Policy Briefs & Reports

Rehabilitation of Jhuggi Jhopri Clusters in Delhi

Subhadra Banda, Shahana Sheikh

Centre for Policy Research

May 5, 2014

The jhuggi jhopri cluster (JJC) is one of seven types of ‘unplanned’ settlement designated by the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD). JJCs are located on “public land”—land owned by agencies like the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), the Railways, or the Central Public Works Department—and have been constructed without permission. As a result, JJCs are often described as “encroachments” by governing agencies in Delhi, and their residents have experienced repeated waves of eviction and resettlement since the 1960s.

In 2011, the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB), the state agency responsible for governing JJCs in Delhi, estimated that there were 685 JJCs in Delhi, containing 418,282 jhuggis or households. In 2014, the DUSIB released another set of data based on a socio-economic survey carried out across all JJCs in Delhi. This latest data reports 672 JJCs in Delhi, containing 304,188 jhuggis. It is worth noting that only 96 JJCs (14.3 per cent) are on lands owned by the DUSIB; 352 JJCs (52.4 per cent) sit on land owned by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), an agency of the central government.