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।

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.

The Union Cabinet on June 2nd 2021 approved the Model Tenancy Act, 2021 (“MTA”) for circulation to all the States and Union Territories. This piece examines whether the MTA delivers in letter what it intends to achieve in spirit, especially at a time when the importance of rental housing markets has been explicitly recognised as a key component of affordable housing policy, with the introduction of the Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHC) scheme in May 2020. It finds that the MTA, while a good first step, has many shortcomings that will inhibit the achievement of its objectives.

This post features highlights from a conversation between Gautam Bhan and Arkaja Singh at the 128th CPR-CSH monthly talk series, on September 29th, 2020. The discussion was held in the backdrop of a Supreme Court order directing the eviction of bastis adjoining railway tracks in Delhi. The discussion centred around how government policy around ‘slums,’ both at central and Delhi state level was changed, and how these changes came about, considering local and national, bureaucratic and political dimensions of these changes.

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.

Despite electoral promises, the complications inherent in processes of regularisation persist despite fresh legislation. Grounded processes of documentation are required.

This paper analyses the weight of overlapping burdens of precarity on the urban poor through the story of the demolition of an informal settlement and homeless shelter in Delhi.