The State of the Urban Poor Report (SUPR) 2015, like the first two reports in 2009 and 2013, seeks to examine the most important concerns regarding urban poverty in India. While the 2009 report was largely focused on capturing experiences of urban poverty within India, the 2013 report acknowledged problems and practices in India and some other countries that could be relevant in India’s policy formation to achieve urban poverty reduction. Like other countries, in India urban policy is gaining in significance due to the rapid pace of urban growth. Different aspects of urbanization associated with poverty need immediate attention—be it sharp social divisions, or discrimination and inequalities urban poor women face, or issues related to financial exclusion of the urban poor—if cities are to become socially inclusive, prosperous, and healthy places.

T h e thematic focus of SUPR 2015 is gender and urban poverty. Th e report benefits from discussions at the ‘International Conference on Gender and Urban Poverty’ held in New Delhi in February 2015, where the papers included in this volume were presented and discussed by national and international experts and other key stakeholders. More than twenty presentations were made over two days. Leading international urban poverty and gender policy experts from different countries including India, the UK, the US, Australia, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, and Kenya presented their studies and shared experiences. Over two hundred participants attended the conference including representatives of different Indian state governments, national resource centres, non-profit organizations, and academia, alongside 20 distinguished local body officials from different Asian and African countries. All the authors have articulated the fact that urban poor women across the globe are held back, as they carry a disproportionate burden of poverty in the urban spaces.