• Housing and Spatial Segregation: Snippets from Aurangabad 

    Experiences of housing emanate, not just from aspects of affordability, economic activity and city planning, but also link back to how social, cultural and political events and processes have unfolded over time. This article is based on fieldwork done in Aurangabad and traces the historical evolution of housing and spatial segregation in the city.

    By on June 8, 2022

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  • How the content of demands shapes government responsiveness: Excerpts from a Discussion

    This post features highlights from the 146th talk in the series of CPR-CSH Urban Workshops, where Tanu Kumar, a postdoctoral researcher at William and Mary, talks about the nature of formal complaints lodged by citizens against bureaucrats, and how the content of these demands shape government responsiveness. The discussion delves into her research looking at theory and evidence from Mumbai, which distinguishes between complaints demanding the reallocation of resources between citizens and those that simply require some level of state capacity to address.

    By on June 3, 2022

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  • Governing the Houseless in India during COVID-19 Lockdown: Excerpts from a discussion

    This post features highlights from the 145th talk in the series of CPR-CSH Urban Workshops, where Paroj Banerjee, Ratoola Kundu, and Maggie Paul talk about their ongoing research in Mumbai, Kolkata, and Delhi on the struggles of the houseless communities during 2020 to 2021. The discussion and the study raises important policy and governance questions about houseless communities in the city, arguing that the predominant shelter-centric policy discourse fails to capture the agency, the lived realities, and fundamental contributions and specific vulnerabilities of those who have made a home in the city, but do not have a ‘house’ to live in.

    By on May 28, 2022

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  • “A potential death sentence”: Impact Assessment of Evictions during the Pandemic in Delhi

    The making of the city of Delhi is characterised by perennial eviction at the legal and spatial peripheries of its urban landscape. Disturbingly, this character of regular eviction was not disturbed even during the time of the COVID–19  pandemic, when the world was facing a state of exception.

    By and on May 18, 2022

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Data Tales

  • Deconstructing the ‘Pucca House’

    Successive governments in India have pushed for the construction of ‘pucca’ houses to improve the quality of low-income housing. The pace picked up during the PMAY, a large-scale program on house building that started in 2015. The total number of completed houses under the program in rural and urban areas is nearly 25 million, which is about 11.1% of the housing stock in India. This tale, investigates two questions—how does the notion of ‘pucca houses’ manifest in different regions in India; and what are the changes that happened in this landscape after PMAY implementation.

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Featured Resource

  • Property Laws and Property Practices in India

    Land and property have been governed by the Indian state in rather conflicting ways in the past. While the first amendments to the Indian Constitution were purported to enable the State to redistribute land more equitably, this was followed by a land acquisition that displaced Adivasis, Dalits and other vulnerable groups for developmental projects. This paper by the Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP) examines these two sets of evidence available in the vast literature on property rights, acquisition and urban planning, to decrypt the stance of the Indian State vis-a-vis land and property within its territory.

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Technical Reports

Reports

  • दिल्ली में निष्काशन की नियत प्रक्रिया: नीति का संक्षिप्त विवरण
    आधारभूत सुविधाओं को लागू करने वाले अधिकारों में, जैसे आवास का अधिकार के अभाव में मलिन बस्तियों में रहने वाले और अन्य असंगठित बस्तियों में रहने वाले लोगों ने पिछले कुछ वर्षों में ख़ुद को संगठित किया और अदालतों द्वारा और राजनैतिक वक़ालत दोनों का उपयोग करके ख़ुद को बेदख़ली से बचाने की कोशिश की है।इसके परिणामस्वरूप इन समुदायों के लिए कम से कम कुछ प्रक्रियात्मक सुरक्षा उपायों (और सीमित मौलिक अधिकार) का विस्तार करते हुए, संवैधानिक प्रावधानों और अंतरराष्ट्रीय कानून के तहत भारत की प्रतिबद्धताओं पर निर्भर निर्णयों, नीतियों और कुछ कानूनों की एक श्रृंखला तैयार की गई है। यह राष्ट्रीय राजधानी क्षेत्र दिल्ली में इन प्रक्रियाओं और प्रावधानों का संक्षिप्त दस्तावेजीकरण करता है।
  • Assessment of quality of construction at the Baprola RRAY resettlement colony: A Report
    In keeping with its mandate to improve the quality of life of residents of JJ clusters, DUSIB constructed an Economically Weaker Section (EWS) Housing Society in Baprola Phase 2, approximately 25km from central Delhi. However, in less than five years from completion and relocation of allottees, issues of seepage, cracks in walls, peeling of bricks, overflowing drains have been reported by residents, including to DUSIB. The emergence and wide prevalence of these issues in such a short duration necessitated the need for a comprehensive assessment of the design, construction quality, and grievance redressal mechanism in this context.
  • Evictions and due process in Delhi
    In the absence of an enforceable substantive right to housing, communities living in slums and other informal settlements have mobilized over the years, using both courts and political advocacy to try and protect themselves from eviction. This has resulted in a series of judgments, policies, and some legislation, relying on Constitutional provisions and India’s commitments under international law, extending at least some procedural safeguards (and limited substantive rights) to these communities. This brief documents these processes and provisions in the National Capital Territory of Delhi.