Class Group: General (Semester)

Course Code: BHUM108L

URBAN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

MODULE 1: URBAN SOCIETY
Dr. Sreya Sen
Assistant Professor
School of Social Sciences and Languages
Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT),
Tamil Nadu – 632014
Email: [email protected]

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Source: Wikimedia Commons and BBC 2
Some questions before we start the syllabus
1. What do you mean by the term urban?
2. Is urban and city same?
3. What is urban, urbanism, urbanization?
4. Why are we studying urban community development and rural community
development?
5. Why do you think an engineer should be interested in urban community
development class?
6. In what way does social scientists and engineers collaborate in studying urban
community and development?

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What is Urban
• Urban areas usually refer to cities, suburbs and towns.
• Urban areas have more development in terms of access to infrastructure
and connectivity like airports, ports, railways, housing, roads etc.
• Land in urban areas is mostly used for development activities - not much
vacant land is available.
• Urban areas are densely populated.

Indian urban population for 2021 was 498,179,071, a 2.15% increase from
2020.
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Meaning
1. Derived from the Latin word “urbs” – a term applied by the romans to a city.
2. Refers to a city or town, which is directly opposite to village or countryside - resident was
civis or townsman.
3. Civis is also the root of the word civitas from which the word citizenship has been derived.
4. “Urban settlements have been defined on the basis of an urban culture (a cultural
definition), administrative functions (a political definition), the percentage of people in non-
agricultural occupations (an economic definition), and the size of the population (a
demographic definition)” (Palen, 2008).

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Definitions
The definition of what is urban kept on changing. The definition adopted in
1961 census was also used in 1971 and 1981; it remained unchanged in 1991
and 2001 also.
According to this definition an urban area is: a place which is either a
municipal corporation or a municipal area, or under a town committee or a
notified area committee or cantonment board, any place which satisfies the
following criteria of:
• a minimum of 5,000 persons
• at least 75 per cent of the male working population should be in occupations which are
non-agricultural
• a density of not less than 400 persons per square kilometer, and a place should have
certain pronounced urban characteristics and amenities such as newly found industrial
areas, large housing settlements, places of tourist importance and civic amenities.

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Administrative definition of urban: All place with a Municipality, Corporation,
Cantonment or notified Town area is designated as urban in the census of India.
Demographic definition of urban:
1. a minimum population of 5000
2. Atleast 75% of the male working population is non-agricultural
3. a density of population of at least 400 people per square km ( i.e. 1000 per square mile)

Cultural definition of urban:

1. Migrants, 2. natives, 3. ethnicities, 4. religions, 5. food practices, 6. festivals and
celebrations.

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1. In India, urban places with less than 1,00,000 population are referred to as
“towns”, while urban places with 1,00,000 or more population are referred to as
“cities”.
2. Urban centres with more than one million population are categorized as
metropolitan cities. The metropolitan centres are a class by themselves
characterized by large-scale consumption, and large quantum of inflow of people,
goods, services and information (Prakasa Rao 1982).
3. Urban refers to anything connected to cities and towns, whether it is the living or
anything taking place in these locations. Urban society is defined as the way of life
among city and town inhabitants and how they all interact with each other. Urban
society is the way people who live in cities and towns interact with each other, the
social institutions they create, and how they interact with the urban environment.

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Characteristics
1. Population density is very high.
2. There is scarcity of land.
3. There is very high pollution in urban areas due to high population density, vehicles
and industries.
4. There is not much greenery in urban areas of India, since most of the land is
occupied by buildings and roads.
5. Jobs are concentrated in the services industry, manufacturing industry, trade and
commerce.
6. In urban areas, the problem of social barriers is minimal, there are equal
opportunities for jobs, education etc.

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City as an important part of urban
• A city is a relatively large, dense, permanent, heterogeneous, and
politically autonomous settlement whose engages in a range of
non agricultural occupations.
• A city is a large human settlement. Cities generally have extensive
systems for housing, transportation, sanitation, utilities, land use,
and communication. Their density facilitates interaction between
people, government organizations and business, sometimes
benefitting different parties in the process.
• American sociologist Louis Wirth argues that cities lead to an
emergence of a distinct culture characterized by the breakdown of
family ties, individualism and competitiveness , diversity of social
commitment, transition from primary to secondary relationship,
absence of direct social control, anonymity, isolation, utilitarianism, Louis Wirth was an American
role of segmentation and anomie. sociologist and member of the
Chicago school of Sociology. His
• City life is characterized by density of population, absence of interests included city life, minority
community feeling, mobility, heterogeneity and size.. group behavior, and mass media,
and he is recognized as one of the
leading urban sociologists.

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 CITY
BUILT ENVIRONMENT SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT
Infrastructure such as roads, transport, Caste
retail, schools/universities Class
Technology Gender
Buildings Religion
Politics of ‘building’ – for whom and by who? Migration
Architecture Riots, violence
Urban planning
ARE THEY TWO CONNECTED? LET US DISCUSS HOW
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 Classification of CITIES*
CLASS/TIER POPULATION FACTORS EXAMPLES

Class 1/Tier I 1,00,000 and These are cities with well-developed real Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai,
more estate markets and civic and social Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Pune
amenities, along with established
businesses.
Class 2/Tier II 50,000 to These are fast-growing or developing real Amritsar, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh,
99,999 estate market. They are cities where Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Jamshedpur, Jaipur,
infrastructure and investments are steadily Kochi, Lucknow, Nagpur, Patna, Raipur, Surat,
increasing. Visakhapatnam, Agra, Ajmer, Kanpur, Mysuru,
Srinagar
Class 3/Tier III 20,000 to These cities require more investments and Etawah, Roorkee, Rajamundry, Bhatinda,
49,999 infrastructure for future growth. They have Hajipur, Rohtak, Hosur, Gandhinagar, Junagadh,
marginally-developed realty markets and Udaipur, Salem, Jhansi, Madurai, Vijaywada,
businesses, along with other infrastructure. Meerut, Mathura, Bikaner, Cuttack, Vijayawada,
Nashik
Class 4/Tier 10,000 to They are cities or small towns, which require Banswara, Bhadreswar, Chilakaluripet, Datia,
IV 19,999 extensive infrastructure and investments. Gangtok, Kalyani, Kapurthala, Kasganj, Nagda,
They also have negligible business and real Sujangarh
estate activity.
* As per 2001 Census 12
 Urban AGGLOMERATIONS
• Urban agglomerations - the outgrowths of cities and towns.
• At the 1961 census, the concept of ‘town group’ was adopted to obtain a broad picture
relating to urban spread. Refined in 1971 with the concept of urban agglomeration to
obtain better feed back in regard to urban continuity, process and trends of urbanization
and other related matters.
• This concept without any change or modification has remained operative till 2011 census.
A continuous urban spread constituting a town and its adjoining outgrowths (OGs) or two
or more physically contiguous towns together with or without outgrowths of such towns.
(Census Report 2011).
• As per the Indian Census of 2011, the largest Urban Agglomeration in the India is Mumbai
with a population of about 18.4 million.
• Urban Agglomerations (UA) are further classified into 3 different groups.
1. Class I UA (Urban Agglomeration) – Having a population of at least 1,00,000 persons.
2. Million Plus UA (Urban Agglomeration) – Having a population of 1 million or above.
42.6% of the urban population live in these Million Plus Urban Agglomerations.
3. Mega Cities – Among the Million Plus UAs/Cities, there are three very large UAs with
more than 10 million persons, known as Mega-Cities.

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 METROPOLITAN CITIES
• The Census Commission of India defines Metropolitan cities as those Indian cities
having a population of more than 4 million.
• The 74th Amendment to the Indian Constitution defines a metropolitan area as
an area having a population of 10 Lakh or 1 Million or more, comprised in one
or more districts and consisting of two or more Municipalities or Panchayats or
other contiguous areas, specified by the Governor by public notification to be a
Metropolitan area.
• As per the Census of India 2011 definition of more than 4 million population, some
of the major Metropolitan Cities in India are: Mumbai (more than 18 Million); Delhi
(more than 16 Million); Kolkata (more than 14 Million); Chennai (more than 8.6
million); Bangalore (around 8.5 million); Hyderabad (around 7.6 million);
Ahmedabad (around 6.3 million); Pune (around 5.05 million); Surat (around 4.5
million).

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 MEGALOPOLIS
• A string of closely interconnected metropolises
• The term is derived from Greek and means “very large city”.
• A megalopolis or a supercity, also called a megaregion, is a group of metropolitan
areas which are perceived as a continuous urban area through common systems of
transport, economy, resources, ecology, and so on.
• For example, Kolkata is the largest urban area to be considered a megalopolis.
The NCR (National Capital Region) of Delhi consists of areas from Rajasthan, Uttar
Pradesh, and Haryana.

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Rural-Urban Linkages
 The connections between the rural and urban societies along cultural, political and
economic dimensions in traditional and modernized sectors.
 Rural and urban are interconnected spaces. A change in one will affect the other.
 In India rural-urban linkages have ever existed in cultural, political and economic
dimensions.
 We observe a flow of good, people, money, information and waste.
 Linkages between sector (connection between agriculture, services and manufacturing)
are common.
 ‘Rural’ activities in urban and ‘urban’ activities in rural. For example: farming (rural) done in
urban house terrace or big wealthy businessmen investing money in village lands.
 Failure of rural agriculture or poor attention to agricultural practices led to protest in the
cities.
 Human migration is closely related to rural-urban linkages.
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Rural – Urban Dichotomy/Difference
Rural Urban
Closely connected to nature. Direct effect of Remote from nature. Predominance man made
natural elements like rain, drought environment

Farming is the major occupation. Non-agricultural Most of the jobs are non-agricultural and
occupations are secondary specialized

Family often works as a unit Family often work in different occupations with
less interconnections

More homogeneous Less homogeneous and more heterogeneous

Caste, religion, patriarchy acquires a different Urban environment reorients caste, religion,
shape patriarchy to work in a different way

Low density High density

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Rural – Urban Continuum
• Rural-Urban Continuum is also referred as RURBAN.
• American anthropologist Robert Redfield had given the concept of rural-urban
continuum.
• The rural-urban continuum may be defined as a dynamic equilibrium wherein
the development process involves the people in both rural and urban areas and
the returns of development are also distributed to the people whose
settlement pattern is distributed spatially.
• In India, Kerala is well known for the rural-urban continuum in the coastal plain
and this had been noted by early travelers such as Ibn Batuta in 14th century. The
distinction between rural and urban areas is less sharp in Kerala than in other parts
of the country. The public action policies in Kerala do not create disparities
between urban and rural areas. This has led to the framing of rural-urban
continuum of Kerala Model.

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 Urban Society
• Urban refers to anything connected to cities and towns, whether it is the living or
anything taking place in these locations.
• Urban society is defined as the way of life among city and town inhabitants and how they
all interact with each other.
• Urban society is the way people who live in cities and towns interact with each other, the
social institutions they create, and how they interact with the urban environment

Urban Community
• Urban community is where an individual lives in an area with:
– high density of population,
– availability of basic requirements,
– an area of good resources,
– the area has lots of opportunity of employment,
– can be considered as life-giving for luxurious desires of human or individual.

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Urban Community Development (UCD)
• Urban community development aims to organize and stimulate community
leadership to handle problems on a mutual aid and self help basis
• Urban community development means the working together of two factors:
• – The collective initiative of families living in the same neighborhood
• – Support of their effort through services rendered to them by a higher level of
government

• Urban community development is one of the strategy of intervention to solve

some of the problems of the city in general and of the depressed areas in
particular

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Elements of Community Development
• Participation of the people
• Local initiative
• Technical and other support to reinforce initiative, self help and mutual help

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 Objectives of Urban Community Development
• Creating a sense of social coherence on a neighborhood through corporate civic action and promoting
sense of national integration.
• Developing a sense of belonging to the urban community through increased participation of people in
community affairs.
• To promote the growth of community life and to encourage the development of citizens‘ participation in
programmes of self help and civic improvement.
• Creating a way of thinking within urban community which concentrates first on solving problems with their
own initiative, organization, self help and mutual aid.
• Bringing about a change in attitudes by creating civic consciousness and by motivating people to improve
their conditions of life, particularly those affecting social and physical environment.
• Developing local initiative and identifying and training of local leaders.
• Ensuring fuller utilization of technical and welfare services by helping the community to locate the kind of
support needed from the municipality or other organizations and how to get it.
• Identifying the nature of assistance and guidance to be obtained from governmental and higher authorities
and how to approach them.
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 Swiss-

 Reflection spot: French

Architect
Le Corbusier
• After Independence (1947) – problems arose in the country
following the Partition – need to rehabilitate large number of
displaced persons was an immediate concern – this transformed
the urban areas/cities ― problem solving was required ― shift
from welfare oriented approach to development oriented German
approach – establishment of new townships across the country – Architect Otto
Konigsberger
thereby providing opportunities for economic improvement.
• Cities like Calcutta and Delhi felt the brunt of the Partition and its
subsequent problems. Cities in the south like Chennai and
Bangalore had lesser problem during this period.
• Cities like Chandigarh, Bhubaneswar and Gandhinagar were built
in 1950s to accommodate the massive influx of people.
• Housing became a BIG question, growth of slums, insecurity, lack
of safety all became important, finally leading to PLANNING!

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Role of the Rural Urban Relationship Committee (RURC) (1963)

• After careful observation of earlier projects and experiments, a committee

was set up by the Ministry of Health, Government of India to plan and
initiate urban community development projects on a nation-wide scale
specifying the role of local bodies while implementing them.
• The committee observed that there was lack of awareness and interest
among urban poor and suggested the need to motivate change and
encourage people to exercise their own initiative in planning and
carrying out improvement projects based on their felt needs.
• Technical and welfare resources would then be directed to these
communities to support them in their effort.
• Paved the way for the extensive application of community development
method to solve the problems of urban life.

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• The terms of reference of this committee was:
– Determination of criteria for the demarcation of urban and rural
areas.
– Making recommendations regarding the relationship between the
urban local bodies and the Panchayat Raj institutions.
– Defining the structure and functions of the urban local bodies.
– Making recommendations about the lines on which urban
community development work may be undertaken in municipal areas.
– Making recommendations for the more efficient and effective
functioning of urban local bodies in general.

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• The committee submitted an interim report on the Programme of Urban
Community Development to facilitate the implementation of urban
community development in the Third FiveYear Plan itself.
• The Third Five-Year Plan (1965- 70) drew pointed attention to the social
and economic consequences of the rapid growth of urban population.
• The plan laid particular emphasis on the need and potentialities of UCD
for bringing about social and economic changes in urban communities
and create conditions for a better life for its citizens.
• Need for (or concept of) urban community development ―In mid 1960s
one out of five people lived in cities and now the numbers are increasing.

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Suggested links to understand the comparison between 2001
and 2011 Census:

• https://mohua.gov.in/cms/number-of-cities--towns-by-city-size-class.php

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