"In India, over 30 per cent of the total population lives below the poverty line. Such a high degree of poverty highlights a serious dimension of the country's urban scenario also. The insufficient employment opportunities and poor income levels add to the miseries of the urban poor. They live in sub-standard settlements like slums, unauthorized colonies, squatters, pavements, resettlement colonies, etc. These settlements are considered to be the most filthiest in the world. Taking a serious note of the growing urban poverty, the Government of India spent hundreds of crores of rupees on implementing various schemes and programmes with no significant result. Urban poverty continues to be an area of major concern and unbeatable challenge. It was against this backdrop, experts working on different aspects of urban poverty were approached to contribute articles expressing their views and giving their first-hand experiences. The reading of this volume can be immensely useful to professionals, government officials, activists etc., who are involved in poverty alleviation programmes."

This is compounded by the lack of voice and influence that low income groups have in these official spheres.

This report provides an overview of important urban poverty questions. What defines urban poverty and how is urban poverty being measured? What other factors beyond consumption poverty need to be tackled? Who are the urban poor? What relations exist between urban poverty and city size? What linkages exist between urbanization, income, and urban poverty? What policy responses to urban poverty are implemented in selected Asian countries? The report served as a background study for the International Policy Workshop on Urban Poverty and Inclusive Cities in Asia, organized by the Asian Development Bank and the International Poverty Reduction Center held from 24-25 June 2013 in Suqian, Jiangsu Province, the People's Republic of China.

The contributors respond to the absence of critical debate surrounding the ways in which spaces of the city do not merely contain, but also constitute, urban poverty. The volume explores how the spaces of the city actively produce and reproduce urban poverty.

The book presents academic research on urbanization, urban poverty and slum development initiatives in South Asia, in general, and Bangladesh, in particular, in the light of global slum upgrading initiatives. It combines the urban poverty and slum development initiatives globally and country-specific context in a single frame. The book identifies different dimensions of urban poverty, best practices of slum development initiatives, and challenges of the implementation of these programs so that the government and different development partners redesign their implementation strategies as regards to reducing the urban poverty and making improvement to the living conditions of the slum dwellers. The book provides a clear understanding of the penetrating procedures of different slum development initiatives in the global perspectives, following the operation procedure of different programs in Bangladesh. This allows the readers to make a comparison of the operating procedures of different programs.

This open access book revisits the theoretical foundations of urban planning and the application of these concepts and methods in the context of Southern countries by examining several case studies from different regions of the world. For instance, the case of Koudougou, a medium-sized city in one of the poorest countries in the world, Burkina Faso, with a population of 115.000 inhabitants, allows us to understand concretely which and how these deficiencies are translated in an African urban context. In contrast, the case of Nueve de Julio, intermediate city of 50.000 dwellers in the pampa Argentina, addresses the new forms of spatial fragmentation and social exclusion linked with agro export and crisis of the international markets. Case studies are also included for cities in Asia and Latin America. Differences and similarities between cases allow us to foresee alternative models of urban planning better adapted to tackle poverty and find efficient ways for more inclusive cities in developing and emerging countries, interacting several dimensions linked with high rates of urbanization: territorial fragmentation; environmental contamination; social disparities and exclusion, informal economy and habitat, urban governance and democracy.

"The objective of this study is to contribute to a better understanding of the extent and nature of poverty in urban areas in transition countries in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, providing particular attention to the disparities within urban areas between capital cities and secondary cities, and focusing on dimensions of poverty related to provision of network infrastructure and energy services in cities. Household surveys carried out in 1998-2003 in 20 countries provided the data for the study. The study found substantial differences in urban areas between the capital and secondary cities, with households in secondary cities being worse off. In addition, secondary cities often had poverty indicators equivalent to, or worse than, those of rural areas, including in terms of access and quality (reliability) of infrastructure. The study confirmed that many households, especially in secondary cities, are "infrastructure-poor" because of unreliable and deteriorated services and that these households are hidden in studies that do not examine actual quality. Finally, the study found that income and infrastructure inequality are generally higher in urban areas, although inequality in secondary cities often was greater than that in the capitals. "--World Bank web site.