Urbanization and Social Change : Analyzing Demographic and Socioeconomic Transformations of Asansol Durgapur Planning Area of West Bengal, India

Abstract

The physical growth of urban areas as a result of globalization and varied global changes can be termed as urbanization or urban drift which leads to demographic and socio-economic changes among other things. The process of urbanization has a tremendous effect on the demographic structure of a region. Asansol Durgapur Planning Area being a mineral rich zone; mining came up as a prominent economic activity followed by the development of industries mainly heavy industry in this area which paved the way for the evolution of this area as an industrial region. In the recent decades a massive level of urbanization has been witnessed in the Asansol-Durgapur Planning Area which came up under the Asansol-Durgapur Development Authority Area in 1980, under the provisions of WBT & CP Act. Previously, the areas under ADDA was under the district of erstwhile Bardhhaman, however, recently the areas under ADDA has been brought under the newly formed district of Paschim Bardhhaman. The rate of urbanization between 1991-2001 has been quite rapid mainly due to the inclusion of certain rural areas under urban areas which also led to large scale land use transformation and changes in the social structure. The potentiality of this region in generating employment attracted large number