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Inclusive housing needs to

bridge many challenges

Landlessness and the lack of secure property rights for the poor are among those inequities that
perpetuate poverty, hold back economic development and fan social tensions, writes moin qazi

very day countless families socially homogenous encampments could destabilise multiple blocks, not to
struggle to keep a decent roof where unskilled poor live among them- account for the block to which the fam-
over their heads. There are selves, disconnected from others, mak- ily is begrudgingly relocated. Most of
millions of low-income fami- ing it harder for them to access main- their possessions — water containers
E lies, who live in overcrowded, stream economy. and tents among others — are periodi-
unsafe spatchcock dwellings, crammed The dwellers experience exclusion, cally steamrolled by eviction agencies.
between dusty paths and open sewers discrimination and lack of hope to ac- While we have been able to fight
with virtually no sanitation, environ- cess adequate and affordable housing. poverty relentlessly and continue to
mental risk factors and lack of even the They are under constant threat of being record improvements, homelessness
barest infrastructure. These are usually evicted without notice. A single eviction remains a big challenge A decent habi-

Tehelka / 15 march 2019 46 www.Tehelka.com