Mr. Sameer will present his Pre-Synopsis Presentation as per the details below: 

Date: 16th April 2025

Time: 10:30 a.m. onwards

Venue: CTARA Conference Room No.1

Topic: Making Sense of the Complexity: Access to Water in Slums of Mumbai and Raipur 

Guide: Prof. Subodh Wagle

Co-Guide: Prof. Parameshwar Udmale

RPC Members: Prof. N.C. Narayanan, Prof. Pranjal Deekshit

Abstract

Millions of slum residents in India lack access to water for their everyday needs. This research tries to understand this lack of access through complex and diverse water service modalities shaped by multiple factors. This qualitative research adopts a multi-case study research strategy with two cases, Mumbai and Raipur, and various slum sites as sub-cases. The research utilizes two conceptual frameworks based on two theories: Social Practice Theory and Access Theory.

The findings brought out four broad kinds of practices involved in water access to slum residents. This research shows that diverse and complex ways of accessing water by slum residents can be understood as water service modalities formed by the linkages of the four kinds of practices. Further, these water service modalities can be abstracted into meaningful categories through a focus on the nature of interactions between slum residents and other actors. Moreover, the findings from the research show that the power interactions between the slum residents and other relevant actors led to a gain, loss, continuation, or denial of water access through various water service modalities.

This research contributes to the theoretical literature on the inter-linking of the practices by showing that the nature of interactions between different actors carrying out linked practices shapes those very practices. The findings from the research contribute to the understanding of alternative ways of access to water and show that municipal access is neither completely formal nor the end-all solution for the problem of lack of water access. Moreover, the research reconceptualizes water sharing among the users as appended modalities to place it within the broader ambit of urban water service delivery to slum areas. The research, by juxtaposing water access in the Slums of Raipur with that of Mumbai, attempts to fill a significant gap in the literature that is heavily skewed towards metropolitan cities.