India, Nov. 15 -- If one wishes to understand the almost schizophrenia-inducing inequality that defines contemporary urban India, one need only read the newspapers from a single twenty-four-hour cycle in the National Capital Region. On the surface, these reports appear as disconnected tragedies and bureaucratic triumphs. Yet, when woven together, they form a damning, cohesive indictment of our urban governance, revealing a society fracturing into fortified islands of extreme privilege amidst a sea of lethal municipal neglect.

Consider the grim ledger of November 10. In Outer Delhi's Ranhola area, four-year-old Imran vanished into the depths of a 50-foot-deep open sewer. The manhole, situated at a Delhi Jal Board site, was inadequately fe...