Detailed Studies of cases of Land Use Change Conflicts: Part II

BLOG SERIES BASED ON A CROSS COUNTRY STUDY ACROSS INDIA, INDONESIA AND MYANMAR
LAND ACQUISITION SOUTH ASIA

As persons affected with land use change grapple with displacement, loss of livelihood and environmental degradation, it becomes clear that they are rendered extremely vulnerable. In their fight for rights, as they employ multiple strategies to make their voices heard and influence decisions of those with power, it becomes important to understand their struggle that displays critical thinking, collective agency and pragmatism.

This blog discusses various stories of such struggles from India, Indonesia and Myanmar. These stories present a granular account of how land use change decisions result in varied set of impacts experienced for years, how these experiences turn into long standing land conflicts, the efforts made by affected communities to seek remedies and the counter efforts they face as governments and projects protect their investments and try to retain control over the narrative of growth and development.

India

Shree Maheshwar Hydro Power Dam, Madhya Pradesh

Maheshwar dam project has seen several investors pulling out of it.

The Maheshwar dam is built in Nimad, the South western region of the state of Madhya Pradesh, 2 km upstream from the town of Mandleshwar. The project is part of the Narmada Valley Development Plan under which 30 large and 135 medium-sized dams have been planned in the Narmada valley. With a generation capacity of 400 Megawatts, the dam put nearly 60,000 acres of extremely fertile agricultural land and over 20 villages under full or partial submergence. A large mass movement, comprising the local communities, farmers and environmental and human rights activists, has been protesting against the project as well as against the NVDP (Narmada Valley Development Plan) in general. The struggle in Maheshwar has been going on for more than 20 years.

Gevra Mines, Chhattisgarh

After March 2019, EAC will evaluate the pollution control measures of Gevra mines and based on it, will decide if the project should continue.

With over 10,000 million tonnes of deposits, the Gevra coal mine is the single largest source of power grade coal in India. The mine has been in operation since 1981, and land acquisition for the project dates back to 1979 with subsequent acquisitions in 2001 and 2009. There have been grievances that the acquisition has led to forced relocation, loss of livelihoods and insufficient compensation. People who were displaced have been resettled to colonies set up very close to the mine, and they complain of water contamination and pollution. In 2012, when it spread over an area of 4942 acres, it was the largest open cast mine in India. Still continuing to be the largest mine, today it has double the land area and spans across 9884 acres (4000 hectares) of land in Korba district of Chhattisgarh. Following an expansion of its production capacity, efforts to acquire more land began in 2014. On May 2, 2016, Korba witnessed a massive protest by SECL (South Eastern Coalfields Limited) against land acquisition for mining. Around 679 people from 41 villages protested at the site of the Gevra Mines. These villagers were all farmers who demanded jobs, rehabilitation and compensation as per the amended Land Acquisition Act. There is a proposal to further increase the capacity of Gevra Mines up to 70 MTPA (Million Tonnes Per Annum) in the near future amidst all the existing unaddressed grievances.

Myanmar

Myaung Pyo resists water woes

Original location of Myaung Pyo village has been razed to extract tin.

Heinda Tin mine in Tanintharyi Region of Myanmar has been in operation since the British Times. After the take-over of the mine by the Thai Company Myanmar Pongpipat and Mining Enterprise, a state-owned company, in 1999, the villagers of Myaung Pyo filed complaints of its ill effects. In 2012, the village was flooded due to the breakage in the mine’s tailing ponds and streaming of sediments from the mine into the local creek. The villagers filed a lawsuit against the mine and demanded compensation for the damages to their property. Alongside, the villagers have been engaging the regional level government to ensure that the mine complies with environmental safeguards. Approaching the company, administrative complaints, lawsuits and international redress—the villagers are reaching out to all possible avenues where mitigation of ill impacts and compensation for past damages is possible.

Thilawa residents brace for upcoming land transformation

Farmers, who would lose land in the second phase of development of the SEZ, hope to be compensated fairly for their losses.

The Thilawa SEZ (Special Economic Zone), located approximately 25 kilometers south of Yangon between Thanlyin and Kyauktan townships, is spread over an area of 2,400 hectares. First phase of the project (spread over 400 hectares) has led to forced displacement of 68 families. The compensation given to them was inadequate and the relocation site lacks basic amenities. The farmers, united as Thilawa Social Development Group (TSDG) reached out to Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the project financer, seeking improvements in the relocation site. While the impacts of the first phase are yet to be addressed, second phase of the project has begun. Alongside, individual factories are coming up on the land acquired for the project in the first phase. The land users and SEZ authorities are negotiating compensation for land acquisition in the second phase. In June 2017, 39 families were trapped because the Thilawa town officials had erected a wall around their homes claiming that the land belonged to the government.

Indonesia

Illegal Oil Palm Plantation of Rejeki Alam Semesta Raya in Kapuas

PT RASR has turned the land that was used by community members for planting rubber into an oil palm plantation.

PT RASR initiated oil palm plantation on 7000 ha of community land in Kapuas district of Central Kalimantan. The land was in use by the locals for cultivation of rubber and fishing. This led to an income loss for them. Farmers organised themselves in a group of affected farmers, demonstrated outside the company office and different government offices, registered formal complaints with the Regent and parliament of the district. In violation of the forestry law, the company also took over land in protected forest. This and people’s complaints led to cancellation of company’s permission to use the land. Despite all this, the company continued to work people’s land and forestland in question. After a series of failed mediations, some of the aggrieved farmers decided to reclaim their lands. Since 2016, the farmers have been harvesting oil palm on their lands on and generating income from the activity. However, they still seek a formal recognition from the government of their right over their land.

Community response to Arjuna Utama Sawit’s oil palm operations in Katingan district

Danau Bulat lake is silting up due to drainage canals built by PT AUS

In 2008, PT Arjuna Utama Sawit (AUS) took over land belonging to inhabitants of eight villages of the Katingan district in Central Kalimantan. The local community was using this land for horticulture plantations. PT AUS not only violated the moratorium on use of peatlands, it also dug canals and planted oil palm in peatland forest area as well. It dumped the waste from its oil palm factory into a nearby lake and the Katingan river. The company, although promised plasma agreements to the community, has yet to deliver on the same. Initially, the community did not protest the land grabs aggressively, but later on tried to reach out to the company and bring government’s attention to illegalities committed by the company. However, the company continued its operation ignoring communities’ complaints and efforts. In October 2017, the community members from one of the villages blocked work in PT AUS’s plantation area. They demanded execution of the promised plasma agreements and full details of the plasma scheme provided by the company.

PT AKT: The Biggest mining company of Borneo

PT AKT and PT Marunda Graha use Barito river for transport of coal extracted from over 40,000 hectares of land in Murung Raya

PT Asmin Koalindo Tuhup (AKT), the largest coalmine of Borneo took 2000 hectares of land from six villages of the Murung Raya regency of Central Kalimantan. The villagers, under pressure from the company, agreed to relinquish their agricultural lands at a price much lower than the market rate. Mining activities have led to contamination of the local water sources, the Hingan and Kohung rivers. Villagers have raised their concerns with the company and with local government departments. On losing their land-based livelihoods, the villagers had hoped that the mine would give them employment. In absence of state-sponsored basic infrastructure, they also expected facilities such as clean water, better healthcare arrangements and education from AKT. However, their hopes and expectations have only been met with empty promises. As of January 2018, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources of Indonesia had cancelled its agreement with AKT. In such a scenario, it is unclear who will take responsibility of remedying environmental destruction, offsetting loss of livelihoods and ensuring reclamation of land from which the coal has been mined out.

This is the fifth blog based on the study carried out by the CPR-Namati Environmental Justice Program, and supported by a grant from IDRC, Canada.

The other pieces in the series can be accessed below:

Understanding the Impacts of Land Use Change
Understanding the Strategies used to address the impacts of Land Use Change
Understanding the Outcomes and Remedies sought for impacts of Land Use Change
Detailed Studies of cases of Land Use Change Conflicts: Part I
The study reports on India, Indonesia and Myanmar including the above-mentioned case studies in full and an overview of the study’s methodology and findings can be accessed here.

Detailed Studies of cases of Land Use Change Conflicts: Part II

BLOG SERIES BASED ON A CROSS COUNTRY STUDY ACROSS INDIA, INDONESIA AND MYANMAR
LAND ACQUISITION SOUTH ASIA

As persons affected with land use change grapple with displacement, loss of livelihood and environmental degradation, it becomes clear that they are rendered extremely vulnerable. In their fight for rights, as they employ multiple strategies to make their voices heard and influence decisions of those with power, it becomes important to understand their struggle that displays critical thinking, collective agency and pragmatism.

This blog discusses various stories of such struggles from India, Indonesia and Myanmar. These stories present a granular account of how land use change decisions result in varied set of impacts experienced for years, how these experiences turn into long standing land conflicts, the efforts made by affected communities to seek remedies and the counter efforts they face as governments and projects protect their investments and try to retain control over the narrative of growth and development.

India

Shree Maheshwar Hydro Power Dam, Madhya Pradesh

Maheshwar dam project has seen several investors pulling out of it.

The Maheshwar dam is built in Nimad, the South western region of the state of Madhya Pradesh, 2 km upstream from the town of Mandleshwar. The project is part of the Narmada Valley Development Plan under which 30 large and 135 medium-sized dams have been planned in the Narmada valley. With a generation capacity of 400 Megawatts, the dam put nearly 60,000 acres of extremely fertile agricultural land and over 20 villages under full or partial submergence. A large mass movement, comprising the local communities, farmers and environmental and human rights activists, has been protesting against the project as well as against the NVDP (Narmada Valley Development Plan) in general. The struggle in Maheshwar has been going on for more than 20 years.

Gevra Mines, Chhattisgarh

After March 2019, EAC will evaluate the pollution control measures of Gevra mines and based on it, will decide if the project should continue.

With over 10,000 million tonnes of deposits, the Gevra coal mine is the single largest source of power grade coal in India. The mine has been in operation since 1981, and land acquisition for the project dates back to 1979 with subsequent acquisitions in 2001 and 2009. There have been grievances that the acquisition has led to forced relocation, loss of livelihoods and insufficient compensation. People who were displaced have been resettled to colonies set up very close to the mine, and they complain of water contamination and pollution. In 2012, when it spread over an area of 4942 acres, it was the largest open cast mine in India. Still continuing to be the largest mine, today it has double the land area and spans across 9884 acres (4000 hectares) of land in Korba district of Chhattisgarh. Following an expansion of its production capacity, efforts to acquire more land began in 2014. On May 2, 2016, Korba witnessed a massive protest by SECL (South Eastern Coalfields Limited) against land acquisition for mining. Around 679 people from 41 villages protested at the site of the Gevra Mines. These villagers were all farmers who demanded jobs, rehabilitation and compensation as per the amended Land Acquisition Act. There is a proposal to further increase the capacity of Gevra Mines up to 70 MTPA (Million Tonnes Per Annum) in the near future amidst all the existing unaddressed grievances.

Myanmar

Myaung Pyo resists water woes

Original location of Myaung Pyo village has been razed to extract tin.

Heinda Tin mine in Tanintharyi Region of Myanmar has been in operation since the British Times. After the take-over of the mine by the Thai Company Myanmar Pongpipat and Mining Enterprise, a state-owned company, in 1999, the villagers of Myaung Pyo filed complaints of its ill effects. In 2012, the village was flooded due to the breakage in the mine’s tailing ponds and streaming of sediments from the mine into the local creek. The villagers filed a lawsuit against the mine and demanded compensation for the damages to their property. Alongside, the villagers have been engaging the regional level government to ensure that the mine complies with environmental safeguards. Approaching the company, administrative complaints, lawsuits and international redress—the villagers are reaching out to all possible avenues where mitigation of ill impacts and compensation for past damages is possible.

Thilawa residents brace for upcoming land transformation

Farmers, who would lose land in the second phase of development of the SEZ, hope to be compensated fairly for their losses.

The Thilawa SEZ (Special Economic Zone), located approximately 25 kilometers south of Yangon between Thanlyin and Kyauktan townships, is spread over an area of 2,400 hectares. First phase of the project (spread over 400 hectares) has led to forced displacement of 68 families. The compensation given to them was inadequate and the relocation site lacks basic amenities. The farmers, united as Thilawa Social Development Group (TSDG) reached out to Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the project financer, seeking improvements in the relocation site. While the impacts of the first phase are yet to be addressed, second phase of the project has begun. Alongside, individual factories are coming up on the land acquired for the project in the first phase. The land users and SEZ authorities are negotiating compensation for land acquisition in the second phase. In June 2017, 39 families were trapped because the Thilawa town officials had erected a wall around their homes claiming that the land belonged to the government.

Indonesia

Illegal Oil Palm Plantation of Rejeki Alam Semesta Raya in Kapuas

PT RASR has turned the land that was used by community members for planting rubber into an oil palm plantation.

PT RASR initiated oil palm plantation on 7000 ha of community land in Kapuas district of Central Kalimantan. The land was in use by the locals for cultivation of rubber and fishing. This led to an income loss for them. Farmers organised themselves in a group of affected farmers, demonstrated outside the company office and different government offices, registered formal complaints with the Regent and parliament of the district. In violation of the forestry law, the company also took over land in protected forest. This and people’s complaints led to cancellation of company’s permission to use the land. Despite all this, the company continued to work people’s land and forestland in question. After a series of failed mediations, some of the aggrieved farmers decided to reclaim their lands. Since 2016, the farmers have been harvesting oil palm on their lands on and generating income from the activity. However, they still seek a formal recognition from the government of their right over their land.

Community response to Arjuna Utama Sawit’s oil palm operations in Katingan district

Danau Bulat lake is silting up due to drainage canals built by PT AUS

In 2008, PT Arjuna Utama Sawit (AUS) took over land belonging to inhabitants of eight villages of the Katingan district in Central Kalimantan. The local community was using this land for horticulture plantations. PT AUS not only violated the moratorium on use of peatlands, it also dug canals and planted oil palm in peatland forest area as well. It dumped the waste from its oil palm factory into a nearby lake and the Katingan river. The company, although promised plasma agreements to the community, has yet to deliver on the same. Initially, the community did not protest the land grabs aggressively, but later on tried to reach out to the company and bring government’s attention to illegalities committed by the company. However, the company continued its operation ignoring communities’ complaints and efforts. In October 2017, the community members from one of the villages blocked work in PT AUS’s plantation area. They demanded execution of the promised plasma agreements and full details of the plasma scheme provided by the company.

PT AKT: The Biggest mining company of Borneo

PT AKT and PT Marunda Graha use Barito river for transport of coal extracted from over 40,000 hectares of land in Murung Raya

PT Asmin Koalindo Tuhup (AKT), the largest coalmine of Borneo took 2000 hectares of land from six villages of the Murung Raya regency of Central Kalimantan. The villagers, under pressure from the company, agreed to relinquish their agricultural lands at a price much lower than the market rate. Mining activities have led to contamination of the local water sources, the Hingan and Kohung rivers. Villagers have raised their concerns with the company and with local government departments. On losing their land-based livelihoods, the villagers had hoped that the mine would give them employment. In absence of state-sponsored basic infrastructure, they also expected facilities such as clean water, better healthcare arrangements and education from AKT. However, their hopes and expectations have only been met with empty promises. As of January 2018, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources of Indonesia had cancelled its agreement with AKT. In such a scenario, it is unclear who will take responsibility of remedying environmental destruction, offsetting loss of livelihoods and ensuring reclamation of land from which the coal has been mined out.

This is the fifth blog based on the study carried out by the CPR-Namati Environmental Justice Program, and supported by a grant from IDRC, Canada.

The other pieces in the series can be accessed below:

Understanding the Impacts of Land Use Change
Understanding the Strategies used to address the impacts of Land Use Change
Understanding the Outcomes and Remedies sought for impacts of Land Use Change
Detailed Studies of cases of Land Use Change Conflicts: Part I
The study reports on India, Indonesia and Myanmar including the above-mentioned case studies in full and an overview of the study’s methodology and findings can be accessed here.

Dialogues on Sanitation: Assembling Private Sector Participation for a Safe and Sustainable Urban Sanitation Future

FULL VIDEO OF THE DIALOGUE
SANITATION

Watch the full video (above) of the session on ‘Emerging formal Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) in Faecal Sludge Management (FSM)’ featuring Dinesh Mehta, Y Malini Reddy, Suresh Kumar Rohilla, Rahul Mankotia and Kartikeya Gajjala.

The seminar had two thematic sessions. The first session ‘Emerging formal PPPs in FSM’ discussed insights from the field to build an understanding of the market potential and risk-sharing strategies developed amongst communities, private entrepreneurs and governments and further deliberated on the ground challenges of bringing and assembling viable private sector participation for a safe and sustainable urban sanitation future.

Speakers for the session:

Dinesh Mehta, CEPT University

Y Malini Reddy, Administrative Staff College of India

Suresh Kumar Rohilla, Centre for Science and Environment

Rahul Mankotia, Centre for Science and Environment

Kartikeya Gajjala, J Sagar Associates

The session was moderated by Anindita Mukherjee, Centre for Policy Research.

This was followed by a session ‘Stakeholder Dialogue on FSM Transition in Indian Cities’ that explored possible solutions to understand the emerging interfaces between markets and regulatory frameworks. The objective of the Dialogue was to attempt to connect the dots between various practitioners and experts in the field, to learn from their experience in states and their experience in implementing and initiating a broader discussion on the potential for an alternative private sector participation in the sanitation value chain.

Speakers for the session:

Anindita Mukherjee, Centre for Policy Research

Prashant Arya, Centre for Policy Research

Sanjay Singh, Population Services International

Amresh Sinha, Blue Water Company

S Ramanujam, Centre for Policy Research

Yogesh Upadhyay, Centre for Policy Research

The session was moderated by Shubhagato Dasgupta, Centre for Policy Research. The second session that followed can be accessed here.

Dialogues on Sanitation Series

This is the 2nd dialogue in a series planned by the Scaling City Institution for India: Sanitation (SCI-FI) initiative with the support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). This dialogue series builds on the CORP lecture series and seeks to provide a platform for discussing the experiences of the researchers and practitioners on urban sanitation across various thematic areas.

Access the other Dialogue on Sanitation session below:

1st Dialogue on Sanitation session

Discussion and Podcast on ‘Rethinking Precarious Neighbourhoods’

A BOOK BY AGNES DEBOULET, VÉRONIQUE DUPONT AND SOLOMON BENJAMIN
URBAN SERVICES URBAN GOVERNANCE PODCAST

Agnes Deboulet, a Sociology professor at Université Paris-VIII Vincennes Saint-Denis co-authored a book titled ‘Rethinking Precarious Neighbourhoods’ along with Véronique Dupont, a Senior Visiting Fellow at CPR, and Solomon Benjamin, Associate Professor at IIT, Madras.

The Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and CPR hosted a discussion on the book in April this year featuring panellists from government and academia.

Watch the full video of the discussion (above) on how precarious neighbourhoods can be approached within the broader urban context. Especially, since precariousness has increasingly become a typical characteristic of urban spaces, where social and economic transformations lead to rises in material and environmental insecurity. A dedicated event page with the details of the book discussion can be accessed here.

Deboulet also recorded the 17th episode of CPR’s podcast ThoughtSpace on the book, in which she unpacked the concept of precarious neighbuorhoods and discussed its various dimensions. The podcast can be accessed here.

CPR-CSH Workshop on ‘Claiming Entitlements in Neo-Liberal India: Mumbai’s Ex-Millworkers’ Political Mobilisation on the Housing Question’

FULL VIDEO OF WORKSHOP BY SUMEET MHASKAR
URBAN ECONOMY

Watch the full video (above) of the CPR – CSH (Centre de Sciences Humaines) workshop on ‘Claiming Entitlements in Neo-Liberal India: Mumbai’s Ex-Millworkers’ Political Mobilisation on the Housing Question’ featuring Sumeet Mhaskar.

Housing the urban poor and the working classes is a globally contentious issue. Since the 1980s, as the state began withdrawing from the social sectors under the neo-liberal dispensations, it had negative implications for the housing initiatives led by the state. The closure of large-scale manufacturing industries, which resulted in the massive retrenchment of the workforce further deepened the housing crisis. The industrial closures since late 1980s in major Indian cities saw the already marginalised space for labour politics shrinking further as traditional workers’ unions became non-functional. While Mumbai too witnessed similar developments, the city’s ex-millworkers re-organised on the rehabilitation question, i.e., housing and alternative employment. Of the total 80,000 workers, about 12,000 ex-millworkers have so far benefited from the subsidised housing allocated by the state.

What factors explain the re-organisation of ex-millworkers on the housing question in post-industrial Mumbai? What conditions enabled Mumbai’s ex-millworkers in the realisation of their entitlements? Why did the neo-liberal Indian state make minimal welfare provisions for the ex-millworkers? These questions are engaged with, using the minutes of the ‘Monitoring Committee’ meetings that took place every month between January 2002 and June 2018. The Monitoring Committee was established to oversee the sale and redevelopment of the textile mill lands and investigate workers’ grievances regarding dues, alternative employment and housing. In addition, in-depth and semi-structured interviews with ex-millworkers, trade union leaders, social and political activists are also used. It is demonstrated that the neo-liberal state can intervene in favour of capital in a non-coercive manner as well as devise minimal welfare policies for the working classes. The state addresses the demands of the working classes as their mobilisation has implications for electoral politics. Capital too reluctantly concedes, in order to avoid the delay in accruing profits from real estate developments.

Sumeet Mhaskar is Associate Professor and Associate Dean (Student Affairs) at the Jindal School of Government and Public Policy, O P Jindal Global University. He is also a Research Partner at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity.

The question and answer session that followed can be accessed here.

Find all available videos of previous workshops here.

CPR-CSH Workshop on ‘Confining the margins, marginalising the confined: The Distress of Neglected Lockdown Victims in Indian Cities’

FULL VIDEO OF WORKSHOP
URBAN ECONOMY

Watch the full video (above) of the CPR – CSH (Centre de Sciences Humaines) workshop on ‘Confining the margins, marginalising the confined: The Distress of Neglected Lockdown Victims in Indian Cities’ featuring Rémi de Bercegol and Anthony Goreau-Ponceaud.

The sudden implementation of the national lockdown caused considerable panic among underprivileged populations. Dramatic images of migrant workers desperately fleeing the big cities to return home have circulated around the world. But not all of them left, far from it, and many had no choice other than to remain confined to the margins. How has the lockdown worked as a health protection for populations that are already experiencing a first-of-its-kind of containment, living as they are on the margins of urban worlds?

This presentation compared two situations in which margin containment processes are expressed to varying degrees — that of a slum in the middle of R.K. Puram district in the centre of South Delhi, and that of a Sri Lankan refugee camp located approximately 20km from Pondicherry; two spaces that are distant from each other but whose characteristics and, above all, situations in the face of the pandemic, tend to bring closer together.

Through various testimonies, the speakers presented the very harsh conditions of confinement of poor populations, whose marginality was further reinforced by the crisis. In addition to the fact that the protective measures against the virus are impossible to respect there, due to congestion and insufficient access to water, the brutal disappearance of their everyday livelihoods strongly aggravates the low standard of living of the inhabitants.

By revealing the paradoxical effects of a confinement that is not adapted to poor neighbourhoods, this presentation argued for a better consideration of the latter during and after the pandemic crisis.

Rémi de Bercegol is an urban geographer at Centre National de la Recherche Française (CNRS) and Centre de Sciences Humaines. Anthony Goreau-Ponceaud is Associate Professor in Geography at the University of Bordeaux and a research fellow at the French Institute of Pondicherry.

Find all available videos of previous workshops here.

CPR-CSH Workshop on Becoming Homeless in Delhi: ‘Entry’ Typologies

FULL VIDEO OF WORKSHOP BY ASHWIN PARULKAR
URBAN ECONOMY

Watch the full video (above) of the CPR – CSH (Centre de Sciences Humaines) workshop on ‘Becoming Homeless in Delhi: ‘Entry’ Typologies’ featuring Ashwin Parulkar.

Based on 60 life history interviews of migrant labourers on the streets and in shelters of North Delhi’s Yamuna Pushta, Parulkar presented a set of typologies on how people from poor agricultural families in rural Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Assam and Jharkhand became homeless in the nation’s capital. Select calamities, or adverse experiences, that were common in these men’s childhoods catalysed various ‘entry’ pathways into homelessness that he discussed. They include deaths of parents, pressures induced by poverty to support family members and physical abuse in early life. These catastrophes, however, spurred various coping mechanisms and degrees of further poverty which resulted in different types of homelessness – that is, living in the city without housing indefinitely (chronically homeless) or living itinerantly between the city and home (transiently homeless). These typologies emphasise dimensions of poverty not captured by urban poverty and homelessness measures, such as abandonment, strained to ruptured family bonds and the erosion of household and community support structures over time. Parulkar discussed how these catastrophes are produced by destitution and should therefore be identified as risks, or vulnerabilities, that certain poor rural people in India plausibly face to future homelessness.

Ashwin Parulkar is a Senior Researcher at CPR where he focuses on causes, survival conditions, and exit pathways associated with homelessness in Delhi.

The question and answer session that followed can be accessed here.

Find all available videos of previous workshops here.

CPR-CSH Workshop on Unthinking Urbanisation: How Urban and Messy is India’s Urbanisation?

FULL VIDEO OF WORKSHOP BY PARTHA MUKHOPADHYAY
URBAN ECONOMY

Watch the full video (above) of the CPR – CSH (Centre de Sciences Humaines) workshop on ‘Unthinking Urbanisation: How Urban and Messy is India’s Urbanisation?’ featuring Partha Mukhodpadhyay.

Recently, India’s urbanisation has been characterised as ‘messy’. At various times, it has been described as unplanned and chaotic. In this context, this talk primarily engaged with two questions. First, it asked if Indian cities are urban — are they urban in all dimensions, economic, social, political, and spatial? Second — and without prejudice to the answer to the first question and stipulating that an urbanisation process is underway — it asked what does it mean to say that Indian urbanisation is messy, that it is a thoughtless, unplanned sprawl? Is there another way of looking at the urbanisation process? Drawing upon multiple qualitative, quantitative, and spatial data sources, this talk argued first, that in many respects, Indian cities may not yet be urban. Further, the apparent messiness is the result of shortcomings in the public response to relatively normal and predictable individual actions. Consequently, we need to discuss how the public response can be improved rather than adopt punitive measures that penalise rational individual behaviour.

Partha Mukhopadhyay is a Senior Fellow at CPR.

The question and answer session that followed can be accessed here. Find all available videos of previous workshops here.

CPR-CSH Workshop: ‘Ethnic wage-welfare complex: Migrants, trade unions and the labour market in the city of Kochi’

FULL VIDEO OF THE WORKSHOP
URBAN ECONOMY

Watch the full video (above) of the CPR- Centre for Science and Humanities (CSH) Workshop on ‘Ethnic wage-welfare complex: Migrants, trade unions and the labour market in the city of Kochi’, featuring Mythri Prasad-Aleyamma.

By examining the wages of migrant workers and local unionised labour in the city of Kochi and adjacent towns in Kerala, the paper demonstrates that ‘wage’ embodies practices and processes. It details the labour practices in a port-building site and in urban spot labour markets for construction work. Wages of local workers and that of migrant workers differ not only in terms of quantity, but also in terms of the processes and practices that surround them. These differences are viewed through the lens of cultural politics and spatial differentiation. We do not know much about the historical formation of wages and of the meanings attributed to them by workers in South Asia. The paper is an attempt to begin a conversation around wage practices in the region and the ideological formation of skill and work.

Mythri Prasad-Aleyamma is an associate fellow at the Institute for Human Development, Delhi. Her research interests primarily revolve around migration and urban transformation in contemporary India.

The question and answer session that followed can be accessed here. Find all the available videos of previous workshops, here.

CPR-IRD event on small towns and informal settlements at Surabaya

AS PART OF HABITAT3 PREPCOM3
URBAN GOVERNANCE

Centre for Policy Research is organising a side event at PrepCom3 on 26 July from 8.30 to 9.30 a.m. at Surabaya, Indonesia, on Small Towns and Informal Settlements: Can they Learn from Each Other? in partnership with Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD), France.

One of India’s leading public policy think tanks (since 1976), CPR has a robust body of work on urban issues, and is committed to contributing to the deliberations of Habitat III, a mega urban event to be organised in Quito, Ecuador in October by the United National General Assembly, with a view to reinvigorating the international commitment to sustainable urbanisation.

The PrepCom3 Conference in Surabaya from 25-27 July, organised in preparation for Habitat III, will see members of CPR’s urbanisation team participate in discussions on the draft New Urban Agenda, to be deliberated and negotiated by permanent representatives and permanent observers of the UN.

The CPR-IRD event intends to urge the New Urban Agenda to embrace urbanisation across scale in a manner that pays attention to the particular challenges of informal settlements and small towns that house the majority of the world’s population. The side event brings together researchers, practitioners, think tanks, NGOs and academia. It will focus on alternative sanitation solutions, suitability of existing solutions to small towns and informal settlements, and present experiences of ecological transition, particularly in the context of climate and environmental resilience.

Venue: Crystal 3, Convention and Exhibition Hall Grand City Convex, Surabaya, Indonesia

If you are in Surabaya for Prepcom3, do not miss this exciting event!

The list of speakers at the event include:

Dr Valérie Clerc, Research fellow, IRD-Institut de recherche pour le développement, Paris, France.
Rethinking informal settlements to the light of small towns, perspectives and limits.

Mrs Mukta Naik Senior Researcher, Center for Policy Research, New Delhi, India.
Finding innovative solutions to servicing small towns and informal settlements in India

Dr Gopa Samanta, Professor, University of Burdwan, West Bengal, India.
The sustainability of water and sanitation in small cities in India: A critical approach to current practices.

Mr Marco Kusumawijaya, director, Rujak Centre for Urban Studies, Djakarta, Indonesia.
Building knowledge and capacity for ecological transition and sustainable cities/settlements in Indonesia.

Dr Khairul Islam, Country Representative, WaterAid Bangladesh.
Institutional response to fecal sludge management: Learning from small towns.

Dr Shanawez Hossain, Research Fellow, Head of Urban, Environment and Climate Change Cluster, BRAC Institute of Governance and Development, BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Learning from South Asia.