Informal Urbanism and Gendered Infrastructure in the Global South: Ethnography of a basti ("slum") in Hyderabad, India

This thesis explores how gender, power, and infrastructure intersect in the everyday lives of women in Film Nagar Basti, an informal settlement in Hyderabad, India. Based on six months of ethnographic fieldwork and 50 in-depth interviews, the study examines how women, in particular, experience and manage infrastructural systems such as water, electricity, waste, roads, and drainage, and how these experiences are shaped by broader structures of caste, class, and informal governance. The thesis argues that infrastructure is not only about pipes, roads, or electricity poles. It is also social and political, embedded in emotional labour, domestic responsibilities, and bodily risk. Infrastructures break down in interconnected ways, producing what I describe as “out-of-sync” infrastructures, where different services fail at different times, creating cascading burdens. This temporal disjuncture affects how women plan their days, access work, and care for families. It also examines how gendered access to infrastructure shapes belonging and urban citizenship. The absence or irregular presence of the state is felt both in the built environment and in how residents see themselves in relation to the city. Through detailed ethnographic chapters on housing, political brokerage, infrastructural rhythms, and gendered space, the thesis contributes to debates in urban sociology, feminist geography, and infrastructure studies. It shows that informal settlements are not ungoverned spaces but are shaped by unequal and selective governance. Women remain central to sustaining everyday life amid systemic neglect even as they are largely excluded from decision-making and leadership.