While the world celebrated the arrival of 2026, hundreds of families in Bhubaneswar’s Salia Sahi slum one of the city’s largest informal settlements spent their nights under the open sky. In a massive eviction drive carried out last November, municipal authorities demolished over 550 homes to make way for a road project intended to ease traffic congestion.
However, this pursuit of urban infrastructure has come at a staggering human cost, raising urgent questions about fundamental rights, constitutional protections, and the ethics of urban governance.
The displacement in Salia Sahi was carried out without prior written notice, household surveys, or verification, leaving residents many of whom are Scheduled Tribe families residing there for decades with no opportunity for consultation. Legal experts argue that such arbitrary evictions directly infringe upon Article 21 of the Constitution, which guarantees the right to live with dignity.
The judiciary has historically shielded the urban poor through landmark judgments like Olga Tellis v. BMC (1985), which affirmed that the right to livelihood is an integral part of the right to life, and Shantistar Builders v. Narayan Khimalal Totame (1990), which established the right to shelter as a fundamental aspect of the right to life. By ignoring these precedents, the recent drives in Bhubaneswar also breach the Right to Equality under Articles 14 and 19(1)(e), effectively treating the informal workers who power the urban economy as disposable.
Odisha possesses progressive legislation designed to prevent such humanitarian crises, yet the gap between policy and practice remains wide. The Odisha Land Rights to Slum Dwellers Act (2017) and the Housing for All Policy (2022) mandate that any intervention must be preceded by mandatory surveys and the identification of beneficiaries for Land Right Certificates.
Rehabilitation is not an administrative afterthought but a statutory requirement. Furthermore, the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act (2013) provides a framework for fair compensation. When authorities bypass these safeguards, they violate the State’s responsibility under the Directive Principles of State Policy, which charge the government with promoting welfare and reducing inequality.
The plight of Salia Sahi is symptomatic of a broader national trend where surging real estate prices in growing cities are pushing slum populations further to the margins. Between 2022 and 2023 alone, the Housing and Land Rights Network reported over 153,820 home demolitions across India, with approximately 17 million people currently living under the constant threat of eviction.
Nearly 236 million people about half of India’s urban population reside in slums with inadequate access to basic services. This marginalized status often denies them a fair opportunity to be heard, despite their role as the primary suppliers of essential informal labor.
To rectify these systemic failures, experts and civil society leaders are calling for an immediate halt to all demolition drives until procedural safeguards are established. The path forward requires the provision of safe temporary housing with clean water, sanitation, and electricity before any displacement occurs. Surveys must be transparently reviewed to include all eligible households, and an independent inquiry committee should be established to examine illegal evictions and enforce accountability against officials who bypass the law.
Meaningful community consultation is critical to ensure that relocation does not fracture the social and economic networks of informal workers. Domestic workers, construction laborers, and gig workers are the backbone of our cities, and protecting their right to a home is a moral imperative for a society that claims to value progress.