Beyond the Stereotype of ‘Slum': A Sociological Study of a Slum in Amritsar (India)

The slum in a city is considered as a poor area and it is assumed that all slum dwellers are alike. The present paper is an attempt to study the micro level discourse related to the issue of inequality within a slum. Inequality has been studied at various levels: such as national, regional and city, but not within a slum. A slum, like a city, is a heterogeneous entity, in which various categories of poor people share the same space and dwellings. The findings suggest that there are clear-cut inequalities among the slum dwellers in social, economic and political spheres.