Does urbanization lead to more segregation and/or marginalization of the poor in Indian metropolises?

Question

Ghissu Editorial · Accepted Answer

Urbanisation in Indian metropolises has largely deepened segregation and marginalisation of the poor through eviction, peripheral resettlement and caste and religious sorting, though city life also loosens caste. Census 2011 counted about 6.5 crore slum dwellers, including roughly four in ten residents of Greater Mumbai.

**Introduction**

Ambedkar urged Dalits to leave the village for the anonymity of the city. Yet Census 2011 counted about 6.5 crore slum dwellers, including roughly four in ten residents of Greater Mumbai, so metropolises both liberate and sort the poor by place.

**How Metropolitan Growth Segregates and Marginalises the Poor**

SKETCH: flow | From Land Boom to Exclusion
- Land values rise
- Slum eviction
- Peripheral relocation
- Long commutes
- Lost jobs, schooling

1. **Eviction to the periphery**: Delhi's slum dwellers were resettled to Bawana and Savda Ghevra, and Chennai's to Kannagi Nagar, far from their jobs, while Mumbai's were moved to polluted Mahul beside refineries.
2. **Caste and religious sorting**: Sukhadeo Thorat and colleagues (EPW, 2015) found Dalit and Muslim tenants in Delhi-NCR faced far more refusals, and Ahmedabad's Juhapura shows religious ghettoisation.
3. **Invisible workers**: The 2020 lockdown exodus showed metropolises depend on migrant labour they neither house nor register for welfare.

**Where the City Also Includes the Poor**

1. **Weaker ascriptive ties**: As Louis Wirth argued, urbanism loosens traditional bonds, widening inter-caste work and dining, and Dharavi's recycling and leather units give migrants a foothold.
2. **Legal and tenure protection**: Olga Tellis (1985) tied livelihood to Article 21, Ajay Maken (Delhi HC, 2019) required rehabilitation before demolition, and Odisha's Jaga Mission grants in-situ land rights.

**Way Forward**

1. **In-situ upgrading and rental housing**: Scale Jaga-style tenure, PMAY-Urban 2.0 and Affordable Rental Housing Complexes over distant relocation.
2. **Participatory planning**: Activate ward committees under the 74th Amendment and bar discriminatory housing refusals.

**Conclusion**

Urbanisation has largely deepened segregation and marginalisation of the metropolitan poor, though the city still loosens caste. Securing their "right to the city" is the test of SDG 11.

Does urbanization lead to more segregation and/or marginalization of the poor in Indian metropolises?

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