Abstract
Inequity is deeply embedded in the supply of drinking water in Delhi, India. Using the concept of infrastructural violence, this paper exposes how past and present governance of water has resulted in unequal distribution of supply across the city to exclude vulnerable communities from accessing drinking water. This perspective broadens the gaze away from a narrow gaze on the technical and structural aspects of infrastructure to encompass the socio-political dimensions. This paper starts by outlining the history of the water supply in Delhi. We then outline five axes of exclusion which can be read as infrastructural violence and explores how aspects of water policy, legislation, and planning uphold these injustices. Our discussion centers on how economics, political ideology, and power infiltrate governing mechanisms to influence water infrastructure to entrench poverty and marginalization. Attempts to improve water security for Delhi's residents face minimal impact without addressing these embedded inequities. Therefore, our analysis offers a framework to systematically create awareness of the factors to be addressed to enable a more equitable governance of water supply.
Highlights
The city of Delhi in India has undergone extensive transformations over the recent decades
Centered on five axes of exclusion, this paper delineates the contours of infrastructural violence in the provisioning of potable water in Delhi
We argue that infrastructural violence takes place due to five exclusions suffered by the most marginalized groups of population living in slums
Summary
The city of Delhi in India has undergone extensive transformations over the recent decades The roots of this change are embedded in the drive for liberalization since the early 1990s, which stimulated infrastructural planning to establish Delhi as a global city and as a world leader on the international stage (Dupont, 2011; Ghertner, 2015; Baviskar, 2020). Actions to achieve this status are epitomized by the hosting of the Commonwealth Games in 2010, where the authorities used this event as a “catalyst for urban change” and an opportunity to showcase global ambitions of making the city “world class.”. This new water discourse was further bolstered by the Ministry of Water Resources (2002) encouraged public-private partnerships in “planning, development, and management of water projects for diverse uses, wherever feasible”
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