Resettlement policies in Delhi / by Girish K. Misra and Rakesh Gupta

It is being generally realised that the shifting of popula tion from Squatter Settlements to Resettlement Colonies in Delhi was not done with an attempt to satisfy the avowed socio-economic objective. Whatever might have been the basic motivation for this, the willingness of people to shift to these resettlement colonies was never given due consideration. The new sites selected for establishing such colonies were at the outskirts of the city. This caused, in general, great inconve nience to the resettlers by resulting in a separation between the place of residence and the place of employment. This also resulted in a higher cost on transportation both in terms of time as well as money. It is argued that the workers spe cially the women, lost opportunities to serve as part-time workers for household chores. As a consequence, the family income of a household was affected adversely. Besides, the resettlers went through many other social and mental agonies.

The purpose of this study is to present a comparative account of living conditions between squatter settlements and the resettlement colonies. It also aims at suggesting short term and long-term measures to improve the living conditions in resettlement colonies by providing basic amenities and generating employment opportunities for the resettlers. Finally, the study enables us to raise certain issues which might help the government to adopt more realistic policy measures while shifting people from squatter areas to such relocations in future.