About the Project

Understanding urban inequality requires us to zoom into different dimensions of everyday life – not just at the center, but equally at the margins. While governmental policies and interventions by private actors have been continuously seeking to tackle inequality, the hope of an equal city space continues to be a distant dream. The Urban Connect uses a multi-pronged approach to address the different layers of urban inequality, drawing attention to the importance of creating better infrastructure in peri-urban India to improve the lives of people, providing safe spaces to those who need it most. 

The Urban Connect has therefore planned a series of targeted steps, each of which focuses on a specific layer of urban inequality. Starting with a conversation, the Urban Dialogues Podcast Series, the project will begin by diving into the state of housing, sanitation, and transportation, seeking to raise awareness about the material circumstances that shape the lives of a city’s inhabitants. This will be followed by efforts to raise capital to support the development and implementation of community-building activities. On the theoretical front, to understand the state of urban life, the project will also undertake research and curate a white paper to analyze gaps in urban planning, using this to devise community-driven solutions. These first steps will work towards helping families rebuild their living space and lives. 

At the heart of it, we hope to foster safer cities for those whose voices are unheard and whose lives are overlooked, connecting the centers of cities to their peripheries.