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Role of transport in employment among vulnerable groups: Intersectional evidence from Indian cities

Arun Balachandran, University
Ajay Bailey, University of Utrecht

While the mobility choices and experiences are different across social groups, attention has not been shed on the links of transportation on employment across social groups, particularly who are vulnerable from an intersectional lens. Combining data from the Indian Human Development Survey and transport indicators data from Centre for Sustainable Transport, the paper explores the impact of transportation on non-agricultural employment in twelve Indian cities. The results of the paper shows that the transport related variables such as the per-capita trip rate, average travel time and the share of public transport has significant contribution to employment status of an individual in the Indian cities, even when other personal and community level socio-economic characteristics are controlled for. For social groups that are at the intersection of socio-economic and transport related vulnerabilities, particularly the (1) economically poor with lower access to transport, (2) females with lower access to transport, (3) lower caste with lower access to transport and (4) lower caste females with lower access to transport has significant lower odds of employment. The results points at investment on transport infrastructure and quality in Indian cities, with an emphasis on improving access to groups that are intersectionally vulnerable.

Keywords: Urbanization and urban populations, Population geography, Human capital and labour markets, Spatial statistics

See extended abstract.

  Presented in Session 132. The Determinants of Urban Inequality