Draft RMP–2031 mostly silent on the needs of urban poor

The Draft Revised Master Plan–2031 has received much flak for giving scant thought to the urban poor and their accessibility to social infrastructure such as education, transport, health facilities, and open spaces.

“The planning procedure itself has never been inclusive. It doesn’t consider homelessness, zero-eviction policy and vending zones for street vendors as veritable goals for the city. There is not much about access to the disabled as well,” said Lekha Adavi, an activist working with pourakarmikas and street vendors in the city.

Ashish Verma, associate professor at the Indian Institute of Sciences (IISc), also came down heavily on the plan by pointing out that the transport model adopted does not include evaluation of affordability and access of transport modes for the urban poor.

The norms proposed for forming residential layouts stipulate leaving aside 2.5% of the land area for the economically weaker section of society. But apart from this, the draft plan gives little room for the urban poor.

Also, the gap analysis the planners have carried out for education and healthcare services in the city considers both public and private facilities not factoring affordability.

The analysis concludes that there are no gaps in primary schools as a school is available within a radius of 1 km from all points of the city. On healthcare, it concludes that there are pockets with inadequate access but this is more of a geographical problem than one of affordability. The draft plan also makes only a passing mention of night shelters, leaving it to the BBMP’s discretion to build as is required.

In outer zones

A gap analysis of healthcare and school facilities reveals that the density of these facilities is lower in areas beyond the Outer Ring Road.

The study reveals that several pockets in the outskirts don’t have health facilities even within a radius of 5 km. Most of these pockets are along the border of the Bengaluru Metropolitan Area around NICE Expressway, Bannerghatta Road, Sarjapur Road, Old Madras Road, Bagalur Road, and North Bengaluru between Tumakuru Road and Ballari Road. The draft plan recommends opening up government-run healthcare facilities in these pockets.