Consequences of Urbanization

The consequeuences are more severe and it lead to The process of urbanization is preceding a pace without commensurate growth in industrialization and the rise in the level of overall economic development. Unplanned urban growth, for instance causes growth of slums and squatter settlements, varying affects on environmental degradation and increased burden on existing infrastructure. The general problems which are the by product of certain kind of urbanization characteristic of low income countries are:

Shortage of Houses: The problem that perhaps causes the most concern to a majority of urban dwellers is that of finding an appropriate place to live in. According to Tenth Five Year Plan the nation needed twenty two million additional houses. Inadequate housing that forces more than fifty percent of our population in some metropolis to live in slums, all these severely decrease the quality of life and lower the well being of urban population.

Critical Inadequacies in Public Utilities
Massive problem   have emerged due to rapid growth of urban population without a corresponding increase in urban infrastructure like safe drinking water, preventive health services, sanitation facility, adequate power supply and provisioning of basic amenities. Minimum basic facility is also not available for many cities. The existing urban health services are under tremendous pressure to meet the demands of all  needy people. The quality of life for the bulk of urban population involves many avoidable hardships. Poor urban infrastructure, congested roads, poor public transport, improper treatment of sewage, uncollected solid waste are the general feature of urban settlements. According to Urbanization report of World Bank only fifty eight percent of urban population of India has access to improved sanitation facilities.

Deteriorating Urban Environment: India is the world's fifth-largest producer of global warming gas and emissions (USA leads the race). The problem of pollution is more severe in big cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai. In India, urban areas are more developed and industrialized than the rural areas, and this attracts still more people to the urban areas. Thus there is more pressure on facilities like transport services, housing and drainage facilities, as well as more production of other goods required by the urban population, which in turn results in the release of large amounts of wastes and pollutants. The rapid growth in urban population, which affects patterns of production and consumption, is a principal source of pressure on the environment. A common and general instance that can be cited here is the contamination of water and rising level of toxins in almost all major rivers of India due to heavy disposal of sewage wastes, excreta and chemical wastes. Due to large migration of population to urban areas the threat to the environment becomes inevitable and it not only leads to environmental degradation but also the increasing vulnerability to infectious disease and congestion.

Poverty: Poverty in India can be defined as a situation only when a section of peoples are unable to satisfy the basic needs of life. According to an expert group of Planning Commission, poverty lines in rural areas are drawn with an intake of 2400 calories in rural areas and 2100 calories in urban areas. If the person is unable to get that minimum level of calories is considered as being below poverty line. In the cities people are suffering from acute poverty and the living conditions is so poor that in one small room all family members are staying and this is common feature of people who are living below poverty line. The speed of population growth and levels of poverty in mega cities such as Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi and Hyderabad pose immense infrastructural problems.