An index to work-life balance in city

May 05, 2015 12:00 am | Updated May 25, 2016 02:18 am IST - Bengaluru:

BANGALORE, KARNATAKA, 01/09/2013: Plus points: Improved infrastructure, new project launches and increased connectivity have resulted in the growing popularity of BTM Layout in Bangalore for housing rentals on September 01, 2013.
Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

BANGALORE, KARNATAKA, 01/09/2013: Plus points: Improved infrastructure, new project launches and increased connectivity have resulted in the growing popularity of BTM Layout in Bangalore for housing rentals on September 01, 2013. Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

Soon, there will be an index that could help the city achieve a work–life balance. In a unique effort to optimise and balance out commercial and residential establishments in areas across the city, the BBMP restructuring committee with the help of the Azim Premji University will come up with an index for each ward.

So far, wards and administrative blocks have been carved out on the basis of population data, which only considers those who live in a ward. The new index will help include those entering or using the area for commercial activities or as a workplace.

This is for the first time in the country that such an index would be developed and urban planners are keen to see it implemented.

They say, leaving out workplaces in urban planning has only led to skewed focus and areas low on residents and high on workplaces bear the brunt of access to resources. This is because resources are allocated in proportion to population of residents and not the actual population that uses the area.

The index aims to capture the load on an area during day and night separately. Till now, wards are carved as blocks with a pre-decided average ideal population. The index will now help gauge the transient workforce population of these areas in drawing ward areas.

For instance, for an area that is highly commercialised and houses more workplaces, the resident voting population of the ward may be reduced than the average to accommodate for the transient workforce.

The key argument behind the index is to have a holistic assessment of the demand on resources like water, contribution to strain on infrastructure like traffic and garbage by residents and transient workforce in an area.

No data on workplaces

There is no authentic data available on the commercial establishments and workplaces in the city. The committee is working to derive the data on workplaces, with the available data of property tax collection and BDA master plan 2015.

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