Urbanization in the developing nations

  1. Urbanization in the developing countries is happening at a higher rate. There are several aspects of urbanization in the developing countries. The people who come to cities have a weak or no support system present to assist them. In developing countries, the people who migrate to cities do not have the necessary skills that would be beneficial for them in these cities.

The fundamental difference in less developed countries urbanization compared to the western world is the gap that exists between rural and urban areas. In the western world, this gap is small while in less developed countries a larger gap exists.

2. According to modernization theory, when a society develops, its gets more modernization and away from traditions. This does not seem to be the case as the modernization is slow and the old traditions take much longer than in the developed west.

The dependency theory may fit here as much of the resources are piling up to the cities due to urbanization in underdeveloped countries. There is a shortage of resources and its unequal distribution as compared to the developed west.

Corporations take advantage of both of the above situations and try to maximize their profits by selling products that are modern as well traditional and take full advantage of the resources that are accumulating to the cities.

3. The housing condition in lower income citizens is undoubtedly poor. These people do not have access to any facilities of the live. All they do is pass time in the severe conditions waiting for good days to come. What can be done to improve this situation is to provide them water, sanitation, education about living a healthy life and develop new and affordable housing schemes for the lower income citizens.

4. Annawadi and many slums like these existed in Mumbai and may still exist. These slums were used by the people who migrated to cities in large numbers in search of a job and better lives. These slums had very little facilities available for its citizens. Even the houses in these slums were not properly built with a proper design. There was no proper water arrangement in these slums. Especially Annawadi was built on the land of the Mumbai airport. With progress and development in Mumbai, these slums started to be taken over by real estate giants who used them to build mega projects that could meet the demands of the foreign investors and global companies who were coming in high numbers to Mumbai.