March To The Cities
Goa is moving towards urbanization, as is amply evident by the 2011 Census figures released earlier this week. With a 35.23 per cent rise in population in cities over the last decade, the rural areas have registered a negative growth of -18.51 per cent. The Census reveals a total population of 14.58 lakh in Goa, as against 13.47 lakh in 2001, infusing a rise of 8.23 per cent. In short, 62.17 per cent of Goa’s population lives in urban areas, as against 49 per cent in 2001, placing our tiny State as the leader among India’s smaller states to have such a huge population in urban areas.
This plunge into urbanisation has resulted from the fact that the very name Goa commands a premium, apart from the belief that the all economic lucre lies in towns. People from within and outside the State are flocking to cities simply because of jobs, where all categories of migrants contribute a significant quantum to the growth of population. Students from rural areas too move into urban settlements, occupying hostels ~ at times as paying guests in private homes ~ for convenience, in an effort to avoid time loss in travel. All thanks to our archaic public transport system, that stretches travel time, leaving people with the notion that they ought to move out of their villages and into cities if they have to reduce commuting time and remain viable in the workforce.
The Konkan Railway that once promised to alleviate road congestion, reduce travel time and provide mass and speedy transportation of passengers, has failed to meet the promise made towards the local populace. Today, an MLA like Nilesh Cabral is ready to stage a rail-roko demanding a halt at Sanvordem-Curchorem railway station. Does this not, one might ask confirm the claim of the railway’s critics in the past that the railway line was being built merely as a corridor for fast inter-state and not intra-state travel?
That said, the migration towards urban areas has resulted in mounting pressure on local infrastructure, triggering traffic chaos, not to mention garbage menace and allied problems, including spiraling demand for housing. Urbanisation has its utility, and Goa’s trend is no different, one might add from other developed and developing countries that have moved from agrarian/rural based societies to industrialized and service sector economies that create and thrive in urban cities. Cities are a creation of trade and commerce and Goa’s urban trend reflect its bustling new economies. In fact planners in Goa have long sought to reclassify Goa into an urban city state, with all that such a categorization means for civic administration, real estate development, economic and population growth and planning. In fact, a Goa Development Plan commissioned by the Planning Commission, projects a highly urbanized Goa in the next thirty years. This is of course far removed from the current situation or even the current imagining of Goa as a green tourist getaway.
In a bygone era, Goa’s urban areas predominantly comprised of Panjim, Mapusa, Margao and Vasco.
Today, can we classify Calangute, Candolim or Benaulim as villages? The urbanization of the State is on an upswing, leading to all-round congestion and deterioration in the quality of life.
Our founders advocated that development ought to start in rural areas, but this is a maxim which has remained merely on paper, at least in Goa. In this chaotic situation, agriculture has been destroyed in villages to be replaced by commercial activity, housing and shopping complexes. This foolishness apparently has to go on for some years before people learn from the mistakes and become wiser. The unplanned development juggernaut (including the planned airport at Mopa) is moving at full speed. Who will stop it?
