New Delhi: A new study on urban India has delivered an important message: citizenship in our cities is equal on paper but substantively uneven in practice. The “Citizenship, Inequality, and Urban Governance” (CIUG) is a collaborative project between researchers in India and Brown University that surveyed 31,803 households across 14 cities of varying sizes and found how class, caste and religion continue to shape how citizens access public services and political participation. Class emerged as the leading factor determining the quality of life of citizens.The study maps how urban Indians live, organise, vote and access essential services like water and sanitation. It categorises ‘effective citizenship’ by two aspects – being able to effectively participate in public life and being able to claim and obtain public goods from the state. These were used as the basis for analysing how equally all groups of citizens in urban India are treated.The link between caste and class In the study, housing type was used as a proxy for class. There were five categories, ranging from informal housing of shacks and slums to upper class housing. The researchers showed that as cities expand, housing informality is growing, especially in large cities. Mumbai’s informal housing population reached 62%, compared to just 1.4% in Kochi. The fear of eviction is highest in shack and slum households in every city except Bhopal. However, there is city-by-city variation, where Kolkata shows little fear of eviction from households, but more than half of informal houses in Jalandhar experience home insecurity.Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) are still clustered heavily in informal housing. Nearly 45% of SC respondents and over 37% of ST respondents live in them – compared to 16% among Other Backward Castes (OBCs) and 25% among General Castes (GCs). Similarly, SCs and STs also show a significantly lower percentage present in upper class housing than any other groups. Housing segregation by caste is especially pronounced in the majority of cities including Delhi, Chennai, and Kolkata.Dr B.R. Ambedkar had suggested that villages were cesspools for Dalits and cities were going to be a site of liberation for those bound by caste. However, the project shows the reality that caste inequality persists in the majority of areas, but is reorganised into new forms. In some cities, OBCs do as well as GCs. In this way, class can partly mediate caste disadvantage. Yet, the persistence of spatial segregation shows how caste remains in the fabric of Indian society.Voter registration is also differentiated by class. In three cities – Mumbai, Jalandhar and Hyderabad – a large number of the population attempted to register to vote but were unable. Less than 50% of those in informal housing are registered to vote and are significantly more likely to have problems with registering. Compared to 74% of those in upper-class housing being registered to vote, there is clear class discrimination even down to India’s democracy, meant to represent the entire population.More than half the surveyed population are migrants, many arriving within 15 years of the study. Informal settlements disproportionately absorb migrants, especially those from SCs and STs. By contrast, upper-class housing is dominated by long-term residents and natives. Furthermore, the perception of police discrimination was also measured. While there was a religious and casteist significance found, the largest factor affecting perception of police discrimination was class without exception in any city.Access to basic services is significantly uneven across cities. Bhavnagar, Kochi and Vadodara perform the best, according to the report, while Chennai and Mumbai are the lowest in water supply and sanitation. In every city except Kochi, more than one-third of households receive water for two hours or less per day. Furthermore, lower-class families often rely on buckets to store water or waiting for the water pipes to flow to receive this basic access. Only 23% of included households received water for more than 23 hours a day.Sanitation also follows a similar pattern, but varies more by city. While Kochi, Vadodara, Ahmedabad and Delhi perform relatively well, Mumbai shows the poorest conditions. However, in all cities, those in informal housing have the poorest sanitation quality. In some cities, over 90% of informal households do not have access to adequate sanitation. This further illustrates how class is the largest determinant of citizen’s access to public services, even more so than caste or religion.Religious differences Muslims face similar service deficits. In 10 out of 14 cities, Muslims are disproportionately housed in informal settlements. They remain underrepresented in upper-class housing almost everywhere. However, in Kochi, Chennai, Bhopal and Delhi, the trend is reversed. The researchers note that through previous literature, it is known that Muslims are concentrated in certain areas of these cities e.g. Shaheenbagh in Delhi. These can constitute as “de facto ghettos”.Contrary to communal propaganda and stereotypes that display Muslims as a community that does not contribute to society, the study finds that Muslims report systemically higher engagement than Hindus when it comes to political and civic participation.Social insulation Despite decades of urbanisation, Indian cities remain socially insulated spaces. Respondents overwhelmingly report having friendships only within their caste and religious groups. With only Chennai and Kochi as partial exceptions, social ties between people rely heavily on ‘bonding’ (intra-caste togetherness) rather than ‘bridging’ (inter-caste networks).For inter-religious ties, only some smaller cities deviate from the norm. Delhi was found to be one of the most socially insular cities, with a significantly low number of social ties between groups.Equality on paper The study clearly shows how citizenship is equal in India on paper yet, in practice, minorities are systemically disadvantaged from accessing basic services and rights. The capacity to live a full life is heavily constrained by class, caste, and religion.While India’s constitution guarantees equal citizenship, its urban governance systems deliver differentiated citizenship. With class as the largest factor that determines ones position, caste and religion both add to the struggles of minorities to effectively participate in urban society.