Kerala is set to witness a shift in the urbanisation drive towards northern districts from the southern districts in the next 30 years, said M. Satish Kumar, Chairman, Kerala Urban Policy Commission.
Talking to The Hindu on the sidelines of the two-day Kerala Urban Conclave that concluded on Saturday (September 13, 2025), Mr. Kumar said Kozhikode-Kannur-Kasaragod is the big belt emerging, since these districts have more capacity to absorb urbanisation due to physiographical reasons, unlike the environmental and ecological limits to urbanisation in southern Kerala. The shift, he said, will facilitate an equilibrium in the urbanisation drive, which remains lopsided now.
Mr. Kumar recollected that the non-availability of data posed the biggest constraint in the functioning of the Commission. This is because data is not democratic; it is not democratised in India, neither in Kerala, he put bluntly.
“Data has to be decentralised. Every local body should have the relevant data. If that data is not available, we cannot frame realistic policies and plan for the future,” Mr. Kumar said. Since data was not forthcoming, the Commission had to make projections of the urban data using the Census 2011 as the baseline data.
