Basti Clearances: Examining the Characteristics of Informal Settlements Experiencing Evictions in India

PI: Mohit Tamta, PhD Student, School of Social Work
Co-PI: Thomas Byrne, Associate Professor, School of Social Work

Evictions in bastis (informal settlements) in India leave thousands of people from low-income communities homeless and violate several international human rights. Under India’s national informal settlement policy framework, some states have begun offering tenure rights that protect people from forced evictions. However, it remains unclear how these rights are conferred, given the complex administrative process involved and the vast variations in bastis based on their size, land use, and surrounding neighborhoods. The proposed study will build on unique Delhi-level data on evictions to address this complexity by (1) developing a typology of Basti clearances in Delhi based on a set of characteristics, including size, whether the population was resettled, age of basti, and (2) assessing the relationship between neighborhood-level characteristics, including land use and population density and Basti clearance typology group membership. Further, a comparative analysis of characteristics of bastis throughout India that have faced evictions and bastis that face the threat of eviction will be conducted. Latent Class Analysis (LCA) for developing the typology and chi-square tests for the comparative analysis will be used. The findings from the study will help in proposing tailored interventions to secure tenure rights to basti residents, targeting restitution of human rights of people affected by evictions, and identifying bastis that are more vulnerable to evictions in the future.

See more of our 2022 Early Stage Urban Research award recipients here!