Development Issues of our Times

Abstract

This study presents an overview of the urban development in Raipur city in India. More than one third of Raipur's population resides in slums, squatters and other poor settlements. Their contribution to city's economy has been also been growing over the period. In the absence of developed land and clear policy to address their problems, the poor suffer from many inadequacies in terms of access to basic services, socio-economic needs. It is necessary, therefore, to articulate policies and programmes to mainstream the slum communities with the city, both in terms of infrastructure provision and social and economic development. The present research broadly comes into the category of urban sociology where an effort is made to understand the problems of poor living slums of Raipur city. The physical improvement in the health and nutritional levels of the poor throughout the world would provide the physical basis for far higher levels of human productivity in the future. With the elimination of colonial rule in India, the spread of democratic forms of governance and market economies, the political, social and economic conditions needed to release human energies for higher levels of accomplishment are being met today more than at any time in the past. This study is an attempt to bring out the issues related to socially marginalized sections and their development.