An Enquiry into Spatial Attributes of the Urban: Rural Transients in India

Oka, Renuka (2024) An Enquiry into Spatial Attributes of the Urban: Rural Transients in India. In: P/References of Design. Cumulus conference proceedings series, 1 . Cumulus Association, Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design Budapest, Budapest, pp. 143-165. ISBN 978-952-7549-02-5

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Abstract

The developing world is currently undergoing a great rural to urban migration. It is a necessary and inevitable trend, yet failures of urban planning and political consideration result in diminishing opportunities for the rural migrants. Activist architecture that attempts to deal with these problems is often focused on the physical manifestation of the failures of this arrival process: the urban slum. This paper explores the lived experiences and practices of seasonal migrants who come from the tribal borderlands of central India to work as construction workers in the city of Ahmedabad. The case study attempts to understand the factors and dynamics that shape these seasonal migrants housing experiences, practices, choices, and constraints in Ahmedabad. These migrant colonies generate a Kinetic City1; an incremental city in motion, characterized by reusing easily available construction materials on and around the worksites, bursting with constant modification and reinvention through the practice of Jugaad Urbanism. These quick fix colonies are highly suffering from a lack of any basic infrastructure. Access to basic services like water and sanitation is lacking or profoundly inadequate in most instances while access to social infrastructures of health and education for their children is a major challenge. With interventions in Indian cities being driven by exclusive imaginations of global cities and world-class infrastructure, and more recently of smart cities, these urban migrants have often been thrown by the wayside. The root of the problem lies in social and political acceptance and interventions. The onsite living conditions of the migrants are mapped taking in consideration 5 representative construction sites in Ahmedabad. Here the documentation communicates the spatial configurations, fundamental materials and structure used in these colonies and throughout the Kinetic City. The mapping documents the struggle to employ architecture as a means of achieving a desired standard of dignity for the migrants. The study concludes stating a need for solutions which anticipate and make room for the innovations of Jugaad Urbanism2, employing local techniques and incremental improvements, rather than by imposing a one-off, technologically advanced solution not forgetting that addressing basic necessities of accommodation and sanitation is of utmost importance. The research emphasizes the need to address both on-site living conditions and housing arrangements made by workers at labor Nakas'3 in cities. It builds upon earlier recommendations emphasizing the essential role of political and administrative commitment as well as advocacy and mobilization of migrant workers.

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