SPATIAL JUSTICE IN LITTLE INDIA: A STUDY OF PUBLIC SPACES OF CONGREGATION IN AN ETHNIC ENCLAVE

Abstract

Little India has functioned as an ethnic enclave since before Singapore’s independence, and is well-known for the throngs of Indian and Bangladeshi foreign workers occupying the space on weekends. Xenophobic sentiments from the local population has resulted in spatial segregation in modern day Singapore, where the foreign workers employed in the construction industry are kept apart from the rest of society through the deliberate locating of workers’ dormitories and recreation centres away from residential estates and in industrial zones instead. This spatial injustice continues to manifest itself through the poor living conditions of the dormitories and the practice of implicitly encouraging the workers to keep their recreational activities to the designated centres or to the enclave of Little India. While Little India was not designated as a public space for congregation, it is without doubt that the foreign workers have been using and will continue to use the space on their days off, thus necessitating urban interventions to improve the spatial quality of the site’s public areas. This dissertation examines the injustices that arise due to the site’s lack of features for good public space, and attempts to find out if there is a difference in the spatial perception of urban planners and the foreign workers by interviewing the latter at the site and comparing their answers to research on ideal public space.