Environmental Justice Struggle, Socio-spatial Segregation and Livelihood Issues of Marginalised Communities in India: The Study of Mumbai City

Abstract

This study examines the livelihood challenges, discrimination, and housing socio-spatial segregation faced by Mumbai’s marginalised communities. Every day, people migrate from rural to urban areas for employment, seeking better opportunities in the cities. However, marginalised communities, especially Dalits (Scheduled Caste) from the Matang, Mahar, Bhangi community, Vadar, and Pardhi (Denotified Tribes) from Maharashtra and other States, move to cities. In the city, they still struggle to access quality housing, water, and sanitation. Also, due to their caste-based identity, they continue to suffer from a lack of new job opportunities in Mumbai city. Through this study, a question has arisen: Due to caste-based stigma, Dalit communities have to suffer to access good-quality housing, continue to be relegated to menial jobs (sanitation work), and it further affects their health, livelihood and children’s education. In this study, I have drawn the framework based on Environmental injustice and environmental racism, as black communities in the USA face racial discrimination, and people from the scheduled caste, Dalits in India, face caste discrimination. This study is based on two non-notified slum settlements in Mumbai. This study is qualitative; I used purposive sampling and grounded it in empirical findings from in-depth interviews and participant observation. I conducted 20 participant interviews. From the fieldwork, it has been observed that due to caste-based stigma, the living conditions of manual scavengers are deteriorating. Livelihood discrimination at work, lack of equipment, safety and a filthy environment, contractual work impacts on their health and the living beings, and further, on their children’s education, have been consistently observed. At the end of this study, the author draws policy recommendations to abolish manual scavenging and enforce existing laws more rigorously. By focusing on SDG 8 and SDG 11, and on participatory bottom-up planning, the study addresses livelihood discrimination, housing, caste-based segregation, and their impacts on education and livelihoods.