Essay on Important Urban Problems – The process of industrialisation has added much to the phenomenal growth of cities. Due to the rapid industrialisation cities have grown in an unsystematic manner. Industrialisation and urbanisation have brought along with them many vices.
1. The Problem of Concentration:
Concentration of people in a definite limited space is one of the problems of the urban society. Due to the attraction of city life (‘Pull-factors’) men have started flocking towards the cities.
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Lack of job opportunities in the rural societies (‘Push ‘-factor) also forced people to desert villages and start moving to the cities. This has led to urban concentration and rural depopulation.
2. The Problem of Facilities:
Concentration of people has resulted in other problems such as overcrowding, congestion, housing problems, lack of water facility and fresh air, insanitation, etc.
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3. The Proclaim of Slums:
Increasing industrialisation and urbanisation have created slums in the city. The slum dwellers live in horrible areas. Their living conditions are really unfortunate. The low-paid workers live in these slum areas.
The facilities that are found in the cities are not found in these places. Slums consist of sub-standard, ill-ventilated, insanitary and poorly lighted houses. They consist of houses which are unfit for human habitation.
4. The Problem of Privacy:
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Lack of privacy and intimacy are the natural outcome of the city life. Due to the indirect and impersonal relationships, closeness and intimacy will not develop. Life becomes mechanical, competitive and charmless.
5. The Problem of Vices:
The city is a centre of economic insecurity, mental illness, gambling, prostitution, drunkenness, crimes, juvenile delinquency, alcoholism, environment pollution and such other vices. There is poverty in the midst of plenty. The city life endangers the physical, mental and moral health of the people.
6. The Problem of Individuation:
The urban community encourages individuation. Individuals are moved by their own aspirations, ambitions, aims, and interests-They have become more and more career-conscious.
They are invariably caught in the competitive race for a successful career. The competitiveness of the city, places one over against everyone else. The materialistic outlook that a city-dweller develops may often result in what is known as the ‘loss of community’.
An individual may become ‘alienated’ from his own community, his own people, and his own profession. This state, when it reaches the extreme, may drive a depressed and an ‘alienated’ man to commit suicide.