The data contains the survey data of 226 low-income migrant wokers in Guwahati and Jalandhar cities in India on more than 60 variables that include: socio-economic background, migratory experience, access to services, ill-treatment and access to justice.

Indian cities attract a considerable number of low-income migrants from marginal rural households experiencing difficult economic, political and social conditions at home who migrate in search of livelihoods and security. These migrants come from around the country as well as across the border from Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar to work in low-income manual occupations in a range of small-scale petty trade, service sector work, transport and construction work. Low-income migrants live and work in precarious conditions and are often denied basic amenities and fundamental rights. Poorly-paid intermittent and insecure jobs make them vulnerable to abuse, extortion or bribery. Many such migrants, both internal and international, lack documentation and proof of identity, whether for basic services such as health care and schooling or electoral voting. Their marginal position entails poorer access to health care provisions and other determinants of health than general (non-migrant) populations, thereby enhancing their vulnerability to ill-health, abuse and ill treatment whilst simultaneously compromising their ability to access protection, legal support or redress, and forms of accountability. Language, appearance and cultural differences exposes many low-income migrants from interior parts of the country or across the border to harassment and political exclusion. Moreover, despite their ubiquitous presence, their precarious livelihoods, informality and invisibility keep them unnoticed in urban planning, in the work of civil society organisations and in social science research. In this context, this collaborative project was designed to generate evidence to advance the rights and protection mechanisms that must be planned and provided for low-income urban migrants. We examined what India's urban transformation means for low-income migrants, their inclusion and social justice by exploring: 1. Low-income migrants' views on transformations in Indian cities, and the opportunities and challenges that confront them; 2. Low-income migrants perceptions of their entitlements, claim-making processes and attempts to protect their own health in a context of poor living and working conditions; 3. The prevalence of violence and extent of exclusion experienced by low-income migrants and how they protect themselves from various forms of violence; 4. The legal, developmental, humanitarian and human rights responses to low-income migrants in Indian cities. Fieldwork based in Guwahati (Assam) and Jalandhar (Punjab), two of India's fastest growing cities, aimed to enrich our understanding of access to health care, the social determinants of health, and experiences of violence, inclusion/exclusion and accessing justice, from the vantage point of diverse low-income migrant workers, from within India as well as cross-border. The project focussed on migrants' perceptions and lived experiences and generated evidence to advance the rights and protection mechanisms that must be planned and provided for low-income urban migrants. Low-income migrants are mobile, dispersed and invisible, so they present methodological challenges, especially for creating a sampling frame or mapping in a particular locality. A distinctive strength of the project is its innovative methods for accessing these 'hard-to-reach' groups. The proposed research adopted a mixed methods approach. In order to unravel the nuances and complexities of low-income migrants' experiences and situate these within the broader processes of urban transformation in Jalandhar and Guwahati, we combined ethnographic fieldwork with in-depth interviews, a brief survey, and participatory methods such as photovoice.

The dataset contains survey data from a total of 226 low-income migrant workers (100 in Jalandhar and 126 in Guwahati) in India. It contains data on 60 variables, focussing on socio-economic background, migratory experience, ill-treatment and access to justice and access to basic services. Abstract of the study: Indian cities attract a considerable number of low-income migrants from marginal rural households experiencing difficult economic, political and social conditions at home who migrate in search of livelihoods and security. These migrants come from around the country as well as across the border from Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar to work in low-income manual occupations in a range of small-scale petty trade, service sector work, transport and construction work. Low-income migrants live and work in precarious conditions and are often denied basic amenities and fundamental rights. Poorly-paid intermittent and insecure jobs make them vulnerable to abuse, extortion or bribery. Many such migrants, both internal and international, lack documentation and proof of identity, whether for basic services such as health care and schooling or electoral voting. Their marginal position entails poorer access to health care provisions and other determinants of health than general (non-migrant) populations, thereby enhancing their vulnerability to ill-health, abuse and ill treatment whilst simultaneously compromising their ability to access protection, legal support or redress, and forms of accountability. Language, appearance and cultural differences exposes many low-income migrants from interior parts of the country or across the border to harassment and political exclusion. Moreover, despite their ubiquitous presence, their precarious livelihoods, informality and invisibility keep them unnoticed in urban planning, in the work of civil society organisations and in social science research. In this context, this collaborative project was designed to generate evidence to advance the rights and protection mechanisms that must be planned and provided for low-income urban migrants. We examined what India's urban transformation means for low-income migrants, their inclusion and social justice by exploring: 1. Low-income migrants' views on transformations in Indian cities, and the opportunities and challenges that confront them; 2. Low-income migrants perceptions of their entitlements, claim-making processes and attempts to protect their own health in a context of poor living and working conditions; 3. The prevalence of violence and extent of exclusion experienced by low-income migrants and how they protect themselves from various forms of violence; 4. The legal, developmental, humanitarian and human rights responses to low-income migrants in Indian cities. Fieldwork based in Guwahati (Assam) and Jalandhar (Punjab), two of India's fastest growing cities, aimed to enrich our understanding of access to health care, the social determinants of health, and experiences of violence, inclusion/exclusion and accessing justice, from the vantage point of diverse low-income migrant workers, from within India as well as cross-border. The project focussed on migrants' perceptions and lived experiences and will generate evidence to advance the rights and protection mechanisms that must be planned and provided for low-income urban migrants. Low-income migrants are mobile, dispersed and invisible, so they present methodological challenges, especially for creating a sampling frame or mapping in a particular locality. A distinctive strength of the project is its innovative methods for accessing these 'hard-to-reach' groups. The proposed research adopted a mixed methods approach. In order to unravel the nuances and complexities of low-income migrants' experiences and situate these within the broader processes of urban transformation in Jalandhar and Guwahati, we combined ethnographic fieldwork with in-depth interviews, a brief survey, and participatory methods such as photovoice.

In 2022, Mumbai was home to the highest number of millionaires, followed by India’s capital New Delhi, and the IT capital - Bengaluru. This comes as no surprise since all three cities have the largest share of high net worth households along with a booming economic outlook. Overall, India had around 187 billionaires as of March 2023, and ranked third globally in terms of its ultra-net-worth individuals.

A growing wealth gap

Despite this, India also has a very high wealth inequality with millions of people living below the poverty line. In fact, according to the last census, the state of Maharashtra (with Mumbai as its capital city) had the highest number of slums across the country with over 2.5 million households. Furthermore, according to a 2015 study on the geography of the super-rich, Bangalore was ranked first in terms of the inequality between its rich and poor, with the wealth of the city’s billionaires being 646,407 times that of the average per capita GDP in the city. Mumbai came second in this listing, while Delhi was ranked fifth.

It's a rich man's world

As of 2018, the richest 10 percent of Indians owned 77.4 percent of the country’s wealth. The Indian economy was also seen to be one of the fastest growing economies across the world. This indicates the level of unequal distribution of wealth in the country. This is a matter of grave concern and has several implications in terms of the country’s development and progress.

The trade, hotels, transport, and communication industries had the highest GVA growth rate of 15 percent among all other industries in India in the financial year 2022. Overall, the services sector registered the highest growth compared to the agriculture and industry sectors. Public administration, defense and other services industries were expected to have a GVA growth of over nine percent in the financial year 2025.
What is GVA? GVA or gross value added is the value of goods and services produced by an industry, sector, manufacturer, or region in an economy and is used to calculate the GDP of a country. GDP combines all GVA values across industries, levies taxes, and subsidies. While GDP calculates an overall number of goods produced by a nation, GVA measures the value added to the product. It is the difference between gross and net production. The sectoral analysis provided by GVA helps policymakers create sector-specific policies and make decisions regarding incentives. The National Statistical Office (NSO) publishes estimates of GVA in India on a quarterly and annual basis, elaborating on eight main types of commodities. Services sector In India India’s services sector covers a wide range of industries including trade, hotels, restaurants, IT-BPM, storage, communication, financing, insurance, real estate, business services, etc. Numerous government projects like Smart Cities, Clean Cities, and Digital India are strengthening the growth of the services sector. The sector also attracts significant foreign direct investment and contributes massively to exports, although agriculture accounts for the majority of the employed population.

Nigeria has the largest population in Africa. As of 2024, the country counted over 232.6 million individuals, whereas Ethiopia, which ranked second, has around 132 million inhabitants. Egypt registered the largest population in North Africa, reaching nearly 116 million people. In terms of inhabitants per square kilometer, Nigeria only ranks seventh, while Mauritius has the highest population density on the whole African continent. The fastest-growing world region Africa is the second most populous continent in the world, after Asia. Nevertheless, Africa records the highest growth rate worldwide, with figures rising by over two percent every year. In some countries, such as Niger, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Chad, the population increase peaks at over three percent. With so many births, Africa is also the youngest continent in the world. However, this coincides with a low life expectancy. African cities on the rise The last decades have seen high urbanization rates in Asia, mainly in China and India. However, African cities are currently growing at larger rates. Indeed, most of the fastest-growing cities in the world are located in Sub-Saharan Africa. Gwagwalada, in Nigeria, and Kabinda, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, ranked first worldwide. By 2035, instead, Africa's fastest-growing cities are forecast to be Bujumbura, in Burundi, and Zinder, Nigeria.

In the financial year 2021, a majority of Indian households fell under the aspirers category, earning between 125,000 and 500,000 Indian rupees a year. On the other hand, about three percent of households that same year, accounted for the rich, earning over 3 million rupees annually. The middle class more than doubled that year compared to 14 percent in financial year 2005.

Middle-class income group and the COVID-19 pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic specifically during the lockdown in March 2020, loss of incomes hit the entire household income spectrum. However, research showed the severest affected groups were the upper middle- and middle-class income brackets. In addition, unemployment rates were rampant nationwide that further lead to a dismally low GDP. Despite job recoveries over the last few months, improvement in incomes were insignificant.

Economic inequality

While India maybe one of the fastest growing economies in the world, it is also one of the most vulnerable and severely afflicted economies in terms of economic inequality. The vast discrepancy between the rich and poor has been prominent since the last three decades. The rich continue to grow richer at a faster pace while the impoverished struggle more than ever before to earn a minimum wage. The widening gaps in the economic structure affect women and children the most. This is a call for reinforcement in in the country’s social structure that emphasizes access to quality education and universal healthcare services.

In fiscal year 2021, PVR Limited owned and operated 846 screens across India, out of which 292 screens were located in the southern region of the country. PVR Limited was founded in 1997 and ever since the company has been growing rapidly, with cinema screens across 69 cities in India.

The graph shows the population growth in China from 2000 to 2024. In 2024, the Chinese population decreased by about 0.1 percent or 1.39 million to around 1.408 billion people. Declining population growth in China Due to strict birth control measures by the Chinese government as well as changing family and work situations of the Chinese people, population growth has subsided over the past decades. Although the gradual abolition of the one-child policy from 2014 on led to temporarily higher birth figures, growth rates further decreased in recent years. As of 2024, leading countries in population growth could almost exclusively be found on the African continent and the Arabian Peninsula. Nevertheless, as of mid 2024, Asia ranked first by a wide margin among the continents in terms of absolute population. Future development of Chinese population The Chinese population reached a maximum of 1,412.6 million people in 2021 but decreased by 850,000 in 2022 and another 2.08 million in 2023. Until 2022, China had still ranked the world’s most populous country, but it was overtaken by India in 2023. Apart from the population decrease, a clear growth trend in Chinese cities is visible. By 2024, around 67 percent of Chinese people lived in urban areas, compared to merely 36 percent in 2000.

In fiscal year 2021, 51 percent of the admissions at PVR cinemas across India were booked through online channels. This marked a slight decrease compared to the previous financial year. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the share of online admits had been growing rapidly each year in the country due to digitalization and an increasing access to internet amongst urban as well as rural population.

PVR cinemas was founded in 1997 and ever since the company has been growing rapidly, with over 800 screens across 71 cities in India.

In 2024, approximately 67 percent of the total population in China lived in cities. The urbanization rate has increased steadily in China over the last decades. Degree of urbanization in China Urbanization is generally defined as a process of people migrating from rural to urban areas, during which towns and cities are formed and increase in size. Even though urbanization is not exclusively a modern phenomenon, industrialization and modernization did accelerate its progress. As shown in the statistic at hand, the degree of urbanization of China, the world's second-largest economy, rose from 36 percent in 2000 to around 51 percent in 2011. That year, the urban population surpassed the number of rural residents for the first time in the country's history.The urbanization rate varies greatly in different parts of China. While urbanization is lesser advanced in western or central China, in most coastal regions in eastern China more than two-thirds of the population lives already in cities. Among the ten largest Chinese cities in 2021, six were located in coastal regions in East and South China. Urbanization in international comparison Brazil and Russia, two other BRIC countries, display a much higher degree of urbanization than China. On the other hand, in India, the country with the worlds’ largest population, a mere 36.3 percent of the population lived in urban regions as of 2023. Similar to other parts of the world, the progress of urbanization in China is closely linked to modernization. From 2000 to 2024, the contribution of agriculture to the gross domestic product in China shrank from 14.7 percent to 6.8 percent. Even more evident was the decrease of workforce in agriculture.

In 2025, the degree of urbanization worldwide was at 58 percent. North America as well as Latin America and the Caribbean were the regions with the highest level of urbanization, with over four-fifths of the population residing in urban areas. The degree of urbanization defines the share of the population living in areas that are defined as "cities". On the other hand, less than half of Africa's population lives in urban settlements. Globally, China accounts for over one-quarter of the built-up areas of more than 500,000 inhabitants. The definition of a city differs across various world regions - some countries count settlements with 100 houses or more as urban, while others only include the capital of a country or provincial capitals in their count. Largest agglomerations worldwideThough North America is the most urbanized continent, no U.S. city was among the top ten urban agglomerations worldwide in 2023. Tokyo-Yokohama in Japan was the largest urban area in the world that year, with 37.7 million inhabitants. New York ranked 13th, with 21.4 million inhabitants. Eight of the 10 most populous cities are located in Asia. ConnectivityIt may be hard to imagine how the reality will look in 2050, with 70 percent of the global population living in cities, but some statistics illustrate the ways urban living differs from suburban and rural living. American urbanites may lead more “connected” (i.e. internet-connected) lives than their rural and/or suburban counterparts. As of 2021, around 89 percent of people living in urban areas owned a smartphone. Internet usage was also higher in cities than in rural areas. On the other hand, rural areas always have, and always will attract those who want to escape the rush of the city.

In 2024, Bangladesh's capital Dhaka had a pollution index score of 93.9, the highest among megacities in the Asia-Pacific region. In contrast, Japan's capital Tokyo had a pollution index score of 42.2 that year. Megacities on course for growth The United Nations defines megacities as cities with over ten million inhabitants. The population living in megacities has doubled in size in the last twenty years and is expected to rise even more until 2035. Today, the Asia-Pacific region is home to the highest number of megacities, with China and India alone accounting for around half of all megacities worldwide. At the same time, only half of the population in Asia is living in cities. This figure is also expected to rise exponentially over the next years, especially with much of the younger population migrating to larger cities. The growth of megacities and their higher population densities bring along several environmental problems. Exposure to pollution in India The most populated cities in APAC are located in Japan, China and India. As seen above, India's capital also falls among the top three most polluted megacities in the region and ranks second among the most polluted capital cities worldwide with an average PM2.5 concentration. As one of the fastest emerging economies in the world, India's rapid urbanization and industrialization have led to high pollution rates in different areas. The volume of emissions from coal-fired power plants has led to electricity and heat accounting for the largest share of greenhouse gas emissions in India. The country is also among the nations with the highest population share exposed to hazardous concentrations of air pollution worldwide.

Whereas the population is expected to decrease somewhat until 2100 in Asia, Europe, and South America, it is predicted to grow significantly in Africa. While there were 1.5 billion inhabitants on the continent at the beginning of 2024, the number of inhabitants is expected to reach 3.8 billion by 2100. In total, the global population is expected to reach nearly 10.4 billion by 2100. Worldwide population In the United States, the total population is expected to steadily increase over the next couple of years. In 2024, Asia held over half of the global population and is expected to have the highest number of people living in urban areas in 2050. Asia is home to the two most populous countries, India and China, both with a population of over one billion people. However, the small country of Monaco had the highest population density worldwide in 2021. Effects of overpopulation Alongside the growing worldwide population, there are negative effects of overpopulation. The increasing population puts a higher pressure on existing resources and contributes to pollution. As the population grows, the demand for food grows, which requires more water, which in turn takes away from the freshwater available. Concurrently, food needs to be transported through different mechanisms, which contributes to air pollution. Not every resource is renewable, meaning the world is using up limited resources that will eventually run out. Furthermore, more species will become extinct which harms the ecosystem and food chain. Overpopulation was considered to be one of the most important environmental issues worldwide in 2020.