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Unit 14: Social Change in Contemporary India

But it is important to note that both the caste and the class have their respective importance Notes
based on time and space and situational focus marriage and family are two important aspects
of social life. In the urban areas caste norms have been flexible with regard to the selection of
mates. There have been increasing opportunities for the free mixing of young men and women.
Again the voluntary associations have encouraged inter-caste marriages. As a result there has
been more inter-caste and inter-religious marriage in the urban areas than earlier. In the cities
many little traditions have been brought in by the migrants and the great traditions have also
achieved dimensional change. It has been pointed out that many forms of the great traditions
are modified in the modern cities. Milton Singer (1968) shows that “the intellectual and ritualistic
approaches to God are being discarded in favor of the devotional approach, which is more
catholic and suited to urban conditions in Madras city. Technological innovations like
microphone, cinema, automobile, etc. are used in promoting religious activities. Religious
activities are not on decline in the metropolitan city of Madras but are being modernised.
Problems of urbanization in contemporary India

The current process of urbanisation has faced many problems in different parts of India. The most
important of these has been the development of slums, in the urban areas. Slum population accounts
for a substantial share of urban population in all types of cities in India. Even a planned city like
Chandigarh has not escaped slums. The per centages of the slum population in Kolkata, Mumbai and
Chennai are 32, 25 and 24, respectively. Slums are characterised by substandard housing, overcrowding
and lack of electrification, ventilation, sanitation, roads and drinking water facilities. Slums have
been the breeding ground of diseases, environmental pollution, demoralisation, and many social
tensions. Crimes, like juvenile delinquency, gambling, have also increased in number in slum areas.
Signs of poverty are most visible in these places. Lack of housing has been another important problem
in the process of urbanisation in India. This problem has been acute in cities with over a million
populations. Related to housing there have been problems on the planned use of urban land. The
lack of adequate housing has been very marked especially for the lower income group and for the
urban poor. In the light of the gravity of this problem, the government has passed the Urban Land
Ceiling Act, Rent Control Act etc. The National Council on Urbanisation has also recommended that
at least 15 per cent of all new developments should be earmarked for the use of the economically
weaker sections of the urban population. Absence of planned and adequate arrangements for traffic
and transport is another important problem in majority of urban centers in India. Though various
new modes of transport and advanced technology have been used in our metropolitan cities to facilitate
the movement of the people, these have remained insufficient to cope with the growing population
there. Similarly, the extent of facilities medical, sanitation, drinking water, power-supply have
remained insufficient in a majority of the urban centers in India. After examining the extent of
availability of facilities like housing, transport and traffic, medical, sanitation, electricity etc. in the
urban areas, and the growth of urban population, one may say that there has been a tendency of over
urbanisation in India. The process of urbanisation in India has also been accompanied by sub-
urbanisation. The development of modern modes of transport, and increasing demands on housing
has led to the growth of sub-urbanisation. The sub-urban areas are growing at a faster rate in the
metropolitan cities like Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai and Delhi and in all big cities of India. The Urban
Development Policy of India has been formulated to ensure that the urban centres play a positive role
in national and regional development, to promote the rural-urban continuum and to replace the
regional disparities. The Five Year Plans of the government of India have included various programmes
pertaining to housing, slum clearance, slum improvement, land acquisitions and development. The
Sixth Plan placed special emphasis on development of National Capital Region (NCR) to de-concentrate
economic activity from the core of Delhi into regional towns. The concept of NCR aims to bring better
regional parities in the process of economic development and social change in a vast area around
Delhi. It has been formulated in order to meet the growth and expansion needs of the capital. The
plan covers integrated development of about 30,000 sq. km in the Union Territory of Delhi and parts
of Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. A statutory body has been constituted through an enactment
of Parliament in 1985 and a draft regional plan has since been prepared for the development of NCR.

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