Notes: Urbanisation | Sociology Mains Optional for UPSC 2024 PDF Download

 Page 1


 
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Urbanisation 
Almost all contemporary social problems have been associated with the process of 
urbanisation.  
Thus, a diverse set of problems such as those relating to – 
- Crime 
- Mental illness 
- Broken family life 
- Poor housing 
- Poverty 
- Unemployment 
- Class conflict 
- Racial and ethnic conflict 
- Drug addiction 
- Pollution 
and a host of others are often grouped together under the ominous title of "the urban 
crisis".  
But to do so is misleading, because the city is much more than a simple compilation of its 
recognised social problems.  
To describe cities in terms of their problems is akin to trying to describe human being in 
terms of their diseases!  
Neither it is accurate to suggest that urbanisation is the main cause of most 
contemporary social problems.  
Nevertheless, the city and the metropolis are the settings in which many social problems 
have developed or intensified, and to understand these problems in their urban context 
is important. 
India is being increasingly judged by the stature and condition of its great cities, where 
lie the core of its commercial and industrial power and the strength of its transportation, 
distribution and communication system.  
The cities of India have played an important role in: 
- Breaking away from tradition-bound social practices  
- It is from the cities that most of the modernization processes in the country 
radiate 
- Political and social reform movements have largely originated in the cities and 
have then spread out. 
 
Concludingly: 
Impact of Urbanisation on Environmental Quality: 
- Physical Environment: 
Page 2


 
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Urbanisation 
Almost all contemporary social problems have been associated with the process of 
urbanisation.  
Thus, a diverse set of problems such as those relating to – 
- Crime 
- Mental illness 
- Broken family life 
- Poor housing 
- Poverty 
- Unemployment 
- Class conflict 
- Racial and ethnic conflict 
- Drug addiction 
- Pollution 
and a host of others are often grouped together under the ominous title of "the urban 
crisis".  
But to do so is misleading, because the city is much more than a simple compilation of its 
recognised social problems.  
To describe cities in terms of their problems is akin to trying to describe human being in 
terms of their diseases!  
Neither it is accurate to suggest that urbanisation is the main cause of most 
contemporary social problems.  
Nevertheless, the city and the metropolis are the settings in which many social problems 
have developed or intensified, and to understand these problems in their urban context 
is important. 
India is being increasingly judged by the stature and condition of its great cities, where 
lie the core of its commercial and industrial power and the strength of its transportation, 
distribution and communication system.  
The cities of India have played an important role in: 
- Breaking away from tradition-bound social practices  
- It is from the cities that most of the modernization processes in the country 
radiate 
- Political and social reform movements have largely originated in the cities and 
have then spread out. 
 
Concludingly: 
Impact of Urbanisation on Environmental Quality: 
- Physical Environment: 
 
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courses.SleepyClasses.com 
o Air Quality  
o Water Quality  
o Solid Waste Generation  
o Noise Levels  
 
- Social Environment: 
o Urbanisation and Slums  
o Crime in Cities  
  
- Environmental Infrastructure: 
o Housing and Housing Amenities and Infrastructure  
o Energy  
o Transport  
  
  
Page 3


 
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Urbanisation 
Almost all contemporary social problems have been associated with the process of 
urbanisation.  
Thus, a diverse set of problems such as those relating to – 
- Crime 
- Mental illness 
- Broken family life 
- Poor housing 
- Poverty 
- Unemployment 
- Class conflict 
- Racial and ethnic conflict 
- Drug addiction 
- Pollution 
and a host of others are often grouped together under the ominous title of "the urban 
crisis".  
But to do so is misleading, because the city is much more than a simple compilation of its 
recognised social problems.  
To describe cities in terms of their problems is akin to trying to describe human being in 
terms of their diseases!  
Neither it is accurate to suggest that urbanisation is the main cause of most 
contemporary social problems.  
Nevertheless, the city and the metropolis are the settings in which many social problems 
have developed or intensified, and to understand these problems in their urban context 
is important. 
India is being increasingly judged by the stature and condition of its great cities, where 
lie the core of its commercial and industrial power and the strength of its transportation, 
distribution and communication system.  
The cities of India have played an important role in: 
- Breaking away from tradition-bound social practices  
- It is from the cities that most of the modernization processes in the country 
radiate 
- Political and social reform movements have largely originated in the cities and 
have then spread out. 
 
Concludingly: 
Impact of Urbanisation on Environmental Quality: 
- Physical Environment: 
 
www.YouTube.com/SleepyClasses 
courses.SleepyClasses.com 
o Air Quality  
o Water Quality  
o Solid Waste Generation  
o Noise Levels  
 
- Social Environment: 
o Urbanisation and Slums  
o Crime in Cities  
  
- Environmental Infrastructure: 
o Housing and Housing Amenities and Infrastructure  
o Energy  
o Transport  
  
  
 
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courses.SleepyClasses.com 
Urban Poverty 
Urban Poverty makes poverty more visible. 
Particularly in the industrial towns and cities where large numbers of labouring poor 
were to be found, in and out of ill-paid and insecure employment. 
Poverty and overcrowding are the two most visible features of the industrial slum. 
Segregation and exclusion were governed by caste in India just as they were governed 
by race elsewhere, but poverty has a large part to play in these operations.  
Social disability and economic disadvantage went hand in hand in the past as they still 
do to a great extent. 
Income and expenditure were important, but others factors such as: 
- Security of livelihood 
- Disconnection from family and community  
- Overcrowding 
- Sanitation and health were also important.  
Sociological accounts of poverty tend to lack precision but they aim at a rounded 
picture.  
Individuals and families may suffer from a chronic sense of loss and deprivation even 
where there is an increase in their average earning and expenditure. It is often 
accompanied by social and cultural dislocation.  
Poverty studies would remain incomplete unless they took some account of this sense 
of loss and deprivation. 
The new settlements that emerge often have a makeshift character, and there is laxity 
in the rules for the regulation of conduct.  
Often, women and children become victims of new forms of social abuse. 
  
Page 4


 
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Urbanisation 
Almost all contemporary social problems have been associated with the process of 
urbanisation.  
Thus, a diverse set of problems such as those relating to – 
- Crime 
- Mental illness 
- Broken family life 
- Poor housing 
- Poverty 
- Unemployment 
- Class conflict 
- Racial and ethnic conflict 
- Drug addiction 
- Pollution 
and a host of others are often grouped together under the ominous title of "the urban 
crisis".  
But to do so is misleading, because the city is much more than a simple compilation of its 
recognised social problems.  
To describe cities in terms of their problems is akin to trying to describe human being in 
terms of their diseases!  
Neither it is accurate to suggest that urbanisation is the main cause of most 
contemporary social problems.  
Nevertheless, the city and the metropolis are the settings in which many social problems 
have developed or intensified, and to understand these problems in their urban context 
is important. 
India is being increasingly judged by the stature and condition of its great cities, where 
lie the core of its commercial and industrial power and the strength of its transportation, 
distribution and communication system.  
The cities of India have played an important role in: 
- Breaking away from tradition-bound social practices  
- It is from the cities that most of the modernization processes in the country 
radiate 
- Political and social reform movements have largely originated in the cities and 
have then spread out. 
 
Concludingly: 
Impact of Urbanisation on Environmental Quality: 
- Physical Environment: 
 
www.YouTube.com/SleepyClasses 
courses.SleepyClasses.com 
o Air Quality  
o Water Quality  
o Solid Waste Generation  
o Noise Levels  
 
- Social Environment: 
o Urbanisation and Slums  
o Crime in Cities  
  
- Environmental Infrastructure: 
o Housing and Housing Amenities and Infrastructure  
o Energy  
o Transport  
  
  
 
www.YouTube.com/SleepyClasses 
courses.SleepyClasses.com 
Urban Poverty 
Urban Poverty makes poverty more visible. 
Particularly in the industrial towns and cities where large numbers of labouring poor 
were to be found, in and out of ill-paid and insecure employment. 
Poverty and overcrowding are the two most visible features of the industrial slum. 
Segregation and exclusion were governed by caste in India just as they were governed 
by race elsewhere, but poverty has a large part to play in these operations.  
Social disability and economic disadvantage went hand in hand in the past as they still 
do to a great extent. 
Income and expenditure were important, but others factors such as: 
- Security of livelihood 
- Disconnection from family and community  
- Overcrowding 
- Sanitation and health were also important.  
Sociological accounts of poverty tend to lack precision but they aim at a rounded 
picture.  
Individuals and families may suffer from a chronic sense of loss and deprivation even 
where there is an increase in their average earning and expenditure. It is often 
accompanied by social and cultural dislocation.  
Poverty studies would remain incomplete unless they took some account of this sense 
of loss and deprivation. 
The new settlements that emerge often have a makeshift character, and there is laxity 
in the rules for the regulation of conduct.  
Often, women and children become victims of new forms of social abuse. 
  
 
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Slums 
A concomitant of urbanization in India has been in the continuous growth of slum 
population, as most internal migration has been concentrated in the slums. 
Although India is a large heterogeneous country whose diversity often makes 
generalization difficult.  
Slum conditions can still be characterized in general terms: 
- The streets, lanes and open drains in typical slum areas are filthy. 
- The Indian slum, are far more complex than the mere aggregate of these appalling 
physical condition; it is a way of life.  
- Rates of diseases, chronic illness and infant mortality remain high and there is 
little knowledge of health and sanitation, nutrition or childcare. 
- Illiteracy is exceedingly high  
- Cultural and recreation activities are almost entirely lacking except those 
provided by such commercial enterprises as the cinema and gambling.  
- Most slum dwellers are apathetic and suffer a great sense of futility.  
- They have little community pride or even consensus, and they often blame the 
local authorities for their plight.  
- They have become antagonistic towards authorities, seldom co-operating with 
municipal personnel in efforts to improve their immediate areas or the city as a 
whole. 
 
 
  
Page 5


 
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Urbanisation 
Almost all contemporary social problems have been associated with the process of 
urbanisation.  
Thus, a diverse set of problems such as those relating to – 
- Crime 
- Mental illness 
- Broken family life 
- Poor housing 
- Poverty 
- Unemployment 
- Class conflict 
- Racial and ethnic conflict 
- Drug addiction 
- Pollution 
and a host of others are often grouped together under the ominous title of "the urban 
crisis".  
But to do so is misleading, because the city is much more than a simple compilation of its 
recognised social problems.  
To describe cities in terms of their problems is akin to trying to describe human being in 
terms of their diseases!  
Neither it is accurate to suggest that urbanisation is the main cause of most 
contemporary social problems.  
Nevertheless, the city and the metropolis are the settings in which many social problems 
have developed or intensified, and to understand these problems in their urban context 
is important. 
India is being increasingly judged by the stature and condition of its great cities, where 
lie the core of its commercial and industrial power and the strength of its transportation, 
distribution and communication system.  
The cities of India have played an important role in: 
- Breaking away from tradition-bound social practices  
- It is from the cities that most of the modernization processes in the country 
radiate 
- Political and social reform movements have largely originated in the cities and 
have then spread out. 
 
Concludingly: 
Impact of Urbanisation on Environmental Quality: 
- Physical Environment: 
 
www.YouTube.com/SleepyClasses 
courses.SleepyClasses.com 
o Air Quality  
o Water Quality  
o Solid Waste Generation  
o Noise Levels  
 
- Social Environment: 
o Urbanisation and Slums  
o Crime in Cities  
  
- Environmental Infrastructure: 
o Housing and Housing Amenities and Infrastructure  
o Energy  
o Transport  
  
  
 
www.YouTube.com/SleepyClasses 
courses.SleepyClasses.com 
Urban Poverty 
Urban Poverty makes poverty more visible. 
Particularly in the industrial towns and cities where large numbers of labouring poor 
were to be found, in and out of ill-paid and insecure employment. 
Poverty and overcrowding are the two most visible features of the industrial slum. 
Segregation and exclusion were governed by caste in India just as they were governed 
by race elsewhere, but poverty has a large part to play in these operations.  
Social disability and economic disadvantage went hand in hand in the past as they still 
do to a great extent. 
Income and expenditure were important, but others factors such as: 
- Security of livelihood 
- Disconnection from family and community  
- Overcrowding 
- Sanitation and health were also important.  
Sociological accounts of poverty tend to lack precision but they aim at a rounded 
picture.  
Individuals and families may suffer from a chronic sense of loss and deprivation even 
where there is an increase in their average earning and expenditure. It is often 
accompanied by social and cultural dislocation.  
Poverty studies would remain incomplete unless they took some account of this sense 
of loss and deprivation. 
The new settlements that emerge often have a makeshift character, and there is laxity 
in the rules for the regulation of conduct.  
Often, women and children become victims of new forms of social abuse. 
  
 
www.YouTube.com/SleepyClasses 
courses.SleepyClasses.com 
Slums 
A concomitant of urbanization in India has been in the continuous growth of slum 
population, as most internal migration has been concentrated in the slums. 
Although India is a large heterogeneous country whose diversity often makes 
generalization difficult.  
Slum conditions can still be characterized in general terms: 
- The streets, lanes and open drains in typical slum areas are filthy. 
- The Indian slum, are far more complex than the mere aggregate of these appalling 
physical condition; it is a way of life.  
- Rates of diseases, chronic illness and infant mortality remain high and there is 
little knowledge of health and sanitation, nutrition or childcare. 
- Illiteracy is exceedingly high  
- Cultural and recreation activities are almost entirely lacking except those 
provided by such commercial enterprises as the cinema and gambling.  
- Most slum dwellers are apathetic and suffer a great sense of futility.  
- They have little community pride or even consensus, and they often blame the 
local authorities for their plight.  
- They have become antagonistic towards authorities, seldom co-operating with 
municipal personnel in efforts to improve their immediate areas or the city as a 
whole. 
 
 
  
 
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A little Extra: 
 
Constitution and Slums 
Our Constitution has laid down the right to property, which is basic and fundamental, 
but not the right to work or right to adequate housing, education and employment.  
The Constitution also proclaims certain freedom and rights to citizens viz. right to move 
throughout the country, right to life and security and freedom to search for earning and 
prerequisites needed for that search within legal limits but at the same time 
Constitution does not ensure the right to have resources for securing livelihood, source 
of earning, of adequate facilities for stay and other things essential, for mobile jobs for 
citizens to ensure a better purchasing power to live adequately. 
 
Defining the City: 
The city is not merely the point at which great numbers are concentrated into limited 
space, but it is also a complex heterogeneity in almost every characteristic in which 
human beings can differ from one another. In this respect the city represents perhaps 
the most striking contrast to the social entities that we call primitive, folk, and peasant 
societies.  
Consequently, the methods adapted to the understanding of the population of the 
metropolis are strikingly different from those suited to simpler and more homogeneous 
societies.  
This accounts for the fact that in attempting to understand the city we have had to 
resort to extensive statistical inquiries to determine the human elements of which it is 
composed.  
They differ, as do all societies, in sex and age, but they show peculiar distribution of age 
and sex groups and great variations in these respects as we pass from . area to area.  
They differ widely from one another in occupation, in view of the more extensive 
division of Labour, which the growth of the market has made possible. They differ in 
wealth and in income, ranging from the extreme of affluence to the depths of the direst 
poverty and insecurity.  
The city, moreover, by virtue of its focal position in the complex of capitalistic 
civilization, has attracted within its confines the racial and ethnic stocks of all the world 
and has more or less amalgamated them and blended their traits into a new aggregate 
of hybrids, here mingling with one another and there segregating themselves from one 
another, here collaborating and there at war, but in any case building a complex of 
cultures unprecedented in human history.  
This heterogeneity of the human materials in the city is at once a source of ferment and 
stimulation and of the frictions and conflicts that characterize modern society" (Louis 
Wirth 1940).