Improving access of the poor to serviced urban land in India

Abstract

Free land market operations, and land development and disposal processes (whether carried out by public or private sector) have been deficient in securing access of the poor to serviced urban land. The poor have thus resorted to informal and mainly illegal methods of gaining a foothold on land for building shelters for themselves, giving rise to squatter settlements and unauthorized colonies. This paper reviews various aproaches for increasing the access of the poor to serviced urban land. Experiences relating to secure land tenure, land sharing, and incremental development approaches as practiced in India and other developing countries of Asia have been discussed. The role of NGOs and CBOs has also been highlighted. In the end, suggestions have been made regarding measures to be undertaken by planners and policy makers to improve accessibility of the poor to serviced urban land.