Jane Jacobs had observed that cities have the capability of providing something for everybody only because, and only when, they are created by everybody. Globalisation once promised an urban dream of prosperity. Yet this vision is fracturing into a paradox of gruelling labour and substandard living. This crisis is not a bug in our profit-driven system; it is an integral feature.
Historically, the Indian village upheld communal control over resources, treating essentials like water and space as shared commons. Today, that autonomy is being liquidated. As cities centralise essential services, rural residents must sell their only means of production — their land — just to buy an urban foothold. This migration severs community ties and trades rural agency for a precarious existence as a captive consumer.
The scale of this shift is staggering. In 1991, roughly 25% of Indians lived in cities; by 2026, that figure has climbed toward 37.9%. We migrate to metros in pursuit of better education and health and a modern lifestyle. Yet, for many, the image is fading.
While the Global North typically dines by 7:00 pm, urban India’s dinner table is active between 9:00 pm-11:00 pm. Between gruelling office hours and the exhaustion of traffic, modern urban residents have lost control over their most basic resource: time. This time poverty has fuelled the boom of food-delivery giants, transforming the basic human act of cooking into a saleable service. The health costs are the silent taxes of this lifestyle. When we lose control over our work and time, alienation becomes the norm. Data show that 78% of urban professionals exhibit signs of burnout, while 70% of metro students struggle with moderate to high anxiety.
In the eyes of capital, city space is for surplus absorption. As the geographer, David Harvey, argues, urbanisation is a primary way for the wealthy to park and grow capital. The result is a city designed for profit maximisation rather than human needs. Price-to-income ratios in major Indian cities continue to rise sharply. In Delhi-NCR, the ratio now stands at approximately 10:1, while Mumbai’s has reached 15:1. When a home costs fifteen times a family’s annual income, shelter becomes a luxury instead of a human right. According to the 2025 India Affordable Housing report, the bottom 60% of urban earners are now structurally excluded from the housing market. This forces a dual reality where luxury high-rises stand beside expanding slums, squeezing middle-income earners into living standards their parents would barely recognise.
This design ensures that our entire income is funnelled back into the system just for the sake of survival. PwC India’s 2026 report confirms that while today’s young professionals earn more than their parents did, their savings are non-existent. By 2026, household debt in India has reached a record 41% of GDP. In our cities, 85% of residents spend more than 40% of their income on debt servicing.
This is not just a financial burden; it is a political one. When you are one paycheck away from a debt default, your bargaining power at work vanishes. You are forced to endure toxic environments and stagnant wages because the loss of credit is unthinkable. Your income is recycled back into the system through rent, therapies, and daily costs. This cycle ensures that the middle class remains captive to credit.
The current discourse often misdiagnoses these structural crises as mere functional failures. We blame traffic on taxi aggregators or burnout on bad managers which dilutes the truth that these are outcomes of a system where 1% of the population controls 40% of the wealth. In this framework, the freedom promised by urban migration reveals itself as entirely fictitious.
To reclaim our lives, we must stop viewing residents as mere consumers and start treating the city as a common good. This requires a radical shift toward universal basic services. True progress demands decentralising facilities to rural areas so migration becomes a choice rather than a flight from deprivation. Only when we challenge the ‘Urban Illusion’ can we build cities that serve people over profit.
Roshan Pandey is a PhD scholar, Banaras Hindu University