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The Politics of Waiting: Time Bureaucracy and Inequality in Access to Public Services
Author(s): Prof. Navya SharmaAbstract
Waiting is often treated as an unavoidable administrative experience yet prolonged waiting for public services can function as a significant mechanism through which social inequality is produced and reproduced. This paper examines waiting not simply as a delay but as a political and social experience shaped by bureaucratic institutions unequal resources and differential access to state authorities. Drawing upon theories of street-level bureaucracy social inequality administrative burden and time poverty the study explores how waiting affects citizens seeking healthcare welfare education documentation social security and other essential public services. The paper adopts a qualitative and conceptual methodology based on secondary literature policy documents and institutional studies. It argues that the costs of waiting are distributed unequally because economically secure citizens can often compensate through private alternatives social networks mobility or professional assistance whereas disadvantaged citizens may bear substantial losses of income dignity and opportunity. The paper therefore conceptualises waiting as an important but underexamined dimension of distributive and administrative justice.