation Framework for Containment Plan for Covid-19 for Indian Towns and Cities. It set out simplified and clear Monitoring and Containment Protocols for RAs and we ensured that these align with the goals of the MoHFW Containment Plan i.e. ensure social distancing, early detection of cases, testing of all suspect cases, isolation of cases and quarantine of contacts, risk communication to create awareness among public, and enhanced active surveillance. PK: The Implementation Framework has also been shared widely; even more so than the earlier Strategy. Some of the recommendations made by us were also reflected in National directives and advisories – i) Colour-coding different zones as Red, Yellow and Green based intensity of spread of Covod-19, ii) contextualizing the containment zone for urban agglomerations to a smaller geographical area focused on Residential Colonies, and iii) redefining the Orange / Yellow Zone as a Transition Zone between the Red (areas with confirmed cases) and Green Zones (areas with no new case for 21 days). Going further, we aimed to help cities to first, define the extents of the ‘geographical area’ for containment on the basis of RA Types; second, map existing data of positive cases to RA Types to arrive at conclusive trends on the spread of the virus; third, resume economic activity in unaffected parts of a town or city when certain other parts may still be
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affected; fourth, roll-out simple monitoring and containment protocols across affected and unaffected parts of the city to stop these from transitioning to higher levels of spread; fifth, roll out operational and management protocols for public transport and intermediate public transport through partial / complete relaxation of lock-down; sixth, put in place Monitoring and Containment Protocols for the longterm, assisting them to forward plan resource allocation and budgetary allowances. This approach would have helped identify successful / unsuccessful models and approaches for different types of localities within a city so that lessons learnt in one city could have helped other cities and states to preempt surges and spikes.
Q3. Is the approach inspired by some literature study or is it purely defined by your experience?
MS: It is really defined by our experience at preparing urban strategies and enabling frameworks for city-level initiatives. Looking at urban issues through a place-based systems approach is what we do. I think it is this very approach that guided us on the Covid containment strategies as well.
Q4. You have also undertaken data analytics to establish emerging trends of the pandemic. Could you please elaborate on the findings and explain how this may alter the approach to the Containment Plan going forward?
PK: Yes, in late May, we carried out analysis of the five cities worst by the pandemic. India had just crossed the mark of 1 lakh positive cases. We analyzed the location of almost 1,600 containment zones in Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Chennai and Pune and found out that over 65% lie within RA type 2 (RA 02), i.e. areas such as unplanned colonies, chawls, and housing on plots less than 125 sqm. It is not only about high density; the quality of the built environment and resultant poor living conditions is the crux of the issue. These areas are just not fit for home quarantine or isolation or to practice social distancing. MS: Administrations are experiencing fatigue now. Resources are scarce; healthcare services, health infrastructure and Municipal funds are stretched. If cities want to be ahead of the curve, our analysis clearly demonstrates that they now urgently need to shift their focus on these higher density unplanned areas to roll out monitoring and containment measures for maximum impact. 16
pandemic’s aftermath
PK: If the government were to share the data on the Covid patients, while obviously respecting their privacy, mapping actual cases on the RA types would reveal definitive patterns on the spread of the virus vis-à-vis the residential context. It would also reveal interesting relationship between the patient’s age, gender, socio-economic group and the residential area type they belong to. This can help in preempting the spread of the virus, identifying both RA types and potential patients’ profile much in advance. We strongly believe that the government’s response needs to change from reactive to preemptive and data analysis is the key here.
Q5. As you mentioned, a large number of urban dwellers live in informal / unplanned settlements; areas you define as Residential Area Type 02 in the Implementation Framework. How can the Authorities ensure containment in these dense fabrics?
MS: The protocols we recommend in the Implementation Framework really hinge on pre-emptive monitoring and containment measures and social benefit schemes being rolled out in all such areas, even those unaffected by the virus. This is really important; we cannot ignore RA 02s even in the Green Zones! Local health booths manned primarily by volunteers under the supervision of a small medical team that can conduct biweekly door-to-door visits and provide much-needed health updates is something we strongly recommend. This will help in early detection, timely isolation and quarantine, and prevent these areas from transitioning into higher levels of transmission. Similarly, targeted schemes for social and financial assistance including supply of essential provisions and minimum monthly sustenance allowances is also essential. These areas must also be prioritized for pre-emptive testing for asymptomatic cases. These areas are home to a majority of our lower income workforce. Further increase in spread in these areas will also impact the economy grievously.
Q6. Have you also considered behavioral aspects of various socio-economic groups to prepare the plan?
MS: More than behavior, I would say, it is the ‘type’ and quality of built environment and the day-to-day lifestyle it imposes on people, is what has been considered. Let me explain myself – A large number of these unplanned highdensity areas have common bathing and toilet facilities. This building ‘typology’ compels you to step out of your private habitable space, negating the very premise of home
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quarantine. Similarly, the extreme lack of public open space, forces people to use the narrow lanes within these localities as areas of congregation; again, making social distancing an impossibility. The Monitoring and Containment Protocols address such specificities across all RA Types.
Q7. How can the master plans of cities address future pandemics and strategize towards building resilient cities?
MS: I truly believe that pandemics is not the issue that city Master Plans need to address. It is the failure of urban planning! The pandemic is the wake-up call. Our cities are literally bursting at their seams and simultaneously crumbling within. Legislative and regulatory frameworks across scales - national, state and city – must be reviewed and revised to ensure systematic realignment and rehabilitation of urban densities. Within this larger framework, city masterplans need to strategically prioritize and actively enable the urban renewal of these unplanned areas. It is not easy. Redevelopment schemes for such areas are some of the most challenging to plan and implement. But cities do not have a choice! And, city Planning Authorities and Departments and professionals like you and me need to step up to the challenge and play our part.
Q8. What is the way forward?
PK: In the short term, I believe there is still time for cities to course correct. A place-based granular approach is the way forward. Cities must start linking data of positive cases to specific RA Types to identify their priority areas and roll out preemptive monitoring and containment measures. Our analysis suggests that the focus should be on unplanned colonies and weekly monitoring of such areas and an accordingly agile response strategy, can change the narrative for Municipalities.
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PHOTO CREDIT| Sohaib Ilyas
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Ann Sandra Godly annsandragodly@gmail.com
IT’S SOMETHING IN THE AIR
HOW THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC HEALED ASIA’S TOXIC AIR
“Many people will never be bothered by air pollution because they don’t stop long enough to take deep breath” Vikrant Parsai
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s 2019 drew to a close and the world prepared to usher in a new decade with the year 2020, a curious case of pneumonia was reported in the Hubei province of China. The mystery lay in the root cause for the disease- a new pathogen that was eventually reported to the World Health Organisation on 31 December 2019. Little did we know that this virus, now known as COVID-19, would bring the world to a complete standstill in a matter of weeks. The gravity of the novel coronavirus outbreak, especially in the global west, was initially shrouded by numbers- the fatalities reported were around 3% of the total number of declared cases in Wuhan. Canadian journalist Jane Gerster wrote an article for Global News entitled “5 Things More Likely to Kill You in Canada than Coronavirus”, and compared the 20,000 deaths worldwide as of 4 February 2020 (with none reported in Canada yet) to SARS with a fatality rate of 9.6%. Contrasted with Statistics Canada’s 2018 report on biggest causes for death in the country in 2018- 80,000 Canadians succumbed to cancer, 53,000 to cardiovascular disease, 13,300 to accidents, 8,511 to influenza and 3,811 to suicide COVID-19’s paltry numbers certainly did not warrant a fuss at the time. Of course, what we as a global community failed to recognize was the highly contagious nature of the novel coronavirus. In other words, it did not matter if the virus only claimed 3% fatalities if it infected millions of people- 3% of a whopping 2.5 million cases as of 20 April 2020 worldwide is still a
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higher death count than that of SARS. Indeed, what was once a localized “China problem” quickly became a “World problem”, impacting industries and systems everywhere travel, import and export, petroleum, retail, etc. Hospitals are now overburdened with throngs of patients reporting symptoms, while e-commerce and food distribution logistics have to devise ways to be able to meet the soaring demand for door-to-door delivery without compromising the safety of their employees and customers. Supermarkets have turned into war zones as people turn to panic-buying and preparing for an apocalyptic-type event. In what seems like an overnight transformation, COVID-19 has redefined our way of life and introduced a new type of urbanism- a detached, distanced and withdrawn existence limited to the four walls of our homes. Everywhere, public spaces like cafes, restaurants, city squares and parks that were once thriving grounds for social interaction are now deserted. In fact, in times such as these, the very concept of a public space that was once upheld by urban planners as the locus of communal activity and identity is now considered dangerous. So, with the option of any real human contact off the table, we are living out the City of Bits by William J. Mitchell, who hypothesised that “just as railroads influenced settlement patterns and economics of the 19th century, and automobiles influenced settlement, commerce, and recreation in the 20th century, computer networks will influence how we live, work, and move (and how and even whether we move)…” A Citylab article on pandemic preparedness by Ian Klaus notes how “the stories of cities have always also been those of infectious disease…” and how “…digital infrastructure might be the sanitation of our time.” Indeed, the virtual space has not only allowed many of us to work and get in touch with others from the safety of our homes, but has also provided “the sanitation of our time” in the environmental purge this lockdown has inadvertently caused. With no gondolas in the Venice canals, the sediments that were once constantly afloat have now sunk to the bottom, leaving the water crystal clear. Reports (the authenticity of which is still in question) of dolphins and swans swimming in these shallow waters and animals across the world taking to the streets have been all the rage. Barcelona and Madrid have seen a drop in air pollution by 50%. Roads in the bustling 23
Dubbed the “Lockdown Silver Lining” by those who believe the human race to be “the real virus”, and “Ecofascism” by those who find the celebrating of this environmental revival in the face of death premature and insensitive, this natural reclamation has caused quite a stir across the globe.
PREVIOUS SPREAD| Bird’s eye view overlooking Raisana Hill PHOTO CREDIT | Intekhab Alam
cities of New York and Shanghai are now empty. Dubbed the “Lockdown Silver Lining” by those who believe the human race to be “the real virus”, and “Ecofascism” by those who find the celebrating of this environmental revival in the face of death premature and insensitive, this natural reclamation has caused quite a stir across the globe. Either way, there is little debate on the fact that COVID-19 has brought some interesting revelations before us. Perhaps most interesting however, is the way Asia’s toxic air witnessed temporary healing as people took to selfisolation. Wuhan, the epicentre of the pandemic, showed an increase in air quality in the two months since confinement. Satellite imagery from NASA and the European Space Agency showed blue skies all over China. The decrease in nitrogen dioxide in the atmosphere above the country was described as “striking”. China, responsible for 30% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions every year, was able to reduce these emissions by up to 25% during the lockdown. This kind of nation-wide slowdown is typically seen around the Lunar New Year holidays when everyone is at home with their families. However, to experience this over a prolonged period at this time of year is highly unusual. Why is this a topic that begs to be discussed? Every day, millions of people from across the globe breathe in toxic fumes, smoke and dust, leading to health problems that range from allergies and rashes to serious cardiac and pulmonary diseases. The Great Smog of London in 1952 only puts into perspective how long great urban centres have struggled with air pollution. Today, 91% of the world’s population breathes in air that the World Health organisation regards as dangerous to human health. A recent study shows that of the most polluted cities in the world, 6 of the top 10 that feature in this list are from India. The rest of the cities, incidentally, are located in China, Pakistan and Bangladesh. 24
In a time where sustainability is perceived to be at odds with growth and prosperity, it is no wonder that for lawmakers, politicians and business giants, tackling the problem of air pollution is not a priority. Jeff Goodell remarks, “One of the myths of backward thinking... is the idea that you can have jobs or you can have clean air and water, but you can’t have both. That myth has been busted a thousand times, but still it lives on...” If this is the global attitude, consider the impact of this philosophy in a place like Asia, where developing countries with high population densities struggle to recover from the ravages of colonisation and take the fast road to progress. The pressures of catching up with the modern world and providing basic needs such as running water and electricity to the 4.4 billion people who call Asia home (in other words, 60% of the world population) are immense. Unlike the relatively “younger” countries in the West like Canada, USA and the Scandinavian nations, the ancient East does not have the luxury of carte blanche development. Asian countries were already flourishing cities and settlements at a time when the way of life in the west was still nomadic and primitive. Any growth in the 21st century is therefore bound by the limitations of a pre-existing urban fabric that is centuries old. Furthermore, with nations like China, India and Bangladesh shouldering most of the burden of the manufacturing industry, is it any wonder that Asia looks to fuels and technologies that are cheap, tried, tested and readily available with little consideration on the toll it takes on the environment? Asia is wrestling with the problem of air pollution while suffering an obvious handicap- an issue that is only amplified during the winter months when a thick blanket of smog envelopes the land. Any course of action taken to reverse this have been short-lived experiments or band-aid solutions. Many Chinese cities tried installing massive air purifiers and restricting the movement of private cars. The capital Beijing, home to 11 million people, even ordered a shutdown in 2015 during an “airpocalypse”, when a red alert was sounded as pollution levels soared to 15 times what WHO deemed safe. Manila, Bangkok, Jakarta and Hanoi are all struggling with unprecedented air toxicity levels. Meanwhile, a recent study claims that merely living in New Delhi could shorten the life expectancy of an individual by up to 11 years. Fingers have 25
Brick Kiln as seen from Yamuna Expressway PHOTO CREDIT | Intekhab Alam
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been pointed in several directions, but perhaps the most popular theory is that Delhi owes its poor air quality to the systemic burning of crops in Punjab post-harvest- a method used to quickly (and cost effectively) prepare their fields for the next crop cycle. This oversimplistic accusation poses that Delhi’s urban problem is in fact rooted in the rural practices of desperate farmers. If the COVID-19 pandemic has proved anything, it is that the nation’s cities and industries must be held accountable first. The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s love for sudden, life-changing announcements (previously borne out in the drastic Demonetisation Act in 2016) was renewed on 24 March 2020 when he ordered a nation-wide lockdown with immediate effect. While necessary, the poor planning of this move left countless daily wage workers and migrant labourers in Indian cities to travel back to their hometowns on foot, leading to tragic reports of deaths mid-journey and inciting censure across the subcontinent. More pertinent to the subject at hand however, the isolation was marked by an astonishing drop in air pollution levels. With factories shut down and people confined to their homes, the pandemic did what no environmental policy or directive as yet was able to achieve. Sadly, this was a short-lived feat, and on 5 April 2020, when Modi asked Indians to show solidarity by burning oil lamps or diyas, people seized the opportunity to celebrate an early Diwali with firecrackers. An India Today report states that 24 hours before this took place, “the Particulate Matter (PM) 2.5 level in Lucknow was 60, 53 in Kolkata and 47 in Delhi. Two hours after the April 5 event, the PM 2.5 level in Lucknow reached 101 (at 11.30 pm), 91 in Delhi, 56 in Jaipur and 96 in Ahmedabad.” India’s urban air pollution is a poison of its own making. According to activist Vandana Shiva, “The crop burning issue is a diversion… In India, we (always) knew straw was an important link between ourselves, our crops, the earth and our animals… But chemical agriculture made short, dwarf varieties to take up more chemicals so we emit more greenhouse gases as synthetic fertiliser emissions… Farmers are told to burn the crop, but it’s wrong to call this the reason because they burn the crop in Punjab in November. The peak pollution of Delhi happens in December. It’s time to stop turning our eyes away from fossil fuels and chemicals and criminalise farmers… The cities of India are polluted for two 27
With factories shut down and people confined to their homes, the pandemic did what no environmental policy or directive as yet was able to achieve. Sadly, this was a shortlived feat, and on 5 April 2020, when Modi asked Indians to show solidarity by burning oil lamps or diyas, people seized the opportunity to celebrate an early Diwali with firecrackers.
reasons. Firstly, we have pushed everything into the cities. Everyone is driving long distance. Our local work has been shut down. We once had our workshops in front and living quarters at the back. All of that was shut down by new urban laws that criminalise your place or work and your place of living to be the same… (The second reason is the) huge mountains of plastic and aluminium garbage which I never saw in my country as I was growing up even till 20 years ago. I think it’s time to start making the polluters pay- those who pollute the environment and our bodies…” The New Delhi problem illustrates the challenges of pinpointing the true source of pollution in Asia. A cure cannot begin without a critical diagnosis, and every Asian city ‘s struggle to breathe freely again is dependent on an honest assessment of the cause. However, with vested political and economic interests, it is easy to turn a blind eye to the truth and point the finger elsewhere. COVID-19 has lifted the veil, and shown with proof that simple steps like working from home (wherever possible) can allow us to continue our economic growth while reducing our carbon footprint. In 1992, the World Bank Development Report claimed that “most forms of pollution …initially worsen but then improve as incomes rise” This is supported by the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) which suggests that in the early stages of development and industrialisation, as countries struggle to reach a certain threshold, environmental decline is to be expected. However, after passing this threshold, when a city attains a level of economic prosperity and wealth, public attention goes to sustainable technology, fuels and development. This is promising news for Asia and stirs hope for its future and health in the years to come.
Ann is an architect based in Toronto with a postgraduate degree in Architecture and Urbanism from the Manchester School of Architecture. 28
N Srishti Prabakar |ar.srisht@gmail.com
POST PANDEMIC
CIT YSCAPES
T
he Architecture fraternity plays a vital role in the creation of living and working spaces, and it’s role becomes even more essential in testing times especially the times we currently live in. With a possible extension of the lockdown, the COVID-19 pandemic has left us questioning our existing systems, in order to contribute to it in more meaningful ways, raising an important question, “What does it mean to be an Architect in the ongoing pandemic/post-pandemic situation?” Architecture has always been shaped by what happens outside a building. Cities are basically socio-technical systems. Global events such as war, disease outbreak, industrialisation and mass migration to urban centres have shaped the evolution of every aspect related to a building ranging from advanced material technology and new construction techniques to protect the inhabitant from what lies outside, to systemic changes in services such as sanitation and energy distribution. In a sense, form has always followed not just function but also fear. 29
ABOVE| A man walking up the stairs of Jama Masjid, Old Delhi PHOTO CREDIT | Sohaib Ilyasi
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced us to live socially distanced from each other in partial isolation leaving the scenery of the urban centres reduced to ghost towns, similar to that of a post apocalyptic scenery with remnants of objects that remind us of a bygone lifestyle. As a result, this has shut down a vital source of ideas and interactions driving social dynamics and growth both in the economy and society. The fear that we will be left behind, however, might have effects in the long term and will question the implementation of important fundamentals in housing systems, design of workplaces, urban design and management. In the last decade, design of workspaces has seen a huge boom in the fashioning of ‘co-working’ zones and with it, the opportunity of running into freelancing creatives, erasing the boundaries between teams. Office furniture has shrunken to accommodate smaller spaces, while large common cafeterias, lobbies and centrally air-conditioned open-plan offices looking at other high rise commercials became the norm. But working in close proximity is no longer tempting and it does not seem likely that there will be offices running at full capacity, giving way to an era of work from home. A new framework of commercial infrastructure and offices would come into being and as architects, a new outlook for planning of CBDs would have to be formulated in the urban planning models. The further emergence of high-rise may be governed by managing densities through design of spaces. The coronavirus crisis has brought to light the effects massmigration of people to urban centres for work. If we were to treat the virus as a catalyst for decentralization, it would mean taking a step back in time to gaze upon ideas of mixeduse towers and mixed blocks in walkable cities that have already been put forth and worked upon since the last few decades. 30
The pandemic has brought forth the clarity of absolute necessity of public health services and a proper social welfare system as well as the deep rootedness of a community’s sense of belonging within neighbourhoods. Decentralisation reassesses the fundamental structuring of cities and prioritizes the availability of basic necessities such as affordable housing, access to facilities and negates the need for traveling long distances to get to work among other reasons, thereby strengthening local centers. It is after all these corner shops and local kiranas that have come to our aid all throughout the lockdown. It also becomes crucial to integrate principles of social thinking in shaping the postpandemic world with commitment to accessibility, sociocultural practices and some room for flexibility. Further, formation of a strong hierarchical administrative body and a feedback mechanism that reaches out to its citizens at the local level and channels information to public service-people in the position of initiating change is another significant shift we need. This allows for tailored development plans that arise from the underlying conditions as compared to a generic definition of progressive development. This 31
ABOVE| An otherwise busy Nehru Place precinct, deserted during Lockdown PHOTO CREDIT| Nomaan Khan
has already been attempted in certain areas of the country via initiatives such as Citizens for Bengaluru by Mr. Srinivas Alavilli. Another factor to ponder upon would be the incorporation of new technology via advancement in a range of fields including newly discovered materials and practices. These promise the co-creation of sustainable cities without indulging in overcrowding but also accounting for greater densities. This however, is above and beyond a deep understanding of the global climate crisis and designing environment-sensitive proposals. Cities such as Copenhagen are pioneers in smart and sustainable planning with an established system of incentives and the capability to handle any unforeseen emergent crises. For developing countries like India, it is crucial to focus and learn not only from urban and formal settlements but also from informally developed and existing settlements and the level of impact of the pandemic in these areas. Studying and imbibing the unknown expertise of the resilience therein will assist in making headway for any reconstitution thereafter. In conclusion, living in this very moment is a paradox by itself. Everything seems to have changed. The validity of habits and routines that were developed over years and years are being questioned. Yet, nothing has changed. The way forward as Architects forays into ample room for generating fresh ideas that are driven by the needs of people as opposed to those that are mere infrastructural advances.
N Srishti Prabakar is an artist and aspiring urbanist who loves to question and curate her own visual responses to the stories she uncovers. 32
Moiz Uddin |Ar.Moizuddin@gmail.com
POST PANDEMIC PUBLIC SPACES
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S
ince times unknown, cities across the globe have faced public health crises. From the Athens plague in 430BC to the Black Death in the middle ages to the recent spate of Ebola epidemic across Sub-Saharan Africa and now COVID19, every time cities and civilizations have established new paradigms to counter them. All of these disease outbreaks have driven profound changes in the city’s laws and identity. One of the most crucial questions for urban planners, designers and built environment professionals in these times is of Dedensification. India is a country of more than a billion people, some of them living with extreme poverty and poor living conditions leading to poor health. Indian Cities, where huge populations live in congested, overcrowded areas lacking light and air, the conditions are dire. Delhi- the capital city has a population density of 11,297 persons per sq. km. There area 1,797 densely populated unauthorized colonies which hold 30% of Delhi’s total population. Be it Mumbai’s Dharavi or slums of Delhi both have shown that stuffing the poor into small, inhabitable spaces has enormous health consequences, especially during pandemics. Several advisories and public health interventions have been implemented in the last two months in India; some of them were directed towards restricting use of public spaces, confinement and social distancing and other, larger precautionary policy measures to reduce transmission of COVID-19 and protect public health. Ironically, Indian cities thrive on their active street life, with narrow lanes and houses overlooking the street, bazaars bustling with overcrowded pedestrians, hawkers
FACING PAGE| Graphic interpretation of the usually vibrant Indian streets GRAPHIC COURTESY| Subarna Sadhu 34
and vehicles. In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, we feel the sting of having lost our familiar, vibrant, social and lively public places. The most crucial part of the situation is uncertainty about what lies ahead and fear that our sense of place and space may be permanently transformed. When we move outside our homes, we observe bizarre and distant social interactions, raising questions about how social relations in public spaces may be changing. Can our public spaces be designed or retrofitted to be equipped with the ‘new normal’? There is huge uncertainty about how COVID-19 will impact future public space design, use and perceptions. How will our relationship with public space change and for how long?. It may take years before we are able to ascertain how the global pandemic has changed the planning and design of public space.
ABOVE| A street market in Kalaw, Myanmar, has adapted brilliantly to the need for physical distancing PHOTO CREDIT| Chan Myae Aung.
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Impact on public life in streets Streets and sidewalks in Indian cities tend to be crowded and irregular. Sidewalks are occupied by street vendors, pavement dwellers and a range of informal activities. Hence, the social distancing measures announced have led to ‘jugaad’ style appropriations of streets. In efforts to direct social distancing while queuing, sidewalks leading to shops have been marked with yellow circles a meter and a half apart. For sustained social distancing, city administration may need to consider adding more space to accommodate for new queuing norms at the entrances of shops, services and public facilities. The pandemic could force planners and designers to create a new vocabulary or typology to describe places in terms of social density, distances, crowding, or public 36
health risks. The pandemic will create a new lens through which to think about public space, maybe a new street design, and infrastructure, housing and mobility options. The pandemic is also likely to push street vendors, other informal workers and pedestrians out of the street. This is going to affect their relationship with the public space and their social behaviour. This pandemic would trigger new patterns and configurations of use, potentially reshaping public space in our cities. The answer to an alternative community space lies in our traditional terrace systems. Historically, the terrace social systems were equally important as street systems. With time we lost this design element of terrace systems to virtual communication and technology based solutions. Fears of contagion in closed indoor spaces may increase demand for more exterior spaces, this is where it can fulfil the gap. More optimistically, those who have lived through severe confinement or lockdown may have a renewed appreciation of terraces and balconies, although this may not be the case for everyone. There are likely to be diverse needs when it comes to social space, based on gender, age, and other dimensions.
TOP LEFT| Streets showing prepandemic & post pandemic conditions TOP RIGHT| Traditional terraces as social spaces PHOTO CREDIT| Author
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It has become clichĂŠ to claim that this crisis is an opportunity, and yet never before has so much attention been devoted to cities and health, making this is an unprecedented opportunity to examine the links between urban planning, public space and wellbeing. This pandemic has taught us that these simple solutions can have larger impacts.
MoizUddin is an Architect and a student of Urban Regeneration with keen interest in strategic planning and Urban Design. 38
Abhishek Singh |y.abhi01@gmail.com
URBAN DISTANCING
HOW HUMANS DISCONNECTED FROM EARTH’S ECOSYSTEM
February 14, 1990; a spacecraft hurtling towards the edge of the solar system turned its camera back as it crossed the heliosphere and took a family photograph, The Pale Blue Dot: Earth. Smaller than a pixel with billions of lives, that pale blue dot has been the home to every organism, every plant, every ecosystem that ever existed. It has seen the planet come to life, the rise of the great apes and the beginning of civilization. 39
I
n their 10,000 years of existence, modern humans rose to prominence as the dominant species of Earth’s ecosystem. Large brains, outstanding communication skills, and the instinct to survive and learn that came from our evolutionary baggage, propelled us towards the command of the Planet. But has that rise to dominance come at a cost? Charles Darwin once said, “Man in his arrogance thinks himself a great work, worthy of a deity. More humble, and I believe truer, to consider himself created from animals.” Throughout the history of Earth, the relationship and place of humans in its ecosystem was predominantly unchanging. But the Industrial Revolution was the determining era of human existence. It brought in an unprecedented change in urban demographics. The humble ape was moving into cities in record numbers, breaking off ties with nature it was always a part of, almost forgetting the fact that it was them who needed the planet not the other way round. Thousands of years of constant evolution, constant change and upgradation of the human body came to a screeching halt as humans became increasingly sedate within 2 centuries. To most, it feels almost abstract, unbelievable, but naturedeficit disorder slowly became a reality of human life and that is the core of the problem we face today in the form of increasing numbers of pandemics and epidemics throughout the world.
FACING PAGE| Old Yamuna Bridge or Lohe ka Pul PHOTO CREDIT | Mohd. Javed
To comprehend the issue, we need to have a rudimentary understanding of the human immune system and the role it played in sustaining life on earth and by extension humans themselves. As a biological being proceeds in life and indulges in its day to day activities it gets exposed to a surfeit of ‘alien/foreign’ biological elements such as bacteria, other microcellular organisms and pathogens. When the body encounters any of these elements, the immune system kicks in to examine if the element is an antigen (foreign substance) and works to remove it if it is indeed foreign to your body. This is an ongoing process in a living being’s biology which helps improve its strength to ward off any dangers one might face. Immunity builds over time and it builds on exposure, and that is where cities come into picture. 40
The course of human development from the invention of the wheel & fire to the development of rail to the era we live in today and the one we are heading towards is barely comparable. More than 65% of the human population would reside in cities and urban areas by 2050. This is unparalleled for humans to live in relatively sanitised environments than the environments they evolved in for 10 millennia. Not only is this a challenge for urbanists, architects, designers and policy makers but it is an uphill task for the human species to recalibrate themselves to this new form of lifestyle. David Attenborough once said, “People are getting out of touch with the realities of the natural world, of which we are in fact a part.” “Over 50% of us areto some degree have been out of touch with the natural world .” This is not just the conversation of humans overrunning the planet and putting the future of the planet at stake by sidelining any other species of flora or fauna that comes in their way, it’s the conversation of the root of the issue that we’re muddled in; the realisation of the fact that we are a part of Earth’s story. To take nature and its effects on human life and immunity, we do not even have to go far to get the context, a look at Gandhi and his principles can be inspiring and can direct one towards living simply with nature. His idea of a model village where the needs and wants of a person were fulfilled as he considered every village to function as a self-sustaining community. The concept and dream of what was felt were a rural centric India was in fact a society that was in sync with nature. The life Gandhi conceptualised was where humanity evolves with nature, learning and sustaining with it. The idea of sustainability probably is a solution for today’s cities as well. Urban Planning and architecture will have to evolve and advance in directions where cities & built environments and nature amalgamate into one. Policies regarding degradation of natural ecosystem particularly in urban areas will have to be drafted and a will to understand and encourage people to accept the environment as their habitat will have to be informed and reinvigorated in them.
FACING PAGE| The incessantly growing concrete jungle around me. GRAPHIC COURTESY | Subarna Sadhu
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The move towards an industrialised and urbanised society was a choice we made. Nature was a refuge when survivability was the primary concern for prehistoric humans, but today it is a choice. Nature does not come into play when immunity can be gained technologically. Advancement in science did lengthen the lifespan of humans but its side effects particularly in the way we live and the urban context , cannot be side-lined. Questions can be raised that these causes and effects can be coped with the help of technology. But one thing is for sure, you can’t sanitise the Earth or the Universe. Every technology needs a base and a foundation to operate on, our connection to nature provides it one. This takes us back to the spacecraft Voyager - I that we started with. When it turned its camera back it took multiple photos of our planetary neighbourhood and the photographs it sent were first worked on, Earth was not visible. Only by recombining the different colour frames, the photograph was sent in using radio signals, we saw a speck of blue. The Pale Blue Dot is a metaphor, how society moved ahead, how our limited knowledge and consideration for the planet and its ecosystem has evolved over time and in future only if we will put the entirety of the ecosystem in the frame the picture will become clear to us. It is just how long we take to figure it out completely. I hope if Voyager turns its camera towards home again, there is a family to take a photograph of.
Abhishek completed his B.Arch from Faculty of Architecture & Ekistics from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi in 2016. 42
PHOTO CREDIT| Sohaib Ilyas
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LO C K D OWN R E F LEC T IONS
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Peeyush Sekhsaria | peeyush.sekhsaria@gmail.com
BIRDING
IN THE TIME
O F CO V I D
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W
hile the lockdown was just announced and all the complex uncertainties were playing out in my head, a birder friend put out an event, “COVID – Home Birding Challenge” to bird strictly from home and share findings. The game was on! I am lucky to rent a flat with a large terrace in a 1970’s middle-class layout of South Delhi. A graceful Champa greets me when I open my terrace door and a handsome Shisham (Dalbergia sisoo) tree overlooks my terrace on the east. The terrace now seemed like my perfect quarantine. I had terracotta pans with water that attracted a steady stream of birds, so I sat to work with my computer, binocular, camera and a bird book! I got into a comfortable quarantine routine. Delhi to the pleasant surprise of many has quite a diversity of birdlife, I often pose this question and the answers range between less than 50 to up to 200. Delhi has 377 species including migratory birds! While this is impressive, India itself is a mega-diverse species with its current list an astounding 1301! The entertainers of this terrace are Jungle Babblers, also known as ‘Satbhai’ because of their resemblance to an endlessly chattering group of boys. Quite nonplussed by human presence, the, ‘babble babble babble babble’, only changing to a higher pitch based on their mood, perceived threat, or their urge to bully each other! They hop over and around picking and scattering the leaves with gay abandon, pouncing on the little insects this exposes. Though they are opportunistic feeders and I have seen them feasting on salted groundnuts, left-overs from a monkey’s raid of a shop downstairs.
FACING PAGE | Bird Watching site, the view from my balcony PHOTO CREDIT| Author
That brings me to the Rhesus Macaques of our neighbourhood. I stepped out one day to find on the Champa tree a little monkey bossing over the birds. It moved towards me with an open mouth and glaring eyes. It was so cute that I smiled, and that frightened the little one. That is when I noticed that Mama monkey had torn open a shiny packet of salted groundnuts and was feasting on them. The poor shopkeeper downstairs couldn’t do much other than standing guard with a stick to protect from further loot. 46
Red wh i s ker ed B u l bu l Red-whiskered Bulbuls have an active nest in a little dense bush that grows in the road divider. The insect population of the neighbourhood is surely taking a beating!
H a wk
The Shikra, a hawk roughly the size of a crow is a fairly common bird of prey. From its lookout on a leafy tree it swoops down to carry its prey before the victim is aware of any danger
Br own - h eaded Bar bet
A Brown-headed Barbet pokes it head out of its nest hole. It would typically look around with turn of its head in all directions before quickly slipping out.
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Ro se - ringe d Pa ra ke ets
called so due to the rose ring seen around the neck of the male eats often holding its food in one of its paws. I wonder whether they also have left and right legged!
Br ah m i ny S tar l i n g
Nesting season is in full flow, here the Brahminy Starling with nesting material in its beak
Brown he a d e d Ba rb et
This heavy billed grass green bird with a brown head and conspicuous orange around the eye called the Brown-headed Barbet has one of the loudest incessant calls in our gardens. Mainly living off fruits it excavates its nest in dead branches only.
Ju n gl e B abbl er
The salted ground nuts left over from an earlier spoil of the neighbourhood Macaque mother were too tempting for the Jungle Babbler, though it did seem to have some difficulty negotiating it.
All images have been clicked by the author 48
The torn packet did not go unnoticed , the next morning I saw a Common Myna with a piece of the shiny packet. After strutting around a bit in the morning sun it flew off with its prize catch to add some shine to its humble nest, they had dislodged a nesting squirrel from above the AC box some time back. Later, the same day, a Myna, arrived at the water pan with a feather and dipped it, perhaps to clean it or to make it soft. Then after calling unnecessarily, fluffing itself and generally showing off it picked up the feather and flew off to the nest. Not to be left behind, it’s cousin, the Brahminy Starling, called so because of its colour and beautiful black mane resembling that of a Brahmin was also in nesting mode. A pair, with one of them carrying leaf material, was hanging around the Barbet’s nest. The Barbets I suspect are rather simple-minded , they tolerated the Starlings. Sure enough, the moment the Barbets were not around the Starlings barged in trying to push leaf material in. It reminded me of how we would block a seat in State Transport buses by throwing our handkerchiefs from the windows, annulling the grand efforts taken by the people who had jumped into a moving bus. Luckily for the Barbets, the Starlings did not make much headway and abandoned their attempts. Decorum was restored and the Barbets, can be seen making their careful exit from and rapid entry into their nest hole. Other birds were in nesting fervour too, the smart punk like Red-whiskered Bulbul was scurrying away with morsels of food in his beak to feed its ever-demanding young ones in a roadside shrub close by. Thankfully the Champa was its stopover and I managed to get a shot with a Preying Mantis in its beak. Unlike our poisonous and terrible smelling pesticides, these birds did their work of pest controllers with style and elan. While the regular Blue Rock Pigeons were seen all the time, another pigeon, the Yellow-footed Green Pigeons hung around awkwardly in the Shisham, feeding on the seed pods and in this nesting season collecting thin twigs. Their delicate cooing, a bit like a gentle whistle that had caught the early morning breeze was undoubtedly one of the most melodious calls. Talking of calls one cannot leave out the Magpie Robin, the male with its jet black and white plumage and smart posture 49
In days of quarantine birding my list has hit a cool 40 species, including one bird identification to be confirmed and a few that I saw in flight and others that I only heard. Additionally, to this list, I would add a wasp that seems to have taken residence close to the terrace door that also came to sip water, young squirrels that have grown up on the Shisham and that cute Rhesus Macaque baby and mother.
took to its favourite perch, an exposed stub of the Shisham such that the whole world could see him and belted out a series of melodies, no great wonder that he is called the King of garden birds. As my list crossed 15 species there were a couple of little surprises. Late in the afternoon the beautiful Oriental White-eye, called so because of the white ring around its eye came visiting the water pans. They can be quite fast and zip around in small groups, always stunningly turned out they never have a bad day! And there was another one, which is my favourite find. High up in the Shisham I saw a little flitter, about half the size of a sparrow, was it a Flycatcher? It moved too quickly, and the leaves and branches blocked a clear view, but from its jizz, the overall appearance of the bird I guessed it was a Red-breasted Flycatcher, but I still wanted to be sure and so a photo was important. Come what may I couldn’t get a picture and when I finally did it was barely good enough. As late afternoon approached, to my utter surprise in true Flycatcher style it flitted in to arrive at a pot next to the water pans, and before I knew it flitted in for a quick sip and away, it was gone! It turned up again the next day, though this time in my eagerness to get a picture I disturbed it and it flew away without taking a sip! I felt bad, so no attempt at pictures of the Red-breasted Flycatcher from now on, I am sure it will flit back and drink undisturbed. In days of quarantine birding my list has hit a cool 40 species, including one bird identification to be confirmed and a few that I saw in flight and others that I only heard. Additionally, to this list, I would add a wasp that seems to have taken residence close to the terrace door that also came to sip water, young squirrels that have grown up on the Shisham and that cute Rhesus Macaque baby and mother. Covid quarantine birding may give me a chance to see some more!
Peeyush Sekhsaria is a Development Professional, He has done his M. Arch in Earthen Architecture and M. Phil in Geography with a special interest in the overlaps of people, landscapes and nature,. Peeyush is an avid bird watcher. 50
Neha Abbasi |nehaabbasi@gmail.com
THE PANDEMIC PICKLE The world’s sitcom has reached a season with unimaginable and mind-numbing plot twists. In the current episode, the entire cast has turned into damsels in distress waiting to be saved from an indiscernible evil. This would have sounded bizarre six months ago but now we just silently relate to it while sipping our Dalgona coffee. If we replay the last month in our heads we all would agree to the fact that it was truly surreal. Ironically for most of us staying inside our homes, restricted to our safe havens, became the most challenging thing to do. Obviously it was a huge change to adapt to. A few months ago the current situation of the world, ‘the global lockdown’ was not even an imaginable possibility and could easily pass off as the craziest idea to ever cross the human mind losing only to pineapple on pizza. While we are at home, the line between work and vacation are blurred. Outside, nature is also experiencing a sort of detox. It took less than two weeks for the outside world to return to ‘its’ normal. Thanks to the great invention called balconies and another called the Internet we could view these “rare events” while maintaining a safe distance hence ruling out the risk of destroying what has been regenerated. Pollution reduced, flamingos and turtles returned to beaches after years, the snow clad Himalayan peaks became visible from afar, peacocks roamed safely on roads, occasionally peeking in houses to enjoy the sight of mighty humans locked inside. All these are rare events for us, the human kind. As the rivers heal, air cleanses, animals roam freely about their 51
ABOVE| The utopian vision of humans living in harmony with nature GRAPHIC COURTESY| Subarna Sadhu
land, birds chirp uninterrupted in absence of the usual hustle bustle, we are witnessing an overhaul of the planet. We are witnessing the earth bloom again in the absence of our endless destructive activities. Extreme situations demand extreme actions. The battle against coronavirus can only be fought by staying indoors it is probably the way to survive in present times. Predictably human society is in distress, we are thriving in a state of confusion with an air of hopelessness around us. This is probably how other inhabitants of the planet have felt since time immemorial. However, unlike us they did not have the luxury to even express their anguish. While we debate surfing through our boredom and responsibilities we need to face the reality that we are intentionally or unintentionally destroying our planet, our only true home. This ignorance will surely not lead to any kind of bliss. This time we are all grounded by nature for our blatant action. Although lockdown is the appropriate quick fix it surely is not a long term solution. Our ways need to be fixed before we reach a point of no return. The past month has sort of been the trailer to a life long movie in which we will be the villains as well as the victims and there will be no happy ending.
Neha is presently pursuing a Ph.D. in Environmental Chemistry from Jamia Millia Islamia with a focus on water pollution. An amateur poet she enjoys writing and reading. 52
Batool Fatima |batool.fatima06@gmail.com
THE PANDEMIC IS A PROMO
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hile we ponder about our lives, future and the world post pandemic, a whole lot has already changed. This time we do not have long to make masterful strategies to work on. Things are so disruptive and exponential just like this Covid-19 pandemic that by the time we realize what has happened, that thing would have already impacted millions of people. Globally, trends are changing rapidly. While the people in third world countries are still aspiring for stable jobs, corporate giants are moving towards developing mechanisms of working remotely. While we perceive ourselves as the major players in textile and agri goods for the world, the automated industries in developed countries are producing everything with minimal human labor. While we are struggling to earn to live, some welfare states in Europe have already earmarked basic income for every household. This pandemic appears to be a promo before the actual unfolding of events in the 21st century.
ABOVE| Opening our eyes to the ticking clock until nature strikes back again GRAPHIC COURTESY| Anuradha Paul
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It is becoming more and more evident that in near future, AI robots would start replacing the unskilled and semiskilled labor force. Programming languages and digital communication would be replacing the native languages and the way we interact. Our patterns of life and our routines might be substituted by an algorithm, our own customized algorithm, our own barcode, our new identities or something still unknown to us. Maybe the future would be virtual cities. This calls for an urban planning and design discourse towards new urban strategies and re-orientation from the physical urban landscape to virtual simulated urbanscapes. Its apparent with tourism industry already gravitating towards virtual tours and experiences. As is said by Alvin Toffler, “The illiterate of 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.” Scientifically pandemics are nature’s way of controlling population. As the world population is about to reach 8 billion, the human race with its unsustainable ways has become a threat to the natural equilibrium. In his book The World in 2050, Professor Laurence Smith talks about the pressure on the water, food and basic supplies due to the increasing global population. He indicates that the climate change and the current situation of the global warming can change the entire structure of our globalized world. A series of events in the recent past in the form of disasters like forest fires, tsunamis and cyclones and now the emergence of highly contagious and immutable endemics are a confirmation of that. The time has come where we have to re-shape our way of life, restructure our health systems and be more conscious of our actions and their impact on the environment. As Harari suggests, “Humans were always far better at inventing tools than using them wisely.” We have spent so much energy, time and money over trivial issues that we overlooked that our own existence is subservient in the larger scheme of things. 54
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As in the previous pandemics, the current health crisis has had a colossal impact on the global economy and society as a whole. On one hand the oil market has crashed, on the other Netflix has soared to 167 million subscribers. With the lockdown across the globe the travel industry has crashed, mega airlines are halted but on contrary some cycling industries are hiring employees because of the surge in demand for bicycles in countries like Australia. The global education system has transitioned from thousands of students traveling to high ranking universities with different disciplines and agendas to digital classrooms. University education which three months back was a commodity, today has become easily accessible. Socially Covid-19 has amplified the ideologies and priorities of the governments across the world. In countries like New Zealand, Taiwan, Denmark and Germany the priorities have reflected their immediate action and control of the virus. On the other hand countries that have the world’s best health care systems including the USA and UK collapsed due to delayed response. This crashing of global economy has more to do with the understanding of the ecology and environment and human impact on it rather than recession and dwindling stock markets. In these quarantine days we have realized or must realize, how money is useless? How services can be exchanged regardless of money and how respecting ecology and living with it is the only way forward. Now that the earth is healing, there is this cognizance that there is no going back to the old way of life, the new life has begun.
FACING PAGE| The dawn of AI era GRAPHIC COURTESY| Subarna Sadhu
Batool is a student activist based in Karachi, currently writing her first novel titled ‘Azadi’ , she also is the founder of #beestobe campaign. 56
PHOTO CREDIT| Sohaib Ilyas
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T H E ROA D TO
RECOVERY
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Vikash Chandra |vikashchandra5201@gmail.com
RE-STARTING THE ‘ENGINES’ OF ECONOMIC GROWTH
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here is a very popular quote, ‘The city is not only the place where growth occurs…., but also is the engine of growth itself (Duranton, 2000, pp. 291-292 )’. In the course of the last three months, our cities - our engines, have stopped and like never before. They have been in a complete lockdown for some time now and we can see there is a slump in the everyday activities and functions. The economy, the industries, the workforce and the dynamism of the cities have been brought to a standstill. According to a number of experts, the world would change post-COVID-19 and it might take sometime for our cities to get up and starting and become the ‘Engines’ and drivers of economy again. Science points out that you are likely to consume more fuel to restart the engine. Similarly, this article elaborates on how can we re-start our engines of economic growth after the current extended speed bump. To answer this, we need to find answers to a number of associated questions.
Covid-19: isn’t it an ‘urban centric’ disaster? While urban has numerous advantages attached to it, it also has its shortcomings. COVID-19 an urban originated and an urban-centric disaster started spreading throughout the world due to the connectivity between global urban centres. This points out to the increased exposure and vulnerability of masses due to unanticipated urban disasters and low preparedness on the part of cities and governance can increase the impact considerably. This also draws attention towards our fragile economic systems sparing towards its workforce- the drivers.
FACING PAGE| Reviving the economic machinery for cities to bounce back GRAPHIC COURTESY| Subarna Sadhu 60
FOREST ANALOGY OF CITY ECONOMICS
How to ‘re-start’ the engines? For taking the first steps towards restarting, cities have to acknowledge that there are countless stakeholders in their economic functions. It would be important that the issues of every stakeholder are identified and suitable policies are formulated to address their needs. These stakeholders can range from the departing migrant work force and their families, to the middle class consumers, to investors and industries of different scales and types.
The concept of FACE mapping for stakeholder identification For identification of stakeholders of city economic growth, a ‘Forest Analogy of City Economics (FACE)’can be applied to start the ball rolling. In this, the city economics has been explained using the analogy of a forest. It identifies six major components of a forest, which are similar to the components of city economics. 61
ABOVE| Maximising economic growth and employment 10 strategies for Indian Smart cities GRAPHIC COURTESY| Author
Each Indian city should start by mapping their six buckets as per the ‘Forest analogy for city economics (FACE)’. Each of these six buckets of FACE have their respective role to play in the city economics. One criteria of this can be tax range corresponding to different scales of stakeholders. In the above example, the classification of six buckets may vary with the scale of the city economy. City Administration must have regular interactions with all stakeholders to understand their issues due to COVID-19 and support them with suitable local government policies. This could propel the city economy and create a holistic approach for reviving the city engine. Lastly, it is important that Indian cities acknowledge the challenges of city economics in times of emergencies and prepare a ‘City Economic Development Plan’ including all the actors contributing to oiling up and going full force towards getting the engines running back.
Vikash Chandra (MBA,M.Arch) is an advisor with Deloitte Touche Toumatshu Ltd. and a finance expert with Smart Cities Mission Management Unit, MoHUA 62
Avikarsh Bhatnagar |avikarshbhatnagarr@gmail.com Ikra Syed |ikrasyed@gmail.com Nomaan Khan |nkhan.c@jmi.ac.in
USING TOOLS OF COMPASSION FOR
CRISIS RESPONSE – A 1000 DAY ACTION PLAN
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ereafter, at the close of this global crises, we are going to observe a sea change in the urban planning and design discourse. The academia and professionals will discuss design and strategies for the world in an analogy between pre pandemic and those of post pandemic. If we speak of academia and professionals of the urban context, they will surely focus on the articulation of spaces by using built environment aspects such as building design, public spaces, streets, mobilityand landscape. Design elements and tools that are coming up as a 63
RIGHT| women carrying firewood for the week himalyan foothills PHOTO CREDIT| Author
response to the pandemic in the shape of white circles and yellow squares in front of neighbourhood shops and malls will be seen and implemented as interventions to reinforce social distancing and behavioural change. Cities have currently become a test bed with a number of these ideas under discussion and trial implementation. Moreover, this time the crisis and its effects are being countered by solutions centred around urban masses rather than urban expansion. The current deliberations by practitioners, educators and thinkers on urbanism set out a common consensus on ‘people’ as the most essential element of the cityscapes. This global crises has drawn attention towards cities and the strong interlinkages between human capital of the city, their health and wellbeing and development and economy at large. In India, not only was the economy brought to a standstill, the existence of a majority of people in cities has been threatened with mass exodus one of the greatest since partition. A humanitarian crisis unfolded which became difficult for the central as well as state governments to manage. World organisations like, the World Economic Forum have already projected that in coming years of the post covid-19 world, the major challenge will be of the trade and connectivity A number of experts see astrong regional cooperation is a plausible way to move forward with consistency towards economic recovery. However, with the current challenges, we are looking at some years to ensure a complete revival of the system that we have lost. For example, the auto sector in India will see a contraction of 8 to 10 percent in production; similar is the case with other industries of mass production (S.Kumar, 2020). Out of the many views on economic revival, some optimistic views suggest that the loss during the time of lockdown will be recovered as soon asthe growth regains its momentum. Other views claim a longer time of recovery, which may only result after a sensible reformed approach of the geo politics of the world. The crisis that needs immediate attention and time is the bleak conditions of survival and social protection of the vulnerable. Without active measures and considering the huge Indian precariat it will get more and more difficult to give hope to the worst affected and without hope, it would become close to impossible to restart engines 64
of growth. We need an extensive expansion of our social protection systems not only in cities but especially in the fragile ecosystem of rural livelihood as suggested by Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO, 2020). In these times, ‘The effected and abandoned people’ are in dire need of compassion from the society as a whole. This compassion must not be limited to food distribution but collectively working towards providing rehabilitation and support system. In view of this, can we build a larger collective of the local bodies, city institutions and representatives, civil society and community to come together to help people get back on their feet and create an example that is emulated by the world.
Learning the art of decentralization from the rural institutional mechanisms The government of India has been implementing several programmes focussed on social securityr like Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment guarantee Act (MGNREGA), Rajeev Gandhi Panchayat Sashaktikaran Abhiyaan(RGPSA), Backward Rural grant Fund (BRGF), Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA) and Swarna Jayanti Gram Swarozgar yojna (SGSY). At the heart of these schemes, lies an institution, which is impeccable in terms of its reach and quantum of people involved with
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BELOW| A weekly market in Jokihat, Bihar PHOTO CREDIT| Author
the decision-making and implementation of these schemes on ground zero. With over 30 lakh elected members out of which over 13 lakh are women the Panchayati Raj Institutions(PRIs) are present nearly everywhere (leaving some states areas not covered by PART IX of the constitution of India) and has a greater reach to people in comparison to any other institution present in the country. The PRIs have been integral tomany such policies, which have popped up in various Five Year Plans (FYP) starting from Independence. PRIs have shown immense potential towards delivery to grassroots once they are included in planning as well as implementation and monitoring of these development plans (Chadha,V & Chadha,I 2018). With ever-increasing share of GDP mentioned in each FYP spent on these social protection plans PRIs have been slow but steady drivers of achieving inclusive growth in the
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country. There were studies to compare different models of PRIs and their working in different states in India. States like Kerala, where village expenditure per capita was highest and the revenue as well, showed a negative trend in compound annual growth rate of rural households (MoPR, 2019). Moreover the states like UP and Bihar which saw the largest number of people migrating back have a close knitted system of PRI institutions at place. Of the many positives of PRI’s one of its greatest strength lies in its affiliation with common people to reach out to the population. PRIs as an institutional practice and its democratic approach of governance and outreach can be instrumental in managing this crisis with more flexibility and outreach. They can be used as a model to guide participatory response mechanisms in the urban areas towards the path to crises response and recovery.
Strengthening the villages: A 1000-Day Action Plan In the current scenario of pandemic response, PRIs have already been working both for contact tracing and informing locals of the precautionary measures to prevent the spread of virus. What we require now is to scale them up in the urban areas too, towards augmenting their reach and providing people with the basic amenities of healthcare, food, employment and more importantly counsel and hope. In recent times the PRIs have used a 100-day action plan to achieve goals like sensitizing people on e-governance to fit India campaign. In a similar way, these institutions can come up with a 1000-day action plan.A plan, which can use present schemes with set goals for different areas Phase-1 of the plan can start and can last up to 100 days in which states in consultation with various district and gram level panchayats can decide on goals for the coming years. This phase can also focus on NAD (National Assets Directory) workshops for all members involved. The first phase should also focus on sensitizing the states on building the most essential infrastructure for the pandemic response. At local level, Identification of open spaces and panchayat ghars for setup of community kitchen is possible in this stage. planning 67
should include demand based prioritization , for example in villages where no community building or panchayat ghar exists can focus on creating such infrastructure as the first step. After the assessment and setting up of goals, states can plan 3-phases of 300 days each as phase2, phase3 and phase4. Each 300 days will focus on 3-sets of 100 days of employment as per MGNREGA in villages but this time focusing on goals as per the post-pandemic action plan. Phase 2 must focus on achieving the goals of direct service through community kitchens, quarantine zones in existing buildings or open spaces/plinths in the village as per health advisory and direct assistance in providing with 100-day employment by identifying workers. In Phase 2 the crucial system of food support will be for all families in the village irrespective of their registration in MGNREGA. Phase 2 should also focus on task for NAD with the help of registered families making them aware of the infrastructure provided by the PRIs during the plan or pre-existing and building a sense of community ownership. By the end of year 1 i.e. phase 2, districts can be mapped as per goals and recommendations can be made for the next phase. Need of continuing with the community kitchens be accessed and for Phase3 listing of plausible goals of pandemic response and other social protection programmes. Phase 3 i.e. nearly 2 years from now will see some of the service sector industries regaining their old place in the system hopefully. Need for direct assistance of providing shall be assessed, and MGNREGA will focus on registering only those family systems with a continued problem of unemployment. PRIs can focus on capacity building and training for agro based livelihood and must start engaging people in a flexible manner. Villages can choose the sort of skill training required, in consultation with government agencies engaged in agriculture and entrepreneurship. As per the goals set for the end of this 1000-day action plan, PRIs can assist in kick starting village level industries. In Phase 4 that is the third year of this 1000-day action plan normal 68
functioning of the PRIs can be restored simultaneously. By this time, NAD completed with full parameters suggested, can become one of the most essential tools of assessment of infrastructure in rural India. This data collection of assets will help for further planning and intervention in rural areas in a more meticulous manner.
FACING PAGE| A home in afternoon, Tarai region of Uttar Pradesh PHOTO CREDIT| Author
The suggestions devised here look at the long term strategizing for the recovery of the economic system of the urban centres we have lost and strengthening the rural areas in states having rural/ agro economy. In the approach of this plan, a quote from father of the nation makes sense, which he wrote in his magazine ‘Harijan’ nearly the same time of the year in 1942 “ I am making the attempt. I can see dim traces of success though I can show nothing visible. But there is nothing inherently impossible in the picture drawn here.” Surely to fight back in such a time requires path untraversed but it may happen only if we consider the shock as immense and agree that sometimes we need to reinvent the wheel. References FAO (2020) Social protection and COVID-19 response in rural areas WEF (MAY 2020) Insight report: challenges and opportunities in postCOVID-19 world S Kumar (2020) Impact of coronavirus (COVID-19) on Indian economy Chadha, V. and Chadda, I. (2018): Policies and Performance of Social Sector in India since Independence: A Critical Evaluation. International Journal of Social Science & Development Policy. Vol 4. No.2, pp-6477.
Ikra Syed is an Alumna of M.Arch Urban Regeneration. She is working with town Planning Organisation, Kashmir.
Mathew George (2000) , Panchayati Raj in India , An Overview. Status of Panchayati Raj in India, Concept Publishing Company, New Delhi, pp.3 MoPR (2019) Basic statistics of Panchayati Raj Institutions, handbook www. panchayat.gov.in
Nomaan Khan is an Alumnus of M.Arch Urban Regeneration, Currently Assistant Prof and research scholar JMI, New Delhi 69
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Avikarsh Bhatnagar |avikarshbhatnagarr@gmail.com
ICCCS: TOWARDS SMART MANAGEMENT
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mart Cities Mission was initiated with the ambitious goal of ensuring liveability, economic reforms and infrastructure development and sustainability through robust modern technologies, connectivity and improved E governance in the cities. However, the workings and impact of initiatives undertaken under Smart cities mission can be capitalized in a true sense in the current scenario. With the entire country being threatened by COVID 19 pandemic, our response also depends on the successful and smart use of the investment that has been done by the cities under Smart Cities mission. Understanding the current situation and the need of intervention, the ministry has formed action plans for each state, and the cities are required to turn all their efforts towards fighting the Covid-19 virus and inform the citizens of the day to day developments in the city. The smart cities with active integrated control and command centres have leveraged their citizen engagement tools and citizen database to disseminate information and create awareness on the necessary precautions towards managing the outspread of the disease. Moreover, several cities have launched their apps to answer questions related to the disease and locations. These IC Centres are also being used to keep an eye and manage lockdowns and keep the essential 71
services in check in the region. In short, these ICCCs have become the war rooms for the city. The current situation draws attention towards how cities can leverage smart initiatives like Integrated command and control centres as an emergency response and revival system besides monitoring the everyday city life., The cities are required to adapt, plan and invest in technologies and innovations that will change the way they prepare and respond to such unanticipated events in future. Moving forward, each city needs to formulate its own strategies toward tackling such situations and one of the most important parameters that needs to be accounted for is the everyday movement patterns of people, and enforcing the essential social distancing norms, once the restrictions are uplifted. Integrated Command and Control Centres can play a big role in enabling this, and bringing about a paradigm shift in the monitoring and management of crisis situations in cities. In some ways, Smart cities mission has paved the way for future initiatives towards leveraging technology for the greater good. . It can help in bringing together the diverse and complex layers of city functioning and enable a holistic approach by connecting and providing information to various local departments managing the city. Urban sector is set to change with this pandemic, and the only way forward for the cities is to embrace and change according to the ‘new’ normal.
Avikarsh is currently involved with Bareilly Smart City. He deal with all the technical aspects of projects varying from City level studies to Building Architecture under Task 2 team and hold Responsibility of Project from its inception to the tender stage as a team lead. 72
|themultiloguedelhi@gmail.com
RESILIENCE TO COVID-19 T H E WAY F O R WA R D I N A
POST-PANDEMIC WORLD T H E M U LT I L O G U E C O L L E C T I V E
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ndia is the second-most populous country in the world. Lying within geographical proximity to the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, China, a response to the spread of the virus was implemented by the enforcement of stringent movement restrictions through a lockdown. In a gargantuan effort to develop infrastructure to cope with an unforeseen peril, the country has witnessed innovations along with huge challenges to augment defensive strategies to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, which has now taken hold of almost the entire world. 73
The COVID-19 Virus: How prepared have we been? In just a matter of months, the COVID-19 virus has escalated from being an outbreak of a novel strain of coronaviruses emerging from a market in Wuhan, China to being declared a global pandemic, forcing a global lockdown with almost a third of the world’s population arrested inside their homes. However, The US healthcare system, widely believed to be the best in the world, is under enormous pressure due to the outbreak with medical professionals catering to thousands of patients in need of urgent care every day, while stadiums, convention centres, horse racetracks and other gathering spaces are swiftly being converted into makeshift hospitals. The trends are similar across the world, pointing towards the inability of countries, even with the best healthcare systems, to cope with a pandemic of a scale unimaginable to the world. ABOVE| Opportunity for a better way of life PHOTO CREDIT| Subarna Sadhu
In many ways, the current COVID-19 pandemic is a prime example of a ‘Black Swan’ event – a term coined by the writer Nassim Nicholas Taleb to refer to extremely high impact events that often are inconceivable before they happen. 74
Way Forward As India, along with many other nations enters into the phase of community transmissions, the global concern must be to combine offensive as well as defensive measures to tackle the long-term and short-term repercussions of the virus spreading faster than its previous counterparts. The foremost area of improvement is to increase the testing and tracing capacity in the entire world, especially the less capacitated developing countries. Improved hygiene habits and behavioural change pertaining to waste management, especially the medical waste must be sought through a bottom-up approach. The social isolation and the resultant shift towards digital media tools for education and communication must be incentivised, scaled and replicated. This shift also presents massive opportunities towards higher digital literacy in countries like India having a sharp hike in internet penetration over the last few years. The emergence of online education and working from home must also be encouraged to maintain social distancing, even after the lockdown ends until the risks related to the virus are non-existent. The lockdown has affected the informal economic sectors in India and many similar economies. The poor are finding it difficult to sustain their lives and livelihoods. Managing cash flows, especially in the informal sector, probably by the means of direct cash transfers, along with ensuring food security for the poor must be ensured by the governments. The example of Kerala must be cited where the government has ensured food security (in accordance with the regional food culture), entertainment and mobile recharging incentives among other things to ensure the migrant labourers don’t feel trapped and come out on streets protesting the food and income shortages.
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However, some positive aspects of the lockdown are experienced by many, as people have more time to focus on things that otherwise seemed less important, such as more interaction with friends and family. Reflecting upon human relationships, empathy and collective living must be sought even after the pandemic ends. One major challenge lying ahead for public spaces is to rethink their role in a post-COVID world. Traditionally regarded as the facilitators of human interaction, economic and social activities, the public space must now prepare themselves to be enablers of hygiene and social distancing for a while till the fight is over. In the short term, public engagements through semi-private spaces like balconies and terraces must be encouraged to keep the public sanity and mental health intact in these times of peril. The cities have been swiftly emerging as the powerhouses of the economy in modern times. Density, coupled with the provision of facilities and employment results in greater prospects of improved quality of life in cities. However, in a post-pandemic world, cities must strive to decentralise the power dynamic and boost food production in rural areas. Most of the informal workforce losing out on livelihoods could be deployed to the agrarian sector. Incentivisation of the rural economy to decentralise and de-densify the cities should be ensured. In terms of the level of preparedness to fight the current and future pandemics of such a scale, India and the world have to achieve more than they have right now. Preparedness for hygiene, food stock, waste management and medical infrastructure must be ensured by the governments.
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It is about time the technology innovations like the IoT in the medical field were explored, where a range of machines interact with each other to provide essential healthcare facilities like testing using drones, aggregating precise and standardised data and predicting future pandemics using machine learning. Planning must be done to ensure a resilient supply chain management as a prophylactic measure across the globe. More healthcare spending is a necessity in a post-pandemic world and the priorities must be set straight now. Another aspect to focus on is ensuring a sense of inclusion and solidarity across societies and countries. Blaming each other, be it on a community level or international level, will never yield constructive results. Questions must be asked and critique must be presented where it is due, but in today’s times of peril, solidarity, not isolationism and protectionism is the way forward. Racial and community-based stigma must be done away with, and steps must be taken to ensure international cooperation and greater awareness amongst the citizenry. Lastly, the current crisis has present ed a window of opportunity to reflect on our actions and their repercussions on nature. There have been numerous documented instances where nature and wildlife have reclaimed their due spaces and initiated the healing process. The air quality levels have improved across the world’s most polluted cities. River ecosystems are recovering and marine life is now returning to normal. So while the world is thrilled with clearer skies and dolphins, we should not forget that we, human beings, have created such systems of living that benefit from over-exploitation of nature. And unless we amend our ways, nature will strike back again, as it has a way to come around and the current crisis is an opportunity to understand that there is little we can do to bear the perils of nature’s fury.
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Deepesh Sangtani is an architect and a graphic designer. Currently, he is working at a design agency, visionVIBES, and is also the co-founder of a non-profit organisation, The Multilogue Collective. Debeshi Ghosh is a final year student pursuing B. Arch at School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal, with an interest in disaster management and humanitarian architecture.
Rhiddhit Paul is a final year student of architecture at SPA Bhopal, with a research focus on the intersection of ecology and culture in architecture. Hamza is an Architect. Currently, he is working as an India Smart Cities Fellow with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. He is also the co-founder and editor at The Multilogue Collective. 78
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Jamia Tarana (English Transliteration from original Urdu text) Dayar-e-shauq mera, dayare-shauq-mera Sheher-e-aarzoo mera, sheher-e-aarzoo mera Hue the aake yahin khemazan wo deewane Uthe the sunke jo awazein-rehbarane-watan Yahin se shauk ki be-rabtiyon ko rabt mila Isi ne shauk ko baksha junoon ka pairahan Yahin se laala-e-sehra ko ye suraag mila Ke dil ke daagh ko kis tarha rakhte hain roshan Dayare-shauk mera Shehre-aarzoo mera Ye ahle-shauk ki basti ye sarfiron ka dayar Yahan ki subha nirali nirali, yahan ki sham nayi Yahan ke rasmon-rahe-maikashi juda sabse Yahan ke jam naye tarahe-rakse-jaam nayi Yahan pe tishna labi maikashi ka haasil hai Ye bazme-dil hai, yahan ki salame-aam nayi Dayar-e-sjauq mera, Shehere-aarzoo mera Yahan pe shamme-hidayat hai sirf apna zameer
Jamia Tarana (English Translation) This is the land of my hopes This is the land of my dreams This is where men with zeal stayed Men who answered the leaders’ call It is here that torn-off love Found the cohesive chords It is here that wayward passions Formed into frenzied love It is here that the wild tulip learnt How to make the scar of heart aglow This is the land of my hopes This is the land of my dreams This is the place of men of vision And of those with a challenging thought Every morning here is new And every evening newer still Different is this tavern And different are its norms Different are the dancing cups And different is their dance Here drinking begets thirst anew And different is this tavern’s call This is the land of my hopes This is the land of my dreams
Yahan pe kiblae-imaan Kaaba-e-dil hai Safar hai deen yahan, kufr hai qayaam yahan Yahan pe raah-ravi khud husule-manzil hai Shanawari ka takaza hai nau-b-nau tufan Kinare-mauj usoodgiye-saahil hai DayareShauq mera, Shehre-Aarzo mera Written originally in Urdu by Mohd Khaleeq Siddiqui
Here, conscience is the beacon light And conscience is the guide Here is the Mecca of heart resides the guiding faith Ceaseless movement is our faith And blasphemy it is to stay still Here, the destined goal is the march on and on Here, the swimming urge seeks Newer and newer storms Restless wave itself is our resurrected shore Translated by: Prof. M. Zakir
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