Residential segregation and public services in urban India

Abstract

Urban India is characterised by a high degree of intra-city spatial inequality in the availability of public services like piped water and sewerage. We unpack the political channels that link residential segregation with access to public services. ‘Micro-segregation’, or neighbourhood residential sorting within a ward (the elementary administrative and political unit in urban India), enables segregated neighbourhoods to better organise and petition public services. Political competition further amplifies these demands from segregated neighbourhoods. The state’s response to such demand is, however, modulated by both in-group favouritism and outgroup discrimination. States’ ability to indulge in such favouritism and discrimination is in turn contingent on how the caste composition of a ward is different from that of the city as a whole –‘macro-segregation’. We combine large-scale quantitative analysis using neighbourhood-level national census data for all towns in India with at least 0.3 million residents, and multi-year qualitative fieldwork in Bengaluru, a metropolis of over 10 million residents, to delineate the interactions between these demand-side and supply-side channels. While macro-segregation is negatively associated with piped water and sewerage, micro-segregation has a positive association.

Barriers or Catalysts? Traditional Institutions and Social Mobility in Rural India

“…Census data over time show that SC and ST population-dominated villages are less likely to have access to schools and roads than are villages dominated by other groups. Even in urban India there is evidence of residential segregation by social groups (Jamil, 2014, Mehta, 1969, Singh et al, 2019, Thorat et al, 2015 and that UC-dominated neighbourhoods have greater access to public services compared to Muslim and LC-dominated neighbourhoods (Adukia et al, 2022, Bharathi et al, 2022. As discussed, a favoured explanation for these gaps is that the political networks and leverage of UCs might be expected to a ect the extent and quality of village infrastructure, including the access to di erent educational institutions (Banerjee and Somanathan, 2007).…”

Inclusion or Exclusion?: Gendered Experiences and Strategies of Migrants in Informal Settlements in Bengaluru

“…Scholars are unanimous on the experiences of social exclusion in Indian cities, expressed in residential segregation, poverty, and inequality. Residential segregation on the basis of religion, or caste, has been studied in several Indian cities, with its consequences for access to basic services and labour markets (Bharathi, Malghan, Mishra, & Rahman, 2022;Bharathi, Malghan, & Rahman, 2018;S. Chandrasekhar & Mitra, 2018;Gayer & Jaffrelot, 2012;Mhaskar, 2018;Sattar, 2018;Singh, Vithayathil, & Pradhan, 2019;Susewind, 2017).…”

Making sense of segregation: Transitional thinking and contested space

“…Much work already exists on contested cities and urban segregation (see e.g. Bharathi et al, 2022;Bollens, 2009;Calame and Charlesworth, 2009;Rokem and Vaughan, 2018) with NI as a frequently cited exemplar (Byrne, 2006;Morrissey and Gaffikin, 2006). However, rarely does this literature look at the micro interactions between community members which form the basis for perception forming, active interpretation and action.…”