The unfairness of the Supreme Court order on slum evictions along railway tracks in Delhi: an explainer
The Supreme Court of India on 31.08.2020 passed an order, in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) relating to pollution and waste management in Delhi, directing the eviction of “encroachments” – primarily jhuggi-jhopri (JJ) bastis, or slums – on Railway land in the capital. Coming in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, the order has been subject to legal criticism and has received wide coverage in the media. In this series of Q&A, we deconstruct what exactly the order says, the extent of the displacement it is likely to cause, the legally prescribed procedure for eviction and relocation, and what would be a fair approach going forward.
By Manish
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A new report fills critical gaps in what we know about workers living at worksites: Some reflections
A new report by CLRA, authored by Renu Desai, offers extraordinary insights on-site construction worker housing in Ahmedabad, revealing gaps and opportunities for policy intervention.
By Mukta Naik
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How the pandemic is reshaping real estate: In conversation with Pankaj Kapoor
The COVID-19 pandemic has badly affected the real estate sector in India, which was already struggling with a number of issues including sluggish sales. To get an understanding of what this means for the housing market, the IHR team spoke to Pankaj Kapoor, Managing Director, Liases Foras, which conducts data-driven market research on the real estate sector in India. We asked him about the effects of the pandemic and future prospects for the sector, which is an important supplier of housing in India.
By IHR Team
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Regularisation as electoral strategy: Insights from Uttam Nagar
Regularising Delhi’s 1639 unauthorised colonies has been a regular issue in Delhi’s assembly elections for many years now. Based on field research carried out in the Uttam Nagar area of west Delhi during the months of January and February 2020, this piece helps to understand what the promise and process of regularisation has involved, and how it has played out for the residents before the Delhi elections of 2020?
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Data Tales
Flats are increasingly popular housing choices
Flats, where multiple households live in the same structure, are increasingly popular and not just in large cities in India. What does the data tell us about the implications of this rising trend?
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Featured Resource
Policy approaches to affordable housing in urban India
In this paper, the authors lay down what they understand as “affordable housing”— a term that can mean many things to many people— and present a set of empirics to locate their understanding of affordability. Following that, they sets out ten dynamics that are often seen to be at the root of why extreme housing inequalities persist in Indian cities. For each, they outline existing debates, suggest policy responses and interventions and, at times, mark the medium- and long-term structural changes required. Finally, they summarize by a necessary partial translation into action and locate their suggested interventions with particular institutions and different scales of government.
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