Tracing the Geographies of Inequality in India

Spatial, that is, geographic inequalities are growing in India and other countries. Some countries are better provided with services, infrastructure, and earning opportunities. States matter and the urban–rural difference is salient to these distinctions. However, locating the geographies of advantage and disadvantage requires going below the level of states and beyond the binary of urban–rural distinction. A sevenfold classification of districts is offered to help in visualising overlapping disadvantages. It reveals important differences in living conditions and is a first effort to go beneath the urban–rural dichotomy.

Growing inequality in India has an important geographic dimension. Analysts have shown that economic trends across states differ considerably. One group of states is consistently at the leading edge of socio-economic developments and another group is constantly lagging behind on multiple indicators, also known as the weaker or bimaru states of India (Alkire and Seth 2015; Cain et al 2010; Dhongde 2017; Kannan and Raveendran 2011; Kim et al 2016). The distinction is also drawn between rural and ­urban parts of the country, with the urban areas being ahead of rural areas in important dimensions (Azam 2017; Chamarbagwala 2006; Fan et al 2005; Hnatskova and Lahiri 2013; PRB 2015; Krishna and Bajpai 2011; Motiram and Vakulabharanam 2012). Spatial inequalities have grown in other developing countries too. They are being studied to understand the dichotomy between states and provinces and along a coarse urban–rural divide.¹