Migration, livelihood and well-being: Evidence from Indian city slums. Urban Studies 47(7):1371–1390

What helps workers from low-income households to access urban job market information and whether migrants are able to experience upward mobility at the place of destination are the two pertinent issues in urban development which this paper tries to examine. Results based on a slum survey in four Indian cities highlight the importance of various informal channels through which urban jobs are accessed. However, these networks reduce the probability of upward mobility, as network extension leads to excess supplies of labour relative to demand. The issue of upward mobility has also been examined by constructing a well-being (deprivation) index based on the factor analysis of a large number of social, economic, demographic, education and health-specific variables. Although findings are indicative of improvements in the well-being of migrant workers over time, several of the long-duration migrants and natives in the cities still lead a low quality life. The paper, therefore, argues in favour of urban employment programmes. among low-income households in India in pursuing a rural-based search for urban jobs and, finally, for migrating to urban areas to get employed (see Sovani, 1964; Banerjee