Paper short abstract:

Since cities are regarded as 'engines of growth', an indicator of development and a major contributor to the national economy; the neoliberal regimes tend to work towards rapid urban transformation and renewal even if it is at the expense of the disempowered and downtrodden.

Paper long abstract:

Since cities are regarded as 'engines of growth', an indicator of development and a major contributor to the national economy; the neoliberal regimes tend to work towards rapid urban transformation and renewal even if it is at the expense of the disempowered and downtrodden. Furthermore, an expanding capital accumulation process accompanied by new technologies and new forms of governance is bringing in new spatial forms putting enormous stress upon the physical and social landscapes of the urban settlements (Harvey, 2003). Accumulation by dispossession is a process which simultaneously concentrates property in a few hands while reducing the access of many to an independent means of livelihood, rendering them dependent on wage work, often at some distance from their original homelands. Also, in these situations the gender dimensions are totally ignored.

One such manifestation of the above process can be seen at the Kathputli colony slum in India's capital Delhi. Here the traditional street artists residing from five decades are being evicted in the name of in-situ slum redevelopment programme aimed at making Delhi a 'slum free' and world class city. The paper analyses the accumulation and exclusion in an Indian metropolis by presenting a case study from Kathputli colony slum in Delhi. The paper also discusses the sanitisation of cities through gentrification and associated displacement and concludes by suggesting some alternatives. The paper is based on the insights and narratives of the affected community.