Social Construction of a Segregated Urban Space and Its Effects on Education

Abstract

While segregation of Dalit habitations is assumed to be a characteristic primarily of the rural, studies indicate that a similar spatial organisation is reproduced in urban spaces as well where large populations, particularly of poor Dalits, continue to live in segregated settlements. This article draws on an exploratory study conducted in one such low-income Dalit neighbourhood in Delhi and examines the different ways in which a socially marginalised community constructs its socio-spatial environment ( mahaul) and perceives it as shaping their educational outcomes and at the same time being shaped by these outcomes. These constructions not only reveal how disadvantages in the form of existential struggles and low levels of parental education continue to influence the education of the present generation but also provide insights into their ideas about education, change and mobility.