Causes of Urban Poverty in India The urban environment is rapidly changing, and those left behind face more and more difficulties. A major cause of urban poverty in India is the lack of infrastructure in rural areas, which forces rural residents to seek employment in India's megacities. The space left for them to stay is dwindling as more and more migrants make this migration. Urban development can't accommodate the growth of informal settlements, and nobody wants to be held responsible for the slums and their residents. There are nearly 81 million people in urban areas who live below the poverty line in India, which is more than 25 percent of the total population. Urban poor outnumber rural poor in India. In the next decade, a majority of India will be urbanized. To encounter the issue, it is important to know the causes of urban poverty in India. What is Urban Poverty? Poverty in industrialized cities is often referred to as urban poverty, as it refers to the economic and social difficulties that result from a variety of factors. A primary characteristic of urban poverty is that it occurs in industrialized societies. Accordingly, people living below this universal poverty level are suffering from poverty regardless of their country's level of human, technological, or economic advancement. Low-income households are more likely to be poor due to their inability to participate in society. Considering this situation requires a broader perspective, paying attention to chronic poverty areas, knowing the causes of urban poverty in India and focusing on the living conditions of groups in disadvantaged circumstances and paying close attention to poverty dynamics. Furthermore, poverty is not only about not having enough money to survive physically but also about not being fully integrated into a community, especially when one considers the living standards of that community. Causes of Urban Poverty in India About 7933 Indian cities and towns, varying in size, are part of the massive growth in urban development that occurred between 2001 and 2011. By 2030, the United Nations predicts that 165 million people will live in urban areas, causing the majority of the future population to come from those regions. These numbers are anything but reassuring, considering the current lack of affordable housing. Millions of slum dwellers need significant changes to address the causes of urban poverty in India. Migration without control:
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In rural India, poor infrastructure makes it impossible for residents to find work outside megacities. It is becoming harder to accommodate more and more people as they migrate. Due to the increasing number of informal settlers, urban development cannot keep up, resulting in a rise in slums.
● Insufficient investment: ● ● ●
In most urban areas, most working-age populations have few opportunities and little opportunity for skills training. The lack of adequate investment in basic services such as health, sanitation, waste management, and skill training has had detrimental consequences over the years. A result is an increasing number of malnourished, illiterate, unemployed, and semi-skilled people who cannot find decent-paying jobs.
● Villages are lacking infrastructure: ● ●
In rural areas, many people move to cities for employment and basic amenities. Village farmers have few opportunities to earn a living through agriculture, so working in the city's informal economy is the only option. Every day, millions of people migrate to the cities to get jobs in informal sectors. As a result, the urban infrastructure becomes overcrowded.
● ● ● Shortage of affordable housing: ● ● ●
On paper, the urban poor does not have addresses due to a lack of affordable housing. Eventually, people join the community and spread across it, creating a whole undocumented settlement. Furthermore, basic services like electricity, water, sanitation, etc., become more difficult to access as public utilities and authorities can only provide services to registered people - this is where poverty begins.
Fighting Urban Poverty in India Just knowing and reading about the causes of urban poverty in India is not enough. It is important to focus attention on processes that generate urban poverty in new analyses of urban poverty. A major challenge is providing food, education, and housing for the rapidly increasing number of unnourished, semi-literate, under-skilled, unemployed, and impoverished city dwellers that live on pavements, unhygienic slums, and insufficient housing. Improving life in rural areas ●
Rural infrastructure must be improved to prevent a large-scale migration from rural areas to urban areas.
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Providing slum-dwellers with some kind of credit and resources is also crucial; otherwise, the causes of urban poverty will continue to affect future generations. Small and medium-sized enterprises in rural areas are gaining support in India, as are other income-generating activities. Greater investment in tertiary and agricultural sectors, for example, could ease the pressure on urban infrastructure by providing more jobs, equal pay, and career and movement opportunities.
● Better urban planning & slum rehabilitation ● ● ● ●
As a persistent problem, slums didn't just appear overnight; they were the result of neglect of development planning for decades, even centuries. Urbanization takes time to succeed, but the basic conditions of living in slums must be upgraded or improved to improve their quality of life. Building safe and decent homes for the millions of socially excluded families in India's big cities could bring a great change in the context of urban poverty. Families who are rehabilitated receive clean drinking water, electricity, better jobs (with skill training), and they maintain their homes.
Most developing countries suffer from urban poverty. In developing countries like India, it is more acute and alarming. For the urban poor to live in dignity, with basic amenities, it takes huge amounts of political will, investments, education, and skills training. After the causes of urban poverty in India are clear, it is easier to eradicate them.