An evaluation of the relative urbanisation in peri-urban villages affected by industrialisation: the case study of Bhiwandi in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, India

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region in India has a history of uneven development with a concentration of population and employment in the urban core of Mumbai city. Recently, there has been an increased rate of development in other nodes outside Mumbai city. Evaluating the intra-regional inequalities will facilitate more focused planning based on contextual issues. The peri-urban villages of Bhiwandi Surrounding Notified Area are among the least planned areas within the metropolitan region, witnessing intensive industrial development and a host of other resultant problems. This study focuses on the calculation of a measure of relative urbanisation for these villages in order to identify areas that are at an advanced stage of transition from rural to urban. The measure is based upon demographic, social, economic, spatial and infrastructural parameters. Variables were selected with reference to existing research in the field of indices for urbanity and the definitions of ‘urban’ and ‘rural’ in context of India, and comprehensive scores were generated for each village. The results guide the theoretical analysis of the pattern of development in the region and the influence of urbanisation on the socio-economic changes and living conditions in the villages. Further, this study discusses the formulation of customised planning policies for different categories of peri-urban villages in the Indian context. Since the development in these villages is driven primarily by secondary and tertiary sector employment, it can be concluded that the traditional consideration of ‘rural’ as being predominantly agricultural should be reassessed for peri-urban villages.