Recognising the contribution of slum dwellers as an essential to the urban economy while addressing the fundamental pretexts for inequity that ties them down to poverty, including the lack of tenure security, the Government of Punjab enacted the milestone legislation the Punjab Slum Dwellers (Proprietary Rights) Act, 2020 (PSD Act). This legislation provides for sustainable growth of basic civic services in slum areas in urban towns and cities of Punjab by conferring proprietary rights of land to the slum dwellers and ensuing their development through optimal utilisation of resources.

Furthering the objectives of the PSD Act, the Scaling City Institutions for India (SCI-FI) initiative at the Centre for Policy Research (CPR) as knowledge partner supported the Department of Local Government, Punjab to prepare and launch, the guideline for Chief Minister’s Slum Development Programme – BASERA. BASERA lays down the foundation for creating an urban environment that fosters a dignified quality of life among the slum dwellers and is a progressive and inclusive step towards extending affordable housing to all. It further enables unlocking the potential of land and recognising it as the most important asset in the context of slums in cities, through assigning legal proprietary rights to the slum Households. In this regard, the ‘BASERA’ guides the vision of the formal acceptance of slum HHs in the urban fabric and realise the goal of “Slum free Punjab”.