This talk will address urban inequality, a major issue in megacities of the Global South, broached through the challenges to achieve inclusive cities and sustainable habitat for all. To do so, we focus on the place of slums in the city and on their treatment by the state in the Indian capital city. Do slum policies implemented in Delhi alleviate the problem of the shortage of decent housing for the urban poor, and/or to what extent do they also aggravate their situation? This is the provocative interrogation and guiding thread throughout our research that questions Delhi’s path towards an (illusive) slum-free city.

Further, we use the case of an emblematic slum redevelopment project, that of Kathputli Colony, to examine in particular the current strategy. This case is emblematic as a pioneer in-situ rehabilitation project under public-private partnership, that bodes for a game-changer in the context of Delhi. Its importance is also in the sheer size of the affected population, some 20,000 people displaced between 2014 and 2017, most of whom have been temporarily resettled in a transit camp, where they are still awaiting their final rehabilitation. The scrutiny of the Kathputli Colony case as both a recipient and an analyser of urban policies implemented in Delhi is used as a magnifying lens to better understand the forces of urban change in an aspiring global city.

Speakers:

Véronique Dupont is a senior research fellow in urban demography at the Research Institute for Sustainable Development (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement – IRD), France, attached to the CESSMA research unit – the Centre for Social Sciences Studies on Africa, America and Asia – in Paris.  She was the joint director of CESSMA from 2014 to 2018, and the director of CSH in Delhi from 2003 to 2007. She is also an associated member of the Centre for South Asian and Himalayan Studies (CESAH) in Paris, and had been a senior visiting fellow at the Centre for Policy Research in Delhi. Her research deals with urban transformations at the interface between the inhabitants’ practices and public action. Her recent investigations have focused on informal settlements and urban policies targeting them, along with a broader reflection on subaltern urbanism and inclusive cities.

M.M. Shankare Gowda is an independent social science researcher based in Delhi. He is holding a PhD in political sciences and was a Post-Doctoral Fellow of the Indian Council of Social Sciences Research from 2009 to 2012. He has been associated with the Centre for Social Sciences and Humanities (CSH) of New Delhi since 2004. He had also been associated with the Centre for Policy Research, Delhi. His areas of interest include slum rehabilitation policies, participatory democracy, identity politics, and local and urban governance.

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CSH Seminars are in hybrid mode. We request you to pre-register before Monday, 27 November, 2:00 p.m. IST for both offline and online registration.

To attend at venue: Please note that the room capacity is limited. Seats will be reserved on a first come first basis. Kindly carry an ID proof to be granted access to the venue.