Articles by Sagar J

Sagar Jayaramulu is an architect and urban development professional with a master’s specialising in Urban Housing and Land Justice from the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies, Erasmus University, Rotterdam. His work focuses on informal settlement upgrading, bridging policy and practice to support inclusive, community-driven urban development across diverse global contexts.

Across Indian cities, resettlement policies have often failed to provide long-term solutions for displaced communities, leaving them with insecure tenure, inadequate infrastructure, and limited growth opportunities. These challenges become even more apparent in resettlement schemes such as Chennai's Perumbakkam, where displaced communities were relocated into government-built apartments nearly 30 kilometres away. Antony, one of the first allottees of a plot in Chennai's Ambedkar Nagar, compares plots and apartments. He explains that having land allows gradual construction and improvements. "This is best. Here, with land, we can construct over time. There (in Perumbakkam), they cannot. There, even if they have money,…

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