Synopsis The prominent features of urbanisation in India have been the increase in population, growth of slums, swelling labour force and its marginalisation, and increasing pressure on the urban space and infrastructural services. A growing need has been felt to investigate the reasons for the decay of our large cities and for the extremely unsatisfactory living conditions even in our non-metro as well as smaller and medium-sized towns. The book deals with the modes, means and mechanisms through which the poor in urban India cope with their lives. By providing a portrayal of the lives of slum dwellers, through an exhaustive database on the slums of Surat and an intensive analysis of one of its slum localities, it captures the socio-economic world of the urban poor in India. The book will interest anthropologists, sociologists, human geographers and city planners.