NCERT Textbook: Sub-titling | English Class 11 PDF Download

 Page 1


3.  Sub-titling
The purpose of sub-titling is to convey the main idea or theme of each 
section of a long piece of writing. It helps the reader know at a glance 
the sub-topics that are being addressed. Giving suitable sub-titles 
helps break the monotony of reading long passages.
Read the newspaper article given below and do the tasks that follow.
A new deal for old cities
The example of Curitiba in Brazil, which has attracted global 
attention for innovative urban plans using low-cost technologies, 
shows that inclusive development models for urban renewal are 
workable.
M
any cities in India accurately mirror 
Friedrich Engels’ description of 
urban centres in nineteenth century 
England even today. “Streets that are 
generally unpaved, rough, dirty, filled 
with vegetable and animal refuse, 
without sewers or gutters but supplied 
with foul, stagnant pools instead,” 
wrote Engels on the living conditions 
of the working class in that country.
Urban Decay
The depths of urban decay in India came to 
global notice during the pneumonic plague 
of 1994 in Surat; it epitomised the failure 
of governments in the post-Independence 
era and exposed development policies that 
ignored fundamental public health issues 
inherited from colonial rule. There is 
little evidence to show that policymakers 
assimilated the lessons from the Surat 
public health disaster. State and 
municipal governments did not pursue 
reform in waste management, though 
civic conditions in Surat itself underwent 
change in the plague aftermath. During 
the past decade, many cities pursued 
development agendas—often with the 
help of massive international loans—to 
project ‘modernisation’ at the cost of basic 
civic reform. 
There is thus a continuing challenge 
before the current mission to enable and 
also compel local governments to abide 
by the provisions of the Municipal Solid 
Waste Management Rules by which they 
are legally bound.
Post-liberalisation policies have 
tended to largely disregard other key 
factors that affect the quality of life 
in cities and towns: poverty, lack of 
sanitation, water shortages, gross 
undersupply of affordable housing, and 
traffic chaos generated by automobile 
dependence, in turn created by neglect 
of public transport.
Chap 9.indd   81 12/5/2024   10:16:05 AM
Reprint 2025-26
Page 2


3.  Sub-titling
The purpose of sub-titling is to convey the main idea or theme of each 
section of a long piece of writing. It helps the reader know at a glance 
the sub-topics that are being addressed. Giving suitable sub-titles 
helps break the monotony of reading long passages.
Read the newspaper article given below and do the tasks that follow.
A new deal for old cities
The example of Curitiba in Brazil, which has attracted global 
attention for innovative urban plans using low-cost technologies, 
shows that inclusive development models for urban renewal are 
workable.
M
any cities in India accurately mirror 
Friedrich Engels’ description of 
urban centres in nineteenth century 
England even today. “Streets that are 
generally unpaved, rough, dirty, filled 
with vegetable and animal refuse, 
without sewers or gutters but supplied 
with foul, stagnant pools instead,” 
wrote Engels on the living conditions 
of the working class in that country.
Urban Decay
The depths of urban decay in India came to 
global notice during the pneumonic plague 
of 1994 in Surat; it epitomised the failure 
of governments in the post-Independence 
era and exposed development policies that 
ignored fundamental public health issues 
inherited from colonial rule. There is 
little evidence to show that policymakers 
assimilated the lessons from the Surat 
public health disaster. State and 
municipal governments did not pursue 
reform in waste management, though 
civic conditions in Surat itself underwent 
change in the plague aftermath. During 
the past decade, many cities pursued 
development agendas—often with the 
help of massive international loans—to 
project ‘modernisation’ at the cost of basic 
civic reform. 
There is thus a continuing challenge 
before the current mission to enable and 
also compel local governments to abide 
by the provisions of the Municipal Solid 
Waste Management Rules by which they 
are legally bound.
Post-liberalisation policies have 
tended to largely disregard other key 
factors that affect the quality of life 
in cities and towns: poverty, lack of 
sanitation, water shortages, gross 
undersupply of affordable housing, and 
traffic chaos generated by automobile 
dependence, in turn created by neglect 
of public transport.
Chap 9.indd   81 12/5/2024   10:16:05 AM
Reprint 2025-26
82 h ornbill In the absence of a hygienic 
environment and safe water supply, 
chronic water-borne diseases such 
as cholera and other communicable 
diseases continue to stalk the poor in 
the biggest cities. 
It must be sobering to the affluent 
layers of the population that nearly 
14 million Indian households (forming 
26 per cent of the total) in the urban 
areas do not have a latrine within the 
house, as per the Census of India 2001; 
some 14 per cent have only rudimentary 
‘pit’ facilities. The number of households 
without a drainage connection stands 
at 11.8 million (representing 22.1 per 
cent of households). Migration to cities 
continues and infrastructure to treat 
sewage is grossly inadequate to meet the 
demand even where it exists. 
It is unlikely that the quality of the 
urban environment can be dramatically 
improved therefore, if such fundamental 
questions remain unresolved. 
Urban transport receives scant 
attention from policymakers. Policy 
distortions have led to rising automobile 
dependency, higher safety risks for road 
users, and land use plans that are based 
not on the needs of people, but primarily 
designed to facilitate use of private 
motorised vehicles.
It comes as no surprise therefore 
that pedestrians and bicycle riders, 
who form 30 to 70 per cent of peak 
hour traffic in most urban centres, also 
make up a large proportion of fatalities 
in road accidents. A paper prepared 
by the Transport Research and Injury 
Prevention Programme (TRIPP) of the 
Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, 
says pedestrian fatalities in Mumbai 
and Delhi were nearly 78 per cent and 
53 per cent of the total, according to 
recent data, compared to 13 per cent 
and 12 per cent in Germany and the 
United States.
Such alarming death rates — and 
an equally high injury rate — should 
persuade policymakers to revisit their 
urban planning strategies and correct 
the distortions. But many cities such 
as Chennai have actually done the 
reverse — reduced footpaths and 
areas for pedestrian use to facilitate 
unrestricted use of motorised vehicles.
The practice in progressive world 
cities has been different. Curitiba in 
Brazil, which has attracted global 
attention for innovative urban plans 
using low-cost technologies, has done 
everything that Indian policymakers 
would dread to do. Starting in the 
1970s, this provincial centre with the 
highest per capita ownership of cars 
in Brazil (other than the capital) at 
the time, banned automobiles from 
many crowded areas in favour of 
pedestrians, built an internationally 
acknowledged bus system that reduced 
household commuting expenditure 
to below the national average, and 
created new housing areas that were 
provided transport links in a planned 
manner. Some of the prestigious land 
development in the city, including a new 
Opera House, came up in abandoned 
sites such as quarries.
The bus-way system cut riding time 
by a third, Scientific American noted in 
a review in the mid-1990s, by providing 
for advance ticketing, specially-designed 
boarding areas with wider doors for 
entry/exit and dedicated lanes for faster 
transit. 
In another low-cost initiative, Curitiba 
managed floods with a dedication that 
Mumbai, Bangalore, and Chennai can 
only marvel at. The city created large 
artificial lakes in suitable places that 
filled up in the monsoon, avoiding 
flooding of residential areas. In the 
summer, these lakes turned into parks 
to provide recreational spaces. 
Chap 9.indd   82 12/5/2024   10:16:05 AM
Reprint 2025-26
Page 3


3.  Sub-titling
The purpose of sub-titling is to convey the main idea or theme of each 
section of a long piece of writing. It helps the reader know at a glance 
the sub-topics that are being addressed. Giving suitable sub-titles 
helps break the monotony of reading long passages.
Read the newspaper article given below and do the tasks that follow.
A new deal for old cities
The example of Curitiba in Brazil, which has attracted global 
attention for innovative urban plans using low-cost technologies, 
shows that inclusive development models for urban renewal are 
workable.
M
any cities in India accurately mirror 
Friedrich Engels’ description of 
urban centres in nineteenth century 
England even today. “Streets that are 
generally unpaved, rough, dirty, filled 
with vegetable and animal refuse, 
without sewers or gutters but supplied 
with foul, stagnant pools instead,” 
wrote Engels on the living conditions 
of the working class in that country.
Urban Decay
The depths of urban decay in India came to 
global notice during the pneumonic plague 
of 1994 in Surat; it epitomised the failure 
of governments in the post-Independence 
era and exposed development policies that 
ignored fundamental public health issues 
inherited from colonial rule. There is 
little evidence to show that policymakers 
assimilated the lessons from the Surat 
public health disaster. State and 
municipal governments did not pursue 
reform in waste management, though 
civic conditions in Surat itself underwent 
change in the plague aftermath. During 
the past decade, many cities pursued 
development agendas—often with the 
help of massive international loans—to 
project ‘modernisation’ at the cost of basic 
civic reform. 
There is thus a continuing challenge 
before the current mission to enable and 
also compel local governments to abide 
by the provisions of the Municipal Solid 
Waste Management Rules by which they 
are legally bound.
Post-liberalisation policies have 
tended to largely disregard other key 
factors that affect the quality of life 
in cities and towns: poverty, lack of 
sanitation, water shortages, gross 
undersupply of affordable housing, and 
traffic chaos generated by automobile 
dependence, in turn created by neglect 
of public transport.
Chap 9.indd   81 12/5/2024   10:16:05 AM
Reprint 2025-26
82 h ornbill In the absence of a hygienic 
environment and safe water supply, 
chronic water-borne diseases such 
as cholera and other communicable 
diseases continue to stalk the poor in 
the biggest cities. 
It must be sobering to the affluent 
layers of the population that nearly 
14 million Indian households (forming 
26 per cent of the total) in the urban 
areas do not have a latrine within the 
house, as per the Census of India 2001; 
some 14 per cent have only rudimentary 
‘pit’ facilities. The number of households 
without a drainage connection stands 
at 11.8 million (representing 22.1 per 
cent of households). Migration to cities 
continues and infrastructure to treat 
sewage is grossly inadequate to meet the 
demand even where it exists. 
It is unlikely that the quality of the 
urban environment can be dramatically 
improved therefore, if such fundamental 
questions remain unresolved. 
Urban transport receives scant 
attention from policymakers. Policy 
distortions have led to rising automobile 
dependency, higher safety risks for road 
users, and land use plans that are based 
not on the needs of people, but primarily 
designed to facilitate use of private 
motorised vehicles.
It comes as no surprise therefore 
that pedestrians and bicycle riders, 
who form 30 to 70 per cent of peak 
hour traffic in most urban centres, also 
make up a large proportion of fatalities 
in road accidents. A paper prepared 
by the Transport Research and Injury 
Prevention Programme (TRIPP) of the 
Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, 
says pedestrian fatalities in Mumbai 
and Delhi were nearly 78 per cent and 
53 per cent of the total, according to 
recent data, compared to 13 per cent 
and 12 per cent in Germany and the 
United States.
Such alarming death rates — and 
an equally high injury rate — should 
persuade policymakers to revisit their 
urban planning strategies and correct 
the distortions. But many cities such 
as Chennai have actually done the 
reverse — reduced footpaths and 
areas for pedestrian use to facilitate 
unrestricted use of motorised vehicles.
The practice in progressive world 
cities has been different. Curitiba in 
Brazil, which has attracted global 
attention for innovative urban plans 
using low-cost technologies, has done 
everything that Indian policymakers 
would dread to do. Starting in the 
1970s, this provincial centre with the 
highest per capita ownership of cars 
in Brazil (other than the capital) at 
the time, banned automobiles from 
many crowded areas in favour of 
pedestrians, built an internationally 
acknowledged bus system that reduced 
household commuting expenditure 
to below the national average, and 
created new housing areas that were 
provided transport links in a planned 
manner. Some of the prestigious land 
development in the city, including a new 
Opera House, came up in abandoned 
sites such as quarries.
The bus-way system cut riding time 
by a third, Scientific American noted in 
a review in the mid-1990s, by providing 
for advance ticketing, specially-designed 
boarding areas with wider doors for 
entry/exit and dedicated lanes for faster 
transit. 
In another low-cost initiative, Curitiba 
managed floods with a dedication that 
Mumbai, Bangalore, and Chennai can 
only marvel at. The city created large 
artificial lakes in suitable places that 
filled up in the monsoon, avoiding 
flooding of residential areas. In the 
summer, these lakes turned into parks 
to provide recreational spaces. 
Chap 9.indd   82 12/5/2024   10:16:05 AM
Reprint 2025-26
Sub -Ti Tling 83
State administrations and urban 
planning bodies in India follow policies 
that, ironically, allow filling of existing 
wetlands by real estate lobbies, leading 
to flooding. The residents then demand 
expensive new storm water drains.
Examples such as Curitiba show 
that inclusive development models 
for urban renewal are workable. If 
only the state and local governments 
can be persuaded to adopt a rights-
based approach to affordable housing, 
sanitation, water supply, mobility and a 
clean environment, instead of a market-
oriented model that lays excessive 
emphasis on recovery of costs incurred 
by profit-oriented private sector service 
provision. Support from a progressive 
middle class and trade unions is equally 
critical to bring about genuine urban 
renewal.
g . An An Th Akri Shn An The Hindu, 13 December 2005
Activity
1. Notice the italicised sentence placed at the top of the article which 
tells us at a glance what the article is about.
2. Divide the article into four sections based on the shifts in the sub-
topics and give a suitable sub-heading for each section. One has 
been done for you in the article as an example.
3. Look for pictures in newspapers and magazines that depict the urban 
civic problems discussed in the text. Cut them out and pin them to 
the text at appropriate places.
Chap 9.indd   83 12/5/2024   10:16:05 AM
Reprint 2025-26