Is Kolkata a city of slums like Amit Shah said? Here's the fact

Addressing a rally for the West Bengal election, Home Minister Amit Shah said Kolkata had turned into a city of slums under successive Communist and Trinamool Congress governments. Is it a fact that Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal, is a city of slums? Here's the fact.

The city of Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal, has earned its fair share of nicknames over the years. The metropolis's citizens fondly call it the "City of Joy". British author Rudyard Kipling, meanwhile, was far less sympathetic, calling it, "The City of Dreadful Night". In any case, the city now has a new nickname. While addressing a rally in North Dumdum on Wednesday, the first day of his campaign for the Phase-2 of West Bengal Assembly elections, Home Minister Amit Shah claimed that under the patronage of the CPI(M) and the incumbent Trinamool Congress (TMC), Kolkata had turned into a "Jhoparpatti ka Sheher" or city of slums.

Amit Shah's charge, as is expected, drew a significant amount of flack. TMC Rajya Sabha MP, Derek O'Brien fired his own broadside at Shah, writing on X, "How dare you? Amit Shah, you are a low-level politician who is only seen during elections. How dare you call Kolkata a slum city?"

But is it a fact?

We are, of course not denying that the City of Joy, as its enthusiastic residents call it, is a shanty-town-free utopia. Far from that, Kolkata regularly ranks as having one of India's largest slum populations alongside other cities like Mumbai, Chennai, New Delhi etc.

It is a harsh reality that all big cities in India have slum clusters, the underbellies that the metros love to hide.

So, Kolkata can't be singled out. But where does it stand in comparison to other big Indian cities when it comes to the percentage of its population living in slums? This is what we are going to discuss.

But what does data have to say about Amit Shah's claim? We decided to compare the most reliable information we could find, which is the data from the 2011 Census of India.

We do acknowledge that the 2011 data will not be reflective of the circumstances in 2026, but with the latest Census data still some time away, it remains the most comprehensive and accurate data available. It will help us get at least a ballpark understanding.

WHAT PERCENTAGE OF KOLKATA'S POPULATION LIVES IN SLUMS?

According to the 2011 Census, the city of Kolkata had 2,011 registered and 3,500 unregistered slum settlements. Approximately 1.49 million people reside in 300,755 households in these slums in Kolkata.

Data published by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) in 2009 paints a similar picture, saying 1.5 million people lived in slums in the city.

In a city of over four million residents (2011 Census), this means a full one-third of Kolkatans live in slums or shanty towns.

The largest slums in the city include the Tiljala–Topsia–Tangra slum belt and the Basanti Colony in Ultadanga locality.

Overall, not a positive report card. But how does Kolkata compare to other large metropolitan cities in India when it comes to slums?

WHICH CITY HAS THE MOST SLUMS IN INDIA? DELHI, CHENNAI OR MUMBAI?

Now that we have had a look at what Rudyard Kipling called the "City of Darkness", how do India's three other original metro cities — Mumbai, Chennai, and Delhi — match up.

Widely known as the "City of Dreams", Mumbai, India's glittering financial capital, is home to over 12 million people, according to the 2011 Census, making it among the country's most populous city. And of these 12 million, 5.2 million people (41.84% of the city's population) in over a million households across Mumbai lived in slums and shanty towns. The city is also home to Dharavi, one of the world's largest slum settlements.

To read more about Dharavi's slums and the businesses they host, you can read this — Gutter, but of gold. Why Dharavi slums charge Rs 5 lakh rent a month.

Then there is Chennai, often called "India's Detroit" due to its automotive industry. According to the 2011 Census, Chennai is home to around 6.7 million people. Of those, about 1.3 million or 28% of the city's total population lived in slums across 329,827 households. The city's largest slum settlements include Kannagi Nagar and Nochikuppam.

What about India's capital? According to the 2011 Census, more than 16 million call the National Capital Region of Delhi their home, making it one of the world's largest cities. Of those, 1.79 million people (around 15% of the city's population) live in slums like Sanjay Colony and Kusumpur Pahari.

So, in Kolkata, around 33% of the population lives in slums. In comparison, Delhi has 15% living in slums, while for Chennai, it is 28%. Mumbai has a huge 42% of its population living in slums.

Kolkata undeniably has a large slum population in absolute terms and a high proportion relative to its size. However, as the data shows, its share is comparable and even lower in some cases, when looking at the rest of India's largest cities.

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