Monograph comprising a collection of papers on themes relating to urban development and urban area poverty in India - discusses the importance of the informal sector, the slum improvement programme in calcutta, squatter settlements in delhi, housing needs in ahmedabad and community development in hyderabad, etc., and discusses issues relating to rural migration, urban renewal, women and urban planning in general. Bibliography pp. 233 to 238 and statistical tables.

This comprehensive volume contributes to the existing and emerging body of literature on contemporary urbanization and the interactions between cities and the environment. The volume is contextualized against latest theories, debates and discussions on 'sustainable urbanization', the post‐2015 development agenda of the United Nations and India's official launching of the 'smart city' agenda. Reflecting on three major components of urban sustainability: investments and infrastructures, waste management, and urban ecologies and environmentalisms, it moves beyond the bi‐centric approach of only looking into the differences between the ‘developed’ and the ‘developing’ world and reflects on cities across India using polycentric methods and approaches. The Indian urban scenario is extremely complex and diverse, and solutions laid out in official and non‐official documents tend to miss these complexities. This volume includes innovative research across different parts of India, identifying city‐specific sources of unsustainability and challenges along with strategies and potentials that would make the process of urban transition both sustainable and equitable. Complex explorations of non‐linear, bottom‐up, multisectoral process‐based local urban contexts across north, south, east and west Indian cities in this volume critique a general acceptance of the universalized concept of ‘sustainable urbanization’ and suggest ways that might be important for transcending inclusive theories to form practical policy-based recommendations and actions.

Essays follow rapidly proliferating and resource-intensive Indian urbanism in everyday environments. Case studies on nature conservation in cities, urban housing and slum development, waste management, urban planning, and contestations over the quality of air, water, and sanitation in Delhi and Mumbai illuminate urban ecology per?spectives throughout the twentieth century. The collection highlights how struggles over the environment and one's quality of life in urban centers are increasingly framed in terms of their future place in a landscape of global sustainability. The text brings historical particularity and ethnographic nuance to questions of urban ecology and offers novel insight into theoretical and practical debates on urbanism and sustainability.

The contributors respond to the absence of critical debate surrounding the ways in which spaces of the city do not merely contain, but also constitute, urban poverty. The volume explores how the spaces of the city actively produce and reproduce urban poverty.

A world more urban... The world is undergoing massive urbanization, and is projected to increase from three to over four billion city dwellers, mostly in the developing world, within 15 years. This historic shift is producing dramatic effects on human well-being and the environment. ...but less poor Unplanned shanty-towns without basic services are not an inevitable consequence of urbanization and slums are not explained by poverty alone. Urban misery also stems from misguided policies, inappropriate legal frameworks, dysfunctional markets, poor governance, and not least, lack of political will. Urbanization and economic development go hand-in-hand and the productivity of the urban economy can and should benefit everyone. Living conditions for the urban poor can be dramatically improved with proper solutions, backed by decisive, concerted action. More Urban - Less Poor brings order to the complex and important field of urban development in developing and transitional countries. Written in an accessible style, the book examines how cities grow, their economic development, urban poverty, housing and environmental problems. It also examines how to face these challenges through governance and management of urban growth, the finance and delivery of services, and finding a role for development cooperation. This is essential reading for development professionals, researchers, students and others working on any facet of urban development and management in our rapidly urbanizing world. Published with SIDA