A new study on urban India has revealed that intolerance and inequality remain deeply embedded in the country’s cities, as Dalits and Muslims continue to have the lowest representation in upper-class housing and the poorest access to essential services, while Kochi alone stands apart for its relatively equitable distribution of public amenities and civic participation.
Though India’s Constitution promises equality to all citizens, the report finds that this ideal is realised unevenly, with class, caste, and religion jointly determining who benefits from urban governance and who remains excluded from its privileges.
The “Citizenship, Inequality, and Urban Governance” (CIUG) project, conducted collaboratively by researchers in India and Brown University, surveyed over 31,000 households across fourteen cities of different sizes, revealing that class has emerged as the dominant factor shaping the quality of life in Indian cities.
Yet caste and religion continue to exert a powerful influence on where citizens live, how they access essential services, and how they participate politically, thus ensuring that equality remains largely theoretical. The study shows that Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes remain overwhelmingly confined to informal housing, while upper-class neighbourhoods are primarily occupied by higher castes and long-term residents.
Muslims too, in ten of the fourteen surveyed cities, are disproportionately concentrated in informal settlements, underscoring how urban spaces continue to mirror the social hierarchies of the countryside.
The study defines “effective citizenship” through two principal measures — the ability to participate in public life and the capacity to claim public goods from the state — and finds significant disparities on both counts.
Although class appears to moderate caste-based disadvantage in some areas, the persistence of spatial segregation indicates that caste continues to shape the structure of Indian urban life.
Voter registration also reflects the impact of class inequality. In Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Jalandhar, less than half of those living in informal housing are registered to vote, compared with nearly three-quarters of those in upper-class housing, suggesting that even India’s democratic processes remain marked by social stratification.
The study observes that migrants, who constitute more than half of the surveyed population, are concentrated in informal settlements, particularly among Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, while upper-class areas are dominated by natives and long-term residents, thereby perpetuating the advantages of established elites.
Access to basic amenities reveals the same fault lines. Bhavnagar, Kochi, and Vadodara perform the best in water supply and sanitation, whereas Chennai and Mumbai record the lowest levels of service.
In nearly every city except Kochi, more than a third of households receive water for only two hours or less each day, forcing poorer families to rely on buckets and stored supplies. Sanitation standards are similarly uneven, with informal settlements suffering the most; in some cities, over ninety per cent of such households lack adequate facilities.
Religious inequality parallels these divisions, with Muslims facing service deficits comparable to those of Dalits, though they display higher rates of civic and political engagement.
Despite this, the study finds that Indian cities remain socially insulated, as most respondents report friendships confined to their caste or religion. Delhi emerges as one of the most socially segregated cities, while Kochi and Chennai display relatively greater inter-community connections.
The report concludes that urban India offers equality only on paper, for in practice, class defines access to opportunity, while caste and religion continue to determine the boundaries of belonging in the nation’s cities.