With this shift from the rural to the urban areas, there were a couple of factors which came to be noticed. One, there was congestion and unplanned growth of human settlements in towns and cities forcing major changes in land use. This also meant that the prevailing infrastructure was insufficient as demands on water, roads and sanitary facilities mounted by leaps and bounds. Result: unhygienic conditions prevailed in many areas and the trend continues even today.

The other factor which surfaced with the urban shift was that rural areas fell into deprivation and neglect. Investments in rural areas vis-a-vis water, energy, health and education were lagging. Result: fall in general standard of living. Consequently more people opted for an urban shift. In the last few years, though, rural development schemes seem to have moderated this trend to an extent.

The rapid growth of metropolitan Hyderabad, can be attributed to several socio-economic factors such as largescale immigration of rural population from 1931 onwards, rapid expansion of administrative function and services, growth in the sector of trade and commerce and nodality of the city etc.

It was during the decade of 1931-41 that the Industrial Trust Fund was setup in Hyderabad, due to which two large textile mills, two cigarette factories, a number of button factories, a silk factory, a glass factory and a Hume pipe factory sprung up in the city. These industries attracted a large number of skilled and unskilled labour from the neighbouring areas which contributed to rapid population growth. The old records in the Industries Department indicate that the number of factories located in and around Hyderabad city rose from 91 in 1931 to 178 in 1939-40.

It is interesting to note that the migrant population, lives mostly in the northern part including Secunderabad, and only 24.5 percent migrants live in the southern part (old city). The formal sector of the economy in the city consisting mainly of manufacturing trade and commerce and highly skilled services cannot absorb the migrant population, as its employment generating capacity is rather low. Consequently, the migrants are engaged in informal activities as petty trade, artisan type of household industries, street vending, hawking, repairs and several self employed personal services.

Source : Hyderabad 400 - Saga of a City