Dear readers,

For the past few years, the focus in our cities has been on infrastructure projects and redevelopment of slums, far less on the lakhs evicted or displaced by the projects and allotted ‘rehabilitation’ housing. In fact, even major cities do not have clear numbers of how many were displaced over time, how many were rehabilitated, and its impact. Independent studies have attempted to give us a picture but the lack of coherent and official data shows the apathy with which the issues arising out of resettlement are addressed by authorities. In the tenth of the series on Built Environment, Question of Cities, does a deep-dive into the theme mapping the (in)famous Slum Rehabilitation Authority scheme in Mumbai, the built form of resettlement spatially defining the marginalised in North Chennai, the health outcomes of resettlement in Vijayawada, and the socio-cultural impact on women.

Mumbai’s Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) scheme’s failure is the deliberate result of its structure in which the primary actors – the state government, the real estate developers, and slum residents – have diverging objectives, argues architectural designer Ananya Milind Naik. Only 2.74 lakh units were delivered in 30 years, or about 9,000 a year. The SRA has been subverted through incentives for profit maximisation by politically-connected developers, leaving its central purpose of rehabilitating slum residents abandoned. Her recommendations include equitable land apportionment for rehabilitation housing on a slum site, compulsory contribution by developers for post-occupancy needs of residents, and making the consent process participative and meaningful. Read it here.

Urban researcher Aishwarya Murugananthan writes from Chennai about the city’s spatial caste-based organisation and how North Madras was specifically demarcated for the marginalised. Of Chennai’s two million slum dwellers, 1.35 million are Dalits and many are migrants. The reproduction of caste happens through the Housing Board’s “colonies” which mean matchbox 250 square feet flats stacked, cramped, and in dilapidated Ground+3 buildings. The stigma attached to ‘colony people’ is reproduced by resettlement. Whether the state authorities act on caste or not, the outcome is caste-sorted tenements, caste-sorted peripheries. This built form does not merely house low-caste urban poor; it spatially defines them. Read it here.

Menaka Rao, Pavani Pendyala and Hemanth Chandu write about the RR Peta resettlement colony in Vijayawada where the displaced poor families have got pucca houses, but poor design, missing services, and flood-prone, distant locations expose residents to climate impacts. This causes heat-related illness and fuels diseases like tuberculosis, hitting the elderly, children, and chronically ill the hardest.  Colonies sit on low-value floodplains, far from jobs, which means floods like in August 2024 bring diseases, snakes, lost belongings, and lasting mental health effects. Residents hold only allotment slips rather than house deeds, and live in constant fear of eviction, raising questions about the resettlement. Read it here.

Focussing the impact of resettlement on Dalit and Muslim women in Mumbai’s M-East civic ward, the city’s margins with garbage dumps and landfills that has more than 13 resettlement colonies, PhD student Priyanka Mokale brings to light their social isolation, multiple levels of discrimination, and exclusion from socio-cultural activities in the colonies.  “This is Mumbai’s toxic hell-hole….Even after taking part (in a movement), I have not received housing elsewhere,” a woman told her in Mahil Gaon, which the Bombay High Court said was unfit for human habitation. This model of resettlement dominated by real estate interests has alternatives focused on self-redevelopment and community-centric housing, she writes. Read it here.

The reports, studies and research papers on resettlement and rehabilitation of the displaced or evicted people in cities provide a glimpse into the multiple issues that the resettled are forced to face after governments or developers have moved out of the picture. While government or official data is negligible or hard to come by, research and studies on the urban infra-related displacements and evictions, usually from slums or similar informal settlements, have begun filling up library shelves of late. Team QoC has a Compendium of some of the key reports and research papers of the past few years on the subject, mainly from Delhi and Mumbai. Read it here.

In our regular section, News Digest, read about air pollution in Delhi and Mumbai; US mid-term polls: Climate issues become the win factor; Move from discussing transition to delivering it, advises UN chief at COP31; US scientists predict 2026 is hottest year on record; Reasons why UN climate negotiations fail to progress; Tackling methane one of the fastest ways to reduce global temperatures.

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Thank you,
Smruti
November 13, 2026