This self-paced, seven-module course from IIHS introduces a rigorous framework for understanding housing injustice in Indian cities—and the practices that can move us toward justice.
Housing in Indian cities is not simply an infrastructure problem. It is a justice problem, made evident by millions of urban residents being evicted, excluded, or priced out due to a complex mix of factors spanning material deprivation, ecological risk, social exclusion, and spatial inequality. Housing Justice: A View from Indian Cities reframes familiar problems, and opens up different possibilities for collective action. In this course, you will examine different approaches to housing justice, learn to apply a systematic analytical framework to Indian cities, and explore the full range of practice modes: from activism and direct action to public policy, participatory governance, and community organising. The learning materials include lecture videos, interactive dashboards, international case studies, and rare first-person accounts from housing activists and organisers working on the ground in Indian cities, to help you build a deeper understanding of how housing is connected to human dignity, livelihood, prosperity and sustainability. The course encourages learners to develop their understanding through immersion and expression, culminating in a peer-reviewed op-ed in which you articulate your own position on housing justice. You should enrol, if you are: • An urban planner, urban housing scholar, or policy researcher • A civil society member or NGO worker engaged in housing and urban rights • A student of architecture, planning, urban studies, social science, or social work • A journalist, activist, or citizen who wants to understand housing injustice more rigorously Why you should enrol: The course introduces learners to view housing access through the particular framing of justice—bringing together material, ecological, social and spatial approaches. With ongoing debates over slum rehabilitation plans, and housing schemes that remain out of reach for millions, the framework that this course offers is relevant to the lives of millions of Indians. By the end of this course, you will: • Move beyond supply-side thinking to offer a justice framework that is analytically rigorous and practically actionable • Analyse different tenure systems, including rental housing, and their implications for housing equity • Be able to map the range of actors, practices, and modes of action available for advancing housing justice • Apply concepts of adequacy, affordability, and viability to evaluate housing conditions in Indian cities, and articulate your own position on housing justice

















