ABSTRACT
Urbanisation can liberate rural masses from feudal oppression and offer new opportunities for coming into the mainstream. Unfortunately, the growth of urban population has decelerated after 2001, though increasing steadily in absolute terms. The official policy has been to ‘control’ urbanisation to make it more evenly spread, and promote ‘growth centres’ in backward regions. Urbanisation has helped the rural economy through remittances by migrants to cities to their relatives in villages, and help in rural housing and infrastructure. Urbanisation contributes to diversification of the national economy, boosting human development, and improving overall infrastructure in the country. Female literacy is higher in states which are more urbanised. Urban poverty has declined faster than rural poverty. There has been a significant reduction in the proportion of slum population in India over the years, bringing it below world average. On the whole urbanisation contributed positively to the Broad-Basing process. However, its spatial distribution is uneven, with large cities growing faster both in number and population. Disparities between cities in respect of infrastructure and amenities need to be addressed.
