Policy Brief 4: How Do Endemic Riots Affect Poor Urban Households? New Data From India.

Abstract

Through a study of 45 neighbourhoods, spread across nine districts in the Indian state of Maharashtra, the authors find that households that live in the vicinity of a crime-prone area and are not able to rely on community support are considerably more prone to suffer from riots than other households. Nevertheless, holding all else equal, victimisation increases with income per capita. They also find evidence of targeting even in 'unplanned' riots. This suggests that bouts of civil violence previously thought of as 'monotone' occurrences of violence, are more complex events where violence is perpetrated at multiple levels. Victimisation is more common in neighbourhoods with weaker social interactions, but some evidence suggests that weak social interactions may also be a consequence of rioting.

Citation

Gupte, J.; Justino, P.; Tranchant, J-P. Policy Brief 4: How Do Endemic Riots Affect Poor Urban Households? New Data From India. Institute of Development Studies, Brighton, UK (2013) 4 pp.

Policy Brief 4: How Do Endemic Riots Affect Poor Urban Households? New Data From India.

Published 1 January 2013