India’s home rental programme for migrant workers needs more nuance and ambition

By on August 17th 2021

The affordable housing rental complex (AHRC) scheme acknowledges the needs of mobile workers who spend short periods of time in the city and do not seek permanent housing. Applying what we know about migrant work and the development sector will help India to realise AHRC’s potential.

Read More

Workers’ Housing Needs and the Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHC) Scheme

By , and on August 9th 2021

The Government of India announced the Affordable Rental Housing Complex (ARHC) scheme in 2020 to provide formal, affordable, and well-located housing to urban poor and migrant workers’ communities. This study documents the results of a survey conducted by the Working People’s Charter covering aspects of ARHC supply streams, communities’ capacities and needs, and the scheme’s governance.

Read More

The Model Tenancy Act, 2021: Falling short in catalysing the housing rental market

By and on June 8th 2021

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.

Read More

The Role of Housing Finance Actors in Regenerating Delhi’s Unauthorised Colonies: An Examination of State–Citizen– Market Boundaries

By and on January 15th 2021

The paper uses a boundaries lens to investigate the role of finance and networks of credit in autoconstruction, with a focus on the work of market actors in navigating market–citizen and market–state boundaries, foregrounded against the relatively well-studied politics of state–citizen relations, in Delhi’s unathorised colonies

Read More

Saving Bastis

By and on November 3rd 2020

Why the Delhi government must not squander the chance to overturn an anti-poor housing policy

Read More

A new report fills critical gaps in what we know about workers living at worksites: Some reflections

By on August 10th 2020

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.

Read More

Informal Rental Housing Typologies and Experiences of Low-income Migrant Renters in Gurgaon

By on April 26th 2020

A significant proportion of the working poor in Asian cities live in slums as renters. An estimated 60–90 per cent of low-income rentals in Asia are in the informal sector; 25 per cent of India’s housing stock comprises informal rentals. Yet informal rentals remain an understudied area.

Read More

Regularising Delhi colonies: Smart policy, incomplete plan

By and on January 26th 2020

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

Read More