While the public housing programmes have predominantly neglected rental housing, about one in every three persons in urban India resided in a rental accommodation as of 2011, albeit informally in 70% of the cases (NSS 76th round). Temporary migrants, who intend to return to their previous place of residence or another location, accounted for 17% of total migration to urban areas. These migrants frequently choose rental housing owing to the unaffordability of ownership-based housing and to avoid securing financial resources in real estate. COVID-19 has revealed the residential vulnerabilities of a previously unseen group of temporary migrant workers.
Against this backdrop, the government launched Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHCs) as a fifth vertical under PMAY. While the ARHC has the potential to be the cornerstone of a new social contract, it will require careful design and implementation, as well as a proper legislative and legal framework.
In this context, in 2020, a Policy Lab series on “Addressing the Housing Vulnerabilities for Migrants” was organised in partnership with Centre for Policy Research (CPR), Cities Alliance, GIZ India, World Bank, Habitat for Humanity and Human Settlement Management Institute, HUDCO. Keeping the COVID-19 crisis and the mass exodus of informal workers, it discussed the present state of rental housing in India, the potential of the newly launched ARHC scheme, and the framework that would be required to sustain this initiative in the long run. Researchers and practitioners from across the world convened for the policy lab series to address the following topics:
Policy & Legal Framework for Enabling Rental Housing
Government-Led Rental Housing Model: Options and Challenges
Private Sector-Led Greenfield Investments in Rental Housing.
Redefining “Private” to Include Affordable Rental Housing Providers for the Poor: International and National Lessons.
India is one of the lowest globally in terms of female labour force participation (FLFP), ranking only better than Pakistan in South Asia. While the decline in FLFP in rural areas is starkly visible, the urban FLFP has been consistently low since the 1980s despite higher economic growth and increasing level of education among females. The economic offset created by such low FLFP is huge and if, for instance, it (16.8%) could be raised to the level of FLFP in China (61.5%)[1], it has the potential to raise India’s GDP up to 27%. This chapter attempts to investigate the structural deficiencies behind this consistently low urban FLFP through a variety of perspectives, ranging from measuring the complexity of women’s work to the implications of caste, location and family structure. It finds factors like presence of female-friendly industries, provision of regular salaried jobs and policies that cater to women’s needs to work near home like availability of part-time work, can improve the situation, though prejudices arising from patriarchy require to be addressed to make these measures truly transformative and not palliative.
This note undertakes a preliminary exploration of Low Carbon Growth Plans (LCGPs) in order to inform discussions on the appropriate role, if any, of this device in the global climate regime. What is the rationale for LCGPs? What exactly constitutes a LCGP and what are the implications with regard to monitoring, reporting and verification for a country undertaking a LCGP? To what extent and how does the embedding of plans in a global climate regime change domestic incentives for low carbon growth and with what effects? What further work needs to be done to better understand this device of LCGPs?
The aim of this research report is to explore the types of sanitation services that exist in non-networked settlements. Based on a case study of Aya Nagar in South Delhi, the research shows how households are primarily dependent on septic tanks, and rely on an informal market comprising of small-scale local entrepreneurs for the emptying of faecal sludge. We find that this sector’s functions are structured by the entrepreneurs themselves, who check competition, manage tariffs and mitigate operational risks through collective action. This arrangement relies on the existing networks of kinship and friendship between operators. Financially, the sector offers entrepreneurs a low but steady source of income given a recurrent demand for desludging service in the settlement. Nevertheless, the occupation remains a socially stigmatized activity as it deals with human excreta, which in India, is traditionally associated with lowcaste communities.
India is the youngest country amongst the BRICS. It is estimated that by 2020 the working age population in India would be about 592 million, second to that of China’s (776 million). Theorised in terms of the ‘youth bulge’ or ‘demographic dividend’, this holds out prospects as well as challenges for a developing country like India. This note approaches the question of youth in contemporary urban India by shedding light on a variety of perspectives: the institutional structure and governance framework for young people in India, the involvement of and interest of young people in politics, employment-unemployment amongst youth, aspirations, and everyday politics of the youth. By considering both formal politics and political representations among youth as also more everyday forms of politics and aspirational dimensions of youth engagement, this note attempts to develop a holistic snapshot of contemporary urban youth.
Urban sanitation in the Indian policy space received focused attention only after the mid2000s with the introduction of a slew of programmes such as Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), followed by National Urban Sanitation Policy (NUSP), Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) and the National Policy on Faecal Sludge and Septage Management (FSSM). However, there remains limited literature based on empirical research on urban sanitation in India from the perspective of inclusion. While India made considerable physical progress in sanitation infrastructure creation in the last decade, it continues to grapple with ground realities that are causing widespread social inequalities in accessing water and sanitation. These inequalities differently affect marginalised groups – women, adolescent girls, transgender and persons with disabilities – in accessing water and sanitation, and act as barriers to opportunities for them. For the country to fulfil the commitment to the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) based on the principle of ‘Leave no one behind’, it is imperative for it to place marginalised groups at the centre of programme and policy research. Often, those who are left behind face multiple marginalisations, as they live in poverty, under precarious conditions, with limited access to safe water and sanitation services. Against this backdrop, this study was conducted in 2018-19 across ten slums in Bhubaneshwar (Odisha) to explore to what extent marginalised groups access benefits of sanitation schemes and programmes. The government of Odisha has introduced a range of water and sanitation policies and strategies. These include the Odisha State Water Policy 2007, Odisha Urban Sanitation Strategies 2011 which was revised in 2017, Odisha Urban Sanitation Policy 2017, and Odisha State Urban Water Supply Policy 2013 that deal with provisioning of water and sanitation facilities for the urban poor. While this provides a conducive policy/ legal environment, it is critical to identify both the enabling mechanisms for inclusive sanitation and the barriers to inclusion that exist for marginalised groups in slums in the state. In this context, the study examined tangible and intangible effects of SBM-Urban at both household and community levels. At the household level, the study attempted to understand whether the programmes had a transformative impact on the gendered division of labour within the domestic sphere, particularly concerning water and sanitation roles and responsibilities. At the community level – in this case the slum level – the study examined whether the government programmes strengthened the participation of the most marginalised groups in decision-making processes of planning and implementation. The research proposes recommendations to support the government, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), researchers and academics in developing inclusive sanitation policies and programmes as well as promoting inclusive approaches on urban sanitation. Some of the key recommendations include developing a framework and guideline for inclusive sanitation, initiating inclusive WASH budgeting, and upgrading the design of existing community toilets (CTs) and public toilets (PTs) to cater to specific needs of transgender and persons with disability.
Suggested Citation: Singh, T., & Dwivedi, A. 2020. ‘Unlocking social barriers to inclusive WASH: learnings from Bhubaneswar’. CPR Research Report. New Delhi: Centre for Policy Research. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.14850.30401
India’s highly centralized federal structure sits uneasily with the nature of the climate problem. While financial and bureaucratic capacities are concentrated in the centre, the locus of climate decisions lies largely in the states because they steer energy choices and respond to climate impacts. To unlock state action, the roles and capacities of the centre and states must be reimagined in the age of the climate crisis. This brief lays out the contours of an institutional redesign. We attempt to strike a delicate balance between flexibility, essential to innovative and opportunistic state actions, and the structure necessary for a coherent national policy trajectory. Specifically, we call for a specific focus on increasing specialized capacity to deal with climate change; coordination mechanisms; and financial incentives to motivate the states.
Suggested Citation: Pillai, A.V., N. K. Dubash, and P. Bhatia. 2021. “Unlocking climate action in Indian federalism”. Policy Brief, Initiative for Climate, Energy, and Environment. New Delhi: Centre for Policy Research.
This report is the culmination of a study conducted by the Accountability Initiative (AI) on Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin in 2017 on the request of the Udaipur district administration. The study understands the outcomes, and the processes, which led to Open Defecation Free status in selected Gram Panchayats.
Since the launch of the Swachh Bharat Mission in October 2014, sanitation issues in India are receiving immense attention from policymakers, media and civil society alike. The sector however received enormous funds even before this scheme with little positive results. This paper argues that the translation of the current hype into the right policies and practical schemes for amelioration of the poor conditions depends upon a complete rethinking of the entire approach to the issue. Brazil has gone through a series of transformations in the sector that provide a useful lens to India to examine the issue with. It will need similar radical changes, starting from recognition of sanitation as a basic human right to effective regulation, for India to begin to address this massive challenge.
Contamination of surface water sources due to the discharge of polluting substances has been a long standing problem in most parts of the country. In 1974, a legislation was specifically enacted to regulate and prohibit water pollution. The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 established Pollution Control Boards at the Central and State levels and bestowed them with powers to prevent and control water pollution.
Aside from the Water Act, there are also other laws which can be used to remediate water pollution. These include, environmental clearance conditions under the Environmental Impact Assessment Notification, 2006, public nuisance in the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and the licensing process under the Factories Act, 1948. Along with these, there are also certain state level legislations such as the Orissa River Pollution Prevention Act, 1953.
How these laws can be used to find administrative remedies to combat water pollution has been put together in the form of two Information, Education and Communication materials by the Centre for Policy Research-Namati Environmental Justice Program, with support from the Duleep Mathai Nature Conservation Trust.
The materials aim to give the reader an understanding of:
The existing legislations;
The kind of permissions which are needed;
The various institutions which are available;
The way in which evidence can be collected;
The manner in which complaints can be framed;
The various administrative remedies which are available;
The materials focus on the states of Gujarat, Karnataka, Odisha and Chhattisgarh. Translations of the material are also available in Hindi, Gujarati, Kannada, and Odiya.
