Housing - Question of Cities

What enraged us and what gladdened us in 2024: An overview

When we look back at the year fast closing upon us all, there was not much to cheer about how our cities were built, how the environment was undermined in the name of development, and how people mostly coped with…

Big bold ideas that can change public or affordable housing in our cities

India’s urban housing crisis is well-known. Millions live in slums and jhuggis. The housing paradox in Mumbai and Delhi, now increasingly seen in other cities too, means there is a high shortage of affordable homes and a glut of high-priced…

The spectacular failure of planning cities, as we know it. What next?

The widely-prevalent conventional urban planning framework in India, focused on land use, zoning and building regulations, is out of step with the demands of the time we live in, especially climate change events. Development Plans or Master Plans approach natural…

Delhi’s double whammy of heat and polluted air demands review of Heat Action Plan

If air pollution is hazardous and deadly for people, then poor quality air combined with high temperatures is worse, as seen in this ethnographic-like study of Delhi’s Sanjay Colony. However, the city’s Heat Action Plan (HAP) does not recognise, let…

Ignoring the right to shelter keeps Dhaka’s poor cornered

Severely affected by climate change in their homes, between a thousand and 2,000 people migrate to Dhaka every day in search of work. The continued migration from rural Bangladesh has transformed the city into a super-dense place, housing nearly 44…

New cities, old predicaments: Role of planning in climate mitigation

Urban planning and policies play a crucial role in the relationship between cities and the climate crisis. This is evident in the new ‘cities’ or sub-cities developed around Hyderabad, the latest being Neopolis, in the neoliberal framework where the state…

How the lack of rights worsens climate events for Delhi’s informal workers

As climate-related weather events scorch, flood and chill New Delhi, its informal workers, an estimated 80 percent of its workforce, are left grappling with myriad challenges of living in a city that would not function if not for their labour.…

Housing as a way to claim citizenship and exercise rights in Indian cities

The city is a key site where various notions of citizenship are claimed and contested. Since much of urban India lives and works in the realm of “informality”, urban residents often gain their rights over housing not through formal legal…

Story of slums in laws, judgments, and housing schemes

As the number of homeless and urban poor multiply in cities, adequate housing remains a complex issue that governments have neglected. The Right to Life under Article 21 has been interpreted by courts to mean a life of dignity which…

Jane Jacobs’ focus on people and everyday lives in cities resonates in India

Jane Jacobs, the American journalist and barefoot urban planner of the 1960s, was often dismissed as a ‘housewife’ and her creatively built community of protestors as ‘nothing but a bunch of mothers’ by professional planners. However, Jacobs kept her focus…