Living Conditions In Slums Of India:

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 living conditions in slums of India 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.

Also read: India Diagnostic Report