Beyond the Mega-City Narrative in Urban Informality: Informality and Water Precarity in Jaipur, India

Abstract

This paper explores the heterogeneity of informal settlements in Jaipur, India, by comparing water insecurity across two sites with contrasting infrastructure, one relying on a community standpost and the other on household-level piped water access. While research on urban informality in India predominantly focuses on megacities, medium-sized cities remain underexplored. Drawing on place-based research in a medium-sized city, the study combines observations, interviews, and participatory methods, including water resource and stakeholder mapping, to examine how urban governance practices shape residents’ everyday negotiations for essential services. Findings reveal that household-level connections are closely linked to land rights, with court cases and rigid regulatory frameworks often taking precedence over long-term occupancy. Despite multi-generational attachment and in situ improvements, residents still face uneven water access and are forced to adopt specific coping strategies such as maintaining multiple connections and informally tapping pipelines. These dynamics highlight tensions among formal governance mechanisms, informal adaptations, and environmental risks, including terrain constraints, flood risks, and limited water availability, which complicate infrastructure planning and daily access. By highlighting the variability within informal settlements, the paper attempts to challenge binary framings of formality and informality, underscore the role of recognition politics in deepening vulnerability, and advocate decoupling essential services from tenure to support more inclusive urban planning.