At a press conference held in Delhi on 23 February, Housing and Land Rights Network (HLRN), India released a new study titled, ’Forced Evictions in India in 2017: An Alarming National Crisis.’ The study presents data and findings on forced evictions in urban and rural India in the year 2017. Primary and secondary research by HLRN reveals that state authorities demolished over 53,700 homes, thereby forcibly evicting at least 260,000 people (a conservative estimate) in 2017. This alarming crisis of forced evictions and displacement, while getting worse, is not recognized or addressed adequately. Despite the government’s rhetoric of providing ’housing for all,’ the rise in demolitions of self-constructed homes of the urban and rural poor highlights not just a violation of national and international laws, guidelines, and schemes, but also of multiple human rights of the affected persons. While documenting the silent but worsening crisis of forced evictions and displacement across India, HLRN also makes strong recommendations to the Indian government - at the central and state levels. At the event, HLRN also released an updated and revised edition of its Handbook on the United Nations Basic Principles and Guidelines on Development-based Evictions and Displacement. Press Release (with a summary of the study findings) is available here. HLRN study on Forced Evictions in India in 2017 is available here. Handbook on the UN Eviction Guidelines is available here.

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