India demolished 43,000 homes since March 2020, evicting more than 250,000 people, while nearly 16 million people are at risk of being displaced, according to housing rights campaigners.
More than 250,000 people were evicted across India during the coronavirus pandemic, and millions more are at risk of being uprooted as authorities eye projects for faster economic growth, housing rights campaigners have warned.
From March 2020 to July 2021, authorities demolished more than 43,000 homes and evicted about 21 people every hour, the Housing and Land Rights Network (HLRN), an advocacy group in Delhi said on Thursday.
In nearly all cases, officials did not follow due process including giving sufficient notice, and a majority of those evicted did not receive compensation from the government, it said on Thursday in an annual report.
“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.
“At a time when people were ordered to stay at home, authorities resorted to unlawful demolitions, probably taking advantage of curfew-like conditions when movement of people and access to remedy, including to courts, was limited,” she said.
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