Growth of census towns in capital region of India: Informal urbanization as a symptom of counter-urbanization?

Managing urban growth has become one of the important challenges of the 21st century in the Global South, where agglomerations are being formed by the coalescence of urban and rural areas. The scale and speed of transformation have outstripped the capacity of local governments to provide adequate basic amenities. Using the National Capital Region as a case study, and census data and spatial boundaries, this chapter attempts to understand the process of urbanization underway in India. Results show that the region is currently in the stage of sub-urbanization, and that recent growth has been predominantly in ‘census towns' as informal urbanization. Three main reforms are required to achieve sustainable urbanization: First, integration of infrastructure development into spatial planning at the national level and in lower tiers of planning. Second, empowering local authorities to incentivize urban development in order to fund urban infrastructure. Third, notifying census towns with municipalities, thereby providing for urban infrastructure and controlling unplanned growth.