According to a United Nation report by the year 2050, some 6 billion people representing two-thirds of humanity will be living in towns and cities. In Nagaland, places like Dimapur and Kohima are already witnessing such rapid urbanization—the absolute numbers of people migrating rising by the day. Foremost amongst the concern is the problem of infrastructure stemming from the grossly excessive size of most of the urban areas beyond its holding capacity. This is leading to overcrowding, traffic congestion, lack of adequate housing, mushrooming of slums and settlements, lack of civic amenities with the resultant disease and squalor. On the environment front urbanization is taking a heavy toll (those frequenting NH-39 from Dimapur to Kohima will not miss it) with surrounding green belts slowly being devoured by concrete jungles and potentially fatal level of air, water and noise pollution. Further the psycho-social malignancies arising from the pressures of living in a veritable survival of the fittest scenario, further exacerbated by the loss of traditional social support systems, manifest today in the high crime rates, psychotic disorders and racial and social tensions.
Urban population in the State has gone up as per projections in official data. People living in rural areas constituted 82.3 percent of Nagaland’s population in 2001, as against 90 percent in 1971. This is an indication of the migration taking place from rural to urban areas. The question is do the urban hosts have adequate capacity to serve the new migrant growth. Two of the biggest urban centres Kohima and Dimapur today represent the image of overcrowding, haphazard traffic growth, growing pollution, filth, water shortage, and a general deterioration of basic civic amenities. This problem will remain unless those in authority give serious thought to the larger issue of planning and management in urban areas. And since one key factor accentuating the rural-to-urban exodus is as a result of the non-availability of amenities and employment opportunities in rural centers, the government policy should focus on both ensuring that urban centers are well planned to absorb further growth while in the long run also encouraging other growth centers to develop and flourish. In Dimapur this is already happening thanks to the development of several industrial, administrative centers (Ganeshnagar Industrial Unit, Chumukedima and Nuiland administrative headquarters etc.). Such growth poles are driving out the urban population to newer locations. Kohima should likewise have to spread itself out and allow such growth centers to emerge along its periphery.
One long term solution is on improvement of rural infrastructure such as piped water supply, schools, hospitals, electrical power supply, the neglect of which accentuates the urban exodus. As far as dealing with the problems in existing urban towns Municipal authorities have to keep pace with city growth both spatially or in terms of infrastructure management. Policy makers need to wake up or else the nuisance brought about by the process of urbanization will become insurmountable. For this, a holistic approach to urban and peripheral area planning with a long term perspective as well as greater stress on rural development which will obviate the need for people to migrate to urban areas.
