ABSTRACT
This study took place in Hubli-Dharwad, a twin city located in northern Karnataka State, India (see Figure 7.1), approximately equidistant between Pune and Bangalore, and on the main road and railway linking those cities. The population at the 2001 census was 736,000, with Hubli being the larger of the two components of the twin city. It is the third largest urban agglomeration in Karnataka State (after Bangalore and Mysore). Dharwad is an administrative and academic centre, while Hubli is a railway junction and commercial centre. There is little heavy industry as the electrical and water infrastructure is rather inadequate, and most industry is related to processing agricultural produce. The centres of Hubli and Dharwad are 20km apart, although the area between them is being rapidly built up. Administratively, Hubli-Dharwad falls under the jurisdiction of the Hubli-Dharwad Municipal Corporation (HDMC), one tier of government down from the Karnataka state administration and established as an administrative entity in 1962. The area outside HDMC is administered by the zilla panchayat, or district council, also one tier down from the state administration. These administrations display no cognisance of the concept of a peri-urban space or rural-urban interactions: any particular location is treated as if being either urban or rural. Yet, as this chapter demonstrates, such interactions are much in evidence and can serve to enable the poor to rise out of poverty. The characteristics of Hubli-Dharwad are more fully described in Brook and Dávila (2000).
