ABSTRACT
Caste-based discrimination is often beneath the surface, as landlords and rental agents may use seemingly caste-neutral language to describe their preferred renter: ‘good people’, ‘vegetarians’ or ‘people like us’. This chapter discusses key findings with regard to the residential clustering of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes populations in Indian cities. Residential segregation by caste/tribe in urban India is high, with negligent improvement from 2001 to 2011; the dissimilarity value for all cities was 0.47 in 2001 and 0.45 in 2011. A public awareness campaign to publicise and challenge the common discrimination and violence Dalits experience in finding housing in urban areas is important. The central government is set to introduce an anti-discriminatory clause under the Real Estate Act, 2016 to curb the practice of builders refusing to sell their apartments based on a buyer’s caste, ethnicity, gender, religion, or dietary preferences, among other things.
