Urbanisation in India

The growth of towns and cities in developing coun tries is one of the greatest challenges facing the world today. Almost one-third of the population of the 'poor world' live in towns-more than 700 million people. By the year 2000 that number will grow by a further 630 million according to the World Bank (1975).

Figures such as these stretch the imagination to breaking point. They suggest problems on an unman ageable scale, with squalor and deprivation the in evitable future for hundreds of millions of people. Yet they also suggest that for many people the cities offer hope which they are unable to find elsewhere. This paradox is just one of the many complex aspects of modern urbanisation in the developing world. That complexity is increased by the great contrasts between countries of the developing world. It is tempting to try to generalise about problems in the 'Third World' as though all poor countries were essentially the same in most important respects. No thing could be further from the truth. For while poverty is their common denominator, in terms of culture, language, history, resources and other vital characteristics they frequently differ from one an other just as much as do the countries of the 'de veloped world'.