Affiliate & Associate

Research

Residential Segregation and Unequal Access to Local Public Services in India: Evidence from 1.5m Neighborhoods

Abstract: We study residential segregation and access to public services across 1.5 million urban and rural neighborhoods for India’s Scheduled Castes and Muslims. Urban segregation in India is comparable to Black/White segregation in the United States. Within cities, public facilities and infrastructure are systematically less available in Muslim and Scheduled Caste neighborhoods. Nearly all regressive allocation is across neighborhoods within cities—at the most informal and least studied form of government. These inequalities are not visible in the aggregate data typically used for research and policy. Young adults in Muslim neighborhoods have less schooling, even after controlling for parent economic status.

Working Paper