A contemporary analysis on urban slums and their problems of Haldia municipal area in West Bengal, India

A slum is a heavily populated urban informal settlement characterized by substandard housing and squalor. More recently slums have been predominantly found in urban regions of developing and undeveloped parts of the world, but are also found in developed economies. According to UN-HABITAT, around 33% of the urban population in the developing world in 2012, or about 863 million people, lived in slums. Slums sprout and continue for a combination of demographic, social, economic, and political reasons. Common causes include rapid rural-to-urban migration, poor planning, economic stagnation and depression, poverty, high unemployment, informal economy, colonialism and segregation, politics, natural disasters and social conflicts. Slums and squatters are the informal settlements of Haldia Municipal Area that accommodate the low-income group of people. The population of this low-income group is still increasing in the study area, in spite of the number of limitations in the slums and squatters. Present study shows the problems of the urban slums of the study area.