An Attempt to Link Education, Learning and School

There are many definitions of Education to help people understand education from different perspectives. I have browsed through many web-sites (on the internet) on topics related to definition of education (some of these web-sites are listed in reference section). Having gone through all the definitions, I could draw following inferences:-  

A.   EDUCATION is the measure of following ABILITIES: -

1.    to ACKNOWLEGE one’s FEELINGS* (Capacity to Understand - CU)

2.    to EXPRESS** one’s FEELINGS* (Capability to Express - CE)

B.   *The Notion of FEELINGS could be analogous to notion of imagination, curiosity, emotions, view point, (maybe) voice of inner consciousness or similar attributes related to inner senses.

C.   **To EXPRESS oneself may be illustration through various means like (say) Art, Artefacts, Presentations, Demonstrations, Products or (say) other such means, someone can utilize to communicate with the world. In this regard, it may be noted that expression of thought supported by scientific evidences can have greater acceptance in academic world.

D.   LEARNING is the process of gaining ENHANCEMENT in EDUCATION by CONSUMING available RESOURCES*** (presumably) for meaningful value addition to the mankind. Learning could be either through formal means (following established methodologies) or through informal means. The same has been shown in picture - 1 (below). Education (E) is expressed in two components (CU - Capacity to Understand and CE - Capability to Express). One may reach from Education Level E1 (with components CU1 and CE1) to Education Level E2 (with components CU2 and CE2) through the Learning Process (which has components of Informal Learning (IL) and Formal Learning (FL)). This is just an illustrative plot not confirming to an specific mathematical model and assumes CU = CE at every point on E.

E.   ***RESOURCES could be Information, Know-How, Technology, Experience or other such means, which may be utilized for enhancement of CU and CE.   

PIC 1: Graphical Representation of above Discussions

F.    Similarly, from personal experiences (of schools in India) and from observing surroundings, I have understood a SCHOOL to be a facility dedicated to enable people to LEARN – Therefore, in a way, the entire universe is a school. But, in context of modern way of life, school:-

a.    is an artificial environment dedicated to instructive teaching adhering to a formal standard approved by an Educational Board.

b.    is (mostly) a scarce resource and therefore, it also does assessment of eligibility to being taught before giving access of facilities to the prospective learners.

c.    is responsible to award of formal certificate/degree and therefore, conducts assessment of learning with an approved yardstick for the educational discipline.

d.    (in most cases, irrespective of school being a profit centre or a cost centre) is a controlled institution, which is oriented more towards performance of learners (during assessment of learning through formal examinations) and less towards learning benefits to learners or (say) even learning services rendered to learners.  

G.   It is assumed that SCHOOLS make RESOURCES available to learners and also provide training to use the resources for LEARNING, which supposedly lead to enhancement of EDUCATION. Learning benefits from pedagogy of schooling is Formal Learning.

H.   The SOCIOLOGY of EDUCATION is the study of how public institutions and individual experiences affect education and its outcomes. This is an important area of study in shaping the education system of society.

/************************/

REFERENCES:-

1. http://infed.org/mobi/what-is-education-a-definition-and-discussion/
2. https://www.ed.gov/race-top/district-competition/definitions
3. https://www.bedguide.in/2019/03/definition-of-education-by-philosophers-pdf.html
4. https://edtechdigest.com/2010/09/22/21-definitions-for-a-21st-century-education/
5. http://lapazinaction.blogspot.com/2011/12/definition-of-education-by-expert-2.html
6. https://www.academia.edu/25724141/DEFINITION_OF_EDUCATION_TRADITION_AND_MODERN_CONCEPT_OF_EDUCATION_AIMS_OF_EDUCATION_DEFINITION_OF_EDUCATION
7. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/education
8. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/school
9. http://www.purposeofschool.com/philosophical/
10. https://ehlt.flinders.edu.au/education/iej/articles/v3n1/silins/paper.pdf
11. https://www.edglossary.org/education-system/

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Challenge of a Leader: Ensuring Just and Fair Culture within Organization

Photo by Lukas from Pexels https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-photo-of-man-wearing-black-suit-jacket-doing-thumbs-up-gesture-684385/

Generally speaking, the first and foremost duty of a leader is to inculcate and promote just and fair business culture in the organization. Commitment shown in this regards not only builds trust of employees on the leadership but also paves way to a systemic improvement in co-ordination and collaboration within organization. Enhanced co-ordination and collaboration can be nurtured to improve value creation within the organization, which gradually improves quality of products and services (offered to customers). Eventually all of these add up towards consolidation of brand perception for the products and services offered by the organization.

In this regards, it may be noted that justice culture is a shared set of symbols and meanings attached to objects related to experience of fairness in an organization. These meanings and symbols are used by employees to navigate the justice landscape across time and situations. The justice culture remains as employees apply information from past events in the understanding of new experiences with unfair or fair treatment. Organizational storytelling and reputation act as medium of passage of information across individuals and over time. (Reference - The Oxford Handbook of Organizational Climate and Culture - By Karen M. Barbera)

Thus, we can say that establishing justice culture is evolutionary in nature, it deals with human experiences and with human interactions (passage of information across individuals). Together all of these attributes, make cultural change (for enhancing justice culture) a matter of consensus and a matter of establishing trust over a period of time. Therefore, every leader knows that it is not easy to change prevailing culture in any organization (more so, if term of the leader is short and pressure to perform is high). If circumstances permit, introduction of design thinking ways to generally tune the organizational culture to the strategic requirements of the organization could offer controlled, calculated and conscious cultural transformation. Professional implementation of design thinking to organizational change would enable a leader get a feel of transformation all along the life-cycle of transformation. For example, it may be possible to understand the way interactions are shifting human behavior or to minutely understand the way employees adapt with the newly introduced changes or (say) the way the cognitive bias of employee’s impact on gong change management.

Resistance to cultural change is an inherent feature of an organization. It is usually observed, within most organizations, there exists an ecosystem functioning in equilibrium serving to the (vested) interests of key stakeholders of the organization, which is usually very well synchronized with prevailing culture of the organization. Many times the vested interests of key stakeholders are aligned to the long term strategic interest of the organization but on certain occasions this alignment had withered away due to gradual changes in the environment. The withering away of alignment is often associated with increasing personal interest of dominant players, which creates hidden power centers influencing the organizational decision making and organizational governance. In such circumstances, realignment of with new culture is coupled with enhanced resistance to change.

A sensible leader quickly identifies different actors in the work environment, develops understanding on different aspects like the organizational design, the mechanism of operations, the characteristics of organizational dynamics and most importantly her own role in the entire gamut of things (along with her privileges and her limitations). Once a leader has got into grooves and positioned herself into the leadership position, she should give deep thought about how to streamline the organization towards achieving its objectives following the practice of a just and fair culture. Usually, it is left to leader to deal with the circumstances (both internal to the organization and external to it) and to execute cultural changes required for achieving business objectives of the organization.

In present landscape of business world, the design of organizational administration still appear to be influenced with classical organizations confirming with Fordism and Taylorism. So, it is expected from the leaders to control the organization by adhering to administrative framework laid out in organizational rules and by practicing administrative privileges. However, sensible leaders know very well that forceful measures to make the things fall in place through administrative privileges (enjoyed by the leader) do not result in institutional change and do not work towards consolidation of the organization as a cohesive force adhering to the organizational strategy for value creation. Mostly, in this regards, experts suggest that exploring possibilities for ways to increase pay-offs from just and fair practices within the organization works in the larger interest organization. 

Perhaps, organizational change could be considered for promoting characteristic changes to the organization. In response to dynamically changing external and internal factors, organizations are consistently challenged to keep on changing (mostly for excellence or at times for existence). Usually, organizational transitions in response to such changes are planned, controlled and incremental in nature but on certain occasions, organizations have to respond with major transformations, which could be characterized as rapid, random and voluminous. These transitions and transformations bring opportunity to re-orient existing shared values of organization and to establish new normal with redefined benchmarks and realigned processes (in line with core organizational values). While managing such transitions and transformations to the organization, sensible leaders make conscious efforts to bring intended cultural change and to re-enforce key cultural values.  

In my opinion, one key differentiating factor amongst those leaders who get success in ensuring just and fair business culture in organization and those who do not, is the passion to build an ethical organization, which can bring change to the business landscape through excellence.

But, what could possibly be a few most dominant characteristics of an organization broadly having achieved just and fair work culture? There could be many peculiar characteristics people suggest, however the ones I found most appealing, are as under:-

a.     Fair Processes with functioning Organizational Checks and Balances

b.    Transparency within the Organization

c.     Policy Driven Distribution of Organizational Resources

d.    Mutual Trust and Fair Competition amongst the Employees

e.  Sense of Ownership and Responsibility within Organization

References and Other Related Materials:-

1.     How to use design thinking to change cultures

a.      https://medium.com/thingsflux/how-to-use-design-thinking-to-change-cultures-9383e6c1c222

2.     Getting beyond the BS of leadership literature

a.      https://www.mckinsey.com/global-themes/leadership/getting-beyond-the-bs-of-leadership-literature

3.     EU Charter for Fundamental Rights – Article 31

a.      http://fra.europa.eu/en/charterpedia/article/31-fair-and-just-working-conditions

4.     Why It’s So Hard to Be Fair

a.      https://hbr.org/2006/03/why-its-so-hard-to-be-fair

5.     Proof That Positive Work Cultures Are More Productive

a.      https://hbr.org/2015/12/proof-that-positive-work-cultures-are-more-productive

Problems of Pedestrians on Roads of Indian Cities

(Profile – Photo source - https://pixabay.com/en/hyderabad-india-city-urban-people-2707439/) 

The following points illustrate the problems of pedestrians on roads of Indian cities with some of the related facts and figures.

1.     It is NOT safe to walk on roads in Indian cities – It is not easy, safe or healthy to walk on roads in Indian Cities. Urban planning in the country seems to have failed to accommodate for pedestrian amenities required for a citizen to choose walking as a preferred option to commute. Rapid urbanization and massive industrialization have contributed to taking air pollution in India to alarming levels, which makes walking on roads difficult for citizens. Civic bodies appear to be ineffective in efforts to address the day-to-day problems faced by pedestrians. And, society at large doesn’t seems to be concerned about the very basic privilege of a citizen to walk on the road with dignity and pride. 

It is observed that, walking in urban India currently requires tricky negotiation through a series of obstacles and impediments, which often necessitates risking one’s safety – or sometimes, one’s life. Pedestrian neglect in Indian cities is not just an issue of low prioritization and poor implementation of pedestrian amenities, but also a reflection of a larger systemic issue: the absence of a comprehensive set of legal rights and remedies for pedestrians in India. This situation is especially precarious for vulnerable groups like the elderly or children.

It may be noted that, pedestrian fatalities constitute a significant share of total fatalities and the magnitude is in fact much higher in cities that lack adequate pedestrian facilities. In New Delhi, Bengaluru and Kolkata, the pedestrian fatality share is greater than 40 per cent. In the case of Bengaluru, three pedestrians are killed on roads every two days and more than 10,000 are hospitalised annually. Elderly people and school children carry a large share of the burden with 23 per cent fatalities and 25 per cent injuries (Bhatt et al., 2013).

On the other hand, Indian roads are extremely polluted. Data available on pollution are alarming. India is ranked amongst nations with highest level of air pollution in a recently published data by International Energy Agency and World Health Organization. The Picture - 1 below illustrates the same. Further, as shown in Picture – 2, India happens to be amongst the nations with highest number of deaths from air pollution. The next picture (Picture - 3 below), shows that ten out of the fifteen most polluted cities of the world are Indian cities (as per 2014 data published by WHO). Most of these cities are not amongst the metro cities or mega cities but are amongst Tier-II cities.

Picture – 1: Nations with Highest & Lowest Pollutions (Reference - https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/02/the-best-and-worst-countries-for-air-pollution-and-electricity-use)

Picture – 2: Nations with Most & Least Deaths from Air Pollution (Reference - https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/02/the-best-and-worst-countries-for-air-pollution-and-electricity-use)

Picture – 3: Worlds most polluted cities are in India (Reference - http://www.thehawk.in/news/these-are-the-15-most-polluted-cities-in-the-world ; Source – WHO, 2014)

2.     Interestingly, studies suggest Indians are also amongst the nationals having least average-daily-walking-steps (refer Picture - 4) - Despite the fact that most of the parts of the country has got good weather to walk most of the time round the year, we Indians do not walk as much as (most of) other nationals walk.  Stanford University analysis published in the journal Nature, we Indians are officially among the laziest people in the world. The study ranks India at 39 after comparing the walking patterns of 46 countries. The picture below (Picture - 4) is a good visualization on walking pattern of some of the countries across the globe. To an otherwise health conscious urban population, the issues of pedestrian safety and the issue of air pollution may surely be contributing reasons to poor walking figures illustrated in the graph (Picture - 4). This correlation (between conditions for walking on roads and average-daily-walking-steps for any region) may worth investigating by researchers.

Picture - 4: Average Daily Walking Steps across the Globe (Reference - https://www.scoopwhoop.com/indians-are-among-the-laziest-people-in-the-world-because-we-dont-like-to-walk/#.9f42jyzz5 published July 14, 2017; Source – Tim Althoff, Stanford)

3.     Nevertheless, everyday over a fifth of non-agricultural working class walks to their workplace in India– Over a fifth of  200 million working Indians (who are neither employed in agriculture nor in household industries) commute to work on foot, followed by commutes by cycle, moped or motorcycle and bus, new data from the Census shows (refer – Picture - 5). More illustration on mode of transportation of working population in megacities is given in the following picture (refer - Picture – 6).

But, in the other picture (Picture – 7), the census data also shows that in India most of the commuter to work place walk less than 5 kilometers (approximately 6,600 steps, assuming 1 kilometer = 1,320 steps). This is far less than 8000 – 10,000 steps of daily activity recommended by most of the reputed agencies related to healthcare (reference - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3197470/table/T1/ )

Picture – 5: Non-Agriculture Workers Commute to Workplace (Reference - http://www.thehindu.com/data/india-walks-to-work-census/article7874521.ece; Source – Census Data)

Picture – 6: Commuting in India’s Megacities (Reference - http://www.thehindu.com/data/india-walks-to-work-census/article7874521.ece; Source – Census Data)

Picture – 7: Mode wise distance wise commute to work place in India (Reference - http://www.india.uitp.org/articles/mobility-in-rural-india; Source - Census data)

4.     A point to note is that data show gender disparity in walking pattern - Another mention worthy finding of the Stanford University study (mentioned above in Point 2) was that inequality largely persisted between men and women, where women in general were less active. The Indian data points out that women walk a mere 3,684 steps a day compared to 4,606 steps by a man, on an average.

Census data of India reveals that commuting for work is even less common among women workers - 45 per cent of women do not commute for work - and the trend is observed to be higher in rural than in urban areas.

Anyhow, it is a known fact that in comparison to relatively better economies (China or Western Europe), there exist a significant gender disparity in India across a spectrum of development indicators (Picture - 8).

Picture – 8: Gender Disparity in India (Reference: http://indianexpress.com/article/explained/how-india-ranks-on-gender-parity-and-why/ ; Source: Mckinsey Global Institute Report, 2015)

Therefore, there is a likelihood that observed gender disparity in walking pattern could be just reflection of larger gender disparity prevailing in society. Many studies suggests that vulnerability of women pedestrian in developing countries (like India) have close link with existing socio-cultural conditions. Thus, in addition to general factors limiting women pedestrian like road congestion, exposure to crowding, air and noise pollution, inaccessibility, the other risks are violence, crime and sexual harassment (Seedat, MacKenzie, & Mohan, 2006). 

Nevertheless, it is important for countries across the globe to work towards gender equality. It may be noted that narrowing the gender gap at work could add $28tn to the global economy by 2025 (according to a research by Mckinsey conducted in 2015).

It may sound convincing that the causes of observed gender disparity in data of pedestrians on Indian roads be rooted on existing socio-cultural conditions. So, efforts should be made to address the causes and effects may automatically start improving. But, there could also be merit in the converse argument. Thus, the possibility of bringing changes to socio-cultural conditions (for gender equality) by making Indian roads much safer for women could also be possible, at least to some extent. May be, because, there could be link between socio-cultural norms and insecure environment for the issues like gender disparity. Researches in this direction at different levels and under diverse conditions may be helpful in conclusive deducing any associated link and its characteristics.

5.     Largely the poor walk to work in Indian cities - Experts believe that in urban India, mostly poor people walk to work as they can not afford for other available alternatives. “In urban areas, a large number of people who walk to work are poor,” Shreya Gadepalli, Regional Director, Institute of Transportation and Development Policy told the Times of India. “They often walk long distances despite inconvenient and dangerous conditions because they cannot afford any other form of transport.”.

Roads are amongst the important urban Public Spaces in Indian cities. Diversity and dynamism on Indian roads portray picture of a society full of life and vigor. However, these roads also reflect that this public space (roads) is not being put to use for the larger benefit of all the citizens. The facilities available on the roads do not seem to be doing justice towards pedestrians (who are mostly assumed to represent poorer population).

Now, in the following couple of points, an attempt is made to briefly sum up some of the reasons usually cited for problems of pedestrians on Indian roads:-

1.     Pedestrian is lost in the era of Rapid Urbanization – In recent past, urbanization has taken place at unprecedented pace in India. This has not given the governing agencies time to develop required facilities in a planned manner. The daunting challenge of accelerated pace of urban transformation faced by India can be understood with the available census data on rate of urbanization and on rate of motorization (Picture – 9 and Picture – 10). 

Picture – 9: Rapid Urbanization; (Reference: http://iihs.co.in/knowledge-gateway/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/RF-Working-Paper-Transport_edited_09062015_Final_reduced-size.pdf; Source: Census Data for 2011)

Picture - 10: Growth of Registered Vehicles in India (Reference: http://iihs.co.in/knowledge-gateway/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/RF-Working-Paper-Transport_edited_09062015_Final_reduced-size.pdf; Source: Census Data for 2011)

Workers moving to urban clusters for better job opportunities is an age old story. Cities have always been thought as engine of economic growth and prosperity. Traditional view of linking urbanization to job creation and to economic development was dominant in past decades in India and therefore, it was not possible to restrict, to resist or to control (with the intent of systematically organizing) the pace of urbanization in this poor country with consistently increasing population.

In view of exploding expansion of cities and rate of motorization, appropriate planning of road facilities, which may do justice with pedestrians could not be conceived, planned and executed. Eventually, the concerns of pedestrians consistently got ignored to the extent that the roads of Indian cities became extremely unsafe for them. 

But, new researches indicate that building urban infrastructure, enacting directed policies, encouraging management of knowledge capital and promoting entrepreneurship could make the real difference for maximizing economic advantage from urbanization. There is no simple linear relationship between urbanization and economic growth, or between city size and productivity. The potential of urbanization to promote growth is likely to depend on how conducive the infrastructure and institutional settings are. Removing barriers to rural–urban mobility may enable economic growth, but the benefits will be much larger with supportive policies, markets and infrastructure investments. Cities should use realistic population projections as the basis for investing in public infrastructure and implementing supportive land policies. Governments should seek out ways of enabling forms of urbanization that contribute to growth, poverty reduction and environmental sustainability, rather than encouraging (or discouraging) urbanization per se. Thus, it is suggested that, to capitalize on the benefits of urbanization (that has happened) so far, a strategic planning with due considerations to inclusive development and to a just and fair distribution of scarce urban public spaces will be critical. This can not exclude suitable infrastructure with enabling technology to address the issues of pedestrians.

2.     Challenging Dynamics of Urban Infrastructure Development  –

Definition of Urban Public Space - Francis Tibbalds (1992: 1) describes the public realm as, “all parts of the urban fabric to which the public have physical and visual access”. Public space is the space we share with strangers, people who are not our relatives, friends, or work associates (Walzer, 1986: 470). Almost all definitions and views about public space include the primary indicators of accessibility and activity. We can single out the various definitions to an inclusive one: urban public space is a space within the city area which is accessible to all people and is the ground for their activity. According to Madanipour’s (1996) terms “they are controlled by a public agency, and are provided and managed in the public interest”.

In the days of rapid urbanization, urban public space is a scarce resource and it is important to plan its utilization for inclusive development of a city. Roads are the most important urban public space in developing countries like India. Ensuring access to roads to different mode of transportation in such a way that pedestrian can walk safely and more importantly with dignity and pride should be utmost priority of urban planners. This is possible only when planners understand dynamics of road traffic and public behavior on roads to much greater depth. These days advanced systems installed for surveillance (in public places and private places) do produce data for analysis and interpretation of planners. Researches on the related topics may also be promoted for understanding different minute aspects of roads in different areas during different times. 

In many occasions, even with making a choice of best possible solutions, it becomes difficult for roads to accommodate pedestrians due to other dominant mode of transportation and / or due to encroachments of roadside footpath; in such situations, alternate access to pedestrians through pedestrian-walk-ways parallel to roads in the same vicinity may be considered.  

It is widely believed amongst the development sector experts that both public and private agencies entrusted to urban planning and urban infrastructure development in developing countries have temptation to replicate successful urban plans and planning methodologies from advanced countries. In the process, as many people suggest, they often miss basic local needs. Not addressing to pedestrian issues in urban planning in Indian cities is cited as one such case.

Many times governing agencies and administrative bodies responsible for urban development also could not give adequate attention towards urban planning. Some people believe that these organizations function in a work culture which is highly hierarchal, strictly driven from top and very much focused on just getting urban development projects executed and generating output (rather than focused on ensuring objectives are met and impactful outcomes is achieved). Such organizations limit collaborations both within and outside the organization. A few others suggest that political compulsions of democratic governments to do things for public good in chunks of short-term spoils the larger vision of long term planning for urban development.

Another group of people point out that critical civil issues of interest to general public and to larger societal benefits do not get due attention in the prevailing political process in India. Developing consensus among influential political groups or dominant communities to converge for a solution on general issues is usually found to be a difficult task. Mostly, political groups and communities have many issues to address, which relates to the specific interests to these entities. Thus, it takes time and effort to voice civil issues of general public. Problems of pedestrian is considered to be one such issue. 

References:

• https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281089650_Pedestrian_Safety_and_the_Built_Environment_A_Review_of_the_Risk_Factors
• https://www.researchgate.net/publication/223853809_The_phenomenology_of_being_a_female_pedestrian_in_an_African_and_an_Asian_city_A_qualitative_investigation
• http://thecityfix.com/blog/where-are-footpaths-case-protecting-pedestrian-rights-india-himadri-das-sahana-goswami
• http://www.livemint.com/Science/6rKWVcHEGH6IdN7ghWkLlN/What-is-making-urban-young-India-unhealthy.html
• http://thecityfix.com/blog/out-of-the-drivers-seat-the-safety-impact-of-auto-rickshaws-on-pedestrians-and-cyclists/
• http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/B-series/B_28.html
• http://iihs.co.in/knowledge-gateway/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/RF-Working-Paper-Transport_edited_09062015_Final_reduced-size.pdf 
• https://www.mahindraworldcity.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Livability-Quotient.pdf
• http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/maps-and-graphics/Mapped-The-worlds-most-urbanised-countries/
• http://censusindia.gov.in/2011-prov-results/paper2/data_files/India2/1.%20Data%20Highlight.pdf
• http://nbr.org/downloads/pdfs/eta/PES_2016_working_paper_shastry_pai.pdf
• https://paycheck.in/main/career-tips/research-publication/how-much-time-do-indians-spend-on-commuting-to-work-place 
• https://globalnews.ca/news/3887057/toronto-commute-long-canada/
• https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/interactive/2013/feb/01/cycle-drive-work-map-census-2011
• http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/jyFgs0yWYfgFSukwv8NcyH/Is-access-to-transport-slowing-participation-of-women-in-Ind.html
• https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Dinesh_Mohan2
• http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0956247813490908
• https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235962518_Urbanisation_and_Economic_Development_in_India

Some Points to Consider for Planning Green Open Spaces in India

Reference - https://static.pexels.com/photos/237411/pexels-photo-237411.jpeg

As the world’s cities continue to grow, continuing to value green space in cities is vital: but is also a challenge, particularly in developing nations where there is pressure for space, resources and development. Open spaces across many cities in India are decreasing with growing urbanization. Amongst the rare exceptions are cities established after India’s independence, such as Gandhinagar and Chandigarh, where the urban greenery was pre-integrated in the City Master plans at the initial design phase. A study conducted by the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore noted that the Bangalore city lost much of its open spaces and urban wetlands due to urban sprawl resulting in over 35% decline in number of water bodies between 1973 and 1996.

In recent times, governments in India are trying to develop Green Open Spaces. This blog-post is an attempt to collate some points, which may be helpful for professionals involved with planning for Green Open Spaces for Indian Cities.

1.     Definition: Green Open Space

School of Global, Urban and Social Studies RMIT University prepared a Report for Australian Government Department of Environment in October 2014 titled "Planning for green open space in urbanising landscapes".

In this report, the team of experts have defined green open space as all publicly owned land that is set aside primarily for recreation, sports, nature conservation, passive outdoor enjoyment and public gatherings. This includes public parks, gardens, reserves, publicly owned forecourts and squares. 

To arrive at this definition, a lot of literature review was done by the experts. Therefore in this article, we will stick to this definition. Public Open Space are found to be synonymous with this definition of Green Open Space. 

2.     Points to consider for Planning Green Open Spaces (GOS)

a)      Try to Maximize Healthcare Benefits:

There is increasing evidence that ‘nature’ in the urban environment is good for both physical and mental health. Natural views – of elements such as trees and lakes – promote a drop in blood pressure and are shown to reduce feelings of stress. Many people express this effect by saying that a park or green space is a good place to ‘get away from the stresses of life’.

One suggested way to obtain both physical and mental health improvements is through ‘green exercise’ – taking part in physical activities ‘whilst at the same time being directly exposed to nature’. Increasing access to high-quality public spaces where green exercise can take place produces substantial public health benefits and so reduces healthcare costs.

Following are most popular healthcare considerations for designing of Green Open Spaces in India.

a.      Provide Means to Encourage Physical Activity – In general, it is observed that in urbanized world people are NOT doing enough physical activities. The World Health Organization has already identified physical inactivity as the fourth biggest killer on the planet, ahead of obesity. Experts are now describing sitting as 'the new smoking', a ticking time bomb of ill health just waiting to explode. Studies suggest that access to public open spaces as one of the factors contributing to encourage people for doing physical activity. One such study found that people who use public open spaces are three times more likely to achieve recommended levels of physical activity than those who do not use the spaces. Users and potential users prefer nearby, attractive, and larger parks and open spaces (Wolf, 2008).

b.      Provide Platform to Encourage Sunlight Exposure - It may be noted that 60 – 70% of Indians are deficient in Vitamin-D. Exposure to sunlight during early hours of the day or during afternoon could significantly improve daily intake of vitamin D. Easy access to Green Open Spaces may surely encourage health conscious people to get required exposure to sunlight.

b)     Try to contribute to Reduction in Air-Pollution:

a.      The Problem of Air Pollution in India – Air pollution in India has been rising at alarming rates. A closer analysis of the data, obtained through RTI and previous studies on air pollution, pinpoint to continued use of fossil fuels as the main culprit for the dangerous rise in the level of pollutants in the air across the country (the Greenpeace India Report).

India is one of the most polluted countries in the world and air pollution is a major threat to health. But, the AQLI (Air Quality Life Index) reveals that if India reduced its air pollution to comply with the WHO’s air quality standard, its people could live about 4 years longer on average, or a combined more than 4.7 billion life years. If the country reduced pollution to comply with its national standards, its people could live more than 1 year longer on average, or a combined more than 1.6 billion life years. The details are shown in Picture-1. (Reference - Energy Policy Institute at The University of Chicago AQLI, Spotlight – India)

Air pollution has both acute and chronic effects on human health, affecting a number of different systems and organs. It ranges from minor upper respiratory irritation to chronic respiratory and heart disease, lung cancer, acute respiratory infections in children and chronic bronchitis in adults, aggravating pre-existing heart and lung disease, or asthmatic attacks. In addition, short- and long-term exposures have also been linked with premature mortality and reduced life expectancy. (Marilena Kampa & Elias Castanas, Laboratory of Experimental Endocrinology, University of Crete, School of Medicine, P.O. Box 2208, Heraklion, 71003, Greece)

Effect of polluted environment is not limited to diseases. Some recent researches are also indicating that higher pollution level leads to a higher crime rate.

Picture – 1: Reference - https://aqli.epic.uchicago.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/AQLI_1Pager_India_Final.pdf , Energy Policy Institute at The University of Chicago

b.      Plan Plantation in Green Open Spaces with intent to Reduce Air-Pollution – Plants can be used as both bio-monitors and bio-mitigators in urban an industrial environments to indicate the environmental quality and to ameliorate pollution level in a locality. Certain plants species (Holoptelea integrifolia L., Mangifera indica L., Pongamia pinnata (L.) Pierre, Dalbergia sissoo Roxb.) can be successfully grown in an area for monitoring and control of air pollution effectively besides acting as shade tree and being a source of food for animals and birds. (Kapoor CS, Chittora AK (2016) Efficient Control of Air Pollution through Plants a Cost Effective Alternatives). Thus, if Green Open Spaces are being planned next to a polluted busy road, the planners may consider fencing the open space with suitable trees. 

Trees remove air pollution primarily by uptake of pollutants via leaf stomata (pores on the outer “skin” layers of the leaf). Trees and forests in the US removed 17.4 million tons of air pollution in 2010, with human health effects valued at $6.8 billion. Although this pollution removal equated to an average air quality improvement of less than 1 percent, its effects on human health were significant, especially in urban areas.

c.      Other Considerations for minimizing Air-Pollution – Planners may try various possibilities for limiting air-pollution. Some considerations could be:-

                                                              i.     Selection of location of Green Open Spaces (GOS) – GOS must be located in relatively less polluted area. At the same time the location should be easily accessible to the beneficiaries to reduce any incremental pollution due to conveyance of beneficiaries to the GOS.

                                                     ii.     Parking facilities adjoining GOS must be provisioned to avoid traffic congestion around the GOS due to haphazard parking. Traffic congestion adds to the existing pollution, wastes time and fuel of public.

                                                         iii.     Technology enablement of GOS to keep track of pollution levels all throughout the year could be useful for taking decisions on further course of action on changes to the GOS with introducing new things. It has been observed time and again that introducing measurement is critical for quality improvement and efficient management.

c)     Keep in Mind Bio-Diversity Protection:

a.      Encourage Protection of Bio-Diversity in Urban Areas - A network of parks and open spaces that include protected natural lands, ecological reserves, wetlands, and other green areas is critical to providing healthy habitats for humans, wildlife and plants in these densely built places. Natural landscapes are vital to preserving regional ecosystems amid growing cities.

Conservation of bio-diversity is particularly important for India. This is evident from the UN population surveys, which suggests that India is likely to have 700 million rural poor moving to cities by 2050. With 45,000 plant and nearly 90,000 animal species, India is considered one of the world’s most mega-diverse countries. Experts suggest continued growth in its urban population could lead to enormous loss of biodiversity.

Planners of Green Open Spaces may need to first understand city’s ecological network and to identify important flora and fauna. Thereafter, a comprehensive plan synchronized with city’s ecological network (connecting other city owned lands like (say) urban forests, street networks (greenways on footpath or between road dividers) or even (wherever relevant) private owned large open spaces) may be prepared.

In India, it is less likely to get data on city’s ecological network for most of the cities. The help of academic institutions and student communities may be taken by encouraging more studies and more research in this area. A well planned and adequately funded scheme for researchers to carry on research in fields related to Bio-Diversity may also be planned to support the schemes for GOS. Engaging experts from other countries for consulting in this field, which is getting more and more relevant may also be considered.

d)      Remember the SUCCESS of Green Open Space is NOT Possible without Engaging Intended Beneficiaries and Public at Large:

It is now a generally accepted fact that making public to participate in design of GOS yields better results. North Carolina is a state in the southeastern region of the United States. This state has adopted a Public Participation Policy for Park Planning on May 14, 2014.

Thus, in whatsoever ways possible, an attempt to engage public in decisions related to planning and design of GOS may be made. Conducting surveys (online or offline) could be one of the ways to get public opinion. Holding meeting with representative groups could be another possible way. Many other possibilities could be explored to engage public in the vicinity of proposed GOS.

Further, engaging target beneficiaries to the GOS and monitor whether intended benefits are getting delivered is required. This is possible through coordinated efforts for encouraging people to avail benefits from Green Open Spaces. Let us take example of associating citizens for healthcare benefits. Urban Planners may understand the demographic details and healthcare needs of target beneficiary groups while designing Green Open Spaces. Provision for suitable facilities keeping in view target population, locality, location, weather, culture and general public psychology could be incorporated. The administrative authority (may be - Urban Local Body or Local Administration), which is responsible to maintain Green Open Space may try innovative ways to utilize the facilities provisioned with attractive offerings to drive the beneficiaries for availing healthcare benefits.

I am neither an urban planner nor an architect but may try to come up with an fictitious example to illustrate how co-ordination of different agencies is important for meeting intended objectives of a plan. For example older people are at higher risk of vitamin D deficiency. Therefore, the objective of a Public Garden could to bring senior citizens residing nearby to a place where they may get exposure to sunlight during morning and evening hours (exposure to sunlight enhances Vitamin D in humans). Keeping this in view, Green Open Space Planners may suggest a restaurant with glass ceiling, having very large glass windows (on walls facing the East and the West) located at the central region of a Public Garden. The coating on the glasses could be changeable in accordance with seasons (allowing more perforation for sunlight during winter and like-wise). This will make a perfect place for people to hang around in the garden, eat something in the restaurant and while dining, get exposure to mild appropriately filtered sunlight during day time. This restaurant may be tendered to a vendor for operation. The administrators of public gardens may use funds available for healthcare initiatives (or (say) funds available for increasing public participation in public facilities provisioned by the state) to encourage the management of restaurant to come up with innovative ideas to attract senior citizens to reach hotel during morning and afternoon time and get rewarded in proportion to senior citizen the restaurant attracts. Restaurant management will try different options. (May be they take into cognizance that) Green Tea has been found to be helpful in improved functioning during old age. Therefore, restaurant management may offer free of cost green tea (subsidized by local administration funding it receives) to senior citizens reaching restaurant during pre-defined time in the morning and evening. Restaurant management may also propose attractive offers like (say) provision to play popular old tunes on demand by senior citizens during those hours on the music system at restaurant. Restaurant may also invite pathology lab representatives to restaurant to help senior citizens monitor their Vitamin D levels. This pathology test may be sponsored by some agency (say an NGO working for healthcare of senior citizens) for those people, who may not be able to afford. This pathology test data may determine one of the outcome of the Public Garden.

In India, many times, public offices do not have adequate infrastructure, adequate fund or adequate institutional framework to track and evaluate GOS projects right from need to objectives to outputs to outcome through data driven approach (nor are the real problems faced by offices as easy as described in fictitious narration above). But, all these should not deter planners to go for preparing plans with suitable metrics and required project management data. So that, need for data which are most critical to the success of project may get noticed by the stakeholders and by other interested groups. It is very much likely that with accelerated technology diffusion, with institutionalization of e-Governance initiatives in public offices and with efforts of concerned groups, the situation will improve in not so far future.

3.     References

1.      Urban planning and the importance of green space in cities to human and environmental health

http://www.hphpcentral.com/article/urban-planning-and-the-importance-of-green-space-in-cities-to-human-and-environmental-health

2.      Community Participation Strategies in Planning for Urban Parks

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042814056948

3.      Planning for Parks, Recreation, and Open Space in Your Community

http://www.rco.wa.gov/documents/manuals&forms/CTED-IAC_parks_rec_plan_guide.pdf