The growing number and size of cities: causes and consequences

There were 35 million plus cities in India, in 2001, and 46 in 2011. Since a few decades, we are attending a relative take-off of the Indian urbanization rate (16.5% in 1951 and 32.1% in 2011). Indeed, the Indian urban population, in 2011, is more numerous than the population of the USA in 2012. Assessing the causes and consequences of that growing number and size of cities appears essential for the understanding of the future Indian urban society. A first step consists in assessing the evolution of the number of towns and cities before studying the evolution of the population of each town since 1901 and analyzing the evolution of the Indian urban system using a Zipf’s rank-size rule.

Outcomes showed that, since the 1950s, the number of towns is notably increasing. More specifically, the number of second and third order cities grown tremendously since the last 40 years. Moreover, the assessment of the evolution of the Indian urban system led us to highlight a situation nationally balanced (no primacy) and regionally unbalanced (with presence of primate cities). We can then emphasize the multiscalar structure of the Indian urban system and assume the existence of a spatial resilience phenomenon.

Keywords: India, urban system, urban population, spatial resilience

Indian urban centres face an ironical situation today. The Census of India provides information about different amenities available in the households. Class I Indian cities grew at a faster pace that contributed more than half of total urban population in many states. A composite index of quality of living was calculated using different household amenities like source of drinking water/lighting/ fuel for cooking, toilet facility and house type. The index was calculated at regional/ state, million/mega city level. Northern region of India had better quality of living. North- eastern region was least urbanized region Western region was well urbanized region. Mumbai despite being most populous Indian city did not have high quality of living index. In million city level analysis, the correlation coefficient is found to be significant and satisfactory indicating the relationship is strong particularly in big cities where populations are diversified. At mega city level except year 1991, other two yield significant relationship between population size and availability of household amenities.Quality of living was not positively related with the population of cities. Quality of living is not commensurate with increasing numbers of million cities. Cities having larger populations did not have good quality of living.

It is well known that urban slums represent some of the most hazardous and unhealthy living conditions in which human populations reside today. As urban populations swell globally, accurate and up to date information on the location and distribution of the urban poor is essential for effective policymaking. However, in India, as in many other rapidly urbanizing low and middle income countries, not all slum dwellers are poor and not all poor are slum dwellers. This paper explores the sensitivity and specificity of two slum designations – survey enumerators’ and Census – in eight Indian cities using data from the third National Family and Health Survey. The gold standard of comparison is the respondents’ actual reporting of their toilet facilities, water source, housing materials, crowding and security of tenure. Preliminary analyses indicate that neither survey nor census slum designation well identify urban residents in need of services. Slum designation may be uninformative because it becomes quickly obsolete in a rapidly changing urban area, or because it puts too much of a focus on legality, among other reasons. This paper is intended to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the heterogeneity of urban India and to inform more targeted health and development policies on behalf of the urban poor.

India’s urban population increased over the period 2001-11 primarily on account of formation of 2,532 new census towns all over the country. Since a census town is a non-statutory town its investment needs for provision of public goods and services are not given the same importance as cities covered under the national mission. This has adverse implications for millions of dwellers in the cities not covered by the mission. This paper highlights five factors that will shape the well-being of city dwellers in India. First, will there be a concerted effort to tackle urbanization of poverty? Second, how will rising housing rents across the different cities be addressed? Third, housing rents will continue to increase since income elasticity of demand for rental housing is greater than one. Fourth, the redistribution of economic activities across rural-urban areas coupled with the absence of a robust economic base of most cities and towns of India will lead to an increase in number of workers commuting across rural-urban boundaries. Fifth, in light of lagging investments in Indian cites there are valid concerns that India will witness exclusionary urbanization.

The social change observed in the studies undertaken so far in the developed countries like USA and Europe’s cites significant relationship changes between agrarian and non-agrarian societies. The cities have been using the surplus labour from the farms in order to prosper the industries it has started producing goods meant primarily for their own consumption. The communities living around the rural hinterland tend to impact the socio-cultural characteristics of the local communities by its dominant numerical strength. The demise of the cultural values of the residents after the urban sprawl catches them are more so evident in the cities in northern India particularly those of Delhi NCR.

The villagers tend to change the occupation pattern as a result of urbanisation, the constant loss of agricultural land over the periods has also affected the social changes within the community such land ownership, marriages, cultural events etc. What would be scope for the preservation of cultural forms in society? How the villages inside the urban complex maintain its identity? How massive influx of people, and changes in land use affects villagers relationships with others in rural hinterland.

Due to its socio-demographic selectivity, migration can modify the structure of the population in both origin and destination. In the case of Latin American metropolitan areas, this “qualitative” impact was relatively stylized (although it was never measured in a rigorous way) some decades ago when every large city registered huge net in-migration and in-migration flows to the large cities predominantly came from rural areas. The current migratory scenario of Latin American metropolitan areas is different because immigration no longer comes mainly from rural areas but from other cities; moreover out-migration from large cities is growing (in many cases, emigrants outnumber in-migrants). And so, the stylized effect of the past probably does not longer exist. In order to shed some light on this issue, a new procedure based on the so-called “matrix of indicators flow” is used. The “qualitative” impact of internal migration on population composition will be estimated for around 20 cities of 1 million or more residents in six Latin American countries with micro-data from the 2000 and 2010 census rounds (Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama and Uruguay). This effect will be measured for sex ratio, percentage of children, percentage of older persons and average education.

This study will focus on Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) in which causes and consequences of rapid urbanization. Failure of government’s policy towards regional development along with rural development, and lack of federal law to control inter-state migration, will be investigated. It is a major cause behind mass migration and inter-state disputes such as socio-cultural and linguistic conflicts. It is quite essential to mention here that MMR is facing a major challenge due to conflict between local people and migrant population. This may lead to civil riots, as many local political parties are gaining support on these issues. MMR also needs lots of resources from its neighboring states to sustain itself. This study is more contemporary and relevant because MMR is a diverse inter cultural population, trying to fit in small space (within 4355sq km of MMR).Growing population and diverse identification have divided the people into different interest groups in the Mumbai. It is essential to find out the root causes and solutions of this in order to protect the national identity and federal democratic structure of the nation.

Il y a un débat théorique et une discussion politique sur la situation migratoire actuelle dans les aires métropolitaines d’Amérique Latine. Les recensements de l’année 2000 ont permis d’identifier quelques métropoles de la région comme d’émigration nette, mais la plupart d’elles registrent une immigration nette. Compte tenu la disponibilité de micro-données du recensement de 2010, nous allons répondre à la question sur l’attraction migratoire de ces villes. Pourtant, on va travailler avec l’ensemble de micro-données des recensements pour construire une matrice de migration spécifique (en utilisant le lieu de résidence cinq ans avant du recensement). Ensuite, nous allons faire une estimation de l’impact des migrations internes sur la croissance de la population pour 20 villes qui ont un million ou plus de résidents dans cinq pays d’Amérique Latine, en employant les micro-données des recensements de 2000 et 2010 (Brésil, Costa Rica, Equateur, Mexique et Panama). Afin de contrôler l’effet de distorsion de la définition spatiale de l’aire métropolitaine, le calcul s’effectuera en tenant compte au moins de deux définitions géographiques. Et pour distinguer l’impact spatiale de la migration métropolitaine (immigration et émigration dans et entre elles) tous les flux migratoires vont être classés en deux groupes : proche et éloigné

Urbanization is a process of increase of modernization system which improves the socioeconomic activities and revolutionizes the land use practice according to need and time frame. The change of land use has become the main challenge of the present world. Urban development has enlarged the modification of natural resources and has changed land use patterns. Contrary to what has been reported in literature on urbanization, the process of emergence of a new city - Navi Mumbai, which started in 1970, was somewhat different: It involved transformation of local rural habit-ants and shifting of people, offices and markets on a large scale from the adjacent mega city – Mumbai. This paper presents that in Navi Mumbai land is used as a resource for financing urban development namely physical and social infrastructure. Firstly it provides the process of pricing of land and land disposal strategy for various uses to make a city self sustainable. Secondly it presents the challenges faced and opportunities seized in development of city in providing facilities and services to meet the needs of two million inhabitants of planned city which has taken place during last 42 years.

All over the world, the number of people living in cities is growing rapidly. In the Netherlands as well, more and more people live in the four major cities. After decennia of decline, there is a vigorous population growth in four largest cities. In general, work and education related migration, coinciding with rural urban migration, is seen as the principal cause of urban growth. In that interpretation, urban growth is the result of economic growth. In the Netherlands, housing and spatial policy plays a very important role too in explaining urban decline and growth. This will be illustrated by a short summary of housing and spatial policy. Recently, a number of authors argue that urban growth is also affected by trends in causes mortality and fertility. In the Netherlands, there are also indications that natural increase becomes an ever growing motor of urban growth. In fact, three different trends seem to play a role simultaneously: declining foreign migration, increasing internal migration and natural growth. A positive internal migration have not been witnessed since a very long time. Different causes come to the fore, varying from economic crisis, the crisis of the housing market, the differences in size and composition of the urban population. Finally, future implications are illustratied by the Dutch regional forecast.