Welcome to least livable metro

A survey on livability across 37 cities in the country has underlined what every lonely senior citizen whose child is studying or working in another part of the world knows, what every coughing child who covers his face when a smoke-belching vehicle passes by knows, what every patient stuck in an ambulance because a political party has decided to block a thoroughfare knows — that the city ranks behind Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai.

The Confederation of Indian Industry (northern region) survey, which has dug deep into publicly available data, highlights several weaknesses of Kolkata in comparison with the other cities while ranking it fifth among five metros.

“The objective of the study is to prompt the authorities to do some soul-searching on how to do better in each parameter,” said Amit Kapoor, the chairman of the Institute of Competitiveness, a CII arm.

The study, based on data from sources like CMIE and CSO, considered eight broad parameters to arrive at the best Indian city to live in.

The parameters are demography, education, health, safety, housing, socio-cultural and political environment, economic environment and planned environment.

Using a statistical model — based on the diamond model of Harvard University’s Michael Porter — with 10-year data sets, the survey has placed Delhi at the top of the table followed by Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru.

“It is definitely a challenge to lure people to Kolkata from other metros. Retaining them is equally difficult,” said Biswadip Gupta, the CEO and MD of JSW Bengal Steel, echoing the findings of the survey.

A rank behind growth centres in other parts of the country may not come as a surprise to the victims of inadequate civic amenities, disruptive politics, poor traffic management and rising pollution, but the survey has also challenged several myths about Kolkata.

The chief minister may crow about Kolkata’s “low crime rate” and keep calling the city an oasis of peace but the survey ranks the city 14th — even after Patna — under the “safety” head. The study took into account crime rate, road accidents and cyber crime while deciding the dismal ranking.

Kolkata’s “cheap city” tag — people are believed to find easy accommodation here — has also come under the scanner as it has ranked 32nd under the “housing options” category.

The ruling Left Front may link the non-availability of housing options and the high cost of acquiring accommodation to speculative trends in real estate and deflect the price-pinch cry towards the Centre for its failure to contain overall price levels.

But what about the sectors like health and education where the Left Front government could have made a difference?

In education, the study reveals high dropout in schools, which comes as an embarrassment for the Left government. The city’s rank of 16th in “education level distribution” — an education sub-parameter tracking enrolment in higher studies — would deal another blow to Kolkata’s image of being the country’s intellectual capital.

The performance in health is a mixed bag, with Kolkata ranking 24th for availability of hospital beds and doctors but first in vaccination, life expectancy at birth and infant mortality rate.

“Everybody knows that we need better healthcare infrastructure and human resources, including doctors, nurses, technicians and health managers,” said Rupali Basu, the chairperson of CII (eastern region)’s healthcare subcommittee and vice-president of the Association of Hospitals of Eastern India.

But the overall rank of fifth among 37 cities suggests there is still some hope for the city.

Despite the disruptive politics — which has made strikes and lockouts a regular feature here — Kolkata has ranked fourth in economic environment, where the focus was on income and employment opportunities, economic infrastructure, business environment and purchasing power.

In purchasing power, it has ranked 16th, a fact borne out by the absence of premium and luxury retailers in the city.

“The findings of the survey, which will be conducted annually, would help the authorities draw up plans for the cities,” said Kapoor.

If only.


Sambit Saha, The Telegraph Metro