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Slum Definitions in Urban India: Implications for the Measurement of Health Inequalities

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  • Laura B. Nolan

Abstract

type="main"> Half the population of low- and middle-income countries will live in urban areas by 2030, and poverty and inequality in these contexts are rising. Slum-dwelling is one way in which to conceptualize and characterize urban deprivation, but there are many definitions of what constitutes a slum. This article presents four different slum definitions used in India, demonstrating that assessments of both the distribution and extent of urban deprivation depend on the way in which it is characterized, as does slum-dwelling's association with common child health indicators. Using data from India's National Family and Health Survey from 2005–06, two indicators of slum dwelling embedded in the survey and two constructed from the household questionnaire are compared using descriptive statistics and linear regression models of height- and weight-for-age z-scores. The results highlight discrepancies between international and local slum definitions, and underscore the importance of improving empirical representations of the dynamism of slum and city residents.

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  • Laura B. Nolan, 2015. "Slum Definitions in Urban India: Implications for the Measurement of Health Inequalities," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 41(1), pages 59-84, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:popdev:v:41:y:2015:i:1:p:59-84
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/j.1728-4457.2015.00026.x
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    2. Ramnath Subbaraman, 2016. "Multidimensional Measurement of Household Water Poverty in a Mumbai Slum: Looking Beyond Water Quality," Working Papers id:10563, eSocialSciences.
    3. Shahid Ahsan & Zahida Saleh & Sikander Ali Sheikh & Muhammad Faisal Fahim & Muhammad Saleh Memon & Sidra Shakil, 2020. "Nutritional Status of School Going Children of 5-15 Years of Age:Urban Slums Scenario in Karachi, Pakistan," Biostatistics and Biometrics Open Access Journal, Juniper Publishers Inc., vol. 10(2), pages 22-26, July.
    4. Laura B. Nolan, 2016. "Rural–Urban Child Height for Age Trajectories and Their Heterogeneous Determinants in Four Developing Countries," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 35(5), pages 599-629, October.
    5. Vaidehi Tandel & Sahil Gandhi & Shaonlee Patranabis & Luís M. A. Bettencourt & Anup Malani, 2022. "Infrastructure, enforcement, and COVID‐19 in Mumbai slums: A first look," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(3), pages 645-669, June.
    6. Ramnath Subbaraman & Laura Nolan & Kiran Sawant & Shrutika Shitole & Tejal Shitole & Mahesh Nanarkar & Anita Patil-Deshmukh & David E Bloom, 2015. "Multidimensional Measurement of Household Water Poverty in a Mumbai Slum: Looking Beyond Water Quality," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(7), pages 1-19, July.
    7. Patrick Mullen & Divya Nair & Jayati Nigam & Katyayni Seth, 2016. "Urban Health Advantages and Penalties in India," World Bank Publications - Reports 24025, The World Bank Group.

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