A Tale of Cities - Human Development in the Urban South: a Case Study of West Bengal, India

Though most of the people in south live in villages, there are important centers of urban concentration even here. The urban south carries all the birth pangs of underdevelopment. Unplanned growth, traffic congestion, sprawling slums are some of its basic features. The present study concentrates on Human Development aspect of these urban conglomerates. The study chooses West Bengal a State of India as its focal point. The study reveals huge inequality among the urban centers in West Bengal. It also shows limited mobility across several states. There exists wide cleavage between the urban area of advanced and backward districts. Though there is some improvement on the whole. For the purpose of study, we have calculated Human Development Indices at the urban level. Then we noted its movement across two time points 1991 and 2001. Incidentally it coincides with the era of New Economic Policy of India that are ushered in India. Our study thus helps us juxtaposed the impact of new policies on life and death of ordinary people living in those urban centers.