This papers deals with livelihoods and collective action among migrant slum dwellers in the rapidly expanding slums of New Delhi; a Mega-city of 14 million people. Close to half the city population lives in unauthorised colonies and more than one third in illegal slum settlements. The slum and slum expansion, a consequence of both national and global forces, has increasingly become a hotbed of urban politics. An historical-institutional perspective is used in combination with household surveys, field observations, and key informants in order to examine relationships between local governance and access to housing, property, and social services among migrant settlers of the Sangam Vihar slum.
URL : 20140506125721.pdf