This is a street scene in Calcutta - typical of many cities in India. However, in a country where 70% of its population still live in rural areas, it is an environment which exists only in the dreams of the majority of its people. For millions of India's poverty- stricken rural dwellers it represents the means of escaping their miserable life in the countryside. Cities like Calcutta exert a huge 'pull' on the rural poor luring them sometimes to good fortune ..... but sometimes to a more abject kind of urban poverty.If you click on the image above, you will link to a recent article on the BBC website which explores these ideas. This could make good reading ahead of your exam!
Now, in case you think I spend my life trawling the Internet for Geography-related stories, I have to admit to being part of a network of teachers who flag up articles like this one to each other. Today, I am grateful to Rob Chambers who teaches in St Ivo school in Cambridgeshire for the Indian migration tip off. He runs an excellent departmental website with a lot of good material you might like to explore. He also writes the GCSE blog (on the links in the right hand side bar) which I have already recommended to you in the context of Hydrosphere.
P.S. have you 'cast your vote' yet on Friday's posting?
