Mumbai: A Developing City in Depth
Skyscrapers rise beside one of the world's largest informal settlements. Explore Mumbai: why it grows so fast, the challenges rapid growth brings, and how change is led both from the top down and the bottom up.
Use it, the way the marks are given
Free interactive practice at using the material, which is what the marks are for.
Start revising freeWhat you'll cover
The city that never stops growing
On the west coast of India, Mumbai is the country's financial capital and one of the world's fastest-growing cities. As the in-depth developing/emerging city case study, it shows how rapid growth brings both opportunity and huge challenges.
Migration and settlement words
Four ideas run through this case study:
Where Mumbai sits
A city's site is the ground it is built on; its situation is how it connects to everywhere else.
Why Mumbai grows
What is the main cause of Mumbai's rapid population growth?
- Rural-to-urban migration for jobs and services
- People leaving the city for the countryside
- A sharp fall in the birth rate
- The closure of the city's factories
Match each challenge to what it is
- Informal settlements
- Infrastructure pressure
- Informal employment
- Pollution
- Housing built by residents without permission
- Too little water, sanitation or transport
- Unregistered jobs with little security
- Dirty air and water from crowding and traffic
Inside Dharavi
Dharavi is one of the world's largest informal settlements, in the heart of Mumbai. Far from empty of value, it has a busy informal economy: residents run recycling, pottery and leather businesses, earning a living and supporting one another.
The cost of fast growth
Select the TWO challenges of rapid urbanisation in a city like Mumbai.
- Shortages of housing and services
- Air and water pollution
- Too few people to fill the jobs
- Shrinking informal settlements
How rapid growth unfolds
Put the chain of rapid urban growth in Mumbai into order.
- People move from the countryside to Mumbai for work
- The city grows faster than housing can be built
- Informal settlements spread across spare land
- Services and infrastructure come under pressure
Match each idea to an example
- Top-down management
- Bottom-up management
- The informal economy
- Rural-urban migration
- A large government redevelopment scheme
- Residents improving their own homes step by step
- Small businesses like recycling in Dharavi
- People arriving from rural areas for work
A city of contrasts
What does inequality in Mumbai mean?
- A big gap between wealthy districts and informal settlements
- Everyone earning exactly the same
- There being no wealthy areas at all
- There being no poverty at all
Mumbai in words
Mumbai grows quickly as people move from the countryside in search of _____. Because the city grows faster than housing, many live in _____ settlements such as Dharavi. Rapid growth puts pressure on _____ like water and transport. Change can be led by the government, called _____ management, or by the local community, called _____ management.
Mumbai
Tap the TWO statements that are TRUE.
- Many people move to Mumbai from rural areas in search of work.
- Dharavi is a large informal settlement with a busy informal economy.
- Top-down management is led by the local community.
- Rapid urbanisation reduces the pressure on a city's services.
- Informal settlements are always empty and produce nothing.
Top down or bottom up?
Decide how each change in Mumbai is being managed.
- The government clears an area and builds new high-rise flats for residents. Which type of management is this?
- Residents of an informal settlement slowly improve their own homes and run a recycling business. Which type is this?
- A family moves from a farming village to Mumbai because there are more jobs and schools. What is this an example of?
Explain and manage
Using Mumbai as your example, explain one challenge caused by rapid urbanisation, and describe one way it can be managed.
- Name one challenge of rapid urbanisation in Mumbai
- Explain why rapid growth causes it
- Describe one top-down or bottom-up management response
- Explain how that response helps