training and educational module - delhi

Mahila Housing TrustM.H.T

Training and Educational Module - Delhi

Urban land rights of women workers in unorganized

sector

SEWA Bharat’s objective is to support the empowerment of women workers in the unorganised sector. Through our Land Rights Programme (Zamini Adhikaar Abhiyaan), we aim to educate and mobilise informal women workers which will enable them to collectively demand and bargain for their land rights.

For more information on what we do, visit our website or email us at :

[email protected]

Training Module 5

Training and educational module Delhi

Some of the information given in the module relates only to Delhi. This module can be used for training and educational purposes on urban land rights of women workers in the unorganised sector.

Training Module 7

SEWA Bharat is part of the national SEWA movement. Established in 1984, it is a national federation of SEWA organizations of women working in the informal economy. SEWA Bharat emerged out of the need to address the SEWA movement’s challenges with geographical expansion and coordination. SEWA Bharat is comprised of a family of SEWA organizations to further informal women workers’ rights, livelihoods, financial independence, education, health and social security.

Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA Bharat)

Mahila Housing Trust(MHT)

This module has been prepared in collaboration with Mahila Housing SEWA Trust (MHT) and SEWA Delhi.

Mahila Housing SEWA Trust (MHT)’s mission is to organize and empower women in poor communities to improve their habitat. Through its grassroots programs in habitat development, climate change resilience, and participatory governance, MHT empowers women to exercise their rights and uplift living conditions for their families and neighbors.

• Women workers can achieve common objectives through tools of organisation and collective bargaining.

• Through the power of collectivisation, women workers can advocate change at the policy level.

• If the law is to be implemented or changes are to be made or new rules are to be implemented, then it can be done through organization.

• A collective of women workers can help in safeguarding rights of women workers in securing a safe and productive working environment.

• A collective of organised women provides a sense of unity, morality and collective agency.

• To strengthen women through establishing a common identity as informal workers.

• To keep workers’ rights, needs, visions at the centre.

Importance of getting organized for women workers in unorganized sector:

“ Our house is not just a home to us, it is also our place of work. “-Seema Devi

Training Module 11

Land Rights Programme (Zamini Adhikaar Abhiyaan) Adequate housing and related services are important for the working women of the unorganized sector. Through SEWA Bharat’s land rights programme, we aim to:

We aim to do so through an awareness campaign where we will disseminate information about land entitlements such as access to adequate infrastructure services, role and responsibility of service providing agencies and processes to demand for improved service delivery provision. The aim of these awareness campaigns is to also educate and mobilise informal women workers which will enable them to collectively demand and bargain for their rights.

Introduction to the Land Rights Programme (Zamini Adhikaar Abhiyaan)

Improve tenure security.

Improve access to housing finance.

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Improve access to basic infrastructure services like water, drain, toilet etc.

Planned / Formal settlements: A settlement with occupants having some form of ownership document that abides to the master plan building regulations and land use assigned to that area.

Unplanned / Informal settlement:Unplanned settlements are areas where housing is not in compliance with current planning and building regulations (unauthorized housing). Informal settlements areas where groups of housing units have been constructed on land that the occupants have no legal claim to, or occupy illegally.

Categorisation of Settlements:

Settlement Typology:

JJ Resettlement Colonies: JJ Resettlement Colonies were constructed by the local authorities for resettlement as a result of evictions of households from JJ clusters. Although, the official policy signaled the intent to supply basic infrastructure services and stick to planned allotments, these services are not fully available in all settlements and they cannot be counted as ‘planned’. Raghubir Nagar, Jahangirpuri and SavdaGhevra are JJ Resettlement colony. These colonies are situated in West and North-West regions of Delhi. Raghubir Nagar was created after multiple evictions from many areas in 1970s. Jahangirpuri and SavdaGhevra were set up in 1975 and 2006 respectively.

Training Module 13

Regularized Unauthorized colonies (UAC’s):Unauthorized colonies (UAC’s) are built in contravention of zoning regulations, developed in violation of Delhi’s Master Plans. In 2008, out of 1218 UACs in Delhi, 895 were found “eligible for regularization”—or regularized in September 2012. Rajeev Nagar was one of them, although it is known as Sri Ram Colony in official documents. This colony situated in the East Delhi region. Although ‘regularized’, the land use on the Delhi Master Plan for Rajeev Nagar remains ‘agricultural’ rather than ‘non-agricultural’, meaning development and existence of residential property is semi-legal. The main tenure document here is GPA.

Jhuggi Jhopri Clusters (JJC):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.

“ The quality of tap water is very poor, it is not safe for consumption. We have to buy water cans each day. Why should I bear this additional cost from my earnings? “ -Meera Behen

What are the entitlements for low-income settlements related to infrastructure services?

Water

• Regular and adequate supply of clean tap water at household level

• Regular and adequate supply of clean water with community taps

• Provision of adequate number of community taps

Drainage • Provision of drainage infrastructure • Clean, well-functioning and covered drains • Regular maintenance of drainage infrastructure

Toilets

• Provision of individual toilets • Provision of female-friendly, free for use community

toilets • Maintenance of community toilets • Adequate provision of water

SewageManagement

• Provision of well-functioning sewer network • Provision of on-site septic tanks • Maintenance of sewage system

Lighting • Provision of adequate number of well-functioning street lights

Waste Collection and Disposal

• Provision of regular waste collection at household level

• Provision of adequate number of community dustbins

• Provision of appropriate and regular waste disposal

Roads • Provision of well-maintained and paved internal roads

Community Parks

• Provision of accessible community parks • Maintenance of community parks

Anganwadi Centers

• Provision of adequate number of Anganwadi Centers (AWCs) and Anganwadi Workers

• Access to AWCs during work hours for informal sector women workers

Infrastructure Services Provisions and Entitlements

Training Module 15

The lack of access to adequate infrastructure services has a negative impact on:

1) Women’s time: • Women spend additional time in going to nearby areas to fill water in the absence of

water supply at home and often, limited number of community taps leads to long queues and contestations within community.

• Women spend several hours cleaning the clogged drains and their houses water overflows inside.

• Women have to primarily bear the burden of care, devote working hours to childcare in the absence of Anganwadi centres, or when they are dysfunctional.

• To access community toilets, women wait in queues which impinge on their critical working hours.

2) Cost borne by women and the household: • Lack of access to clean and regular water results in additional cost of purchasing water jars

and cans for daily use. • Women pay to use community toilets, even though these are meant to be free of cost. • Lack of regular maintenance of drainage systems results in additional time spent on

cleaning these drains. This point has been elaborated above.

3) Women’s health: • Unclean supply of drinking water adversely affects health, especially among children. This

further increases the burden of care on women. • Water logging and stagnant water create vulnerabilities and disease. • Lack of waste management (collection and disposal) is a breeding ground for diseases and

leads to health issues. • Lack of adequate toilets with access to clean water prevents women from maintaining

hygiene, especially during menstruation.

4) Women’s physical safety: • Women face unfavourable conditions while utilising community toilets. These are often

built at a distance and in areas that are not well lit. Women also report harassment while using these toilets.

• In the absence of these toilets, or when usage is restricted, women are forced to defecate in the open. This poses a huge physical and health risk.

• In the absence of streetlights, physical safety is compromised, and mobility is limited in the evenings.

The Importance of Entitlements

This section presents the common problems faced across all informal trade forms.

1. Insufficient or dysfunctional Anganwadi centres lead to reduced working hours for women as they often miss out on peak hours of work. For example, domestic workers often face docked wages and the threat of losing work in these circumstances. Equally, this applies to street vendors who set up shop in early morning hours and need assistance from Anganwadi workers.

2. Improper drainage leads to clogging as a result of which water enters homes and unpaved lanes overflow. Women spend crucial working hours coping with these repercussions. This has a negative impact on informal women workers across all trades.

3. The weak provision of infrastructure services in informal settlements leads to women spending additional time and money. In settlements with community toilets and community water taps or water tankers, women spend crucial working hours waiting in queues which is time consuming and often leads to additional costs.

4. Constraints in the form of limited space prevent proper storage of goods. In addition, improper drainage and leaking roofs often ruin stock. This especially affects home-based workers and street vendors who store goods inside their homes. Agricultural labourers are also affected by this since it endangers animals and can ruin stored grains.

Trade wise Impact

“ Water overflows our house due to blocked drains. Time spent in cleaning it affects my gainful employment. How do I take care of my children’s health, household chores and other work at the same time? “ -Zeenat

Training Module 17

Drainage • Cleaning the drains • Repairing the breakage in drains • Covering the drains

Waste management

• Collection ( provision of trolly or car) • Dustbin provision • Regular disposal and cleaning of KudaGhar

Toilets

• Community toilets - Jhuggi • Constructing new community toilets in Jhuggi • Cleaning of community toilets • Maintenance- water supply, female friendly

provisions/ breakage and repair + timing management

Sewer • Repairing the existing sewer holes and breakages if any

Street Lights • Provision of new street lights • Repairing the existing ones

Community Parks

• Constructing new parks along with provisioning access to existing community parks

• Maintenance and regular cleaning of existing parks

Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) :

Services Responsibilities

Service Providing Agencies, their Institutional structures and Responsibilities:

MCD

Sanitation Dept. Horticulture Dept. Electricity Dept.

North Delhi Municipal Corporation

( Jahangirpuri, Savda Ghevra)

Institutional structure:

East Delhi Municipal Corporation

(Rajeev Nagar)

South Delhi Municipal Corporation(Raghubir Nagar)

Ward Offices

Training Module 19

Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement board (DUSIB):

Resettlement/ Reallocation

• Area Identification, planning and new infrastructure construction and provision

Community Toilets • Construction of new community toilets in some Jhuggis

Land/ Plot/ House Allocation Records

• Keeping records of all the names and details of allottee

• Renewing and providing second copy of possession slip

• Any change required in the name of allottee



Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board

Zonal Office

Land Dept. Engineering Dept.

• Planning of the resettlement colony

• Construction and provisioning of new infrastructure services

• Possession/ allotment records • Renew and second copy of

possession slip. • Change in name of allottee in

possession

Water

• Provision of new connection and meter • Setting up the pipeline • Addressing the problem of unclean or irregular

water supply • Repair of damaged pipeline • Provisioning adequate community taps

Sewer Management

• Provision of sewer pipeline • Providing new sewer connection • Cleaning of Sewers (suction)

Delhi Jal Board (DJB) :



Delhi Jal Board

Ward Office

Water Dept. Sewer Dept.

Training Module 21

This section details the available forms of tenure in Delhi and their comparative strength or weakness.

Adverse Possession

Weak Tenure

Strong Tenure

License

Lease

Possession Slip

Free Hold

Tenure Security and Legality

Freehold & Document : Sale deed+

registered property papers

& Complete ownership: to reside, sell , rent and mortgage

Lease

& Lease Deed : Document providing rights to reside for a particular time period

& Only right to reside & The lessee can further lease part

of the space to another lessee if the owner agrees.

License

& License deed : Document providing rights to reside for a particular time period

& Rights to reside for a fixed period of time. It is granted by either property owner or government.

Possession

& No property document available & One can receive a survey

token or identification slip as a recognition in a survey by government & One can get an

identification slip.

& This is when a person resides on someone else’s property without any property documents & No property rights available.

Adverse possession

& No document available & One might get survey or

slip as a recognition in survey conducted by government & One can get an

identification slip

& If a person is residing on a property for more than 12 years for private property and 30 years for government owned land, one can claim adverse possession. & Only right to reside

Tenure Security Related Documents

Tenure Security documents

Related Rights

Training Module 23

Weak tenure security has a negative impact on:

Access to formal housing finance: Weak tenure security acts a barrier in accessing formal housing finance for housing repair, upgradation, construction and purchase. Large commercial banks are typically inaccessible to the informal sector due to their weak land tenure documentation as a result of which they rely on exploitative moneylenders. Although micro-finance institutions offer credit to the informal sector, the loan amount is insufficient to undertake housing improvements.

Women’s time: On the other hand, the provision of infrastructure services in informal settlements is inadequate because of weak tenure. The consequence of this is borne by women who spend critical working hours walking long distances to access facilities such as community toilets and taps.

Cost borne by women and the household: Due to lack of adequate infrastructure services, residents often pay additional costs to avail these. This can take many forms such as (a) utilisation of expensive private services for water provision; (b) additional pay-offs for public infrastructure service provisions.

Lack of ownership of women in economic assets: Due to lack of property ownership, women are afraid of being evicted, harassment and domestic violence.Additionally, due to lack of property rights, women cannot participate in decisions related to the house. Mostly they do not have awareness related to home and property as-well.

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Information pertaining to various common tenure documents

Possession Slip/ Allotment slip: Issued by the JJ Cell, Delhi Development Authority. Only for right to occupancy. Possession slip is gives with only occupancy rights in the name of person who was evicted from one place and resettled at another place by government.

Provisional Identification Slip (White Slip / Safed Parchi):In case of License period in resettlement colonies these slips are provided on provisional basis to be identified as the allotee.

Red Slip/ Lal Parchi:Receipt for Security and Fee Paid issued by Slum & JJ Department, Municipal Corporation of Delhi

Agreement to Sell: Executed between the buyer and the seller – Stamped (in most cases insufficiently) and Unregistered.

General Power of Attorney: Authorizing the buyer to carry out all acts in relation to the property – Unregistered

Other related documents:Will, Gift deed, Partition deed

Common Documents issued by a Statutory Authority/ Body/ State Agency:

1. Jahangirpuri & Raghubirnagar - Possession Slip issued by the JJ Cell, Delhi Development Authority. 2. SavdaGhevra - Provisional Identification Slip (White Slip / Safed Parchi), along with Receipt for Security and Fee Paid (Red Slip/ Lal Parchi) issued by Slum & JJ Department, Municipal Corporation of Delhi

Ancillary documents reflecting the address of the property-in- transaction with the resident1. Aadhaar Card 2. Voter ID Card3. Ration Card 4. Food Card Issued by the Government of NCT of Delhi 5. Electricity Bill 6. Water Bill 7. Property Tax Payment Receipt

Training Module 25

These are some of the preliminary interventions identified for the informal settlements:

1. Jahangirpuri & Raghubirnagar: Conversion of tenure to freehold through the Scheme for grant of Freehold / Ownership Rights to the allottees/ occupants of the 45 JJ Resettlement Colonies. The Scheme lays down the process for grant of freehold rights to allottees as well subsequent purchasers of residential plots. The Scheme has been in force since August 19, 2013.

2. SavdaGhevra: Lobbying and interacting with various authorities in Delhi to initiate formulation of suitable policy regarding land tenure of residents at Savda Ghevra. The lobbying and interaction with government authorities may resolve around (a) renewal of the license/ extension of the license period; (b) improvement of civic facilities and infrastructure; and (c) grant of freehold rights.

3. Shri Ram Colony, Rajeev Nagar: This is an unauthorized colony which was granted provisional regularization in the year 2008. The intervention may be focused on: - Identifying the current status of the process of regularization.- Improvement of facilities and civil infrastructure works for the benefit of target residents.- Rectification of Title of the Occupant

“ We should have basic infrastructure and services because we are humans,we are citizens of the country,we are voting. “ -Kabita Kumari

Scope of Intervention In Identified Colonies In New Delhi: Important information on tenure security:

1- Documents related to tenure security:Sale deed, Will, Partition Deed, Lease and License.

2- Requisites for a registered property paper:- The stamp will have sub-registrar written on it.- Triangular stamp required for registration can only be availed from the sub registrar office. - A registered document will have owner’s photo attached to it.

3- Stamp Duty:Stamp duty on a property will be a percentage to cost of property according to circle rates. 1

4- Notary:Notary public is an official appointed by a state government to witness the signing of important documents and verify the identity of the signer(s), their willingness to sign the documents, and their awareness of the contents of the document or transaction. It does not in any form relates to the registration of the property.

5- One should have awareness regarding all the relevant agencies and the documents to avail from them.

6- Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board:DUSIB keeps all the records of allotment slips and allottees along with other responsibilities such as: - Change of name in allotment slip- Building resettlement colonies - Providing second copy of allotment slip.

7- One should have complete chain of stamped property paper and the property papers should be in the name of women or in joint ownership with husband.

8- Important documents to claim tenure security: Electricity and water bill, property tax receipt, ration cared, aaadhaar card and voter ID.

1 Stamp duty for a fixed registry is more than Rs 100

Training Module 27

“ I aspire to be a home owner, I wish to expand my work opportunities and I hope for a secure future for myself and my children. “ -Salma Jaan