India-Urban Poverty Report 2009, a report brought out by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) estimates that, by 2030, the population in the urban areas of the country will be around 575 million, roughly 41 per cent of the total population of the country. The United States census estimates the population of that country to be 400 million by 2039, so the urban population of India alone will exceed the entire population of the U.S.

The share of  Urban population in the over all population of the respective states is increasing thus calling for police focus on Urban governance. For instance,  Greater Mumbai  accounts for 23 percent of Maharastra’s  population. The report says that urban poverty in India is, even today, pretty high: 25 per cent of the people in urban areas live in poverty, that is, over 80 million people – approximately, as the report points out, the population of Egypt. Moreover, most States have reported poverty figures in urban areas as being much higher than those in rural areas, though at the national level rural poverty is higher. But what the report has also brought out is that “the incidence of decline of urban poverty has not accelerated with GDP [gross domestic product] growth. As the urban population of the country is growing, so is urban poverty.”

54.71 per cent of urban slums have no toilet facility. Most free community toilets built by state government [sic] or local bodies are rendered unusable because of lack of maintenance.” The report states that in Delhi there are over 100,000 homeless people