Urban Poverty Issues and Challenges

Urban poverty has been a major challenge faced by the city dwellers, in general, and the urban managers and administrators, in particular. Urban poverty in India remains high at over 25 percent. Over 80 million poor people live in the towns and cities of India. India�s urban poverty is largely an extension or reflection of rural poverty. There is an unceasing flow of immigrants from rural India to the major towns and cities in our country. It has caused almost unmanageable problems of poverty, unemployment, slum and squatter growth, and several other infrastructural, social and economic problems. The increasing pressure on urban environment is taking its toll on the quality of life of the urban population. \n \nUrban poverty alleviation is a challenging task before the urban managers and planners, which calls for new approaches and strategies. The goal is to adequately feed, educate, house and employ the large and rapidly growing number of urban poor. \n \nThe above facts have been discussed in this book in four sections. Section I deals with the Concept of urban poverty, Section II examines Urban Poverty in India, with special reference to Bihar, Section III deals with Poverty Alleviation initiatives and Section IV contains articles in Hindi, dealing with Urban Poverty : Issues and Challenges.