GCRF | Lockdown Pains & Mass Exodus: Rental housing in India

 The Covid-19 has exposed major structural, social and governance fault lines of developing countries. One of the most heart-wrenching images of the Indian lockdown would perhaps remain the inhuman habitation of migrant labour in financial capitals, followed by their mass exodus to their home villages, walking for hundreds of miles. As governments announce its economic and rental housing package, we investigate stakeholder needs, market & policy landscape for sustainable rental housing of migrant labour in megacities of the Indian subcontinent.

1. Dr Sohail Ahmad 
2. Dr. Adriana Mihaela Soaita 
3. Prof (Dr) Tanjil Sowgat (Dhaka)
4. Dr Sami Ullah (Karachi)
5. Mr Faisal Munir (Karachi)
6. Dr Mahendra Sethi (Delhi/Berlin)
7. Ms Shilpi Mittal (Delhi)

1.   To understand the rental housing needs and market perspectives in the megacities of the Indian subcontinent .
2.  To examine policy landscape, technical capacities and financial needs that define supply-side attributes of rental housing.  
3.  To conduct a joint workshop in Delhi (Pakistan and Bangladesh Co-Is join virtually and Glasgow’s PI/Co-I join physically to strengthen the Glasgow networking capacity 

1. A list of stakeholders, their role, specializations (if any), capacities, contacts and key personnel for future networking
2. A Market and Policy Review - basic understanding of the problem, its scale & trends, the demand-supply elements, government policy, key stakeholders, role of private & non-governmental sector, professionals, etc. 
3. A brief report on findings from field visits and joint virtual workshop discussions, stakeholders/agency information to be circulated amongst project beneficiaries and uploaded on the website of investigators at the end of the project 
4. Dissemination: Blog on our experience and project findings aimed to be published in CaCHE; the Conversation or UNU World. 

 This project will deepen understanding of the rental housing market in the Indian subcontinent that could be helpful to policy formulation. The UoG based PI and Co-I will expand their network to emerging economies, where her previous work dominate with the rental housing market in the European countries. This project provides an opportunity for the PI/Co-Is to work with academic and non-academic partners and interact with local stakeholders, beneficiaries to utilize their insights, data & materials to postulate theoretical scenarios and analytical frameworks for futuristic research and policy interventions. 

The project has long-term chances of sustainability, in the following forms:

1) It would augment the relationship between the team members who are working on different technical and social issues in the urban sector like environment, statistics, housing economics, social quality of life, etc. ISARD, who would be conducting the main workshop is a young and dynamic non-government institution and this project would help foster collaborative arrangements with them. Upon successful completion of this project, we intend to expand our scope into policy-action research in housing for the poor.

The key focus of this project lies on developing new networks, people that matter in eradicating the slums and identifying key stakeholders. The joint workshop is exactly aimed to meet this purpose. We would bring together experts, social/professional groups, beneficiaries from diverse backgrounds, interests and provide them with a platform to share their experience, skill sets, problems and issues .