More than 250,000 people were evicted across India during coronavirus pandemic and millions more are at risk of being uprooted, housing rights campaigners say
More than 4 million people in India are homeless, according to official data, with about 75 million living in slums and informal settlements in urban areas.
"During this lethal pandemic – when people are struggling greatly to survive – acts of eviction and demolition of housing have contributed to a grave human rights and humanitarian crisis," said Shivani Chaudhry, HLRN's executive director. "Some of the informal settlements were eligible for resettlement and rehabilitation, but not all – and they were dealt with according to due process," he added.The world over, homeless people and those living in slums have borne the brunt of restrictions to contain the coronavirus and are at heightened risk of infection because of their dire living conditions, housing experts said.
The Indian government's Housing for All plan aims to create 20 million urban homes and 30 million rural homes by 2022. But implementation has been slow, and activists say it does not address the issue of homelessness. Nearly half were uprooted for environmental projects, while infrastructure and city beautification schemes made up most of the remainder.
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