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11 Major Problems of Urbanisation in India: Advertisements
11 Major Problems of Urbanisation in India: Advertisements
Urbanisation in India
by Smriti Chand Urbanisation
Advertisements:
Some of the major problems of urbanisation in India are 1. Urban Sprawl
2. Overcrowding 3. Housing 4. Unemployment 5. Slums and Squatter
Settlements 6. Transport 7. Water 8. Sewerage Problems 9. Trash
Disposal 10. Urban Crimes 11. Problem of Urban Pollution!
Although India is one of the less urbanized countries of the world with only
27.78 per cent of her population living in urban agglomerations/towns, this
country is facing a serious crisis of urban growth at the present time. Whereas
urbanisation has been an instrument of economic, social and political
progress, it has led to serious socio-economic problems.
The sheer magnitude of the urban population, haphazard and unplanned
growth of urban areas, and a desperate lack of infrastructure are the main
causes of such a situation. The rapid growth of urban population both natural
and through migration, has put heavy pressure on public utilities like housing,
sanitation, transport, water, electricity, health, education and so on.
Poverty, unemployment and under employment among the rural immigrants,
beggary, thefts, dacoities, burglaries and other social evils are on rampage.
Urban sprawl is rapidly encroaching the precious agricultural land. The urban
population of India had already crossed the 285 million mark by 2001. By
2030, more than 50 per cent of Indias population is expected to live in urban
areas. Following problems need to be highlighted.
1. Urban Sprawl:
Urban sprawl or real expansion of the cities, both in population and
geographical area, of rapidly growing cities is the root cause of urban
problems. In most cities the economic base is incapable of dealing with the
The first large flow of migration from rural to urban areas was during the
depression of late 1930s when people migrated in search of jobs. Later,
during the decade 1941-51, another a million persons moved to urban places
in response to wartime industrialisation and partition of the country in 1947.
During 1991-2001, well over 20 million people migrated to cities. The greatest
pressure of the immigrating population has been felt in the central districts of
the city (the old city) where the immigrants flock to their relatives and friends
before they search for housing. Population densities beyond the old city
decline sharply.
Brush (1968) has referred to this situation in the central parts of the cities as
urban impulsion which results from concentration of people in the centre of
the city close to their work and shopping. Incidentally many of the fastest
growing urban centres are large cities.
This is due to the fact that such large cities act as magnets and attract large
number of immigrants by dint of their employment opportunities and modern
way of life. Such hyperurbanisation leads to projected cities sizes of which
defy imagination. Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, etc. are
examples of urban sprawl due to large scale migration of people from the
surrounding areas.
In several big cities wealthy people are constantly moving from the crowded
centres of the cities to the more pleasant suburbs where they can build larger
houses and enjoy the space and privacy of a garden around the house. In
some cities, the outskirts are also added to by squatters who build makeshift
shacks of unused land although they have no legal right to the land. The
difficulty of restricting town growth in either case is immense and most towns
and cities are surrounded by wide rings of suburbs.
Historically suburbs have grown first along the major roads leading into the
town. This type of growth is known as ribbon settlement. Such sites are first to
be developed because of their location near the road gives them greater
accessibility. But soon the demand for suburban homes causes the land
between ribbon settlements to be built and made accessible by constructing
new roads.
This type of development is known as infil. Simultaneously small towns and
villages within the commuting distance of major cities are also developed for
residential purposes. In this way towns are continuously growing and in some
areas the suburbs of a number of neighbouring towns may be so close
together as to form an almost continuous urban belt which is called
conurbation. Urban sprawl is taking place at the cost of valuable agricultural
land.
2. Overcrowding:
Overcrowding is a situation in which too many people live in too little space.
Overcrowding is a logical consequence of over-population in urban areas. It is
naturally expected that cities having a large size of population squeezed in a
small space must suffer from overcrowding. This is well exhibited by almost all
the big cities of India.
For example, Mumbai has one-sixth of an acre open space per thousand
populations though four acre is suggested standard by the Master Plan of
Greater Mumbai. Metropolitan cities of India are overcrowded both in
absolute and relative terms. Absolute in the sense that these cities have a
real high density of population; relative in the sense that even if the densities
are not very high the problem of providing services and other facilities to the
city dwellers makes it so.
Delhi has a population density of 9,340 persons per sq km (Census 2001)
which is the highest in India. This is the overall population density for the
Union territory of Delhi. Population density in central part of Delhi could be
much higher. This leads to tremendous pressure on infrastructural facilities
like housing, electricity, water, transport, employment, etc. Efforts to
decongest Delhi by developing ring towns have not met with the required
success.
3. Housing:
Overcrowding leads to a chronic problem of shortage of houses in urban
areas. This problem is specifically more acute in those urban areas where
there is large influx of unemployed or underemployed immigrants who have
no place to live in when they enter cities/towns from the surrounding areas.
Moreover, the current rate of housing construction is very slow which makes
the problem further complicated. Indian cities require annually about 2.5
million new devellings but less than 15 per cent of the requirement is being
constructed.
The Census of India 2001 concluded the first ever and the largest survey of
household amenities and assets which points a never-before profile of
problem relating to housing in India. The outcome is both instructive and
amusing. Taking India as whole, there are 179 million residential houses, i.e.,
about six people to each house.
Thirty-nine per cent of all married couples in India (about 86 million) do not
have an independent room to themselves. As many as 35 per cent (18.9
million) urban families live in one-room houses.
For about a third of urban Indian families, a house does not include a kitchen,
a bathroom, a toiletand in many cases there is no power and water supply.
Only 79 per cent (42.6 million) urban household live in permanent (pucca)
houses. 67 per cent (36 million) of the urban houses are owned by the
households while 29 per cent (15 million) are rented.
Several factors are responsible for the above mentioned sad state of affairs
with respect to housing problems faced by the urban people. The major
factors are shortage of building materials and financial resources, inadequate
expansion of public utilities into sub-urban areas, poverty and unemployment
of urban immigrants, strong caste and family ties and lack of adequate
transportation to sub-urban areas where most of the vacant land for new
construction is located.
4. Unemployment:
The problem of unemployment is no less serious than the problem of housing
mentioned above. Urban unemployment in India is estimated at 15 to 25 per
cent of the labour force. This percentage is even higher among the educated
people.
Chennai). Furthermore, although urban incomes are higher than the rural
incomes, they are appallingly low in view of high cost of living in urban areas.
One of the major causes of urban unemployment is the large scale migration
of people from rural to urban areas. Rural-urban migration has been
continuing for a pretty long time but it has not always been as great a problem
as it is today. The general poverty among the rural people pushes them out to
urban areas to migrate in search of livelihood and in the hope of a better
living.
But the growth of economic opportunities fails to keep pace with the quantum
of immigration. The limited capacity of urban areas could not create enough
employment opportunities and absorb the rapid growth of the urban labour
force. Efforts made by the central and the state governments to create
employment opportunities in rural areas and to check the large scale ruralurban migration have not met with much success.
as, the shortage of developed land for housing, the high prices of land beyond
the reach of urban poor, a large influx of rural migrants to the cities in search
of jobs etc.
In spite of several efforts by the Central and State Governments to contain the
number of slum dwellers, their growth has been increasing sharply exerting
tremendous pressure on the existing civic amenities and social infrastructure.
In India Slums have been defined under section 3 of Slum Areas
(Improvement and Clearance) Act 1956. As areas where buildings:
(i) Area in any respect unfit for human habitation.
(ii) Area by reason of dilapidation, overcrowding, faulty arrangement and
design of such buildings, narrowness or faulty arrangement of streets, lack of
ventilation, light, sanitation facilities or any combination of these factors, which
are detrimental to safety, health and morals.
The following criteria characterises an area as Slum:
(i) All areas notified Slum by state govt. under any Act.
(ii) All areas recognised as slum by state govt. which have not been formally
notified as slum under any Act.
(iii) A compact area of at least 300 populations or about 60-70 households of
poorly built congested tenements in unhygienic environment usually with
inadequate infrastructure and lacking in proper sanitary and drinking water
facilities.
Socially, slums tend to be isolated from the rest of the urban society and
exhibit pathological social symptoms (drug abuse, alcoholism, crime,
vandalism and other deviant behaviour). The lack of integration of slum
inhabitants into urban life reflects both, the lack of ability and cultural barriers.
Thus the slums are not just huts and dilapidated buildings but are occupied by
people with complexities of social-networks, sharp socio-economic
stratification, dualistic group and segregated spatial structures.
In India, slums are one or two-room hutments mostly occupying government
and public lands. The houses in slums are built in mud or brick walls, low roofs
mostly covered with corrugated sheets, tins, bamboo mats, polythenes, gunny
bags and thatches, devoid of windows and ventilators and public utility
services.
Slums have invariably extreme unhygienic conditions. They have
impoverished lavatories made by digging shallow pit in between three or four
huts and with sackcloth as a curtain, hanging in front. When the pit overflows
excreta gets spread over the surrounding area and is rarely cleaned.
The children cultivate the habit of defecating anywhere in the slum area.
Slums have practically no drains and are marked by cesspools and puddles.
Piped water is not available to slum dwellers and they mainly depend upon
shallow hand-pumps for water supply.
Such handpumps are generally dug in the middle of a stale dirty pool. People
wash their clothes and utensils under the handpumps. The entire muck
around the handpump percolates into the ground and contaminates the
ground water. This contaminated ground water is taken out through the
handpump which adversely affects the health of the slum dwellers.
Consequently people suffer from water-borne diseases like blood dysentery,
diarrhoea, malaria, typhoid, jaundice, etc. These diseases stalk the people all
the year round. Children with bloated bellies or famished skeletons, many
suffering from polio, are a common sight. Most of the slums are located near
drains (Nullahs) which contain filthy stagnant water.
Billions of flies and mosquitoes swarming over these drains cause infectious
diseases. These drains are used as open lavatories by the inhabitants and are
always choked. Such drains (Nullahs) pose serious threat to health of the
people.
Slums are known by different names in different cities. They are called
bustees in Kolkata, jhuggi- jhoparies in Delhi, Jhoparpattis or Chawl in
Mumbai and Cheri in Chennai.
Squatter Settlements:
No clear-cut distinction can be drawn between slums and squatter settlements
in practice except that slums are relatively more stable and are located in
older, inner parts of cities compared to squatter settlements which are
relatively temporary and are often scattered in all parts of the city, especially
outer zones where urban areas merge with their rural hinterland.
Normally, squatter settlements contain makeshift dwellings constructed
without official permission (i.e., on unauthorised land). Such settlements are
constructed by using any available material such as cardboards, tin, straw
Physical Characteristics:
Due to inherent non-legal status, a squatter settlement has services and
infrastructure below the adequate minimum levels. As such water supply,
sanitation, electricity, roads, drainage, schools, health centres, and market
places are either absent or arranged informally.
Social Characteristics:
Most of the squatter households belong to lower income group. They are
predominantly migrants, but many are also second or third generation
squatters.
Legal Characteristics:
Such settlements lack land ownership.
From the above discussion it is clear that squatter refers to legal position of
the settlement and slum refers to the condition of a settlement.
A distinction has to be drawn between squatter settlements and shanty towns.
Illegality of tenure is the hallmark of the squatter settlement but shanti huts or
mean dwellings are defined by their fabric. Shanty towns result mainly from
massive rural-urban migration and from the inability of city authorities to
provide sufficient housing facilities and employment for the vast influx of
people from rural to urban areas.
Indian cities abound with slums which have been termed as eyesores, a
rash on city landscape, a blot on civilization etc. But actually they are much
more health hazards for its unfortunate poverty stricken inhabitants and also
for the city as a whole. The most shocking aspect is that slums are growing at
an accelerated rate.
Census of India, for the first time in 2001, came out with detailed data on slum
population in India. According to data released by Census of India 2001, 607
towns and cities in 26 states/union territories have reported slum population
(Table 14.8).
No slum population has been reported in the remaining nine states/union
territories at the time of Census 2001. Andhra Pradesh has the largest number
of 76 towns reporting slum population. This is followed by Uttar Pradesh (65),
Tamil Nadu (63), Maharashtra (62), West Bengal (51), Madhya Pradesh (42)
and Karnataka (35). Figure 14.6 gives the distribution of towns with slum
population.
The largest slum population of 10.6 million has been reported from
Maharashtra; followed by Andhra Pradesh (5.1 million), Uttar Pradesh (4.1
million), West Bengal (3.8 million), Tamil Nadu (2.5 million), Madhya Pradesh
(2.4 million) and Delhi (2.0 million).
6. Transport:
With traffic bottleneck and traffic congestion, almost all cities and towns of
India are suffering from acute form of transport problem. Transport problems
increase and become more complex as the town grows in size. With its
growth, the town performs varied and complex functions and more people
travel to work or shop.
As the town becomes larger, even people living within the built-up area have
to travel by car or bus to cross the town and outsiders naturally bring their
cars or travel by public transport. Wherever, trade is important, commercial
vehicles such as vans and trucks will make problem of traffic more
complicated.
Since most of the commercial activities of the towns are concentrated in the
Central Business District (C.B.D.), the centres are areas of greatest
congestion. However, other parts of the town are not free from traffic
congestion.
Such areas include the roads leading to factories, offices, schools, etc., which
will be thronged with people in morning and evening; minor shopping centres
which grow up in the suburbs; sporting arenas, entertainment districts which
will be busy at night, roads leading to residential and dormitory towns which
will be busy when commuters flock to the cities in the morning to work and
return home in the evenings.
Such congestion becomes greater when the centre is built up in tall
skyscraper blocks whose offices sometimes employ thousands of workers,
because at the end of the office hours everyone leaves the building within a
short space of time to make their way home.
This puts tremendous pressure on public transport and causes journeys to
take much longer period than they normally would. In most cities the rush hour
or peak traffic hour lasts for about two hours and during that period buses and
trains are crammed to capacity, roads are overcrowded with vehicles and the
movement of traffic becomes very slow.
In other towns, the narrowness of the streets, which were built long before the
motorised transport and lack of parking facilities are the main cause of
congestion. Cars may be parked along the edges of the roads restricting
Similar conditions prevail in most of the Indian cities. In Kolkata, metro rail and
Vivekanand Setu were constructed to ease traffic flow. But traffic congestion in
several old localities and near Haora bridge is almost a daily routine. In
Ahmedabad, the speed of vehicles comes down to 5 km/hr on Gandhi Marg
and several other roads due to congestion and overcrowding.
7. Water:
What is one of the most essential elements of nature to sustain life and right
from the beginning of urban civilisation, sites for settlements have always
been chosen keeping in view the availability of water to the inhabitants of the
settlement. However, supply of water started falling short of demand as the
cities grew in size and number.
The individual towns require water in larger quantities. Many small towns have
no main water supply at all and depend on such sources as individual
tubewells, household open wells or even rivers. Accelerated Urban Water
Supply Programme (AUWSP) was launched to provide water to towns with
population of less than 20,000.
Keeping in view the increased demands for water by the urban population,
Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organisation
(CPHEEO) fixed 125-200 litres of water per head per day for cities with a
population of more than 50,000, 100-125 litres for population between 10,000
and 50,000 and 70-100 litres for towns with a population below 10,000.
The Zakaria Committee recommended the water requirement per head per
day 204 litres for cities with population between 5 lakh and 2 million and 272
litres for cities with population more than 2 million. This amount of water is
supposed to be used for drinking, kitchen, bathing, cloth washing, floor and
vehicle washing and gardening.
Sadly majority of the cities and towns do not get the recommended quantity of
water. Gap in demand and supply of water in four metro cities, viz., Mumbai,
Kolkata, Delhi and Chennai varies from 10 to 20 per cent. The condition is still
worse in small cities and towns. To meet the growing demand for water, many
cities are trying to tap external sources of water supply.
Mumbai draws water from neighbouring areas and from sources located as far
as 125 km in the Western Ghats. Chennai uses water express trains to meets
its growing demand for water. Bangalore is located on the plateau and draws
water from Cauvery river at a distance of 100 km. Water for Bangalore has to
be lifted about 700 metres with help of lifting pumps.
Hyderabad depends on Nagarjuna Sagar located 137 km away. Delhi meets
large part of its water requirements from Tajiwala in Haryana. Water is also
drawn from Ramganga as far as 180 km. Under the proposed scheme it will
meet its growing requirements of water from Tehri, Renuka, and Kishau
barrages.
8. Sewerage Problems:
Urban areas in India are almost invariably plagued with insufficient and
inefficient sewage facilities. Not a single city in India is fully sewered.
Resource crunch faced by the municipalities and unauthorised growth of the
cities are two major causes of this pathetic state of affairs.
According to latest estimates, only 35-40 per cent of the urban population has
the privilege of sewage system. Most of the cities have old sewerage lines
which are not looked after properly. Often sewerage lines break down or they
are overflowing.
Most cities do not have proper arrangements for treating the sewerage waste
and it is drained into a nearly river (as in Delhi) or in sea (as in Mumbai,
Kolkata and Chennai), thereby polluting the water bodies.
In most Indian cities, water pipes run in close proximity to sewer lines. Any
leakage leads to contamination of water which results in the spread of several
water borne diseases.
9. Trash Disposal:
As Indian cities grow in number and size the problem of trash disposal is
assuming alarming proportions. Huge quantities of garbage produced by our
cities pose a serious health problem. Most cites do not have proper
arrangements for garbage disposal and the existing landfills are full to the
brim. These landfills are hotbeds of disease and innumerable poisons leaking
into their surroundings.
Wastes putrefy in the open inviting disease carrying flies and rats and a filthy,
poisonous liquid, called leachate, which leaks out from below and
contaminates ground water. People who live near the rotting garbage and raw
sewage fall easy victims to several diseases like dysentery, malaria, plague,
jaundice, diarrhoea, typhoid, etc.
We cannot think of strong India, economically, socially and culturally, when our
cities remain squalor, quality of urban life declines and the urban environment
Almost all the major programmes of urban development suffer from the
chronic disease of resource crunch. Right from the beginning of the planning
period, urban development has been low on the development agenda with
only 3-4 per cent of the total plan outlay being allocated to the urban sector.
The National Commission on Urbanization recommended in 1988 that at least
8 per cent of the Plan outlay should be dedicated to urban sector.
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