Rising inequalities, deepening divides: Urban citizenship in the time of COVID‐19

Abstract

As governments around the globe navigate the effects of COVID‐19 crisis, the urban poor endure the unevenly distributed socio‐economic impacts of the pandemic. This burden is more pronounced in Global South megacities, where millions of people engage in precarious informal employment. We examine how the urban poor in Delhi (India), Dhaka (Bangladesh), and Manila (Philippines) have been disproportionately affected by the crisis. A cross‐case analysis was undertaken to determine how the realities and relations of one context can enrich our understanding of the other. We argue that the current COVID‐19 pandemic has exposed the unequal urban citizenship in these three metropolises. Drawing on research reports, news articles, and interviews with urban poor leaders, we explain how limited government assistance has forced some to retreat to their rural hometowns or rely on self‐help and mutual aid practices to survive. We consider the patterns both in governments’ treatment of impoverished citizens and in the unjust effects of lockdown enforcement on marginalised populations. We also discuss the roles that women and non‐government organisations (NGOs) have played in facilitating solidarity‐based practices to help urban poor communities cope with COVID‐19 vulnerabilities.

COVID‐19: A systems perspective on opportunities for better health outcomes

“…Internationally, these inequalities have been compounded by socio‐spatial injustices at the local level, where people in areas of socio‐economic disadvantage have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic. In two studies, one that concerns Delhi, Dhaka, and Manila, and one about Madrid’s municipalities, the burden is on poor areas where women, children, the elderly, migrants, and essential workers live (Maza & Hierro, 2021 ; Recio et al, 2021 ). The social determinants of health are largely responsible for these inequities and are shaped by socio‐economic, socio‐spatial, cultural, and environmental conditions in which people are born, live, and die (Bambara et al, 2019 ; Crooks et al, 2018 ; Pearce et al, 2015 ; WHO, 2021c ).…”

Debates Paper: COVID-19 and urban informality: Exploring the implications of the pandemic for the politics of planning and inequality

“…In the Philippines, the Balik Probinsya, Bagong Pag-asa (Return to the Province, New Hope) Programme, sought to entice migrants in Metro Manila to return to their hometowns by providing a meagre package of financial and transportation allowance and promising livelihood assistance. While the programme was announced as part of a broader effort to rebalance economic growth between rural and urban areas, critics have argued that the lack of resources dedicated to countryside development uncovers the central aim of the initiative to decongest Metro Manila of ‘slums’, a measure that appears to privilege the megacity while potentially spreading COVID-19 through rural networks of returnees (Recio et al, 2021).…”

Geographies of COVID‐19

“…A key theme emerging in the papers in Geographical Research on COVID-19 concerns questions of urban governance, place, and space. Recio et al (2021) take us to the megacities of the Global South where, the socio-economic impacts of the pandemic have been pronounced. Recio et al analyse the effects of the pandemic on the urban poor in three capital cities: Delhi in India, Dhaka in Bangladesh, and Manila in the Philippines.…”

“…McGuirk et al ( 2021) add to our thinking about pandemic governance by considering urban innovation during COVID-19. Unlike examples of urban governance in the Global South outlined above by Recio et al (2021), governments in the Global North were given social and political licence-at least by some-to experiment with how to manage cities and their infrastructures and populations. McGuirk et al (2021) refer to four relatively familiar urban governance modalities: city networks; collaborative networks led by the private sector; philanthropy; and civic groups.…”

“…Considered are questions of gender, especially in terms of the role women played in self‐help and mutual aid provisions, and the role of non‐government organisations in addressing some of the worst impacts of COVID‐19 for vulnerable populations. Recio et al (2021) conclude with five interrelated observations from their analysis: there was inadequate state support; people left cities in their attempts to manage exposure to the pandemic; the enforcement of lockdown measures was unjustly applied across populations; therefore, a politics of invisibility was critical to how the pandemic played out; and solidarity‐based initiatives that emerged were critical in dealing with the pandemic for the urban poor.…”