Papers by Mahalaya Chatterjee
Urbanization in West Bengal
Routledge eBooks, Jun 24, 2024
Youth in Indian labour Market India studies in business and economics, 2024
In any country, youth population is the strength of the future. India is AQ1 enjoying the 'demogr... more In any country, youth population is the strength of the future. India is AQ1 enjoying the 'demographic dividend' but cannot enjoy all its benefits due to faulty or inadequate manpower planning. Female work participation rate is low in India and that is also reflected in the youth segment. This paper traces the structural changes of the economy, the occupational shift from agriculture to service, and the bulging of the informal sector in the absence of any conscious employment policy, especially for the youth. Then it takes up the issue of youth employment in general and female employment in particular. Taking up the oft-discussed reasons of low female work participation, it passes on to empirical evidence from Census 2011 data. It clearly shows the bulge of female youth in agricultural and other sectors where skill is not essential at the entry point. Skill-oriented occupations especially in the urban sector take females in the age group 24-29. The pandemic and other problems in the Indian economy have led to a difficult situation where the proportion of young females in NEET has increased enormously. This calls for conscious policy decision for women, especially the younger lot.
Urbanisation and Rural Change in West Bengal
India’s level of urbanisation was about 17% in the 1951 census, just after the independence. Afte... more India’s level of urbanisation was about 17% in the 1951 census, just after the independence. After six decades, it just doubled. Except for the decade of 1971-81, the rate of urbanisation was quite slow. The first decade after the economic reforms reported the rate of urbanisation as too low. In this perspective, the 2011 Census figures about urbanisation were hailed as the ‘arrival of urban age in India’. It was because of two reasons: the rate of urban growth in the country for the first time crossed the rate of rural growth after independence. Secondly, the number of new towns in the country was about 2500. This number is spectacular because about the same number of towns emerged during a hundred years, 1901-2001. And of the states, West Bengal tops the list with about 590 towns, followed by Kerala. A closer inspection in the urbanisation scenario changes the euphoria to a matter of grave concern. None of the facts stated above changed the overall perspective of urbanisation in the country. The higher rate of urbanisation was instead a reflection of rural distress and change-over of occupation from agriculture to tertiarisation in the informal sector. This paper explores the details of the new towns in West Bengal in general and then takes up the study to the districts and some specific census towns.
Book review: Urban Development in China Under the Institution of Land Rights
Urban Studies, Jul 3, 2023
Sprawling Kolkata's tall order for a sustainable future
In many ways, Kolkata is a victim of its own success. Such has been population growth in India&am... more In many ways, Kolkata is a victim of its own success. Such has been population growth in India's 'first city' since colonial times that where to house people has been a perennial problem. It is now vital for Kolkata's 15 million residents that planning for future growth takes into account the threat of climate change.
RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, Nov 1, 2014
India, a country with a vast land area and population, has crossed the 30% level only in terms of... more India, a country with a vast land area and population, has crossed the 30% level only in terms of urbanization as per its latest census in 2011. The Census authority identifies urban areas in the country on the basis of either of the following two criteria: a) All the settlements having any form of local government are called statutory towns; b) Apart from these statutory towns, Census authority of India declares some areas as towns if they satisfy the following three criteria simultaneously: i) size criterion: the population of the area must be at least 5000. ii) density criterion: the density of population in the area should be at least 1000 persons per sq. kilometre. iii) occupation criterion: at least 75 percent of the male workforce should be engaged in the non-agricultural activities. Towns identified by the second criterion (b) are called census towns. new census towns in the country. The last decade saw the emergence of more than 2500 new towns, which is more than the number that emerged in the preceding century (1901-2001). But a look into the state-level data, show some interesting variations. This paper will look into the spatial spread of new towns from a perspective of regional economy and attempt to provide some explanation of the widespread variation.
Urbanization implies a shift of the population from the rural to urban areas and the proportion o... more Urbanization implies a shift of the population from the rural to urban areas and the proportion of population living in urban areas indicates the level of urbanization of the country. According to the latest national Census of population, about one-third of the people of India live in urban areas. The absolute number is very high considering the huge population of the country. West Bengal, a constituent state in the eastern part of the country was one of the foremost states of the country in terms of level of urbanization in 1947 (at the time of Independence of the country from 200 years of colonial rule). Gradually, the state slide down as the rate of urbanization slowed down. Even the presence of Kolkata (erstwhile Calcutta) metropolis could not resist it over the last five decades. This was mainly due to unbalanced economic growth, spatial concentration of non-primary activities and inter-district disparity in development. The primacy of Kolkata, the settlement pattern (in favour of large densely-packed cities) and the rural-urban relationship is unique for this state. Not miss the result of government level policies as until recent past, the state was governed by a Left-oriented Coalition government for the last three decades and a half. Somehow, all the trends got reversed, as revealed in the preliminary results of the last population Census (2011) Urban planning and local self-government was ushered in by the colonial government in the last part of the 19 th century to satisfy their governmental needs. Modern urban planning with foreign experts was initiated in the sixties of the last century. Apart from building the necessary infrastructure, the planners also had to work for other aspects of urban living like the development of transport and betterment of the weaker section of the society. And all these were done without the Constitutional recognition of the third tier of the government. This recognition came in 1993 with the 74 th Amendment of the Constitution. This paper looks into the urbanization trends and process in the state, the settlement pattern and the urban development and planning experience for the last six decades in the state of West Bengal and often compared it with the all-India trend.
International Journal of Pluralism and Economics Education, 2013
Economics is one of the most prestigious departments of the 154 years old, University of Calcutta... more Economics is one of the most prestigious departments of the 154 years old, University of Calcutta. Not only had the postgraduate department of the university but a number of its affiliated colleges boasted of legendary teachers and equally famous students over the years. However, for the last ten years or so, there is a decline in the number of students taking admission to the undergraduate honours course. In the era of globalisation and free-market economy, where the knowledge of economics is becoming more and more necessary, what can be the reason for such a decline? Searching for the answer was not very easy. A number of reasons were forwarded from different quarters and one of them was the syllabi, overloaded with mathematics. This paper takes a critical look into the reasons for the apathy of students to study the subject and the vision behind the complete makeover of the syllabi.
Book review: Urban Development in China Under the Institution of Land Rights
Urban Studies
360info, 2023
In many ways, Kolkata is a victim of its own success. Such has been population growth in India's ... more In many ways, Kolkata is a victim of its own success. Such has been population growth in India's 'first city' since colonial times that where to house people has been a perennial problem. It is now vital for Kolkata's 15 million residents that planning for future growth takes into account the threat of climate change.
Menjadi Yang Terbaik Becoming the Best Cara Mendapatkan Komitmen Seluruh Perusahaan Untuk Program Mutu Terpadu
Binarupa Aksara, 1996
Small and Medium Towns in West Bengal: Issues in Urban Governance and Planning
IASSI-Quarterly, 2017
West Bengal, among the major states, was fourth in rank at the time of Independence, slid down to... more West Bengal, among the major states, was fourth in rank at the time of Independence, slid down to 7 in 2001. It has been above the all-India average throughout in level of urbanisation but the rate slowed down. There are reasons behind the loss of the pace of urbanisation in the state. Firstly, the partition of the country robbed away the urban hierarchy of the state, along with the economic forces behind urbanisation. The rate of urbanisation was slow and most of the new towns emerged around Kolkata or in the Durgapur-Asansol region. Primacy of the city of Kolkata was the most notable feature of urbanisation of the state. Most of the other Class I towns were also in the Kolkata Metropolitan Area. Inter-district disparities in level and pace of urbanisation showed the same trend over the decades. The districts in northern and western parts were least urbanised. The winds of change came in the eighties when the Left front Government went for land reform along with recording the names of the share-croppers. This led to a spurt in agricultural production especially paddy. On the urban front, conscious policy decisions for the development of non-metro towns and regular elections in the local self-government institutions (both urban and rural) also yielded some positive results towards balanced urbanisation. The primacy of Kolkata started to decline and the growth of urban population was more spatially spread. However, the results of 2011 census came almost as a surprise. At the national level, the rate of growth of urban population surpassed that of the rural and West Bengal, the growth rate jumped to 14%. Secondly, of the 2500+ new census towns of the country, West Bengal tops the list with about 582 new towns. Now, researches are going on to find out the reasons behind this change. This paper will look into the small and medium towns of West Bengal and discuss the issues of urban governance and planning for these towns. 2
Urbanisation and Rural Change in West Bengal
Anveshak, 2019
India’s level of urbanisation was about 17% in the 1951 census, just after the independence. Afte... more India’s level of urbanisation was about 17% in the 1951 census, just after the independence. After six decades, it just doubled. Except for the decade of 1971-81, the rate of urbanisation was quite slow. The first decade after the economic reforms reported the rate of urbanisation as too low. In this perspective, the 2011 Census figures about urbanisation were hailed as the ‘arrival of urban age in India’. It was because of two reasons: the rate of urban growth in the country for the first time crossed the rate of rural growth after independence. Secondly, the number of new towns in the country was about 2500. This number is spectacular because about the same number of towns emerged during a hundred years, 1901-2001. And of the states, West Bengal tops the list with about 590 towns, followed by Kerala. A closer inspection in the urbanisation scenario changes the euphoria to a matter of grave concern. None of the facts stated above changed the overall perspective of urbanisation in the country. The higher rate of urbanisation was instead a reflection of rural distress and change-over of occupation from agriculture to tertiarisation in the informal sector. This paper explores the details of the new towns in West Bengal in general and then takes up the study to the districts and some specific census towns.
Exploring compactness and its challenges in the planned and some selected unplanned townships of West Bengal, India
Indian Journal of Regional Science, 2018
Urban anthropology and urban studies
Environmental Management in India
Interan Assessment of Fiscal Health of the Small and Medium Towns of West Bengal
The MA Journal, 2014
In all of the municipalities in this study, the share of establishment expenses in revenue expend... more In all of the municipalities in this study, the share of establishment expenses in revenue expenditures is within favourable limits. Also, all of these municipalities are making capital expenditures satisfactorily. revenue expenditures for urban basic services are paid out from the own source revenues of municipalities - supplemented by government revenue grants. Capital expenditures are mostly provided by government capital grants though it is falling far short of requirement. Before economic liberalization loans at concessional terms were available from public financial institutions for investment in municipal infrastructures but now at competitive market rates.
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Papers by Mahalaya Chatterjee