Paper short abstract:

This paper presents analysis of the educational mobility of youth from an urban resettlement, at the periphery of Delhi (capital), India. The idea of periphery highlights not only geography but also economic and political marginalisation of living in a chequered space of legal/illegal claims-making.

Paper long abstract:

In many countries of the world, urban redevelopment is accompanied by dispossession and resettlement of urban poor to the peripheries of the city. On similar lines, the capital city of India, Delhi’s preparation to host the international Commonwealth Games (2010) was preceded by multiple evictions of communities living in jhuggi-jhopdi (JJ) settlements (slums) on the Yamuna riverbank almost two decades ago. Our study is based in one such community, ‘rehabilitated and resettled’ from Yamuna riverbank to the Bawana JJ cluster at the periphery of the city since that time (2004 onwards). The NGO working with the community since before the eviction drive, ‘resettled’ with them, continuing to work among them, however, with a significant shift in stance towards an intensive education and skill-based intervention among the youth. The organisation works both directly in the community and in tandem with the government school departments to strengthen the provision of quality education among children and youth from the working-class communities, as a means to foster more inclusive futures. Based on a representative household level survey of about 350 households living in this resettled slum, our study aims to understand the socio-economic trajectories of individuals in such communities, with a specific focus on their education and occupational mobility outcomes. In addition, we analyse the long-running interventions by the equality guided NGO and their community stakeholders, to understand their impact on empowering the youth to overcome the challenges of being members of a disenfranchised community and overall, in addressing the prevailing urban inequalities.