LIVELIHOOD CHALLENGES FACED BY WOMEN LIVING IN SLUM COMMUNITIES IN BENGALURU

Abstract

Women in slum and informal settlements hold households together through informal work, small businesses and casual employment. Their earnings, though, are rarely secure. Money comes in irregularly, social protection is thin, finance and skills are hard to reach, unpaid care work eats into the day, and where a woman lives decides how far she must travel to earn. This paper reviews the literature on the livelihood challenges women face in Bengaluru's slum communities, working from the literature review document supplied for this manuscript together with the publication records that could be checked. The material covers informal employment, domestic work, street vending, skills, migration, displacement, financial inclusion, self-help groups, sanitation, and the effects of economic shocks. Read together, it suggests that these challenges are connected rather than separate: what work a woman can find depends not only on her own skills but on working conditions, care responsibilities, mobility, access to services and the resources her household can draw on. Bengaluru-based research is especially useful for understanding how settlements differ from one another, which skills informal work draws on, and what women street vendors and displaced residents go through. Studies from other Indian cities offer useful comparison, but they cannot simply be read as evidence about Bengaluru. The review also identifies a need for more integrated research that examines employment, income stability, working conditions, care work and access to livelihood support as one connected picture.