Suchergebnisse

The informal proliferation or the growth of slums has always been treated by the planners as a threat to the planned development of any city. But what is often not recognised is that slums are of ubiquitous nature, but are treated as exceptions and dealt with accordingly. They are excluded uninterruptedly from planning. Bhubaneswar a planned Indian city is today facing severe challenges to control the informal growth which has 37 percent slum population living in 377 slums. Planning continues to have splendid visions but very little is translated into reality. Though theoretically the control of such growth has progressed from clearance to improvement to upgradation and redevelopment, slum-dwellers are still treated as unwanted by the elite city dwellers and the administrators. Thus today what we need is inclusive urban policies to include the urban population who are so far excluded from the planning. This paper scrutinizes the plan documents, census data, government reports and news reports for understanding how the slum growth in Bhubaneswar has been treated so far. Interviews of planners, bureaucrats, citizens' organizations like welfare societies, NGOs, slum dweller etc. also help in knowing how city is perceived by these stakeholders. It is found that policies relating to housing for the poor in Bhubaneswar have enabled the state and real estate developers to form a nexus and reduce the space under slums and use that space to serve their own interests. Bilateral and other international agencies are playing important role in shaping the urban space. In the planning of city, economic planning being dominant is perpetuating the exclusion of the urban poor further. The capital city is developing via an informal route. Thus the right to city of the poor is being manifested in negotiated route through creation of more slums.

Infrastructure is fundamental for any kind of development. Health infrastructure is very essential for quality health output. In this connection, the objective of this study is to explore the health infrastructure available in the state of Odisha and especially in the twin city of Cuttack–Bhubaneswar. It is observed that the health infrastructure available in the state is very poor with large numbers of medical and paramedical posts lying vacant. But the situations in both the cities are quite good because of the private providers. The private hospitals are better service providers than the public hospitals.

Although faecal sludge (FS) co-compost contains vital nutrients, there are several barriers limiting adoption and reuse of FS co-compost in agriculture. This study in Bhubaneswar found that health risk and bad odour were the two topmost negative perceptions of FS co-compost reuse. The main factors influencing farmers' negative perceptions of FS co-compost were bad odour and fear of infection, whereas socio-cultural/religious beliefs and bad odour were the key factors influencing the negative perceptions of urban households practising kitchen gardening (UHPKG). Fear of infection and bad odour were the key factors influencing fertiliser retailers' negative perceptions, while inadequate information, unavailability, and lack of government policy on FS co-compost reuse were the key factors influencing Farmer Producer Organisations' negative perceptions. The majority of farmers (95%) and UHPKG (72%) were unwilling to consume food crops grown with FS co-compost, mainly because of feelings of disgust, fear of infection, and religious and socio-cultural beliefs.

This is an Obituary