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Urbanization in Nepal
Urbanization refers to increasingly large number of people living in small places and basically engaged in non-agricultural activities, which depends on development of industrialization, infrastructure within cities, towns and their neighborhoods, thus urbanization is considered as an index of modernization. The concept of urbanization has been treated in many different contexts. The most often used concept of urbanization refers to the proportion of the total population concentrated in urban settlements or else to a rise in the proportion. The beginning of urbanization can be traced back to Renaissance times in 16th century. Turkish assaults resulted in movement of Christians from the east to western European countries. As a result, trade grew and European cities along the coasts developed greatly, however, the onset of modern and universal process of urbanization is relatively a recent phenomenon and is closely related with industrial revolution and associated economic development. Historical evidence suggests that urbanization process is inevitable and universal.
Nepal is predominantly a rural country, with more than 80 percent of the population living in rural areas and is one of the least urbanized countries in the world. However, with the economic growth induced by the service sector and foreign remittance, rapid urbanization is taking place. In the past two decades, Nepal has witnessed rapid urbanization, motorization, industrialization and migration of people resulting from socioeconomic growth and development. With mechanization and revolution in technology, traditional ways of living and working are being altered. Rapid urbanization of Kathmandu and other major urban centers has resulted in haphazard urban growth with subsequent concentration of population and their socio-economic activities within the area. Urbanization, in the developing country like Nepal, is rapidly growing phenomenon which is introducing several positive and negative aspects. As time goes by, the process goes side by side. Trend of urbanization in Nepal
Urbanization is an essential part of economic growth, social and political change, technical and scientific advances and progress in various areas. Urbanized settlement or the cities are probably the most complex settlements evolved from primitive villages to towns, then to the cities. In the past half century, the pace of urbanization in developing countries like Nepal, India has accelerated greatly.
The origin of urban settlements in Nepal is difficult to understand. Very little is known about urban living in Nepal during the period of Kirants. The historical evidences on the existence of towns in the Kathmandu valley are found only for the Lichhavi period (100 BC to 1000 AD). By the eleventh century, three principle settlements in the Kathmandu valley had already started to be referred to as capital towns. After 1769, Kathmandu became the capital of unified Nepal as well as the seat of political, economic and social power. Outside the Kathmandu valley, many new settlements were developed. The spread of Newar traders and small manufactures from Kathmandu during the later half of the nineteenth century further contributed to the physical and economic growth of a number of settlements in the hills.
Political, demographic and climatic reasons discouraged the growth of large permanent settlements in Terai until 1920. The trade treaty of 1923 between Nepal and British India has made positive impact on the growth of urban centers in Terai. The industrial development that took place in Terai during 1930s further enhanced the importance of southern towns. The political change of 1951 had significant impact on the urban growth in Nepal. The country was opened to the outside world, transplantation of new ideas, and country’s development plans were commenced. The country was divided into development regions. The development activities, most of which through foreign assistance, resulted the dramatic change in the growth of towns and urban centers in Nepal. The initiation of malaria eradication programme and the resettlement programme in the late 1950s created the frame work for a long-scale migration of hill people to the Terai. Hill-Terai migration due to rich agricultural base in the Terai, increase in the volume of trade with India, expansion of the state bureaucracy, and the creation of physical infrastructure contributed to the urban growth and urbanization in Terai after 1951. Urbanization is viewed as one of the most viable processes of development. The implications of rapid urbanization and demographic trends for employment, food security, water supply, shelter and sanitation, especially the disposal of wastes that the cities produce are staggering .As cities grow, managing them becomes increasingly complex. The speed and sheer scale of the urban transformation of Nepal presents formidable challenges. The major challenge is to reduce the spread of urban poverty, to improve the access of poor populations to basic services such as housing, drinking water and sanitation, and to propose development solutions that preserve the environment and foster sustainable urban planning and organization.
When the population is scattered across a difficult to reach terrain of hills and mountains, as in much of Nepal, it is virtually impossible to provide such basic services as roads, education, agricultural training, or marketing opportunities. The recent trend in Nepal indicates that when people migrate, they choose larger cities instead of small towns.
Thus, bigger cities will continue to grow faster than small towns putting more pressure on available resources, including clean air. Nepal remains one of the least urbanized countries in the world and also in South Asia. While this low level of urbanization is a matter of considerable concern for the economic development of the country, the present state of urbanization and urban development also manifests distinctive characteristics and problems that demand urgent attention. Urbanization and the consequent process of economic, social and even political changes that it entails has to be very much part of Nepal’s development vision because a large proportion of population live in far-flung settlements without adequate infrastructure, facilities and services, and depend on traditional agriculture as a source of livelihood. Diversification of agriculture, creation of off-farm employment opportunities, creation of conditions where the comparative resource advantages of particular regions can be fruitfully realized, and dealing with issues of gender and ethnicity, among others, is facilitated by the process of urbanization.
The growth rate of urban and rural population shows, that urban growth rate in Nepal has been quite erratic. There was a decline in urban growth rate compared to the preceding census in the sixties and then in the eighties. This process appears to have been influenced by (a) Classification and declassification of urban places, and
(b) Revision or lack of it in urban boundaries
While urban centres like Kathmandu remain under bounded, almost all newly inducted urban areas in the seventies and eighties remain over bounded. However, for total, urban as well as rural population the decade of the seventies marks a watershed because it is in this decade that the growth rates were highest. Urban –rural growth differential was the highest in the 1970s and declined in the eighties. Since then the differential has been on the rise.
In terms of development regions conceived after the Fourth Plan (1970-75) the Central development region (CDR) has consistently the largest share of urban population, as well as the largest number of urban places in the last five decades. In 2001 the CDR had almost half of Nepal’s urban population, and 20 urban places. In spite of the fact that the share of urban 58 population in the CDR has been declining it still has the largest size of urban population in Nepal. The Eastern development region has consistently ranked second in both the share of urban population, and the number of urban places. The Mid western and the Far western development regions have acquired urban population only in the last two decades. While the nature and form of urban development may be debated, the fact that urbanization has to be an integral part of Nepal’s development agenda can hardly be contested.
Urbanization policies in Nepal
An urbanization policy would be both systematic and guided by public and private investment in existing urban and rural settlements. Regional investment in the development would contribute to commercialization and agricultural industrialization. Although urbanization in Nepal has to be an important and well emphasized development agenda, it remains a spontaneous process without particular focus. The positive aspects of cities and towns as engines of economic growth in the context of national development have not been adequately appreciated by policymakers, planners, academicians and development partners. Nepal has first introduced the national urban policy focusing on the balance urban development in 2007 and the MDG based Three Year Interim Plan to align with the subsequent urban development plans. Despite this, little time is left and alarm bells have started ringing to notify not enough has been done to take decisive actions to achieve the MDG by the target year 2015. The five year national plan document is only the basis of urbanization policy. The urbanization policy.
The urbanization policy included in the Seventh Plan (1985-1990) was actually supplementary to a plan aimed at strengthening rural development. The policy was not substantiated by any urbanization strategy, sector plan or action plan. The Eight Plan (1992-1997) did not formulate any urbanization policy separately either. Rather, it incorporated urbanization policy issues under the regional policy framework. Despite some discussions on initiatives to promote small and medium-sized towns in Nepal, no workable urbanization policy was laid out until the Ninth Plan (1997-2002). This Plan integrated urbanization policy into regional policy, in a programme “to support market-oriented urban systems in the course of regional development”. The plan also had sector activities and presented some ideas on urban development, notably by preparing physical plans for newly and soon to-be designated urban centers. The Tenth Plan (2002-2007) includes a housing and urban development sector plan. However, like earlier plans, it has not specified any systematic and comprehensive urbanization policy. It includes plans on urban development, particularly preparation of the town plan, establishment of infrastructure, urban services and others. Yet there is no national urbanization policy as neither such, nor any urban migration policy to deal with or manage migrants in urban areas. Unless urban planning is not in place and urban investment is not systematic, the achievement will neither possible nor sustainable.