How the retreat of wealthy Indians into gated townships is worsening urban inequality

India’s top metros – Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai, home to 75 million people – rank among the world’s 10 most populous cities. However, “population scale has not translated proportionately into urban productivity, liveability or global economic influence,” the Union government’s Economic Survey 2025-26 admits.

While calling cities “engines of growth, magnets for talent, and crucibles of innovation”, the Survey also labels them “sites of daily strain: long commutes, uneven services and shared spaces that often fall short of collective expectations”.

Indian cities score low in their liveability quotient despite allocations to urban local bodies by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and the XIV and XV Finance Commissions topping Rs 8.36 lakh crore in the last decade, according to a new report by Janaagraha and the Jana Urban Space Foundation, not-for-profits working to transform the quality of life in the country’s towns and cities.

The key reason for this lapse, experts say, is the fragmentation of urban functions across urban local bodies, development authorities, state line departments and parastatal agencies. Essentially, local governments haven’t been empowered to do whatever is expected of them.

India’s urban population is expected to grow from 522 million today to 723 million by 2050.

If nothing is done to improve the way cities are managed, Akash Pharande, managing director of...

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