KOLKATA CITY AND ITS DETERIORATING SLUM ENVIRONMENT IN TERMS OF HEALTH AND NUTRITION STATUS - ISSUES IN PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

Kolkata city is one of the largest urban agglomerations in India having 144 Wards . It is experiencing the emergence of slums in large numbers to accommodate the huge number of people migrating from surrounding regions.  The emergence of slums has started since the colonial period when the city was considered as the financial hub of the East India Company. Similar to other third world cities, urban inequality in terms of the access of resources is the prime reason behind the origin of slums in Kolkata. Kundu (2003) also opined that the inequality of resource distribution is the major factor behind the deterioration of a section of urban dwellers. The total slum population in Kolkata as per 2011 Census was 1,409,721 where a considerable volume of urban poor face a diverse deprivation and insecurity of housing and livelihood. As estimated by Kundu (2003), the entire slum population of Kolkata  live in about 2011 registered and 3500 unregistered slums in the KMC, containing about 13 million hutments or 338,000 rooms. The easy availability of jobs in the city has attracted huge numbers of migrant population in addition to social and political history of the city.  This in turn has led to a number of authorised and unauthorised slums in Kolkata which are identified as Hot spots of poverty having substandard living.

At this backdrop, the present paper has tried to make an overview of the status of slums in terms of health and nutrition profile of slum dwellers in Narkeldanga slum locale of Kolkata city falling under ward number 29 of Kolkata Municipal Corporation. As observed during the study, the continuous deterioration of health and nutrition status of the dwellers in the shanty and unhygienic environment of the slums has resulted to increased number of morbidity cases in the recent years. The paper has relied primarily on a variety of literatures, Government and Non-Government reports related to the origin of slums and its growth since Independence in the city. Data on slum population of Kolkata city has been collected from Census of India report of Government of India, 2001. Primary household surveys on Health and nutrition status have also been conducted in few slums along Narkeldanga Main Road in Ward No. 29 in Kolkata to conduct a preliminary assessment of the livelihood conditions of slum dwellers.