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Case Study | Kalkere Urban VillageSurvey and documentation to understand aspects of planning,
municipalisation and governance in the urban villages in Bengaluru
Internship with:
The World Resources Institute, India
Harshal Gajjar
Khyati Menezes
Sabeela Iqbal
Sachinkumar Rathod
Nitin Anjaneya
1
Page of Contents
Cover page ……………………………………………..
Page of contents ………………………………………… 2
Structure of the report …………………………………... 3
I. Introduction ………………………………………. 4a. Rationale for the study ……………………………. 4b. Objective of the study …………………………..... 5c. Scope of the study ………………………………… 6d. Conceptual timeline for the field Study …………... 12
II. An overview of the village………………………… 12a. Location and connectivity to the field site ……….. 13b. Physical profile of the village …………………….. 14c. Historical background of the settlement area ……. 27
III. Project Designa. Rationale for the Questionnaire …………………… 27b. Sampling Strategy and Criteria for selecting the Respondents …………………. 29
IV. Analysed survey findings ………………………….. 31V. Analysed findings from the FGDs …………………… 61VI. Experience of the survey …………………………. 63VII. Feasible Solutions and Suggestions ………………… 66
2
Study of The Oxymoronic Identity – Urban Villages in the context
of – Kalkere, Bangalore
As students of Public Policy and Governance at Azim Premji University, we got an opportunity to
intern at World Resources Institute, India for the Urban Governance project. This is the report for the
study conducted at Kalkere, an urban village of Bangalore.
Structure of the Report – This report is divided into 8 parts. The first part is an introduction of our
field study. The introduction describes the rationale for the field study, objectives of field study, scope
of the study and provides a conceptual timeline for the field study. The second part deals with an
overview of the village. It also describes the location and connectivity to the field site, physical profile
of the village and the historical background of the settlement area. The third part describes the project
design which explains the rationale for the questionnaire, sampling strategy used and the criteria for
selecting the respondents. The fourth part of the report answers some of the fundamental questions of
the research – What is the perception of people regarding the planning, urbanization and
municipalisation of urban villages? What are the drivers of such a transformation? How the
municipalisation of the urban villages leads to the institutional, occupational and social changes?
What are the current provisions of the government? The fifth part and sixth part form the crux of the
report which comprise of the analysed findings of the survey and Focused Group Discussions (FGDs)
respectively. The seventh part describes our experiences of doing the survey on the field. Eighth part
reinstates some interesting findings from the study and suggests some feasible solutions as to – how
should a ground up intervention to plan, municipalise and govern an urban village look like.
3
I. Introduction
a. Rationale for the field study – Studying the existing literature on urban local development,
infrastructure planning and urban poor was quite dreadful because a look at how incremental,
unplanned growth was carried out by the native population, local politicians, municipal officials, and
other social groups, that too without a master plan was beyond one’s imagination. As observed and
read about many Indian cities, the peri-urban areas of Bangalore have expanded in an unplanned and
unsystematic manner. Usually the situation observed is that, over time property taxes of these peri-
urban areas increase at a sky rocketing rate but such areas are characterized by neglect as it falls
beyond the purview of planners on either side and lacks vital infrastructural support. 1 These peri-
urban regions are supplied with basic services only upon the pressure from local people and local
politicians.2 A similar pattern was observed in Kalkere. Kalkere was one of the 110 villages that came
under the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagar Palike (BBMP) in 2007.
We as students with not much exposure to urban governance were curious to know the scenario on
ground with context to Kalkere. Following were the objectives of the field study –
1http://iigeo.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/5-Dynamics-of-the-Peri-Urban-Interface-Issues-and-Perspectives-for- Management.pdf - Paper written by ' Sayantani Sarkar and Sumona Bandyopadhyay, Kolkata – West, Bengal.
2 Urban local government, Infrastructure planning and the Urban Poor – CASUMM – CIVIC study, January – 2007. (Collaborative for the Advancement of Studies in Urbanism through Mixed Media – Citizens Voluntary Initiative for the City (Bangalore)
4
b. Objectives of the Field Study – Some of the main objectives we were keen to learn about are
as follows:
1. To study provision of basic services and infrastructure development in the urban village of
Kalkere.
2. To understand the aspirations of the residents of Kalkere, whether they wanted to be a part of
BBMP or were happier under the Panchayat rule.
3. To understand the physical transformation in terms of infrastructure and other changes that
occurred in Kalkere after it became a part of BBMP and to educate ourselves on the role, local
politicians play in mundane life.
4. To learn about the social and occupational transformations that must have taken place over the
years.
5. To learn about some of the migration patterns.
c. Scope of the Study – We had these definite objectives but were open to any interesting facts that we
could learn from our interactions on the field. Detailed information was collected on provision of
basic services which included water supply, sanitation, solid waste management, power, roads, health
and education. From the analysed survey results, interactions with the residents of Kalkere, BBMP
officials, focused group discussions and observations that were made in line with the objectives of the
study are as follows –
Studying the provision of basic services and infrastructure development – Despite Kalkere
becoming a part of BBMP as early as 2008, even after 8 years, the village is not supplied with
Cauvery Water as of in June, 2016. The residents of Kalkere are primarily dependent on bore well
5
water provided by the government. Drinking water is purchased in the form of BBMP provided
filtered cans by a majority of the residents in the village. Since the filtered water is provided by the
government, the cost for 20 litres of water is only Rs.5. This was one of the most interesting
observations in the field – a single point from where the drinking water is purchased by the residents.
Shankar, a resident of Kalkere says, “I generally come here to buy drinking water once in two days,
this recent facility has helped us immensely to reduce our monthly expenditure by a few hundred
rupees. The place is generally crowded every morning with the line going up to 40 metres, hence I
come here around 11 AM as the crowd is less during this time of the day.” Hundreds of other
residents of Kalkere village and other neighbouring localities use this drinking water facility
irrespective of their financial background and have been benefitted over the last year.
6
Figure 1: Shankar inserting a 5 rupees coin to get a can of drinking water.
These filter vendor machines work like a coffee or Pepsi vendor machine. They work like water
ATM’s and are maintained by the BBMP.
All the residents did not have access to a private toilet. 14% of the respondents who were slum
dwellers defecated in the open while 13% of the residents who were slum dwellers did not have
access to electricity. Around 60% of the slum dwellers used solar lights which were provided by
Pollinate Energy, a social enterprise in the year 2013-14.
The bus connectivity was something which most of the residents were not satisfied with. 64% of the
respondents said that the waiting time at the bus stop was more than half an hour. Even the
7
connectivity to major destinations was a major issue with the residents of the village. A majority of
the respondents mentioned about need of buses to Hoskote which is slowly becoming an industrial
hub.
Some of the residents were of the opinion that garbage was not collected on a regular basis and there
was no on particular time the BBMP garbage van came to collect the garbage. 36% of the 100
interviewed residents said that no one came to collect the garbage and they themselves had to dispose
the garbage.
There are no police stations, fire stations, post offices, community halls or hospitals within 1 km of
the village. These basic facilities fall under the 2.5 to 3 km radius from the village. A government
school and an anganwadi are in the same compound and are located within 1 km of the village.
A veterinary clinic is present near the entrance of the village (Next to BBMP ward office, Kalkere)
which is open twice in a week. While the government had plans to shut this clinic permanently, the
residents of Kalkere and neighbouring villages held a protest last year which lead to the survival of
the clinic.
Understanding the aspirations of the residents of Kalkere whether they wanted to be a part of
BBMP or were happier with the Panchayat – A mixed response was received on whether the
residents wanted to be a part of BBMP or were happy with the Panchayat. Many of them especially
the senior citizens were of the opinion that Panchayat was more accessible than BBMP. In the past
when Kalkere was governed by the Panchayat, the villagers approached the head of the Panchayat or
one of the 8 Panchayat members for getting access to basic services for anything and everything. So it
was one man or a group of people who were known to the villagers that were accountable for any
issue. Some of the respondents said that earlier when the village was governed by the Panchayat, for
8
festival celebration they could go to the head of the Panchayat or its members and everything would
be organized. But now, after Kalkere has become a part of the BBMP, for one festival to be organized
the villagers have to run from pillar to post to get things done. They have to contact different
departments within BBMP, get police permissions and contact Bangalore Electricity Supply
Company Limited (BESCOM) for the arrangements to be made. However, the responses received
were mixed as many of them were of the opinion that BBMP was more accessible. 32% of the
respondents said that Panchayat was more accessible while 33% of the respondents were of the
opinion that BBMP is more accessible. 3 out of the 100 respondents interviewed said that, both
BBMP and Panchayat were accessible whereas 1 of the respondent said that neither of them are
accessible. 13% of the respondents said that they did not know as to who was more accessible out of
the two. 1 of the respondents said that he had no opinion on this question while 17% chose not answer
this particular question.
Understanding physical transformation in terms of Infrastructure and the role, local politicians
play – There were some desired as well as undesired changes after Kalkere came to be governed by
the BBMP. Some of changes brought were – concrete roads, street lights, better provision of drinking
water, covered drainage/ sewer lines with concrete slabs. These changes were brought very recently –
approximately 2-3 years back. The local MLA had intervened after which these changes were brought
about. Work towards building concrete roads and covering the sewer lines with concrete slabs was
carried out just before elections. Thus one can conclude that, BBMP had no plans of bringing these
changes when Kalkere became a part of the municipal corporation. Only due to the intervention of the
MLA and upcoming of local elections that these changes were brought for the betterment of the
residents. Political ambitions of some have led to the development of the village in terms of some
9
basic infrastructure facilities. Some of the villagers claim that a lot of trees were felled and agriculture
lands are being converted to residential plots and apartments. There was a rapid increase in the
number of residential buildings within the village boundary and most of it not adhering to the BBMP
regulations.
Learning about the social and occupational transformations that must have taken place over the
years – Krishnappa and his family were earlier dependent on the grazing lands on the outskirts of
Kalkere village. Over the last 10 years his livelihood has drastically changed and the number of cattle
in his shed has been reduced to just 3 cows and 4 sheep. The Kuruba family was mainly dependent on
these livestock for their livelihood and over the years due to construction of apartments and
converting grazing lands into residential plots has deprived them of their regular work. After the
upswing in land prices, residential and commercial activities in and around the village has increased.
Krishnappa and his family decided to sell some of his cattle to open a small provision store. For the
remaining of the cattle they buy fodder which was once available in plenty at no cost in the last
decade. This is the story of most of the residents in the village who were dependent on cattle rearing.
Their life has drastically changed over the years and they are now dependent on alternate sources of
occupation for their financial income, something which they are not comfortable and not used to. For
the villagers who owned land, they have turned into real estate brokers and most of them have sold it
to land developers on joint venture basis to build apartments and residential layouts. Traditional
agriculture and cattle rearing is reduced drastically and only a handful of families follow these
occupations.
Migration patterns – Amongst all the respondents interviewed, 68% of them were migrants and only
32% were local natives. Out of the 68% migrant respondents, 31% have migrated because of work,
10
21% because of marriage, 4% because the residents found the property cheap in Kalkere, 1% because
of education and 11% have chosen others as their option. Others options includes reasons such as –
divorce, marriage conflicts, residents wanted to take care of elders who stay at Kalkere, or residents
want to live a retired life at Kalkere. Majority of the respondents have migrated from different parts of
Karnataka while some have even migrated from northern states of Uttar Pradesh and Orissa.
Andhra pradesh
Karnataka Kerela Orissa Tamil Nadu Uttar Pradesh0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
3%
58%
1% 1% 2% 3%
Migrants from different States
States
Perc
enta
ge
Work marriage education reasonable property in kalkere
others0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%31%
21%
1%4%
11%
Reasons for migration
Reasons for migration
Perc
enta
ge
11
d. Conceptual Timeline for the field work and study of the urban village – Kalkere
WeekWeek 1
May 19th -26th
Week 2
May 27th -June
2nd
Week 3
June 3 – 9
Week 4
June 10- 16
DeliverablesSurvey and
Mapping.
Survey,
Mapping and
Data Entry
Survey,
Focused
Group
Discussions,
Mapping and
Data Entry
Survey Focused Group
Discussions, interviews
with Kalkere Corporator
and BBMP officials & short
stories coverage (vignettes
on different topics),
AutoCAD and Data Entry
II. An overview of the village. the location and connectivity to the field site, physical profile of
the village:
Regional connectivity
The settlement area of Kalkere village is situated in the north-east part of Bengaluru. Its larger area extends outside BBMP. The settlement area is located 2.7 km away from the Hormavu junction (Outer ring road) and connects through the Kalkere main road.
It is approximately 42 km away from the Kempegowda international airport which gets connected through Kalkere main road and NH4. The nearest railway station (KR puram railway station) is about 8km away from the settlement area.
12
The village is connected through the national highway 7 via Kalkere main road on Hormavu junction.
Road hierarchy:
There are 3 levels of roads around the 5 km radius of the Kalkere village. The main Kalkere road cuts left from outer ring road at the Hormavu cross roads that leads to Kalkere. The Kalkere main road is 4 lane 12 Mt. sub arterial road. Inside the village boundary, there are 3.5 to 4 metre (varies in different parts of the village) roads that allow motorised traffic and pedestrian movement too. Further there is a third hierarchy of small pavements ranging from 0.45 metres to 2.5 metres only for pedestrian traffic or in some cases two wheelers’ access. The main road that cuts through the village and goes towards Banjara layout is the old flour mill road.
13
Built vs Open
The morphology of Kalkere village narrates a story of a sub urban village that has single scattered rural houses towards the centre and some slums and high rises towards the north and the west of the village. Some of them are row houses on either side of a narrow private lane. These characteristics also give an urban nature to the village.
14
83%
2%1%
5%
2%6%
2%
Land use break upResidential Commercial Industrial Mixed useWorship places Dilapdidated Under construction
15
Building use in Kalkere
Building use in Kalkere doesn’t have much diversity like any other densely populated urban area. Most of the commercial buildings have been set up in the last 5-10 years along the Kalkere main road. Only some commercial establishments are found towards the north of the village that deal with provisioning. There is a prominent 5 % of mixed use in the village. The mixed use is residential plus commercial. The nature of these commercial establishments is diverse ranging from provision stores, tuition classes to PG for students and bachelors. There are 83% residential buildings in the site. Its breakup shall be discussed further.
The village is still undergoing transition and has a many characteristics of being a rural area this can be observed by looking at materials used in construction, number of houses undergoing renovation or new under construction houses. There are 16 temples which describes the spirituality of the people of Kalkere. Also the village has a huge number Hindu population.
Other than this, there are almost 20 dilapidated structures in the village. There is a small chunk of industrial use towards the south of the village. These light industries deal with furnishing of marble stones and tiles.
16
Open spaces
There is scattered and varied nature of open spaces in Kalkere village. When we closely look at the distribution of the open spaces we can observe the two natures of spaces one is the rural type open spaces where the building blocks give rise to community spaces between them. The second kind of space is private enclosed gated areas which are more evident in the south of the village and some towards extreme north.
These public open spaces are dynamic in character which is used for storage as well as community space for interaction. Most of the waste land and construction sites are non-agricultural lands which are used for dumping waste or storing fodder in rare cases. It was also observed that the dumping of construction waste was near the sites where construction is under process or in the common spaces of the lower income groups.
The parking is randomly done on the streets or on vacant lands. In the map, only the dedicated vacant spaces for parking have been marked. There are 4-5 spaces for parking which can accommodate 5-6 cars on an average.
Most private open spaces are gardened spaces and mostly better developed, gated and enclosed.
17
Almost 70% of the houses in Kalkere village are pukka houses constructed from concrete, brick and plaster where as 21% houses are semi pakka. In these types of houses walls are usually made out of pakka materials and the roofs are made of plastic sheets or corrugated sheets.
Kutcha houses have no pakka material such as concrete or brick used for construction. They have mud walls and temporary roofing materials. Around 62 make shift tents exist towards the north of the village just outside the village boundary.
Other than residential buildings, all the other mixed use as well as commercial and worship places are made of pakka materials. Some worship places towards the north are made of kutcha materials too.
Almost all the dilapidated houses were either kutcha or semi pakka. 100% of the buildings under construction are made of pakka materials.
Housing typology
18
44%
22%
8%
19%
8%
Housing typology breakup
Single houses Bungalow Row houses SlumLow rise High rise Non residential
There are diverse housing typologies found in Kalkere village. It is also evident when we closely look at the morphology of the area. It involves slums, single rural type houses, row houses, bungalows, low rises apartments etc. 44% of the houses are single houses that aren’t bungalows or make shift tents. They are either pakka or semi-pakka houses. 22% of the houses are bungalows that have their own private spaces and which are 1-2 floors high and has only one household residing in the particular houses.
Almost 18% building blocks are low rise apartments where 2-16 households depending on the floors and housing space of buildings. 8% houses fall under row housing that share two walls and has some private or semi-public open space in the front or back of the house. There are two chunks, one towards the north and one towards the south of the site. Remaining 8% of the houses fall under non-residential category which includes temples, under construction houses and dilapidated houses.
19
No. of floors
20
35%
33%
22%
10%
Floor break upG G+1 G+2 G+3 G+10
There is a small range in which building heights varies in Kalkere village. Buildings from Ground floored to ground plus 3 floors exist. There are almost equal proportion of ground floored and ground plus 1 floored building.
Many residential buildings towards the north are undergoing extension of 1 floor over an existing bungalow.
21
No. of households
22
80%
15%
6%
Household/ unit 1HH 2-4HH 5-10HH 10+HH
80% of the houses have 1 household residing in the building block so it can be said that the population density is quite low. It increases towards the west of the village on Kalkere road where there are more, low rise and buildings where more than 5-6 households reside.
Almost 15% households have 2-4 households residing. These are usually G+1 houses that are not bungalows. Almost 5 % building blocks have more than 5 families residing. In 2 buildings, situated just outside the village boundary are high rise buildings where more than 10 households reside. There are approximately 600 households in the study boundary of the village.
23
Storm water drains
The village has 100% coverage of the storm water drains which means these drains pass from the front of each household. These drains are used for the grey water and rain water disposal only. With the help of the natural drainage all the water accumulates in the depression near the public park in the south of the village and a small pond in the north of the village near the make shift tents (slums)
24
Street lights
The street light coverage is adequate in the villages with distances ranging from 8 metres – 20 metres on the motorised streets of the village. The internal streets specially the pathways that lead to each household have no street lights as there aren’t public streets but comprise of semi public or private spaces.
25
Historical background of the settlement area
As per our meetings with a few Sanghas (social groups) and old people in the hangout places of the
village we understood that historically this village was dominated by the Brahmin community. Over
the years the Kuruba community people got hold of major land within the village and started
expanding their territory which lead to their dominance in the village. The Brahmins and SC, ST
community people had to sell their land and moved to other villages. Even today, the village is well
distributed in its area. A particular street is dominated by only the SC and ST community whereas the
Brahmins are at one part of the village. A major part of the village is dominated by the Kurubas and
that shows in the caste distribution of our field work. 51% of the respondents belonged to the OBC
category (most of them belong to Kuruba community), 19% of the respondents said that they
belonged to the SC category, 6% of the respondents said that they belonged to the ST category while
19% of the respondents were from general category and 5% of the respondents chose not to answer
this question.
Project Design – Site reconnaissance was carried out by administering survey questionnaire, semi-
structured interviews, Focused Group Discussions, discussions with the BBMP officials, local
politicians etc. The duration of the field work on ground was for 33 days. Six methods used for
studying the objectives of the field study are –
Semi-structured InterviewsFocused – Group DiscussionsCollection of short stories on different topicsDiscussion with BBMP OfficialsMapping of the villagePhoto documentation
Our team comprised of five students from Azim Premji University. Two of us being Kannada
speakers conducted semi-structured interviews, focused – group discussions, collected short stories on
26
different topics by conducting unstructured and semi-structured interviews. Three of us mapped each
area of the village on the following layers –
Building use- Residential/ Commercial/ Mixed dues.
Number of floors.
Number of households in each building/ house.
Margin between the buildings within a plot.
Housing type- Kuccha/ Pucca/ Semi-pucca/ Destroyed.
Use of Vacant/ Open spaces- personal use/government or public use for parking/
Dump yards/ playgrounds/ waste lands.
Street lights.
Electric poles.
Drainage type- open/ closed.
Water storage spaces.
Religious spaces.
Sewer lines.
Bus stop/ stand points.
Internal roads.
Spaces in the vicinity.
Health centres.
Schools.
Field study From 19th May to 13th June
Number of households 100
Number of vignettes on various topics 08
Focused Group Discussions 04
Discussions with BBMP officials 02
Mapping
27
Photographic Documentation
Rationale for the Questionnaire – A detailed questionnaire was prepared with more than 100
questions. Questionnaire covered different aspects like – socio-demographic information, asset and
expenditure details, migration related information, transport and travel details of the respondents,
infrastructure related services like water supply, electricity, roads, public spaces and toilet facilities.
Aspiration based questions were also included in the questionnaire. FGDs focused on the impacts of
urbanization and information to be collected from BBMP officials. Four FGDs were conducted – two
at Kalkere village and two at Hormavu and Marathahalli for analysing and comparing these settlement
areas with Kalkere.
Sampling Strategy and Criteria for selecting the Respondents –
Stratified sampling was used for selection of the respondents. The strata of the sampling was - gender,
age, native/migrant, occupation, housing type and ownership/ tenants. Respondents from different
households were selected according to various different criteria.
Gender – Male and female respondents were included in the household survey. Of the 100
respondents interviewed, 48% of them are male and 52% of them are female.
Age – Interviewees of all age groups were included. Children, students, working population, retired
men and women all were a part of this survey.
Natives and Migrants – Natives and migrants were included in the household survey. Migrants who
have recently shifted, or are residing for as many as 15 to 20 years were a part of the survey and
natives who are interviewed have resided in Kalkere village for their entire life. Interviewees who are
migrants have migrated to Kalkere for various reasons such as – for work, marriage, to stay closer
with the relatives who reside in Kalkere or because property is reasonable in Kalkere.
28
Occupation – We interviewed respondents engaged in various occupations such as farming, cattle
rearing, tailoring, carpentry etc. Home-makers, daily wage labourers, domestic helpers, retired men
and women, students and even unemployed respondents looking for work were a part of this survey.
Housing Type – Respondents staying in slums, flats, independent houses (bungalows), vatara’s (tiny
row houses) etc. were all covered for this household survey.
Owners/Tenants – We made sure that respondents who owned houses, those who
were tenants and also those who stayed on lease were included.
Key respondents: Semi-structured and unstructured interviews with people who were willing to
share information in detail about Kalkere became the key respondents. Vignettes on specific topics
such as Governance aspects, Role of politicians in shaping the developments /infrastructure services
in the settlement areas, infrastructure services and other requirements in the area, transport related
information, shift in the occupation pattern and source of livelihood, demographic shift over time,
migration related information were covered interviewing key respondents.
29
Analysed Survey Findings
This part of the report deals with analysing key survey questions. The household survey was conducted in the village of Kalkere in northern Bengaluru for a period of 20 days and consists of 100 respondents. Some important and informative information related to governance and municipalization of the village are shown in the below analysis.
Livelihood pattern
Occupational distribution
2%
4%6%
13%
2%
3%
25%8%
11%
11%
2% 10%
3%
Occupation of the respondents
Farming Cattle Rearing Petty Shop /OtherTrader Daily wage labourerCoolie Housemaid Homemaker StudentRetired Salaried Job Multiple jobs Others (specify)No response
Pie Chart 1: Occupation of the respondents
Among the respondents, homemakers were found to be dominant category as 62% of the survey respondents were females. While many families have shifted from their rural occupation pattern, three families surveyed continue practicing farming and cattle rearing. There are also few other families in this traditional occupation, as several cattle sheds and fodder storage areas were present within the settlement areas. 18% of the respondents take up informal jobs such as daily wage labour, house maids and coolies. 11% of the respondents are part of the salaried job category and most of them have migrated to Kalkere because the living expenses (rent) is less expensive compared to other parts of the city. Under the salaried job category a majority of
30
them are working in the in the BPO sector and a smaller number of people as sales executives with their offices close their residences.
Table 1: Gender and occupation distribution
The above analysis done through R command gives us a very clear understanding that farming is mainly a male dominated occupation whereas cattle rearing is equally distributed among both male and female in the village of Kalkere. Among the salaried employees, the male population is dominating this sector at 82%. Retired male respondents consists of 82% and this is because most of the retired people think Kalkere is an ideal investment for land as it is outside from the chaos of the city.
31
Table 2: Migration and occupation distribution
Table 2 describes the relationship between migrants and natives of the village in relation to their occupation. As understood only the natives are involved in farming and not the migrants. 67% of the natives have petty shops and this is mainly due to the decrease in farming and cattle rearing. Daily wage labourer’s is dominated by the migrants at 84% whereas coolie and house maids are completely dominated by migrants. Most of the migrants move from northern Karnataka looking for informal jobs during non-monsoon seasons and set up make shift tents in vacant boundaries. Some families are living here for more than 5 years and move back to their villages only during monsoon season. 73% of the retired population are migrants and as mentioned in table 2 they prefer to settle in Kalkere because of the low land prices and good connectivity to major locations of the city.
32
Caste Distribution
19%
51%
19%
6%5%
Caste of the Respondents
General OBC SC ST No response
Pie chart 2: Caste distribution
The village is dominated by Hindu’s as 94 % of the respondents belonged to the Hindu religion and hence we’ve used only the caste data because it’s got a good spread among different caste. Among the respondents, OBC’s were found to be dominant category as 51% of the survey respondents were from the Kuruba community. Kalkere village is dominated by the Kuruba community and politically they are the strongest as both the constituency and the ward level elected representatives belong to this community. One particular street in the village consists of only the SC and ST families whereas the general category families are scattered all over the village.
33
Table 3: Monthly household income and caste of the respondent
Table 3 describes the household income bracket of the respondents in relation to their caste. The four income brackets are <Rs.10000, Rs.10000- 20000, Rs.20000-30000 and >Rs.30000. A dominant section of the general category fall in the <Rs.10000 category whereas the SC and the OBC population has a greater presence in the Rs.10000-20000 category. This might be because of the large presence of the backward classes in the village. The above 20000 and 30000 income level category is also dominated by the OBC’s and the SC’s at 11.76% each whereas the general category is at 5.26%. Among the ST category who consists of only 6% of the total population there is no respondent above the Rs.20000 household income category.
34
Financial Status
71%
26%
3%
House ownership details
Own house Tenant Lease
Pie Chart 3: House ownership data
38%
34%
8%
9%
11%
Houshold income
< 10,000 10,000 to 20,000 20,000 to 30,000 More than 30,000 No response
Pie chart 4: Monthly household income
35
49%
37%
7%
2%5%
Monthly household expenditure
< 10000 10000 to 20000 20000 to 30000 >30000 No response
Pie Chart 5: Monthly household expenditure
Pie Chart 3, 4 and 5 helps us understand the distribution of financial conditions among the families residing in Kalkere.
A high number of 71% of the respondents own a house in Kalkere whereas only 26% of them have rented and 3% of the respondents have leased a house. This shows that most of the migrants have purchased land and constructed a house because as per the numbers 68% of the respondents were migrants.
Among all the respondents 38% of them belonged to the less than Rs.10000 household income category and only 9% were part of the >30000 income category. As the history for the village says that it was dominated by agriculture and cattle rearing, through the survey we found that only families who had land and cattle were able to generate more income and the others had to depend on setting up petty shops and work in other informal sector.
The expenditure pie chart (Pie chart 5) correspond to the income pie chart with 49% of the respondents spending less than Rs.10000 per month for the complete household. Only about 2% spend more than Rs.30000 per month.
Through these pie charts one can understand that the residents of Kalkere village do not belong to upper class category, but rather belong to a middle class and a lower middle class category.
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Table 3: Monthly household income and caste of the respondent
Table 4: Relation between monthly household income and Expenditure
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Among all the respondents who did not reveal their income, 80% chose not to share their expenditure figures too. 20% of these respondents did reveal that their income was less than Rs.10,000. Amongst respondents whose income is < 10000, 65% of the respondent spend in the same range where as 20% of the respondents claim that they have higher expenditure than their income. Amongst people whose income is in the range of 10000-20000, 60 % have their expenditure in their income range and almost 24% percent respondents spend more than their income range. The 24% of families are mostly in debt and are dependent on alternate source of incomes and are not restricted to one type of earnings. 28% of respondents who have income range of 20000-30000 spend in their income range and same proportion of respondents spend less than their income range. But most importantly 43% of respondents spend more than their income range. One of the main category of expenses noted during the survey is the cost of education for the children. All the respondents who have income levels more than 30000 also spend more than 30000. It is important to observe as the income levels go up the respondents increasingly spend more than their income levels.
Access to basic needs and services
Water supply
86%
11%
2% 1%
Source of water supply
Government supply -Borewell Private water supplyOwn source .- No response
Pie Chart 6: Source of water supply
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While the 86% of the respondents depended on government supplied water, a small percentage of 13 respondents are depended on private sources. The 13% respondents are from the migrant slum dwellers population. These slum dwellers borrow water from the landlord (a bungalow next to the make shift tents) A minimum of Rs.500 is paid to the landlord per month by each household which includes for land rent and water charges.
7%
7% 2%
84%
Amount spent on water (Non drinking)
< than Rs.5 per day Rs. 5-20 per day > than Rs. 20 per day Don't pay
Pie Chart 7: Amount spent on water (Non-Drinking)
The residents of Kalkere village are largely depended on bore well water provided by the government. Among all the residents only a small percentage of 13 is dependent on private water supply and other sources. During the Panchayat rule 38% of the residents had to walk 50 to 200 meters to collect water from hand pumps and community tanks. From the last three to four years about 89% of the houses have piped water connection and the remaining 11% have to walk less than 100 meters to collect water from different sources like hand pumps, community tanks or borrow from other houses. (Pie chart 8)
84% of the respondents surveyed do not pay any money as water charges, whereas only a few households pay minimal money to the water line man so that he releases water on a regular basis.
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89%
2%4%
1% 3% 1%
Mode of water supply
Piped water Community WellHand Pumps (Community Stand Posts) TankerBorrow from other houses No response
Pie chart 8: Mode of water supply
73%
26%
1%
Satisfaction level- Quantity of water supplied
1- Satisfied 2- Not Satisfied .-No response
Pie chart 9: Satisfaction level- quantity of water supplied
Among all the respondents who got access to pipe water from government bore well, a high percentage of 73 respondents were satisfied with the quantity of water.
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71%
10%
9%
9% 1%
Satisfaction level with the frequency of water supply
1- Regular/convenient 2- Pre-determined/Convenient3- No timings/water is always available 4- Highly irregular/inconvenient.-No response
Pie chart 10: Satisfaction with frequency of water supply
90% of the respondents who have access to pipe water from government bore wells accepted that the frequency of water supply is regular and convenient. Only 9% of the total respondents felt the frequency of water is highly irregular and inconvenient.
61%17%
5%
6%
11%
Drinking water source
Water Cans - Government WaterCans - Private Water filterOther sources No response
Pie Chart 11: Source of drinking water
With easy access to drinking water facility at a low price, 61% of the residents of Kalkere are dependent on this service provided by the government. Only 17% of the respondents depend on private water supply as they get the benefit of home delivery of water cans. The pricing for government water cans is Rs.5 for 20 litres whereas the cost for the same ranges between 30 to
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40 rupees from private suppliers. A small percentage of 5 respondents have water filter facility at their houses.
Electricity
2%
20%
31%17%
13%
17%
Average expenditure on electricity per month
< than Rs. 100 monthly Rs.100 - 300 monthly Rs. 300 - 500 monthlyRs. 500 - 800 monthly > than 800 monthly No response
Pie chart 12: Average expenditure on electricity.
One of the main monthly household expenditure mentioned by the residents of Kalkere was electricity charges. Among all the respondents, 31% of them spend Rs.300 to 500 per month on electricity and 30% of them spend more than 500 rupees per month on electricity. 17% of the respondents were not sure on their electricity charges and chose not to respond to this question.
Solid Waste Management
Waste management in the city of Bengaluru has been a problem for over 5 years and still there has been no feasible solution to overcome this. As part of the survey we have included more questions related to solid waste management to understand the reasons behind this failure.
The below pie charts starting from number 13 to 16 describes the various issues regarding solid waste management in Kalkere village.
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45%
52%
3%
Do you segregate wet and dry waste
Yes No No response
Pie chart 13: Segregation of wet and dry waste.
Only 45% of the respondents agreed they segregate wet and dry waste. For an efficient solid waste management system the percentage of people who segregate waste should be at a higher number.
34%
57%
2%4%
4%
Collection of household waste
No one BBMP Privately mainated Don’t know No response
Pie chart 14: Collection of household waste
Among all the respondents only 57% of the household waste is collected by the BBMP and the remaining 43% use different methods to dispose their household waste. A staggering 34% of the respondents mentioned no one collects the waste and they usually burn the waste or throw on the corners of the streets. Only 2% of the respondents recycle the waste by recycling the kitchen waste to produce manure and disposing the dry waste.
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25%
24%
12%
13%
2%
24%
Frequency of Garbage collection
Never Daily Alternate daysThree days a week Once in 10 days No response
Pie chart 15: Frequency of garbage collection
Among all the respondents only 24% of them agreed the frequency of garbage collection was done on a daily basis. Most the houses which have collection on alternate days and daily basis were located on the main roads of the village. The interiors of the village are ignored by the BBMP workers/contractors. 27% of the respondents mentioned the household waste is never collected and hence resort to dumping them on streets.
8% 2%
83%
7%
Amount paid per month to collect house hold waste
< 5 Rs. 10-25 Rs. Don't pay No response/Don't know
Pie chart 16: Amount paid per month to collect house hold waste
83% of the respondents do not pay any money to the garbage collectors and only 10% of the respondents pay a minimal money of 5 to 20 rupees per month.
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Sanitation
81%
5%
14%
Toilet Facilities
Private Public Open defecation
Pie chart 17: Toilet facilities
Among all the respondents of the survey 81% of them use private toilets and do not share them with other households. Only 5% of the respondents use public toilets and the remaining 14% of the respondents defecate in the open. The 14% of them are living in make shift tents for over 5 years and there has been no access to basic toilet facilities from the government. These make shift tent residents are ignored by the state and are established on the borders of the village on an empty land.
2%
10%
73%
15%
Disposal of Toilet waste
Flush to piped sewer system Flush to septic tankFlush to pit laterine No response
Pie chart 18: Disposal of toilet waste
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The residents of Kalkere village do not have access to underground sewerage lines for disposing night soil and is depended on pit system to dispose toilet waste. 73% of the respondents use pit system as a means to dispose toilet waste and only 10% use a septic tank. The pit system is maintained by the residents themselves and while doing the survey some of the residents mentioned that they have not cleared their pit system for over 5 years. Because there is no underground sewer system the 2% who opted for this option might have no idea about the sewer system in Kalkere village.
70%
12%
2%
16%
Maintenance of Drainage line
1- BBMP 2- Private /Self 4 Don’t know .- No response
Pie chart 19: Maintenance of Drainage lines*
Note*: Drainage lines are considered as the gutter lines running parallel to the streets.
Among all the respondents in the survey 70% of them think the BBMP maintains the drainage lines whereas 12% of them said they maintain the lines running in front of their houses. The BBMP has recently covered the drainage with cement slabs which has reduced mosquito breeding.
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3% 2%
13%
49%
9%
24%
Frequency of drainage lines maintenance
1- Monthly 2- Quarterly 3- Half yearly 4- Yearly 5 Never .-No response
Pie chart 20: Frequency in maintaining drainage lines
Regular maintenance of drainage lines is crucial to avoid flooding on the streets. According to the survey 49% of the respondents said the BBMP cleans the drainage lines once in a year. Only 5% of the respondents said the lines are never maintained and is left unattended by the BBMP. A high percentage of 24 didn’t have any response for this question as they were unaware of who maintains the drainage lines.
Cooking fuel and Electricity
83%
13%
4%
Types of fuel used for cooking
2- LPG/Natural gas 4- Wood 5- Kerosene
Pie chart 21: Types of fuel used for cooking
83% of the respondents use LPG as a means to cook as they belong to houses which have a permanent roof. 13% of the respondents use wood and 4% of them use kerosene as a source of fuel as these families belong to the make shift tent community. Although some of these make
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shift tent families have been living here for more than 5 years, (within the village boundary) they do not have access to subsidized LPG connection as they do not have any proof of residence.
86%
13%
1%
Access to electricity
Yes No No response
Pie Chart 22: Access to electricity
Similar to access to cooking fuel, a very high percentage of 86 respondents have access to electricity whereas 13% of the respondents do not have access.
Solar Light Candle Not Specified0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
Alernate Source of Energy
Table 5: Alternate source of energy
Among all the respondents who do not have access to electricity 61% of them use a solar light as their main source of light during night time. This was one of the highlights of the field work as we found out that these families have been using these lights for over two years. They were purchased from a social enterprise called Pollinate energy who mainly work towards improving the lives of urban slum dwellers.
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29%
30%
16%
9%
2%1% 13%
Alternative energy source used during pow-ercuts
Candle Charger light Invertor/ U.P.S No alternativeKerosene lamp LPG gas light No response
Pie chart 23: Alternative source of energy used during power cuts.
Among the 86% who had access to electricity 16% of them had invertors/UPS as a backup for power cuts. 30% of the respondents used charger lights during power cuts and another 29% used candles as a source of light. 9% of the respondents didn’t have any alternative to power cuts and remained in the dark. Surprisingly none of the houses which are electrified used solar lights as an alternative.
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Transportation and travel pattern
3%3%
38%
16%
4%
27%
2%7%
Primary mode of travel
Walking Cycling Bus AutoOwn Car Own Bike Car Pooling No response
Pie chart 24: Primary mode of travel
Among all the respondents 38% of them use bus as the primary mode of travel. 27% of the respondents use bike as their primary mode of travel as they feel it’s more convenient when compared to public transport. Another dominant category under the primary mode of travel is auto. 16% of the respondents use auto (share auto- more than one customer in an auto).These autos ply between Kalkere to the outer ring road junction at 15rs per person.
2% 1%
4%
64%
29%
Waiting time at bus stop
< 5 min 5-15 min 15-30 min > than 30 min NA
Pie chart 25: Waiting time at Bus stop
A common issue raised by the respondents was of irregular bus timings. 64% of the respondents feel they wait for more than half an hour at the bus stop. Among all the respondents only 2% of
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them wait for less than 5 minutes at the bus stop. Among all the respondents 29% of them chose not to answer this question.
42%
26%
32%
Satisfaction with bus transportation
Not Satisfied Satisfied No response
Pie chart 26: Satisfaction with bus transportation
Among all the respondents who chose bus as their primary mode of travel 42% of them were not satisfied with the facility. The categories which assessed satisfaction level were: fare affordability, connectivity to major destinations and crowded buses. While only 26% of the respondents were satisfied with the services 42% of them were not satisfied as they gave reasons such as overcrowded buses and increased waiting time at the bus stop.
Taxation and Property priceProperty tax
1%
6%
11%
41%
37%
4%
Amount paid as property tax
< than Rs. 1000 Rs. 1000-3000 > than Rs 3000 Don't Know Don't pay No response
Pie chart 27: Amount paid as property tax
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Among all the respondents of the survey 41% of them don’t know about property taxes and this might be because of the large female population in the survey. 37% of the respondents accepted that they do not pay property taxes to the government. Only 11% of the respondents of the survey consists of taxpayers who pay more than 3000 rupees as property tax annually.
After a discussion with the tax officer of the ward we understood that less than 5% of the residents of the settlement area have paid their property taxes as per the 25th of June.
42%
54%
4%
Change in amount of property tax after being part of BBMP
Increased Decreased Don't Know No response
Pie chart 28: Change in property tax
Although a majority of the respondents agreed to not paying property taxes, 42% of them mentioned that there has been an increase in property tax. None of the respondents mentioned about decrease in property tax. With the inclusion of Kalkere into the corporation limits the property taxes have increased.
Property price/Land value
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33%
4%
5%2%
52%
4%
Property price 10 years back
1- < than Rs. 200/sqft 2- Rs. 200-500/sqft 3- Rs. 500-800/sqft4- > than Rs 800/sqft 5- Don't Know .- No opinion
Pie chart 29: Property price 10 years ago
The residents of Kalkere had a strong presence in agriculture and cattle rearing before the village got included into the municipal corporation. Land prices 10 years back were less than 200/sqft according to 33% of the respondents. Only 2% of respondents mentioned that land prices were more than Rs.800/sqft 10 years ago.
The current property price of the village is more than Rs.2000/sqft and 42% of the respondents agreed with this. Within the settlement area the property prices falls in the Rs.1800 to Rs.2500/sqft category. Only 3% of the respondents selected the 800 – 1500/sqft category for current property price in Kalkere village. With rapid urbanization and the village being just 3km from the outer ring road the land value has gradually increased over the years and has become one of the main investment options for many.
3%7%
42%
45%
3%
Current property price
800-1500/sqft 1500-2000/sqft >than 2000 sqft Don't Know No opinion
Pie chart 30: Current property price
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Migration
68%
32%
Immigrants
Migrants Natives
Pie chart 31: Migration
Andhra pradesh
Karnataka Kerela Orissa Tamil Nadu Uttar Pradesh0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
3%
58%
1% 1% 2% 3%
Migrants from different States
States
Perc
enta
ge
Table 6: Migrants from different states
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Work marriage education reasonable property in kalkere
others0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%31%
21%
1%4%
11%
Reasons for migration
Reasons for migration
Perc
enta
ge
Table 7: Reasons for migration
From the following pie chart number 32 and table 4 and 5 we can understand that among all the respondents 68% of them are migrants and 31% of them have migrated due to work and another 21% due to marriage. 58% of the respondents have migrated from different parts of Karnataka and settled in Kalkere. Only 4% of the migrants are from Northern India.
Table 8: Household income and migrants.
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Out of total respondents who did not reveal their income half the respondents were migrants and half were natives. Out of respondents who have income levels less than 10000, the ration of migrant’s v/s native is 70:30. It minutely fluctuates amongst other income levels such as 10000-20000, 20000-30000 or 30000 or more. The migrants have an upper hand under all the income levels and that also helps us anticipate a line of sectorial differences in occupation that people practice. These numbers also indicate our population in the survey is dominated by the migrants. As per the survey 68% of the respondents are migrants to the Kalkere village and therefore the income levels in every bracket is slightly dominated by the migrant category.
Table 9: House ownership between natives and migrants.
Amongst the respondents who own a house in Kalkere, the ratio of migrants versus native is 60:40, meaning more migrants own a house than the natives. This is an expected result because most the respondents (migrants) wanted to settle down in Kalkere and did not wish to relocate to another location in the city. If we observe the tenancy ratios amongst migrants and natives the ratio is 85-25 whereas when it comes to ratios of leasing a property the migrants still have 70:30 ratios over the natives. Migrants are proportionately higher in terms of occupying a facility in
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all owing, leasing and renting over the natives in Kalkere. A retired person moved into Kalkere mainly because of the village atmosphere and its calmness whereas a working official has rented out a house in the village because of its close proximity to his work place and low cost of rent.
Aspiration and accessibility
45%
31%
19%
1%4%
Aspire to be part of the Municipal corporation
Yes No Don't Know No Opinion No response
Pie Chart 32: Aspire to be part of the BBMP
This particular question got a lot of respondents to think if they have been benefitted from being included into the municipal corporation. Among all the respondents 45% of them wanted to be part of the BBMP and think there has been considerable increase in basic infrastructure services. 31% of the total respondents didn’t want to be part of the municipal body whereas 19% of the respondents didn’t know under which authority was their village under.
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Table 10: Relation between years spent in the village and aspiration to be part of the municipal corporation
From the above cross tab we can understand that more than 80% of the respondents who have lived in Kalkere for more than 15 years do not want to be part of the great municipality. As mentioned in the other section of the report Kalkere was predominately dominated by farming and cattle rearing. With increasing land prices and connectivity to important destinations the village and its surroundings has become a good location for real estate development. 60% of the respondents who have been living the village for less than a year didn’t have a response for this question as they mentioned it hardly bothered them who was in power of administrating public facilities.
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Table 11: Relationship between numbers of years spent in the village and accessibility of the authorities.
Similar to the previous table, over 80% of the respondents who lived in the village for over 15 years feel the panchayath head is more accessible when compared to the BBMP officials.
**Note:
No Response - Either the question is not related to the respondent or the respondent chose not to answer a particular question
Don’t know – The respondent does not know the answer to the specific question and mentions this to the surveyor.
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III. Analysed findings from the FGDs –
Focused group discussion with ex-Panchayat member and his friends:
Bassapa (ex-Panchayat member in the 1990’s) and his friends – a group of 5 men in their 70s sit in
the Kalkere Park in the afternoons and spend their evenings in front of the main temple in Kalkere
village. Born and bought up in this village, Bassapa and most of his friends have seen this village
transform form an agriculture dependent land to a land for the real estate giants. Back in the 1990’s
when he was the member of the Panchayat, the people of the village were happy with the services
given to them. They had basic water, fodder for the cattle, roads and agricultural land to grow crops.
Although they had to walk a few meters to collect drinking water from a specific point, they never
complained about it. With the city growing and more people coming here in the village it has become
increasingly difficult to accommodate everyone and provide basic services. The other members in the
group and friends of Bassapa mentioned about the bus services being really bad in their village. The
buses are never on time here and sometimes the waiting time goes up to an hour. With the village
being part of the BBMP in the late 2000’s not much has changed except for roads and water facility.
Even these facilities were recently given to the village because of upcoming elections then. The
BBMP had very little plans of providing basic services and we are not sure if they have any specific
plans in providing the same in near future.
Focused group discussion with the BBMP Solid waste management team: Health department
Vishwanth heads this particular department and has given us some useful information about the
process of collection of household waste in Kalkere village. He says, “70% of the household waste
has been collected within the village boundaries and the collection happens four times a week. The
disposal point is about 2km from here for the contractors to pick it up from there. The main problem
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with people in the villages is that they do not separate wet and dry waste and it gets increasingly
difficult for us to make them understand. There are about 450 to 500 houses in the village and most of
them don’t cooperate with our requirements. That’s the reason the garbage is being dumped on the
streets without being separated.” When asked about whether there is any alternative to this problem,
Vishwanth mentioned that more awareness programs on keeping our surroundings clean should be
held. Through our understanding in the field while conducting the survey, we found that most of them
dump the garbage in empty lands and burn it while very few segregate and give it to the BBMP. 52%
of the respondents answered that they do not segregate the dry and wet waste while 45% of the
respondents said yes they did separate the dry and wet waste and 3% of the respondents said have not
responded to this particular question. 7% of the respondents said that they burn the waste while 19%
of the respondents have said that they dispose the waste outside their house. When asked about how
the waste disposal was done under the Panchayat rule, a colleague of Vishwanth who had been in the
village during that time answered this. He says, “Those days there were very few people living here
and most of them would recycle their household waste to produce manure or dump in one particular
place to produce manure while the dry and plastic waste they used to burn it. Although it is
unscientific, that’s what we followed then, but unfortunately that culture is followed even now and
it’s not doing any good to BBMP’s initiative of separating wet and dry waste.
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Figure 2: Cows feeding on the garbage thrown on the streets of the village
IV. Experience of the survey
Khyati:
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The overall experience of conducting the field research in Kalkere gave me insights on how
governance works on ground. I played an instrumental role in studying and analysing the existing
literature and secondary data on the oxymoronic identity of urban villages, framing the questionnaire
which has more than 100 questions, data entry, analysing the data and report writing. The skills I
developed and polished from this internship are – reviewing and analysing the existing literature and
secondary data, framing a questionnaire, brainstorming, co-ordination within the team, co-ordination
between the team and the organization, collecting and analysing data, and had a better understanding
of team-work.
Sabeela:
The internship has been an intellectually stimulating and amazing experience. The internship gave me
an opportunity to apply the classroom learning in the real world situation. It was insightful to read the
secondary literature and analysing secondary data on urban villages before going on the site. The
internship sharpens my ability to frame questionnaire, data entry in excel, report writing and
teamwork. I enjoyed analysing surveyed data in excel and R. Mapping of the area was the most
remarkable part of the internship. It was the first time I did mapping and I really appreciate the
patience and effort of my team mate Harshal for teaching me mapping.
Sachin:
Our experiences with regard to survey and the internship in general was very good. We went door to
door and requested to help for our study, most of the respondents gave very warm welcome when
we requested them to participate in the survey. Initially surveys took a lot of time but, on average it
took us 30 to 35 minutes to cover all the questions. Throughout the survey one thing which struck to
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our mind was the fundamental motive of our study. Most of the respondents asked the importance
of the study mainly because they have experienced other people conducting other surveys. Our field
experience was good except for a few people. Some even got emotional to a few questions and we
had to spend more than an hour speaking with them. Moreover, we could see the differences
between the village lifestyle and urban lifestyle and residents of Kalkere village still had a village
lifestyle.
Harshal:
Coming from an urban planning background, physical documentation of the village went through
quite smoothly and rapidly. This was partly due to the patience and accurate work by my team mate
Sabeela. It was also disappointing at some point because I wasn’t well versed with the local language.
Throughout the internship, Sachin and Nitin were my first point of contact to understand the lives,
stories of individuals and impact of municipalisation. It was a good working experience but not
challenging enough partly because of the work I was assigned and partly because I knew least beyond
the physicality of the village.
Nitin:
It was a good learning experience on field as we got to meet a lot of families in Kalkere. Residents of
Kalkere village are very warm people; many greeted us to their home and offered us to sit in the
shade, except for one bad experience where a man doubted our intention of the survey. My main role
was to construct the questionnaire and conduct the survey on field. Initially it was bit tiring in the heat
as some surveys used to take over 40 minutes. But we enjoyed the time spent there. We made good
friends with a few kids and we were well known to most of the residents by the time our field work
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finished. Understood a lot of how things work at the ground level. Institutions can have all the rules
and regulations, but with money and influence it is easy to crossover those. As a team member,
couldn’t have asked for a better team. Everyone contributed to the best of their abilities.
V. Feasible Solutions and Suggestions
Looking at this village we really cannot make major changes to its infrastructure. We know that the
roads are tiny, in some cases not even 4 metres, but that doesn’t mean you widen the road by
demolishing the houses. An urban village should have its basic infrastructure i.e., water, sanitation
and transportation. Kalkere village residents do get their water from BBMP bore wells at no cost and
most of the roads are cemented or asphalted. Only need for them is to have underground drainage
connectivity and as some residents requested for Cauvery water connection. For an urban village
which is booming with residential buildings, proper and strict norms of construction should be
introduced and enforced. This has not been followed within the village settlement area as we have
observed independent houses with two and three floors being constructed on small roads without
providing access to vehicle parking. Monitoring the construction of these new buildings and enforcing
stricter laws and policies are some feasible solutions which will do well to the village and not turn
into an urban slum. The BBMP has to look at sustainability of its services and with an overcrowded
locality it’s going to get difficult as the area might become a slum by not sustaining its basic
infrastructure.
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