Papers by Banashree Banerjee
International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development
This essay discusses the veracity of legal tenure granted to informal settlers on public land in ... more This essay discusses the veracity of legal tenure granted to informal settlers on public land in the context of top-down neo-liberal policies superimposed on an already existing regime of urban regulations and welfare measures. It raises questions regarding the fairness of practices where the poor pay the price for changing development models. Insights from Madhya Pradesh (MP) state in India show that legal tenure documents stimulate incremental investment in building and are considered robust enough for channelling government funding for housing improvement. Such investment is secure until the land becomes valuable enough to support profitable redevelopment or is required for high-profile infrastructure projects to refashion cities. This leads to a mixed bag of security and precarity of the poor in a temporal framework of land markets, law, dramatic reordering of city spaces and dualistic policies catering to the market and to welfare.
Third World Planning Review, 1994
This paper looks into the practice of supplying land and housing to low-income families in the fo... more This paper looks into the practice of supplying land and housing to low-income families in the form of upgradable plots by public institutions and illegal developers in Indian cities Using case studies of squatter relocations from the three cities of Bhubaneswar. ...
Third World Planning Review, 1994
This paper looks into the practice of supplying land and housing to low-income families in the fo... more This paper looks into the practice of supplying land and housing to low-income families in the form of upgradable plots by public institutions and illegal developers in Indian cities Using case studies of squatter relocations from the three cities of Bhubaneswar. ...
project (APUSP) currently being implemented in Andhra Pradesh state in southern India by the Gove... more project (APUSP) currently being implemented in Andhra Pradesh state in southern India by the Government of Andhra Pradesh in partnership with the UK government’s Department for International Development (DFID). The project covers 32 Class 1 towns, which in 1991 had a combined population of 5.5 million.1 The project goal is to achieve ‘sustained reduction in poverty and vulnerability of the urban poor in Andhra Pradesh’. The purpose is that ‘the poor in Class 1 towns of Andhra Pradesh benefit from improved access to more appropriate and sustainable services’ (DFID 1999). Over a seven-year period, the project is expected directly to benefit more than 2.2 million slum dwellers in the 32 towns.2 However, in a large country such as India, which has experienced many governmentand donor-funded poverty reduction programmes over the last three decades, it is neither the scale nor the goal of APUSP that deserves attention. Rather, the merit of APUSP lies in its approach to poverty reduction. ...
Theorising Urban Development From the Global South
Development and Cities, 2002
Third World Planning Review, 1994
This paper looks into the practice of supplying land and housing to low-income families in the fo... more This paper looks into the practice of supplying land and housing to low-income families in the form of upgradable plots by public institutions and illegal developers in Indian cities Using case studies of squatter relocations from the three cities of Bhubaneswar. ...
Third World Planning Review, 1994
This paper looks into the practice of supplying land and housing to low-income families in the fo... more This paper looks into the practice of supplying land and housing to low-income families in the form of upgradable plots by public institutions and illegal developers in Indian cities Using case studies of squatter relocations from the three cities of Bhubaneswar. ...
Shelter, 2020
Literature shows that despite commonalities across cities, there is no homogenised model of renta... more Literature shows that despite commonalities across cities, there is no homogenised model of rental housing for low income households that exists in all cities. The dynamics of supply and demand are specific to each city, and influenced by its economy, growth rate and housing market, leading to diverse and distinct typologies which are specific to context. It is of vital importance then to understand these contexts and differences in order to articulate responsive policies and practices towards rental housing for the urban poor.
This article aims to contribute to the policy dialogue on rental housing by sharing findings from the city of Ludhiana in the Indian state of Punjab . The focus is on a particular form of informal rental housing, locally known as “vehra”, which provides cheap accommodation for more than 200,000 migrant workers in the city. The article illustrates how this particular sub-market works in its particular context of the city’s economy, its governance and land and housing settings on one hand, and in the context of livelihood strategies of migrant workers on the other. In doing so, it raises wider issues of supporting rental housing for the poor through policy and local practice.
Trialog 111 4/2011-12, 2012
As the Indian government explicitly orients its policies towards encouraging private investment t... more As the Indian government explicitly orients its policies towards encouraging private investment to supplement their efforts towards the goal of slum-free cities, lessons need to be drawn from the variety of schemes and initiatives already developed and established in selected cities. By looking more critically at the circumstances under which these schemes and initiatives have been implemented, as well as at the results they have shown thus far, the benefits and drawbacks of the private sector’s role in slum redevelopment can be better analyzed. Projects in Mumbai, Delhi, and Ahmedabad are revealed to be fraught with uncertainty ranging from the miscounting of slum dwellers and the long term cost of high-rise slum redevelopments, to market volatility and the oversight of involving the slum dwellers in a participatory manner. This article questions the initial optimism of the growing real estate sector focusing on slum redevelopment, as well as the viability of integrating slum dwellers into each city’s urban infrastructure while at the same time attracting private investors and developers during a time of global and local market fluctuation. It also raises the question of the contradictory nature of attempting to create an inclusive city without addressing inequitable urban policies and practices that have historically led to the creation of an exclusive city.
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Papers by Banashree Banerjee
This article aims to contribute to the policy dialogue on rental housing by sharing findings from the city of Ludhiana in the Indian state of Punjab . The focus is on a particular form of informal rental housing, locally known as “vehra”, which provides cheap accommodation for more than 200,000 migrant workers in the city. The article illustrates how this particular sub-market works in its particular context of the city’s economy, its governance and land and housing settings on one hand, and in the context of livelihood strategies of migrant workers on the other. In doing so, it raises wider issues of supporting rental housing for the poor through policy and local practice.
This article aims to contribute to the policy dialogue on rental housing by sharing findings from the city of Ludhiana in the Indian state of Punjab . The focus is on a particular form of informal rental housing, locally known as “vehra”, which provides cheap accommodation for more than 200,000 migrant workers in the city. The article illustrates how this particular sub-market works in its particular context of the city’s economy, its governance and land and housing settings on one hand, and in the context of livelihood strategies of migrant workers on the other. In doing so, it raises wider issues of supporting rental housing for the poor through policy and local practice.