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lace. India needs to provide up·
ward s of 150.000,000 jobs to
employ its huge labor force . Yet. in
all of this. the leadership of the
country is trying to do what it
can.
The city of Bombay. lndia's most
modern metropolis. with tall steel
and glass skyscrapers reminiscent of
American ci ties, portrays lndia's
great achievements as well as its se–
vare problems, as no other locat ion
on the subcontinent can.
Whole many of Bombay's 6 mil·
lion inhabitants work and dwell in
air-conditioned buildings. a fourth of
the population lives eother on the
pavement or in clapboard and bur·
WEEK EI'IDINO FEB.
22. 191S
lap shanties wíthout electricity or
plumbing.
Bombay. like other cities in Indio,
is immensely crowded. In the morn–
ing; over a mollion and a quarter
workers jam trams which transpon
them to work in the commerciaf sec–
tion. The trams. built for loads of
1,750, carry 3.000 at peak hours.
lt is in the context of the city's
crowding popufation and rude dis·
pari ty between rich and poor that is
mirrored lhe challenge facing the
nation as a whofe: Whether to stress
further industrial growth in an effon
to
lift
the nation out of poveny, or
whether to hofd the reins on already
strained urban growth and divert re-
sources into agricultura. Bombay' s
economic di femma is .a microcosm
of the greater one facing India as a
whole. lf the city opts for devel·
opment. it will create more jobs, op–
portunities, and weafth - but at
what cost? Water, power ánd sew·
age systems are already overloaded
- and adding a heavier burden
might hasten collapse of the various
city services.
The development controversy
meshes with the one big problem
. the rest of India faces : over–
population. Bombay will grow to 1O
mi Ilion w ithin 1 5 years. The
enormous pressure for jobs and food
and the potentlal fór political unrest
puta vise-like pressure on officials to
stimulate economic growth. But if
city services are already strained. the
extra load of development may only
precipitate a total breakdown.
India is· a land of tremendous op·
portunoty; yet it is hampered by
frequent economic bonlenecks: its
industrial infrastructure is already
struggling with demands placad
upon i t. Yet the demands will grow
as India strives to provide new jobs
for her expanding population. Thi s
problem is being dealt with in
Bombay. How Bombay tackles it
should give us a good picture of
how the lndian economy will go in
the future. o
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