UNDERSTANDING URBAN POVERTY IN INDIA: Experiences from Mumbai

Over the past 20 years researchers focusing on poverty have acknowledged the need for more comprehensive approaches to poverty combining the rigour of quantitative methods and reflexivity of qualitative approaches. The present book, which offers a portrait of poverty in the city of Mumbai through a wide spectrum of social sciences – from economics to population studies and feminist epistemology – is aimed at getting a better grasp on some of the actions that could be taken to tackle urban poverty. Besides providing insights into the contours of poverty, this is a good illustration of how to build comprehensive knowledge on poverty and exclusion. It will be of interest to students and scholars concerned with poverty issues and urbanization.

Olivier Brito is teaching sociology at the Department of Social Work, University Paris Ouest la Défense, France. He studied Educational Sciences and obtained his doctoral degree from the University Paris Ouest la Défense, France. His major research interests involve street children, child beggars, deviance, informal education, child-centred pedagogy, urban ethnography and grounded theory. He is a member of the International Sociological Association’s Research Committee on Sociology of Childhood.

Aditya Singh is a PhD scholar based at School of Health Sciences and Social Work, University of Portsmouth, United Kingdom. He has received his MA (Geography) and MPhil (Population Studies) from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi and International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, respectively. Although his research interests are strewn across the disciplines of demography, public health and geography, his current work is focused on socio-economic disparities in health and healthcare in India. His work has been published in reputed international academic journals.