Public Space in the City of Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh: Uses, Misuses and Consequences

By : Bhasker Majumder

Page No: 366-373

Abstract
In India’s transformation for urbanization by expanding economic opportunities and hence rising population in towns, absolute and as a percentage of the total population of the country, formation of slums is an immediate consequence. Most of these households who live at the bottom, construct a cluster of houses on land lying vacant that are known as slums. We examined the social matrix that facilitated the households to live in the slums in the city of Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, and unobstructed the non-slum households to annex the public space in the city. We observed that both the slum households and the non-slum households lived in the same barometer of knowledge so far as public space was concerned. Parallel to the perceived unstable living of the households in slums, the state’s intervention through demolition of structures built up by the non-slum households on public space for private purposes remained unquestioned in the city remodelling.

Author :
Bhasker Majumder : Professor of Economics, G.B. Pant Social Science Institute, Allahabad
 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.32381/PROD.2020.61.03.10