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Delhi’s urban planning policies have been characterised by the inability of the agencies concerned to facilitate adequate supply of affordable formal housing stock for its residents. As a result informal housing has crept up across large parts of the national Capital. Unauthorised Colonies (UACs) are one form of such informal housing categories and have grown at an unprecedented rate — from 110 in 1961 to nearly 1800 colonies today. These UACs cater largely to the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) and Low Income Groups (LIG) that reside in the city.

While numerous efforts have been made to regularise these colonies to address problems emanating from their informality the situation has barely improved. This has been a result of institutional multiplicity coupled with the political motives of elected representatives at various levels.

Political establishments target the UAC population for garnering votes and make promises about regularisation and development. However once elected they fail to deliver on them.

In 2008 just before the 2009 Lok Sabha elections the then Central Government issued a notification to regularise UACs and invited applications from these colonies. However the process went nowhere post applications.

This time the Narendra Modi-led BJP Government at the Centre close to the Delhi Assembly elections in February 8 has passed a Bill in the Parliament to confer ownership rights on 40 lakh people living in unauthorised colonies. In this regard Prime Minister Modi addressed a rally in New Delhi and said “We took the initiative to do the work which many previous Governments did not do.”

As per the Bill these rights will be conferred for built-up plots as well as vacant plots on payment of nominal charges.

Subsequently any owner of a 100 sq mt residential plot in an unauthorised colony will have to pay at least `19980 (depending on the zone in which the colony falls) to acquire the ownership certificate. This addresses the affordability concern in case of the UAC population while attempting to recover the land cost from the residents of these colonies.

This measure can have positive benefits for the city’s economy. Implementing this notification can provide an entry point for the residents into the formal financial markets. This affirmed ownership can enable property owners to seek collateral against their houses. Such a move is expected to add around 800000 potential customers to the housing loans market providing the necessary push to the national Capital’s economy.

With the registration of UAC households the decision is likely to boost further formal transactions hence adding to the Government’s stamp duty revenue.

However the Bill does not offer any clarity on the status of transaction of a plot/house/property in the existing colony. This clarity is important to solve the issue of creating a formal and affordable housing market in these colonies. In the absence of clear information it may be assumed that with the conferment of the ownership rights to a UAC plot owner the subsequent registration of sale deed will take place at the conventional circle rates of the colony.

In this case the resident living in an UAC household acquires the ownership rights of a 100 sq mt plot for at least `19980; however he/she would be selling the same property for `1.6 crore based on conventional circle rates.

This begs the question — do properties in these localities really merit this price given the inadequate infrastructure? In this regard to maintain a balanced buyer-seller dynamics policymakers should reconsider the transaction prices for these households. Without this necessary revision it is possible that these prices create an excess supply condition and consequently distort the market.  

Another route through which this Bill is likely to inflate the Government’s revenue is through Property Tax obligation for the registered UAC households. Although the notification is silent on the issue of Property Tax collection from these colonies the forthcoming Bill is likely to offer clarity in this regard. With legal ownership the UAC residents will be obliged to pay the annual property tax which will be a significant contributor to its maintenance services.

To reap these possible economic gains from the Bill it is vital that the implementation of the entire process is not complex. From the perspective of the applicants the suggested process involves certain tools and techniques that are likely to be beyond their understanding given their socio-economic profile. Thus training and awareness would be required to make the programme successful and the Delhi Government must take the lead on it by substantiating the need for institutional coordination

Discussions with a few residents of UACs in Delhi have brought out that given their past experience residents are still apprehensive about the actual implementation of the Bill and have not gone ahead with the application process on the online portal. In some cases people are not even aware of the procedural requirement.

This is reflected by the fact that there are only a handful of applications on the DDA’s portal —166 out of around 800000 households in the city. Against this pessimistic situation it is imperative that for the desired success rate of this policy volunteers are appointed to assist the UAC residents in the process. As of now there are only 25 help desks and they are very unlikely to serve the purpose of efficiently facilitating the process.

Effective implementation of this proposed policy can unlock the substantial economic potential of the city’s land and housing markets.

The issue of UACs in Delhi has gone on for far too long and it is high time that it gets resolved for better economic outcomes. Whether the vicious circle around policy implementation for unauthorised colonies — with vote bank politics being the central point — will be broken this time around is likely to get clear after the Delhi Assembly elections.

(Prerna Prabhakar is an Associate Fellow at the National Council of Applied Economic Research. The views expressed in this article are personal)

The youth not in education employment or training are often targeted for educational and vocational training programmes. India too has developed such programmes particularly the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) the flagship scheme of the Central government.

However as pointed out in the NCAER Skills Report 2018 titled ‘Skilling India: No Time to Lose’ there are sectoral and gender differences among the youth. Schemes such as the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) are targeted at rural youth. However a gendered approach is needed in the various educational and training programmes to connect or transition the youth to jobs.

The NCAER report had proposed the framework of Acquiring-Matching-Anticipating framework to resolve the skilling challenge in India. This article extends the work done in the NCAER report by using latest available data and finds that the conclusions remain broadly the same.

The status of youth (15-29 years) from the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) 2017-18 shows that the youth are either studying (34.5 per cent) working (30.4 per cent) looking for jobs (6.7 per cent) studying and working/seeking jobs (1.2 per cent) or not doing any of the above activities (27.2 per cent).However there are gender differences amongst the youth.

The percentage of youth pursuing only education had shown improvement between 2011-12 and 2017-18 which was consistent across gender. While 37.1 per cent of the youth was in the labour force there is a large difference between labour force participation between men (57.1 per cent) and women (15.8 per cent). About 46.8 per cent of the male youth was only working whereas the corresponding number for females was 12.9 per cent.

These numbers showed deterioration between 2011-12 and 2017-18. Ten per cent of the young males were unemployed — that is actively seeking jobs — whereas the corresponding number for females was 2.9 per cent. Unemployment rates across gender increased between 2011-12 and 2017-18.

There is a small percentage of youth that is also trying to pursue education and work simultaneously the share of which has declined between 2011-12 and 2017-18. In the age-group 15-29 1.5 per cent of males and 0.6 per cent of females were working and studying simultaneously in 2017-18.

Stark contrast

Of the youth aged 15-39 27.2 per cent belonged to neither in education nor in labour force (NENLF) category in 2017-18. Out of that 94 per cent were women. As the table shows 53 per cent of female youth in the age-group 15-29 belonged to the NENLF category. This share had increased from 50.1 per cent in 2011-12.

In contrast the share of male youth in the NENLF category hovered around 3 per cent in both 2011-12 and 2017-18. The number is even starker if we look at the age-group 25-29 with 71.4 per cent of the females falling in the NENLF category. Irrespective of the macroeconomic conditions a larger share of young women continue to be in this category.

The PLFS 2017-18 allow us to explore what the youth in the NENLF category are doing. As much as 58.1 per cent of the females in the NENLF category aged 15-29 were doing domestic chores.

And 59 per cent of the males in the NENLF category were doing other activities not defined in the PLFS.

What does this inform us about policy? India needs to structure its programmes which enhance opportunities for youth to pursue both education and skilling and work simultaneously. From the perspective of the male youth the sum of unemployed and NENLF youth (13.2 per cent of young males) should be the focus of policies especially PMKVY and DDU-GKY programmes.

For them perhaps a training programme which allows them to study and work — that is apprenticeships and internships or evening study programmes or skilling programmes provided at clusters — may go a long way in acquiring job-relevant skills. Placement programmes should also form a key component of these.

Shift from domestic chores

The challenge is how one gets 53 per cent of the young females to shift from doing domestic chores to formal education and training programmes and thereby jobs.

Along with these programmes the young women need life skills. While researching for the NCAER Skills Report 2018 it was found that SEWA Bharat offered an illustration of what needs to be done.

The NGO has skilling programmes for females which enhance their confidence develop their soft skills and enhance personality along with acquiring vocational skills.

The organisation also offers counselling and mentoring.

Based on the SEWA Bharat principles a scalable and sustainable approach needs to be developed to address the female skilling challenge which can offer the package of programmes at the last mile. Secondary schools are the natural channel but the challenge is to get the girls to schools.

Bicycle programmes or dedicated school transport may help overcome the gap. Participation in self-help groups female youth clubs at the village level mentorship programmes with educated females in local areas may be channelised in providing soft skills and a well-rounded approach.

India will never achieve its demographic dividend if 27.2 per cent of its youth neither pursue education nor are part of the labour force. A gendered approach in educational and skilling programmes is needed urgently to overcome the employability challenge in India.

The writers are Bornali Bhandari Senior Fellow and Ajaya Kumar Sahu Senior Research Analyst respectively at NCAER. The views are personal