Executive Summary

In Ahmedabad, we interviewed 3,018 citizens across 79 polling parts, conducted focus groups and interviewed a wide range of key respondents.

When we compare Ahmedabad to our other cities (Bhavnagar, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kochi, Mumbai and Vadodara), we find that Ahmedabad has a relatively high concentration of SC/STs living in informal settlements (i.e. shacks and slums). Close to half of SC/STs are concentrated in informal housing in Ahmedabad, a figure surpassed only by Mumbai and, in the case of STs, Vadodara.  When we turn to religion, we find that the percentage of Muslims living in informal housing to be 12% more than for Hindus – an appreciable gap, but not the largest in our sample. 

While the citizens of Ahmedabad rely more on corporators than other state actors to address their problems with services and generally have a favorable view of the work they do, they also rely heavily on “intermediaries.” Moreover, residents of informal settlements (shacks and slums) have a very different view and experience of the local state.  They don’t have as favorable a view of corporators as the middle and upper classes and are far less likely to actually engage with their corporators directly. 

Attitudes about citizenship in Ahmedabad tend to be somewhat conservative. Citizens see their responsibilities largely in terms of voting (and less to about respecting others or community engagement), they think people should not criticize the nation and a comparatively high number believe the state should prohibit inter-caste and inter-community marriage. 

When we examine the nature of citizenship participation in Ahmedabad, we find that it is weak when compared to other cities and is highly differentiated, especially across class lines. In our overall citizen participation index, Ahmebabad received the second lowest score of our 7 cities, with only Mumbai scoring lower. The citizens of Ahmedabad are fairly good voters, turning out to vote in larger numbers than in other large cities (Hyderabad, Chennai, and Mumbai).

Beyond voting, Ahmedabadis are not very engaged. They have very low levels of participation in political activities other than voting and  are also not very civically engaged. To the extent that they are civically engaged, there is a pronounced bias for identity-based forms of association, as opposed to more civic or voluntary associations.  

Across all of our measures of citizen participation - voting, non-electoral, and civic - there is a persistent pattern of lower classes being much less involved than the upper classes.  Indeed, the 3 inhabitants of informal settlements - both shacks and slums - are the least mobilized of any city in our sample except for Mumbai.  We also find that OBCs are very active and that the gap between them and SC participation is the highest for all our cities.  

We did not find a significant difference in citizen participation between Hindus and Muslims, although Muslims do vote somewhat less frequently than Hindus, in large part because they are less likely to be registered to vote. 

In terms of our overall measure of  the quality of services (the BSDII index), Ahmedabad ranks fourth in our seven-city survey but first amongst cities with populations greater than 5 million (including Chennai, Hyderabad and Mumbai).

When we look at the delivery of key services across social categories, there are very marked patterns of inequality. OBCs do extremely well in absolute and comparative terms, but Dalits and especially Adivasis are very marginalized. The class pattern is even sharper. The gap in service delivery between upper-class households and lower-class households is the largest of any of the seven cities we have examined so far.

When it comes to services, the condition of informal settlements is extremely bad and is by far the worst in our sample. The gap between Muslim and Hindu households in terms of access to services in Ahmedabad is not as pronounced as for class or caste, but it still remains one of the highest among our cities.

In terms of mechanisms of inequality, we find that there is a significant level of reported discrimination against the poor especially by the police, though 3 cities reported higher numbers. But when it comes to social ties, Ahmedbadis are the most  parochial of our sample.  We find that large majorities confine their social ties to their own castes and religious communities.