Countdown 2015: an assessment of basic provision to migrant families in the urban slums of Ludhiana, North India

This special issue on urban livelihoods was developed in collaboration with WIEGO.

Ludhiana, the industrial hub of Punjab, North India, attracts a large number of migrants, many of whom face a range of exclusions. This study was undertaken to gather information on the availability of civic amenities relevant to Millennium Development Goal 7, including water supply, sanitation, drainage, electrical connections, and the condition of migrants’ housing. Thirty slum settlements, 15 notified and 15 non-notified, were randomly selected for the study, and 3,947 newer migrant households were purposively sampled and surveyed. More than a third of the surveyed households had no in-house piped water supply, over half still relied on open defecation, 40 per cent lacked metered electricity connections, and only 43 per cent had closed drains. The situation was much better for those in notified as compared to non-notified slums or open spaces.