Stranded By Development: Resettlement, Mobility and the Exclusion of the Urban Poor in Mumbai’s Infrastructure Plans

Mumbai's large-scale transport infrastructure projects, such as highways and metro systems, advance a globalized vision of urban development, emphasizing modernization and market-driven growth (Bhan, 2019; Sinha & Sharma, 2021). However, these projects systematically neglect the needs of the urban poor, who constitute nearly half of the city's population (Mahadevia, 2018). In this paradox of development, slum dwellers face mass resettlement to accommodate these very projects, severing their connections to essential livelihoods and public transport. Ironically, while these displaced communities rely heavily on walking as a primary mode of transportation, pedestrian infrastructure remains inadequately addressed in the city's development plans (Miraftab, 2021).

Particularly vulnerable within this displacement are women domestic workers, whose mobility is further constrained by gendered norms. Unlike their male family members, they have limited access to private vehicles and must depend on public transport, pooling, or walking to reach their workplaces (Kumar & O'Brien, 2020). The disruptions caused by resettlement heighten their precarity, as these women navigate unsafe and unreliable environments not designed for pedestrian use, often traversing phenomenally long distances (Chakraborty, 2019).

This paper critically examines the experiences of Mumbai's displaced urban poor, focusing on the walking practices of women domestic workers. It analyzes how resettlement policies tied to transport infrastructure, guided by economic and political forces, systematically marginalize these women. Furthermore, it highlights that despite these challenges, their daily walking practices reveal acts of survival and commoning, where informal networks and social spaces emerge (Bhowmik, 2020). By situating these local dynamics within the broader global forces of the Anthropocene, the paper explores how state and market-driven urban planning erodes mobility rights and urban commons, while recognizing the collective resilience strategies of marginalized communities (Rao, 2021).