Understanding Slums as an Urban System

The study examines the slums of Kolkata as part of a larger urban system. It tries to foreground the awareness and build the recognition that the urban poor are an important part of the city’s economy. To that end, the report explores and analyses the lower circuits of the informal economy in relationship to the city as a whole.

Starting from chronicling the city’s evolution from a historical perspective the report shows how distribution patterns and economic circuits have developed and consolidated. The study then traces linkages and highlights connections on interdependence between the lower (informal) and upper (formal) economic circuits. Through this, the study wants to elaborate on the presence of the various slums across the city and how its negotiates and structures the complex socio-economic landscape and in turn the spatial pattern of the city itself.

It is hoped that the findings of this study will provide valuable information to planners, policy makers, administrators in the process of holistic grounded urban projects at the scale of the city.

Location: Kolkata, West Bengal
Client: Human Settlements Management Institute
Project: Decentralised Training for Urban Development (an Indo-Dutch Collaboration)
Year: 1992