Understanding Ghettoisation
Ghettoisation refers to the social and spatial segregation of marginalized communities, often leading to their confinement in specific areas. In India, this phenomenon primarily affects lower caste groups, religious minorities, and economically disadvantaged populations.
Impact on Marginalised Communities
- Social Isolation: Ghettoisation creates barriers between marginalized communities and the broader society, limiting their interactions and integration.
- Economic Disadvantages: These communities often face restricted access to employment opportunities, leading to persistent poverty and economic disenfranchisement.
- Educational Barriers: Ghettoised areas frequently lack quality educational institutions, resulting in inadequate educational outcomes for children and perpetuating cycles of poverty.
Causes of Ghettoisation
- Historical Factors: Colonial legacies and caste-based discrimination have historically marginalized certain groups, contributing to their spatial segregation.
- Urban Planning: Poor urban planning often leads to the development of slums and informal settlements, which become de facto ghettos.
- Political Neglect: Marginalized communities may be overlooked in political agendas, exacerbating their isolation and lack of resources.
Consequences of Ghettoisation
- Violence and Crime: Ghettoised areas may experience higher rates of crime and violence due to economic desperation and lack of law enforcement.
- Health Issues: Limited access to healthcare facilities leads to poorer health outcomes and a higher prevalence of diseases within these communities.
- Cultural Stigma: Marginalized groups often face societal stigma, further entrenching their isolation and hindering their social mobility.
In conclusion, ghettoisation in India represents a significant barrier to social cohesion and equality, perpetuating cycles of disadvantage for marginalized communities. Addressing this issue requires comprehensive social, economic, and political strategies aimed at integration and empowerment.

To be marginalised is to be forced to occupy the sides or fringes and not to be at the centre of things. In the social environment, too, groups of people or communities are being excluded. Reasons for marginalisation-different languages, following different customs, belonging to different religious groups from the majority community, being poor, being considered to be of ‘low’ social status and being viewed as being less human than others. Chapter 7 of CBSE Class 8 Civics will help the students to understand these concepts well. The best source to revise the subject will include the CBSE Notes Class 8 Civics Chapter 7-Understanding Marginalisation.

Marginalised groups are viewed with hostility and fear. This sense of difference and exclusion leads the communities not have access to resources and opportunities and to be unable to assert their rights, thus leading them to experience a sense of disadvantage and powerlessness vis-a-vis more powerful and dominant sections of society who own land are wealthy, better educated and politically powerful. Thus, marginalisation is seldom experienced in one sphere. Economic, social, cultural and political factors work together to make.