According
to the provisional results of the 2001 Census of India the population
of India has passed the one billion mark with a sharp decline from
its decadal growth rate of 21.34 per cent over the last five decades.
The urban population constitutes 27.8 per cent of the total, with
a decadal growth rate of 31.2 per cent. The level of urbanisation
is 2.1 per cent higher than in 1991. The density of population has
increased steadily from 117 persons per km2 in 1951 to 324 persons
per km2 in 2001. Urban agglomerations or cities with a population
of more than one million have increased from 22 in 1991 to 35 in
2001 with Greater Mumbai being the largest at 16.4 million. The
Mumbai Metropolitan Region is the largest urban agglomeration in
the country.
For the first time detailed data on slum areas in the country have
been collected in the 2001 census. The total slum population in
the country is 40.3 million comprising 22.6 percent of the total
urban population of the towns which reported slums. The largest
slum population was registered in the State of Maharashtra. Around
6 per cent of Maharashtra’s population lives in the slums
of the state capital, Greater Mumbai.
Mumbai, originally a group of seven marshy islands on the west coast
of India and a fishing village until the 16th century, was ceded
by the Moguls to the Portuguese in the 1630s. Later the King of
England leased it to the East India Company. It developed as an
important port, used by the British for more than two centuries.
The city started growing after the cottongrowing areas of the hinterland
were connected to Mumbai by rail, which facilitated the supply of
cotton to factories in England. By 1864, the city’s population
had reached 817,000. With the growth of manufacturing units for
cotton textiles, by 1888 Mumbai had emerged as the second largest
commercial centre in India after Calcutta. The city gradually became
more and more industrialised and attracted a massive supply of skilled
and unskilled labour from all over the country. The growth of the
city was steady as its manufacturing sector became more diversified
with the expansion into the chemicals industry, basic metal and
engineering products. The city of Mumbai was the first in the country
to have a municipal corporation, created through special provincial
legislation in 1888. After independence in 1947, the growth of the
port, the discovery of offshore oil, the emergence of financial
services, the development of national and international trade and
the establishment of many public sector units and educational institutions
gave further impetus to the growth of the city. Mumbai also became
the capital of the State of Maharashtra, adding further to its administrative
importance.
This summary
has been extracted from:
UN-Habitat (2003) Global Report on Human Settlements 2003, The Challenge
of Slums, Earthscan, London; Part IV: 'Summary of City Case Studies',
pp195-228.
