India Is Getting Richer, But Its Cities Are Unlivable

India is getting richer every year, but its cities don’t seem to be getting any more livable. Not because the country is too poor, or because leaders lack ambition, but because urban citizens are starved of funds and deprived of representation. And the government’s in no hurry to fix it, even though people are dying as a result.

Mumbai’s skyline is dotted with opulent glass towers, and it calls itself India’s commercial capital. The civic body, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, is the country’s richest. And yet residents have lived for years with no say in how their city was being run. When it finally held local polls last month, it was after a gap of nearly a decade.