The Hindu : New Delhi News : Centre ticked off over lack of housing for the deprived

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Saturday, Sep 11, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Centre ticked off over lack of housing for the deprived

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 10. Drawing the attention of the Central Government to grave living conditions and housing rights violations across the country, Habitat International Coalition (HIC) in association with the Housing and Land Rights Network (HLRN) has brought out a report titled "Acts of Commission, Acts of Omission: Housing and Land Rights and the Indian State" in which it argues that the State cannot escape its obligation to respect and protect the right of its people to adequate housing and it is high time international pressure was put on India to do so.

The report, submitted to the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, argues that forced evictions of slum dwellers in a country like India cannot be justified in the name of "reclamation" and "clearance" of Government-owned land, that it was the State's responsibility to provide access to secure tenure for marginalised groups such as forest dwellers, the urban poor, nomads and dalits. Also, it has come down heavily on non-reporting of what has been happening in India in the garb of such misguided actions for well over a decade and has called upon the Committee to declare India a "non-reporting State party to the covenant".

The report, prepared in collaboration with a diverse group of non-governmental and community-based organisations, is based on fact-finding missions, reports, media coverage and personal testimonies collected by the HIC_HLRN network. It is the third and most updated in a series of alternate reports that have been submitted to the Committee.

Some of the organisations involved in the preparation of the report are Aashray Adhikar Abhiyan; Food First Information and Action Network; Mines, Minerals and People; Narmada Bachao Aandolan and the National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights.

"We sincerely regret that the Government of India has failed to submit its long-overdue report to the Committee, originally scheduled for submission on June 30, 1992. In the ensuing 12 years, the respect, protection, promotion and fulfilment of human rights in India have deteriorated drastically, especially for the historically deprived groups of Indians. In particular, we have noted a pattern of increasing violations of the right to adequate housing as enshrined in Article 11(1) of the Covenant," observed the members of civil society organisations, who have contributed to the preparation of the report.

Providing an overview of the seven groups that have been particularly vulnerable to violations of the right to adequate housing in India -- the urban poor, forest dwellers, dalits, victims of the 2002 Gujarat riots, communities displaced due to large-scale development projects, the urban homeless and nomadic communities -- the report has drawn the Committee's attention to de facto criminalisation of the poor and marginalised groups which in turn exacerbates problems related to security of tenure. "Also, there has been a failure on the part of the courts to protect the right to adequate housing, in particular with respect to their authorisation of forced evictions without respect for procedures for prior notice and resettlement, as mandated by India's international human rights obligations."

The report contends that there has also been a failure on the part of the State to follow the due process of law in displacement of hundreds of thousands of people in the name of "development" projects. Besides, adequate steps to assess urgent needs of India's homeless and providing them basic shelter have not been undertaken.

"In the light of the massive scale of violations discussed as well as the fact that they contribute to the multiple forms of discrimination faced by marginalised and vulnerable communities, we would request you to consider examining India as a non-reporting State party to the Covenant," the members of civil society organisations involved in the preparation of the report have said in a letter to the Chairperson of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Virginia Bonoan-Dandan.

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