Carto Map: The Inequalities of India’s Urban Informal Settlements

Executive Summary: 

Urban centers of India are experiencing inequality and poverty manifested through the presence of informal settlements. These informal settlements, scattered throughout urban settings including Mumbai and New Delhi, experience an inequality beyond the economic factors that place them into poverty. This population experiences health inequalities, rendering the population in urban informal settlements susceptible to otherwise preventable or treatable diseases. With a lack of access to clean water and sanitary waste management, the population living in urban informal settlements faces unsanitary conditions, and when coupled with a lack of children receiving complete immunizations, this condition becomes deadly. The recommendations presented in this report include a joint effort led by UNHabitat between WaterAid and UNHabitat’s Participatory Slum Upgrading Programme (PSUP), to first assess the need in specific urban informal settlements by engaging with residents of these settlements, starting in New Delhi and Mumbai. Subsequent recommendations include employing residents, who will be advised by WaterAid and PSUP consultants, as well as local nurses, to disseminate information on immunizations and how to practice hygienic waste management. Additionally, WaterAid and PSUP consultants will address the specific needs of each informal settlement to move forward with installing clean water access and sanitary waste methods.

View my Carto Map HERE.