Where Are the Real 'Slums' in Bangalore? (2014-2015)

Making up half or more of the population in several cities like Nairobi and Mumbai, slums cover a range of types with vastly varying characters. Concrete buildings, at the high end, are homes to a lower-middle class invested in upward mobility. But at the low end, each day is a struggle for survival and from day to day there is little sense that things are better. In between, there are two (and possibly three) other types of slums. Uncovering what is behind the visible differences will help frame better-informed slum policies. Recommendations for other cities can be similarly developed.

Using satellite images, iterated with ground verifications and accompanied by household interviews, this project team examined a typology of low-income settlements in Bangalore, India.

Timing

2014-2015

Team Outcomes

Diverse Types of Slums in Bangalore: Studying Policy-Relevant Differences (paper by Anirudh Krishna in association with Grady Lenkin, Neelanjana Gupta, Erik Wibbels, MS Sriram, and Purnima Prakash) (abstract | paper) (presented by Anirudh Krishna at the Workshop on Urban Poverty in Developing Countries, May 2015)

Networks, Clientelism and Public Services: Evidence from the Slums of Udaipur (paper by Guadalupe Rojo, Subhash Jha, and Erik Wibbels) (abstract | paper) (presented by  Guadalupe Rojo and Erik Wibbels at the Workshop on Urban Poverty in Developing Countries, May 2015)

This Team in the News

‘Real’ Slums of Bangalore Surveyed by Bass Connections Team

This project team was originally part of the Education & Human Development theme of Bass Connections, which ended in 2022. See related teams, Studying the Real 'Slums' in Bangalore (2015-2016) and Where Are the Real ‘Slums’ in Bangalore? (2013-2014).

Team Leaders

  • Anirudh Krishna, Sanford School of Public Policy
  • Erik Wibbels, Arts & Sciences: Political Science

Graduate Team Members

  • Jennifer Stratton, MFA/Experimental and Doc Arts

Undergraduate Team Members

  • Madhu Ganesh, Economics (BS)

Community Organizations

  • Jana Urban Foundation
  • Indian Institute of Management

Team Contributors

  • Grady Lenkin, Sanford School of Public Policy