Recommendations for making Ahmedabad, India, safer and more inclusive

A series of policy briefs, based on research conducted by the Centre for Urban Equity at India’s Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology University (CEPT University), make tangible recommendations to improve the living conditions of hundreds of thousands of residents in Ahmedabad’s informal settlements.

Based on three years of research, the policy briefs explain the challenges of—and offer solutions to—a wide range of issues that includes forced displacement, mobility, theft, violence against women, violence linked to illicit markets, provision of basic services, and tenure security. The briefs draw on evidence from two main neighbourhoods (Bombay Hotel – an informal settlement – and the Vatwa Resettlement Sites) in Ahmedabad, a city that has more than 7 million inhabitants.

Download the Ahmedabad policy briefs:

Policy brief 1: Vatwa resettlement sites – Constrained mobility and stressed livelihoods (PDF, 4.2MB) - Also available in Gujarati (PDF, 10MB)

Policy brief 2: Vatwa Resettlement Sites – Basic Services and Amenities: Deprivations and infrastructural conflicts (PDF, 7.6MB) - Also available in Gujarati (PDF, 1MB)

Policy brief 3: Vatwa Resettlement Sites – Thefts, robberies and burglaries (PDF, 5.3MB) - Also available in Gujarati (PDF, 680KB)

Policy brief 4: Vatwa Resettlement Sites – Illicit activities and Goondagardi (PDF, 4.5MB) - Also available in Gujarati (PDF, 615KB)

Policy brief 5: Vatwa Resettlement Sites – Gender insecurity and violence against women (PDF, 4.4MB) - Also available in Gujarati (PDF, 650KB)

Policy brief 6: Bombay Hotel – Tenure insecurity and land conflicts in informal commercial subdivisions (PDF, 8.1MB) - Also available in Gujarati (PDF, 1MB)

Policy brief 7: Bombay Hotel – Everyday conflicts in access to basic services in informal commercial subdivisions (PDF, 7.1MB) - Also available in Gujarati (PDF, 884KB)

Policy brief 8: Bombay Hotel – Crime, violence, and unsafe urban spaces in informal commercial subdivisions (PDF, 4.3MB) - Also available in Gujarati (PDF, 688KB)

Policy brief 9: Bombay Hotel – Gender insecurity and violence against women (PDF, 4.8MB) - Also available in Gujarati (PDF, 666KB)

Learn more about the challenges facing India’s urban poor with the IDRC-supported project Poverty, inequality, and violence in urban India: Towards more inclusive urban planning.

Discover how IDRC supports research to make cities safer through our Safe and Inclusive Cities partnership with the UK’s Department for International Development.