Context: The Delhi Assembly has passed a law shifting the cut-off date for recognising Jhuggi-Jhopri (JJ) clusters from January 1, 2006, to January 1, 2025.
- The Centre estimates that the revised rehabilitation policy could benefit approximately four lakh families, addressing the exclusion of settlements established after the earlier cut-off.
- However, effective rehabilitation requires more than providing housing; it must also protect livelihoods, education, healthcare, mobility and community networks.
Need for a Household-Centric Rehabilitation Approach
- Rehabilitation beyond housing: The unit of rehabilitation should be the household's entire urban life, including employment, schooling, healthcare, childcare, neighbourhood networks and commuting facilities.
- In-situ rehabilitation first: Delhi should adopt an enforceable principle of "in-situ first, relocation last", prioritising redevelopment at the existing location.
- Conditions for relocation: Where relocation is unavoidable, demolition should occur only after a fully serviced alternative house is ready within a reasonable distance of livelihoods, with functional public transport, schools and healthcare facilities from day one.
Judicial Pronouncements on Slum Rehabilitation
- Olga Tellis v. Bombay Municipal Corporation (1985), Supreme Court: Recognised the relationship between shelter and livelihood and held that the right to livelihood is part of the Right to Life under Article 21.
- Sudama Singh v. Government of Delhi (2010), Delhi High Court: Emphasised surveys, meaningful engagement with slum residents and proper rehabilitation before eviction.
- Ajay Maken v. Union of India (2019), Delhi High Court: Reaffirmed the need for a rights-based approach to evictions, including surveys, consultation and rehabilitation rather than treating residents merely as encroachers.
Lessons from Mumbai's Slum Rehabilitation Model
- Supreme Court's Yash Developers judgment (2024): Identified recurring shortcomings in Maharashtra's slum rehabilitation system, including eligibility disputes, developer selection, inadequate transit accommodation, weak grievance remedies and poor regulatory accountability.
- Bombay High Court proceedings (2026): Examined continuing problems such as developer delays, opaque selection processes and defaults in transit rent payments.
- Key lesson: Slum rehabilitation must remain a welfare-oriented housing programme rather than becoming a land monetisation exercise with welfare as an additional component.
Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Model: Necessary Safeguards
If Delhi adopts a PPP-based rehabilitation model, the government must retain control over outcomes through:
- Developer selection: Transparent pre-qualification, audited financial-capacity assessments and project-specific performance bonds.
- Accountability: Milestone-based construction deadlines and penalties for delays or non-performance.
- Land-use safeguards: Where developers receive rights to commercially sell a portion of the land in return for rehabilitating slum dwellers, strict standards must ensure quality construction, materials and infrastructure in the rehabilitation area.
- Transit accommodation: Transit rent should be deposited in advance through an escrow mechanism, with automatic penalties for defaults and replacement of non-performing developers.
- Transparency: Public dashboards should disclose household surveys, eligibility decisions, appeals, construction progress, transit-rent payments and expected possession dates.
- Legal assistance: Residents should receive independent legal and technical assistance before consenting to redevelopment.
Three Possible Models of Slum Rehabilitation: The policy should adopt settlement-specific solutions rather than a uniform demolition-and-reconstruction approach.
- In-situ upgrading: Incremental improvement of existing settlements with secure tenure, wherever land availability and safety conditions permit.
- Redevelopment: Low- or mid-rise reconstruction where existing settlements require rebuilding.
- Relocation: Only where occupation is demonstrably unsafe or untenable, or land is required for an overriding public purpose.
Best Practice: Odisha's Jaga Mission
- Jaga Mission: Odisha's slum-upgradation initiative based on a statutory land-rights framework.
- Key features: Combines land-tenure security with community-led infrastructure development and improvement of existing settlements.
- Significance: Demonstrates an alternative to demolition-led rehabilitation by improving living conditions while allowing residents to remain within their existing communities.
Challenges in Identifying Eligible Beneficiaries
- Documentary exclusion: The revised January 1, 2025 cut-off should not create another documentary barrier for residents who cannot produce complete proof of residence.
- Eligibility concerns: Earlier Delhi schemes excluded a substantial proportion of residents due to restrictive eligibility requirements, disproportionately affecting vulnerable households.
- Way forward: Use inclusive settlement surveys and flexible verification mechanisms rather than making rehabilitation dependent on perfect documentary evidence.
Measuring the Success of Slum Rehabilitation
Success should be assessed through improvements in living conditions rather than the number of settlements cleared or buildings constructed.
- Housing security: Families remain securely housed with recognised tenure rights.
- Livelihood protection: Residents retain reasonable access to employment and essential services.
- Education: Children can continue attending their existing schools without disruption.
- Affordability: Maintenance and other housing-related expenses remain affordable.
- Prevention of displacement: Rehabilitation should not push vulnerable households into new informal settlements.
Important Concepts for UPSC
- In-situ Rehabilitation: Upgrading or redeveloping slums at their existing location without displacing residents to distant areas.
- Transit Accommodation: Temporary housing or rental support provided to residents while redevelopment or reconstruction is underway.
- Escrow Account: A separate account in which funds are deposited and released only upon fulfilment of predetermined conditions; ensures timely payment of transit rent.
- Tenure Security: Legal or administrative recognition of a household's right to occupy land or housing, reducing the risk of arbitrary eviction.
- Inclusive Urbanisation: Urban development that ensures access to affordable housing, livelihoods, basic services and infrastructure for economically weaker sections.
