ENGINEERING ECONOMICS
PROJECT ON
ROLE OF SOFTWARE ENGINEERING IN
IMPROVING LIFE CONDITIONS IN URBAN SLUMS
The good and bad don’t lie with the technology. Technology is like a
mechanical lever - it increases the abilities of humans beyond what they could
accomplish alone. And as long as we have more people doing good things with
technology it will continue to offer a net benefit.
Society pretty much can’t function at all without software. Virtually everything
uses software now — your car, stoplights, trains, airplanes, buses, hotel
reservations, your phone, computer, thermostat, tv, security systems, robots
that do most of the world’s manufacturing, shipping and logistics, retailers,
steel mills, schools, banks, etc.
Think of some of the examples like for the speed post, you are being able to
track the post online, for passport application is online, online ticket booking,
online bill payment and may more.
If we were not having the technology, just think how much we were just
spoiling in the queues.
Before the mobile banking system was introduced in India, water was scarce for
people living in the slums on thecity's outskirts. They'd often have to wait in long
lines at the bank and then hunt around to find water they could buy.
But the introduction of mobile banking several years ago changed that, according
to a Newsweek report.
Because people could pay for water service with their phones, the local water
company was willing to connect the neighbourhood to its system. This new
initiative has really changed their lives. They can now request and pay their
bills through their own mobile phones instead of queuing at the banking halls.
ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY:-
SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY:-
ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY:-
They also call for significant resources to be dedicated and invested in priority
areas as identified in the framework of Goals and Targets for each member
state.
Role of SDGS in India
India has, over the past years, directed its development pathway to meet its
priorities of employment, economic growth, food, water and energy security,
disaster resilience and poverty alleviation.
India has also aimed to restore itsnatural capital and adopt transparent and
robust governance along democratic lines. However, emerging challenges of
climate change impacts, increasinginequities, and lagging human development
indices are well recognised by both the citizens as well as the government.
But all is not doom and gloom. The United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP) developed the millennium development goals in the Millennium
Summit in 2000 which comprised of 8 goals that were to be achieved by 2015.
These were:
1. To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. To achieve universal primary education
3. To promote gender equality
4. To reduce child mortality
5. To improve maternal health
6. To combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
7. To ensure environmental sustainability
8. To develop a global partnership for development
While many of the goals were addressed, there were some shortfall and a new
Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) was establish in 2015 for the next 15
years that due to the expiry of the Millennium Development Goals in 2015. The
SDG was officially adopted on the UN Sustainable Development Summit in
New York on Sept 25-27, 2015. The new SDG targets will be reviewed in 2030
when that will expire.
But luckily now major economies like the US, China, India, Brazil,
European Union, etc. are working towards addressing one of the major
impediments to sustainable development which is CLIMATE CHANGE due
to the severe risk it produces to food security, marine and land
biodiversity, as well as the economy. I suppose there needs to be a similar
approach to sustainable development goals from countries to achieve the
goals. Just like how CLIMATE CHANGE is viewed by many governments as
serious problem that needs urgent solution. Sustainable Development
Goals also need the same urgency to have them addressed.
HOW OUR BRANCH AFFECTING PEOPLES
LIVING IN SLUMS
Technology, today, runs not only our lives but everything around us. Whether
it’s in the way we communicate with one another, do research, or even
shopping, technology has claimed the centre of it all. Things that once took
hours to complete can now be done in seconds, all thanks to the power of
technology. Through social media and the 21st century methods of
communication, the once unreachable world has now been placed in the palm
of our hands.
While many in the world are experiencing, benefitting, and utilizing from all
the privileges that technology provides, there are also many who are not able
to gain access to such privileges. The digital divide affects poverty and people
living in poverty by limiting the access to achieve enhancement of both social
and cultural capital.
According to Poverty & Wealth, an article written by
Louise May, the author states: the skills that are needed in the workforce—
today—are becoming those associated with information provided by
technology rather than the industrial skills of the 19th and 20th centuries. It is
becoming more increasingly important to have these skills in order to gain
employment, and to earn adequate incomes.
For those that can neither afford nor keep up with our ever-advancing world of
technology, their state of poverty only worsens. The growing importance of
information technology means that those on the non-access side of the divide
risk experiencing another kind of marginalization. Where once upon a time
majority of the news came in the form of paper (newspapers, magazines, etc)
which allowed almost anyone to gain access to information, newspaper
businesses are now being wiped away due to the internet. Supporting this
claim, Newsweek wrote “The past decade is the era in which the Internet
ruined everything. Just look at the industries that have been damaged by the
rise of the Web: Newspapers, Magazines, Books, TV, Movies, Music, etc.” In
addition to the many industries that the Internet has damaged, it’s birth has
also affected the lives of many among us living in poverty.
Studies show that the internet is revolutionizing the way people of our world
live, as well as the growth of our societies. Therefore, people living in poverty
are being pulled further and further apart from the rest of the advancing
world. Some of today’s basic requirements for obtaining a job is the basic
knowledge of using a computer; emails, Microsoft Word, Outlet, Excel, social
media and etc.
As this shouldn’t be a problem for majority of Americans who,
from a young age start practicing the use of a computer, it is a completely
different story for those who grow up without the proper resources for
obtaining such “skills”.
The importance of technology/internet can be utilized to improve life in the
healthcare, business, education, and social aspects of living. In other words,
technology/internet drastically alters and improves our very lives. They say
that children are our future, but what does the future hold for those children
who lack the very necessity of surviving in our technologically driven world.
How can one understand the media culture, education, or even obtain a job
when the one thing they all have in common is the very thing many fail to gain
access to?
VARIOUS PROGRAMS FOR SLUM DWELLERS
INTRODUCTION
According to the Global Report on Human Settlements 2003, Slums represent
the worst of urban poverty and inequality. Without integrated efforts of
municipal authorities, national Governments, civil society actors and the
international community, the number of slum inhabitants is likely to increase
in most developing countries. And if no serious action is taken, the number of
slum dwellers worldwide is projected to rise over the next 30 years to about 2
million. 22 One in three people in cities, in the developing world, live in slum.
And the problems of urban poor are different to that of Rural Poor.
According to Harsh Mander (2009) Urban Poor have unique problems. The
following problems are mentioned by him –
a) Urban migrants from the countryside have been cut from their community.
b) The social security systems, both formal and informal, which survive in the
rural areas,
are not well developed in the urban areas.
c) The cost of living in urban areas is many times higher than in the rural areas.
d) The rural economy is still not fully monetized, where as in urban areas for
everything
one has to pay.
e) The physical environment in which the majority of the urban poor are forced
to live is
very unhygienic, degraded and violent.
f) Almost all the efforts for shelter and livelihood of urban poor are illegalized.
Their
equal citizenship is always challenged.
g) Many of the rural poor have some land or cattle or any other asset which
urban poor
lack. Their only security of livelihood is their labour power.
Although conditions vary, research shows that women and girls often suffer
the worst effects of slum life, such as poor access to clean drinking water,
inadequate sanitation, unemployment, insecurity of tenure and gender-based
violence. Their problems are not only worsened at home by stressful and
overcrowded
living 61 conditions, but they are also insecure when in public areas
due to poor security and eviction threats
NATIONAL INITIATIVES FOR SLUM DEVELOPMENT
(1) The objectives of the JNNURM are to ensure that the following are
achieved in the urban sector;
(a) Focussed attention to integrated development of
infrastructure services in cities covered under the Mission;.
(b) Establishment of linkages between asset-creation and assetmanagement
through a slew of reforms for long-term project
sustainability;.
(c) Ensuring adequate funds to meet the deficiencies in urban
infrastructural services;.
(d) Planned development of identified cities including peri-urban
areas, outgrowths and urban corridors leading to dispersed
urbanisation;.
(e) Scale-up delivery of civic amenities and provision of utilities
with emphasis on universal access to the urban poor;.
(f ) Special focus on urban renewal programme for the old city
areas to reduce congestion; and
(g) Provision of basic services to the urban poor including security
of tenure at affordable prices, improved housing, water supply
and sanitation, and ensuring delivery of other existing universal
services of the government for education, health and social
security.
3. Scope of the Mission
(2) Sub-Mission for Basic Services to the Urban Poor: This will be
administered by the Ministry of Urban Employment and Poverty
Alleviation through the Sub-Mission Directorate for Basic Services to the
Urban Poor. The main thrust of the Sub-Mission will be on integrated
development of slums through projects for providing shelter, basic
services and other related civic amenities with a view to providing
utilities to the urban poor.
The objectives of the Mission shall be met through the adoption of the
following strategy:
(1) Preparing City Development Plan: Every city will be expected to
formulate a City Development Plan (CDP) indicating policies,
programmes and strategies, and financing plans.
(2) Preparing Projects: The CDP would facilitate identification of
projects. The Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) / parastatal agencies will be
required to prepare Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) for undertaking
projects in the identified spheres. It is essential that projects are planned
in a manner that optimises the life-cycle cost of projects. The life-cycle
cost of a project would cover the capital outlays and the attendant O&M
costs to ensure that assets are in good working condition. A revolving
fund would be created to meet the O&M requirements of assets
created, over the planning horizon. In order to seek JNNURM assistance,
projects would need to be developed in a manner that would ensure and
demonstrate optimisation of the life-cycle costs over the planning
horizon of the project.
(3) Release and Leveraging of Funds: It is expected that the JNNURM
assistance would serve to catalyse the flow of investment into the urban
infrastructure sector across the country. Funds from the Central and
State Government will flow directly to the nodal agency designated by
the State, as grants-in-aid. The funds for identified projects across cities
would be disbursed to the ULB/Parastatal agency through the
designated State Level Nodal Agency (SLNA) as soft loan or grant-cumloan
or grant. The SLNA / ULBs in turn would leverage additional
resources from other sources.
(4) Incorporating Private Sector Efficiencies: In order to optimise the
life-cycle costs over the planning horizon, private sector efficiencies can
be inducted in development, management, implementation and
financing of projects, through Public Private Partnership (PPP)
arrangements.
The duration of the Mission would be seven years beginning from the year
2005-06. Evaluation of the experience of implementation of the Mission would
be undertaken before the commencement of Eleventh Five Year Plan and if
necessary, the program calibrated suitably
The government project have limited effect on the of slum dwellers. Moreover
the rate of the government facilities reaching the poor is very slow as
compared to the rate of new slums being created.
However , there has been few improvements , take a look at the report by
delhi govt.
Works Cited
1. URBAN SLUMS IN DELHI - NSS SURVEY