Informal Settlements: A Study of Displaced Living in a Kolkata Slum

Abstract

In the absence of a sound planning for the ever-growing population and soaring real-estate prices in the city of Kolkata, a large number of people, ranging from labourers in the informal sector to those who migrated to the city in search of means of subsistence, are forced to live in informal settlements, as encroachers of government lands, subject to eviction whenever the government feels like cleaning up or developing urban facilities like flyovers or green parks. Such evictions often do not offer any compensation, let alone rehabilitation. In most cases, the argument made by the authorities for not providing rehabilitation is that the inhabitants were illegal encroachers and did not possess any legal documents. Again, rehabilitation provided by the government in distant places away from the city fails to serve its purpose, since without income generating infrastructure in the relocated area, the new settlers are forced to come back to the city and set up new informal settlements, as the city offers livelihood opportunities.