Forget Shanghai, city can’t match Colombo

Anahita Mukherji | TNN
 

Mumbai: Mumbai fares the worst among five Asian cities in key human development areas like life expectancy, GDP per capita and literacy, according to a report released by the NGO Praja on Friday.
    Praja released ‘The Agenda for Mumbai’, which shows that the city is worse off than Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai and even Colombo in all these three areas. The parameters are the same as those used by the UN to compile its Human Development Index.
    “While we all know that cities like Shanghai, Singapore and Hong Kong are ahead of us when it comes to development, it’s rather telling that a city in Sri Lanka could have a higher Human Development Index when compared to Mumbai, which has standards of living that are amongst the highest in India,’’ said Nitai Mehta, managing trustee, Praja. ‘Development does not only mean a sea-link’
Mumbai: Are you sick of hearing about your netas drawing up road maps on how to turn Mumbai into Shanghai? A report released by the NGO Praja on Friday shows just how far we are from that dream.
    The NGO, which focuses on transparency in administration, released a white paper called ‘National Agenda for Mumbai’. It compares life expectancy, education and income in five Asian cities, including Mumbai. The other four are Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Colombo. The bottom-line is that Mumbai rests at the bottom of the heap in all three categories. Even the capital of war-ravaged Sri Lanka fares better than India’s financial capital.
    “Here’s proof that the development of our city does not only mean a sea link or iconic buildings,’’ said Nitai Mehta, managing trustee, Praja. “It means an intimate inter-relation of economic and social processes in the development agenda.’’ The NGO’s intent is to highlight to politicians and bureaucrats the areas that need to be developed to turn Mumbai into a world-class city.
    Praja’s analysis is based on the Human Development Index (HDI) drawn up by the UN Development Program to measure the quality of life in cities through longevity, education and income. Praja spent a month gathering data in these three areas to come up with a comparison for the five cities.
    The most telling figures pertain to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, which is 2,600 for Mumbai, 4,100 for Colombo, 10,440 for Shanghai, 29,350 for Hong Kong and 32,030 for Singapore.
    The GDP per capita is a natural logarithm that shows a region’s standard of living. The standard of living is generally measured by accounting for factors like inflation-adjusted income, poverty rate, health-care, income growth, inequality and education. “It shows the ease with which people are able to satisfy their wants,’’ the Praja report says.
    The life expectancy for Mumbai is 71 years. While Colombo beats us by a year, for Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore, the life expectancy works out to be over 81 years. The report says “public health is primarily responsible’’ for improving life expectancy across the world. “We present an abysmal scenario in this city,’’ the report adds.
    The literacy rate in Colombo is 7% higher than for Mumbai. In fact, Colombo shows a higher literacy rate than Hong Kong and Singapore. “This shows that a country doesn’t necessarily need to be rich to score on that front,’’ said Mehta. Praja’s report notes that “the percentage of drop-outs from our municipal schools is alarming’’.
    “While we all know that cities like Shanghai, Singapore and Hong Kong are ahead of us when it comes to development, it’s rather telling that a city in Sri Lanka could have a higher Human Development Index when compared to Mumbai, which has standards of living that are amongst the highest in India,’’ said Mehta.
Online forum launched
On Friday, Praja launched an online forum on its website praja.org, through which citizens can discuss issues in their constituencies. The website has a list of all six parliamentary constituencies in Mumbai and their MPs. Gurudas Kamat, MP for Mumbai North-West and Union minister of state for information technology, inaugurated the forum on Friday. “We will encourage MPs, MLAs and corporations to participate in the forum,’’ said Nitai Mehta, managing trustee, Praja. What if the MPs don’t respond? “We will send them the discussions pertaining to their constituency via email as well as registered post,’’ said Mehta.