Where Will the City-Maker Stay? – A Study of Housing and Living Conditions of Informal Workers in Delhi and Ranchi

The study cites reasons why informal workers are so vulnerable: their work is temporary and uncertain, their employers are insensitive to them, they work for long hours, lack basic welfare amenities, and their work inherently risks their life and limb.

The study cites the 2011 Census of India which shows the total urban population in India was 377 million, which was 37 per cent of the total population. There were 78.9 million urban households in 2011, which was a 47 per cent rise from 53.7 million households in 2001. There was also a marked rise in the number of Census Towns which went from 1,362 in the year 2001 to 3,894 in the year 2011. 

The field investigations in Delhi and Ranchi yield many demographic indicators. The number of male respondents in both cities was slightly higher, and the majority of respondents were between 30-59 years of age. In both cities combined, 42 per cent of respondents were illiterate and 37 per cent of respondents beloned to Scheduled Caste communities, 30 per cent belonged to Scheduled Tribes, and 19 per cent came under Other Backward Caste. Delhi has a higher number of migrant inflow and and 92.6 per cent of them came in search of livelihood.

The main source of income for most households was casual labour like construction and non-farm sectors (44.4 per cent of the respondents), followed by self-employment in trades like selling clothes, brooms, meat, etc. (26.3 per cent of the respondents) and regular wage/salaried jobs in factories, shops, buildings and so on (25.7 per cent of the respondents).

The study also records housing conditions, wherein 71 per cent of the respondents had their own houses with more than 60 per cent of the houses being katcha. The percentage of ownership was slightly higher in Ranchi (72.9 per cent) than Delhi (70.3 per cent). But more than half of those surveyed did not have any formal or legal rights, especially in Delhi. The report also touches upon problems of overcrowding, where 54.5 per cent of houses in Delhi and 27.1 per cent of houses in Ranchi had only one bedroom, and 28 per cent of houses in both cities were two-bedroom. Significantly, the study also records access to metered water connection where 10 per cent of the surveyed houses had such access in Ranchi, and a mere 2 per cent in Delhi.

The report notes that 58.5 per cent of children attended government schools, 12 per cent attended private schools while 17 per cent did not attend school.

The report notes that most of the surveyed households used LPG/PNG for cooking, which was more prevalent in Delhi (96 per cent) than Ranchi (70 per cent). However, one-fifth of the surveyed households in Ranchi still used coal and about one-tenth used firewood frequently for cooking.

Focus and Factoids by Achinthya Sriman. 

PARI Library's health archive project is part of an initiative supported by the Azim Premji University to develop a free-access repository of health-related reports relevant to rural India.