Availability of basic amenities to urban households in West Bengal: an analysis of the level and determinants

Abstract

Urban transition in West Bengal in this decade experienced an unprecedented growth of Census Towns (CTs), contrary to stagnating growth of the Statutory Towns (STs). As, an additional 6.3 million people are added in urban areas of the state for the last decade, it obviously will increase the demand of basic amenities. Therefore, this study tries to find out the difference in basic amenities among towns in West Bengal according to their administrative status, size of the towns, wealth possession of the households and spatial location of the towns. Independent t-test, stepwise regression and principal component analysis are used as a research technique to execute the objective of the study. It is evident from the study that, administratively having a statutory body in town, a large population size of the town, location of the town within or close to the urban agglomerations and wealth possession of the urban households, have an immense role in determining the availability of basic amenities. Among all these factors, the wealth possession of households is the most dominant factor. As a sharp difference in the availability of basic amenities is evident between CTs and STs, there needs a government intervention to regulate the unplanned growth to the CTs. Without further ado, these CTs need to be recognized as urban and to be assigned statutory status for better provision of basic amenities. The second option lies in the implementation of the idea of co-production in the planning mechanism. Here the state and citizens both should address the task of urban service delivery as the state cannot regulate or deliver of its own and low-income citizens does not have its resource capacity.