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A Comparative Study Of Living Conditions In Slums Of Three Metro Cities In India

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  • Sugata Bag, Suman Seth and Anish Gupta

    (Centre for Development Economics, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, India)

Abstract

Urban population in India has been rising rapidly as millions of migrants are moving to urban areas aspiring for higher earning and better living. The number of urban poor is also growing and a significant number of these poor find spaces in slums and continue to struggle for better living standards. Improving their conditions call for significant efforts from the governments for better policy designs. However, better policy design requires understanding the commonalities and differences across slums within and between cities. In this paper, we conduct a comparative study of representative slums across three largest metro cities in India through primary surveys. We find certain characteristics, such as large average household size, poor housing quality, low female labour market participation and high school enrolment rates among children, to be common across and within three cities. Our study however reveals crucial differences between the cities in the demographic pattern of migration and its temporal element. And that in turn brings out considerable heterogeneity among different groups within slums of each cities with respect to living standards, access to civic amenities like sanitation facilities and drinking water. Moreover, there exists major cross-city differences in adult literacy rates across gender, consumption pattern, and subjective wellbeing. Overall, we find that slums in Mumbai on average perform much better in various living condition and social indicators than slums in Delhi and Kolkata.

Suggested Citation

  • Sugata Bag, Suman Seth and Anish Gupta, 2016. "A Comparative Study Of Living Conditions In Slums Of Three Metro Cities In India," Working papers 253, Centre for Development Economics, Delhi School of Economics.
  • Handle: RePEc:cde:cdewps:253
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Benjamin Marx & Thomas Stoker & Tavneet Suri, 2013. "The Economics of Slums in the Developing World," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 27(4), pages 187-210, Fall.
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    Cited by:

    1. Sutirtha Bandyopadhyay, 2020. "Gendered Well-Being: Cross-Sectional Evidence from Poor Urban Households in India," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 151(1), pages 281-308, August.
    2. Lucci, Paula & Bhatkal, Tanvi & Khan, Amina, 2018. "Are we underestimating urban poverty?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 297-310.
    3. Sugata Bag & Suman Seth, 2016. "Understanding Standard of Living and Correlates in Slums - An Analysis Using Monetary Versus Multidimensional Approaches in Three Indian Cities," Working papers 263, Centre for Development Economics, Delhi School of Economics.
    4. Saswati Chaudhuri, 2017. "Some Dimensions of Vulnerability: A Study of the Urban Poor in Kolkata," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 11(1), pages 109-123, April.
    5. Sugata Bag & Suman Seth, 2018. "Does It Matter How We Assess Standard of Living? Evidence from Indian Slums Comparing Monetary and Multidimensional Approaches," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 140(2), pages 715-754, November.

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