The term city owes its origin to an era of unknown antiquity even as some 20 cities that emerged during that era have turned tourist destinations in our times. All had been well with cities across the world until recent past, their residents relishing their living environment marked by comfort and convenience with respect to housing, transportation, access to markets with plentiful consumer goods including food, facilities for healthcare, education, entertainment, and so on amidst glitz and glamour. This statement has to be in past tense in respect of most cities across the country, both Mysuru and Bengaluru being in their august company. A cursory look at the figures of population in these cities then (some 50 years ago) and now should set one pondering about the factors that have drastically changed the image of urban spaces, apart from that of rural areas holding fort in the face of a growing number of them wearing the look of a town, only to lose their tranquil ambience that has endured for centuries. For reasons that don’t need elaboration, the land’s rustics are yielding to both attraction of city life and compulsion of seeking livelihood resulting in an estimated 50 lakh of them taking residence in cities annually.
Agriculture having become an unrewarding calling for earning livelihood and most of the trades that had their roots in villages, such as pottery, weaving, producing tools and so on vanishing due to technologies adopted by urban-based industries, has resulted in mass exodus of rustics and their influx into cities, both unstoppable. A notable outcome of this volatile phenomenon is the birth of urban slums, whose residents are truly undeterred urbanites fighting a losing battle against poverty, abject poverty.
