ABSTRACT
In the 1970s, Delhi went through some tumultuous urban transformations. Lakshmipuri resettlement colony located on 31.5 hectares of land was one such project planned to re-house slum dwellers from the city centre to the commercial and industrial areas on the southern fringes of Delhi's metropolitan boundaries. The last survey conducted on slums and squatter settlements in Delhi in 1995, notes that most slum dwellers come from the neighbouring states of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar. During the Indian Emergency, when large numbers of city centre slums were demolished, the camp residents were placed in a precarious situation. Indira Gandhi's promises to the residents were made in the context of the 1980s, when slum upgrading' practices became popular in India. In 1972, the Ministry of Urban Development had launched a scheme for Environmental Improvement and Upgrading of Slums (EIUS) which aimed to provide basic physical amenities in urban slums.
