ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes policy shifts in slum upgrading, first for the nation and then for the city of Calcutta, with a case study of some slums of Calcutta to show how the vicious cycle of poverty persists. Though formation of slums takes place in cities all over the world, the Indian city slums are characterized by a total lack of upward mobility and persistence of poverty. In order to eradicate slums from the British quarters, a Lottery Committee was formed in 1817 which bought slum lands in the British areas for clearance. During the 1880s, a significant sanitary improvement occurred in the slums as a result of the efforts initiated by Henry Harrison, Chairman of the Calcutta Corporation. Traditionally, the slums in Calcutta have an atypical land tenure system in which a landlord leases his land to a hut owner; he in turn builds one-room tenements for renting to slum dwellers.
