A Geographical Analysis of Kalka Colony: A Notified Slum in Jammu City

Abstract

Slums have been the key area of study for policy makers as well as research scholars. According to UN Habitat, around 33% of the urban inhabitants in the developing world in 2012, or about 863 million people, lived in slums. Slum population form and grow in different parts of the world. Basic causes for slum emergence include rapid rural-to-urban migration, economic stagnation and depression, high unemployment, poverty, informal economy, forced or manipulated ghettoization, pitiable planning, politics, natural disasters and social conflicts. In India under Section-3 of the Slum Area Improvement and Clearance Act, 1956, Slums have been defined as primarily those residential areas where dwellings are in any respect unfit for human habitation by reasons of dilapidation, overcrowding, faulty arrangements and designs of such buildings, narrowness or faulty arrangement of streets, lack of ventilation, light, sanitation facilities or any combination of these factors which are detrimental to safety, health and morals (Census of India). In Jammu & Kashmir there are 40 slum reported towns having total slum population is 6,62,062.This present paper is a kind attempt to study the socio economic status of slums of Kalka Colony in Jammu City which is the winter capital of the state of Jammu and Kashmir and to review the various policies for their welfare.