Rising inequalities, deepening divides: Urban citizenship in the time of COVID‐19. (10th August 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Recio, Redento B.; Lata, Lutfun Nahar; Chatterjee, Ishita
• Is Part Of: Geographical research. Volume 59:Number 4(2021)
• Page Start: 500
• Page End: 513
• Publication Date: 2021-08-10
• Subjects: COVID‐19 -- Global South megacities -- government -- informality -- invisibility -- urban citizenship; Geography -- Research -- Periodicals; Geography -- Australasia -- Periodicals; Human geography -- Periodicals; Physical geography -- Periodicals; 304.2072
• DOI: 10.1111/1745-5871.12495
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1745-5863

Abstract

Abstract: As governments around the globe navigate the effects of COVID‐19 crisis, the urban poor endure the unevenly distributed socio‐economic impacts of the pandemic. This burden is more pronounced in Global South megacities, where millions of people engage in precarious informal employment. We examine how the urban poor in Delhi (India), Dhaka (Bangladesh), and Manila (Philippines) have been disproportionately affected by the crisis. A cross‐case analysis was undertaken to determine how the realities and relations of one context can enrich our understanding of the other. We argue that the current COVID‐19 pandemic has exposed the unequal urban citizenship in these three metropolises. Drawing on research reports, news articles, and interviews with urban poor leaders, we explain how limited government assistance has forced some to retreat to their rural hometowns or rely on self‐help and mutual aid practices to survive. We consider the patterns both in governments' treatment of impoverished citizens and in the unjust effects of lockdown enforcement on marginalised populations. We also discuss the roles that women and non‐government organisations (NGOs) have played in facilitating solidarity‐based practices to help urban poor communities cope with COVID‐19 vulnerabilities. Abstract : This article shifts the gaze from the monumental features of COVID‐19 to its ordinary and historically‐rooted dimensions. It explains how COVID‐19 has disproportionately affected the urban poor in Delhi, Dhaka, and Manila. Five interrelated issues emerge as critical: the inadequate state support, urban exodus, unjust enforcement of lockdown measures, politics of unseeing and invisibility, and solidarity‐based initiatives. These overlapping factors shape the urban poor's uneven experiences of citizenship in the time of COVID‐19.