The Right to Be Counted: The Urban Poorand the Politics of Resettlement in Delhi

Delhi has displaced over 1.5 million poor people in the last 30 years, and the Right to Be Counted examines how they incrementally stake their claims to a house and life in the city. Sanjeev Routray draws upon fieldwork conducted in various low-income neighborhoods to describe the process of claims-making as an attempt by the political community of the poor to assert its existence and numerical strength.

Format: Hardback
Length: 368 pages
Publication date: 14 June 2022
Publisher: Stanford University Press

In the past three decades, Delhi, the capital of India, has witnessed the displacement of over 1.5 million impoverished individuals. While resettlement and welfare services are accessible, they are exclusively offered to a portion of the population, as the city deems many ineligible for civic benefits.

The Right to Be Counted delves into the experiences of Delhi's urban poor, who seek to gain recognition and secure a home and livelihood in the city. This book contributes to ongoing discussions about the complexities of state governance and the citizenship initiatives of the impoverished in Delhi. Through an exploration of social suffering, logistical challenges, and the dynamics of political mobilizations stemming from displacement and resettlement processes, this book sheds light on the ways in which the poor assert their existence, assert their numerical strength, and strive to secure their substantive entitlements.

Drawing from fieldwork conducted in various low-income neighborhoods throughout the 2010s, Sanjeev Routray portrays the claims-making process as an endeavor by the political community of the poor to establish its presence and assert its numerical strength. He demonstrates how this struggle to be counted constitutes a systematic, protracted, and incremental political process through which the impoverished claim their rights and establish agency within the city.

The book analyzes various social, political, and economic relationships, as well as kinship networks and solidarity linkages across the political and social spectrum. It traces the ways in which the poor work to establish a foothold in Delhi and cultivate their own agency. By examining the complexities of displacement, resettlement, and the pursuit of rights, The Right to Be Counted offers valuable insights into the lives and struggles of Delhi's urban poor and contributes to our understanding of the broader dynamics of urban inequality and governance in India.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781503630840