Driven by a lack of opportunities in her village because of shrinking land size and productivity, Mitaben* first arrived in Ahmedabad from Rajasthan more than 20 years ago. Over the last two decades, she has worked as a construction worker in Ahmedabad, but has never been paid enough to afford to rent a place, forcing her to call a vacant plot next to the railway line as her home.Mitaben’s family is one of over 300 that were residing in a basti here, among other such informal settlements in the city.Distress migration has become a way of life for families like Mitaben’s. In the city, they are forced to tread the line of “illegality” as the state has consistently failed to provide them adequate and affordable housing. This stamp of “illegality” ensures that the local authorities, in connivance with the railways, regularly threaten them with eviction – creating a cycle of forceful removal and resettlement.Over the years, Mitaben and others displayed a steadfast resistance against their forceful evictions and the lack of rehabilitation by pitching their tents made from tarpaulin sheets and bamboo at the same spot, asserting their right to the city. However, with the latest eviction on July 9, 2025 – carried out in order to free up space for an official tree-planting initiative – that space for assertion no longer remains.The Umiya Hall basti was located on a land parcel owned by the railways and has been consistently on the radar of various local authorities, including the railway police, the municipal corporation and the local police.Predominantly belonging to the Nomadic and Denotified Tribes (NDNT) (Devipujak and Vanzara), amongst other marginalised groups such as the Scheduled Tribes (Bhil Adivasis), Scheduled Castes (Valmikis) and Other Backwards Classes, the workers who resided there undertake construction work and other ‘casual labour’ in the city.Devipujaks are a highly marginalised migrant DNT in Ahmedabad city and continue to face the stigma of their erstwhile criminal status under colonial laws. While earlier, they still came under the category of Scheduled Tribes, they are now listed as an Other Backward Class – thereby losing the constitutional safeguards provided under the former.Although not ex-untouchables, they are placed very low in the caste hierarchy and have suffered severely due to the loss of their traditional livelihoods, such as animal rearing.In 2014, the families living there first reached out to the Majdur Adhikar Manch (MAM), a trade union of informal workers in Gujarat, to help them battle the evictions. The residents, with support from MAM, filed numerous applications, petitions and public interest litigations with the Gujarat high court, Ahmedabad’s collector, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation as well as the Ministry of Urban Housing and Development to counter the evictions and demand rehabilitation.In 2018, as a response to a survey demanded by MAM, the residents were also given the assurance that families with local documentation would get housing or compensation under various government schemes; however, that never happened.Further, since 2019, the frequency of evictions has increased, and the applications for rehabilitation have been increasingly ignored. For instance, in 2022, while a public interest litigation filed by MAM was pending in the high court, the basti was demolished on June 1. After this, even eviction notices became scarce and eventually stopped by 2023, the locals say.In 2022 and 2023, four demolitions took place, and several more were conducted in 2024. In the case of the latest eviction carried out on July 9, 2025, which has permanently displaced the residents, no notice was given to them, say the residents.Mitaben recounts how the authorities would often arrive during extreme weather such as heavy monsoons and intense heatwaves, and at a time of the day when most residents were away for work, so that they would face the least amount of resistance.During rains, the authorities would dig holes in the ground, where water would fill up, making it difficult for the families to repitch their tents. There was no consideration or empathy shown to the plight of even pregnant women, the elderly and children.When the Gujarat high court passed an order dated February 9, 2023 in the case of Umiya Hall and the nearby Arjun Ashram basti, the basti residents developed a sense of hope as the court directed the Ahmedabad collector to examine their representation dated March 23, 2015, in which they sought directions to the authorities not to evict them as well as to provide them with alternate housing nearby in line with official policies.It directed the collector to pass orders by considering the petitioners’ claims sympathetically and extending benefits, if any, to which they may be entitled under relevant extant policies. This had to be done within three months from the date on which the collector received a copy of the court’s order.However, since the court did not issue a mandamus or a ‘command’ to the collector to consider the representation positively or grant relief, the direction was not followed despite multiple follow-ups by MAM.But, up until 2025, there was never a concrete reason for asking them to vacate, and the plot remained vacant. Which means the families continued to live there, although in subhuman conditions under constant threat of eviction, because of a lack of any alternative.The latest eviction was the final nail in the coffin, exhibiting the dismal reality of the politics of urban environmentalism and governance.The site is now being used for the plantation initiatives under the Gujarat government. The image on the right, now placed at the site, congratulates Ahmedabad for being chosen as ‘India’s cleanest city’.The politics of urban greening initiativesThis time around, in July, the authorities found a ‘green rationale’ for forcing out Umiya Hall’s residents. During the commotion of the eviction, they were told that the railways had decided to give out the land for planting trees – a noble endeavour given the decline of tree cover in the city.However, in the past, reports have shown how large-scale greening, beautifying and conservation initiatives have dispossessed several dwellers in large cities like Delhi and Chennai. These initiatives often view the poor as ‘agents of pollution’ or ‘misusing the environment’, and aim to peddle the goal of the perfect ‘developed’ city to justify these projects.On July 30, 2025, the site at which Umiya Hall was located hosted a grand inauguration ceremony, also attended by chief minister Bhupendra Patel.Upon questioning the officials at the site about the rationale for commissioning the tree plantation there, we were told that plants were required there because “oxygen in the area was less”. The officials also claimed that it used to be an “empty plot of land”, which they believed could be utilised for “better causes”.According to a report by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, tree cover in Gujarat has declined by 17% in the six years between 2015 and 2022. Global Forest Watch reported that in 2024, Gujarat lost 71 hectares (approximately 175 acres) of forest cover.However, the data analysed also states that in 92% of cases where tree cover was lost between 2001 and 2024, the reason was an active felling of trees – and not natural causes – resulting in deforestation.The government of Gujarat has come up with the mission of building ‘more than 100 urban forests in the metropolitan cities of the state’. While a worthwhile plan, the question arises as to where the government plans to build this tree cover, and at what cost. Further, what scientific studies are being undertaken to determine which locations particularly need to be targeted for tree plantations, and if not, whose imagination of the city is being prioritised?‘Sustainability’, a term co-opted by bourgeoisie environmentalists, is increasingly being weaponised against the urban poor and the working class. The politics of urban tree plantation and afforestation is one such initiative being used against the working poor – deeply rooted in a particular idea of urban green aesthetics, which keeps the working class out of its ambit.Home to over 300 families, the residents of the Umiya Hall Basti spent more than three decades building their community. Photo: Bhupatbhai Solanki.The aftermathRashilaben* lived with her family at the Umiya Hall Basti for over 30 years. With the latest eviction, they have moved to another vacant plot in the vicinity – roughly five kilometres away – where they have to pay a monthly rent of Rs 500.Her family comprises three children and a husband. While her husband is a daily wage labourer, she herself engages in ‘chutak kaam’ or piece-rate wage labour, where workers are paid per unit of the wares sold.Further, she tells us that while earlier the school bus used to come till the basti, now it refuses to travel the extra distance, forcing the family to spend an extra Rs 200-300 per month for sending the children to school.While Rashilaben’s family is still able to send their children to school, the families of both Kamalben* and Bhilasben* have altogether stopped sending their children to school.Kamalben has three children, while Bhilasben has two. The children are yet to be admitted to the nearby school, and missed school for close to ten days as of August 11. “We still slept outside the basti for five to six days, hoping that they would eventually let us live back there. We slept in the nearby shops in the rain and then came here when there was no hope,” says Kamalben.Bhilasben and Kamalaben each spent approximately Rs 8,000-10,000 to rebuild their home. Both engage in sifting and selling used hair on a piece rate basis. Photo: Mallica Patel.Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation officials, along with the police, came to Umiya Hall when both Kamalben and Bhilasben’s families were out to pick up their children from school. When they came back, they saw their homes being destroyed and all their other belongings being mercilessly thrown away. While they were able to salvage some of their belongings, most of them were lost.Both families mentioned that they had to practically rebuild their entire home, almost costing them Rs 8,000-10,000, which is what some of the families are able to earn in a month. “When we tried to ask them why they were doing this, they told us that if we tried to resist too much, they would put us in jail. ‘Go back to where you came from,’ is what they told us,” adds Kamalben.The same tactics of aggression and demolition, timed to avoid retaliation from residents, have been employed in the past as well. This, so to speak, is hence not new to the inhabitants of the Umiya Hall basti. However, this time, they were completely uprooted from the land they had occupied for the past three decades.The glaring omission of migrant workers from urban housing policiesThe story of Umiya Hall mirrors the reality of migrant workers in Ahmedabad, who have no other option but to reside in informal settlements across the city. Since many of these settlements are on land belonging to the railways, which has a mandate of evicting ‘encroachers’ and not rehabilitating them, the work of railway authorities ends at the removal of this ‘encroachment’.Urban housing policies ignore and invisibilise a large section of the working poor, who have no other option but to ‘squat’, as these policies have mainly focused on home ownership, which remains out of reach for migrant workers who are the lowest-paid amongst the urban workforce, with irregular access to work and no social security.Launched in 2015, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) (PMAY-U), in its initial phase, focused on in-situ slum redevelopment, which left out migrant settlements as they were not recognised as slums. The Affordable Housing Scheme under the PMAY-U is focused on home ownership, for which beneficiaries have to bear a part of the cost, thus pricing out a large section of the working poor. It was only in 2020 that the government decided to add the rental housing component to PMAY-U.Most seasonal migrant workers have a multilocal existence. Seldom permanent residents of the city, they live with one leg in their destination and one in their homes of origin, where they continue to engage in farming.Aspects such as discrimination by virtue of caste, class and migration status, and the lack of a safety net given a lack of collectives and unions at the destination, add to their vulnerability.Apart from railway lands, workers end up residing in other open spaces such as on footpaths and under flyovers. In all these cases, they lack access to basic services such as toilets, sanitation, electricity and clean drinking water.Since their settlements are not notified as slums, it worsens their situation as they are not a part of the State Regulations For the Rehabilitation and Redevelopment of the Slums 2010, which would have made some of them eligible for rehabilitation – those who fulfil the requirement of holding local identity papers prior to the cut-off date of 2010, now revised to 2020.For seasonal migrants, this policy holds no meaning as they often retain their identity papers issued at the source.The new homes have been constructed haphazardly with barely enough materials, thereby exposing their inhabitants to extreme weather conditions, especially during the monsoon. Photo: Mallica Patel.An alternate housing scheme which might work for migrant workers is the Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHC) Scheme, launched during the COVID-19 lockdown in June 2020 under the PMAY-U, when the state finally could not ignore the precarious reality of migrant workers in urban India.However, reports have shown the grim reality of the scheme five years since its launch, given the lack of political will, leading to slow progress under both models – converting existing vacant houses, and the construction of new units on vacant land. In Ahmedabad city, only 1,376 existing vacant units have been converted into ARHCs since the announcement of the scheme in 2020. While Shelters for the Urban Homeless (SUH) exist, this scheme too has drawbacks, such as distance from worksites and a lack of family dormitories.With regards to the judicial protection of those living in slums, we either see a contradiction between the law and practice, or a complete dismissal of the realities of migrant workers.For instance, in the case of the recent Chandola Lake evictions, the 2024 Supreme Court order to prevent extra-judicial evictions was dismissed because it does not apply to ‘unauthorised structures in any public place such as road, street, footpath, abutting railway line or any river body or water bodies’.Similarly, in the case of Bakramandi in the Ranip area, the AMC issued eviction notices to residents in February this year. However, the Gujarat high court in 2005 had stayed a demolition drive which took place here that year, following which residents reconstructed their houses.In its eviction order, which was given under the Gujarat Town Planning Act, the AMC claimed that there is no provision for resettlement under the Act. However, the residents are challenging this claim citing the ‘Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act,’ passed in 2013, which specifies the ‘Rehabilitation of the Project Affected Persons and Other Eligible Slum Dwellers’.Envisioning a way forwardAfforestation initiatives have time and again been used by corporations and governments to justify the parallel acts of unchecked infrastructural development in urban areas. Old trees which had created a niche ecosystem around them are sacrificed for building yet another highway, widening roads or developing real estate. What is also sacrificed are the lives of those who occupy the last remaining empty plots in the city, as space is hunted for compensatory afforestation.The right to shelter is a fundamental right, arising from the right to residence assured in Article 19(1)(e) and the right to life under Article 21 of the constitution.It is a duty of the state to provide housing to the urban poor as well as to confirm their eligibility for rehabilitation schemes if evicted. This is underscored by various legal judgments over the years, notably Olga Tellis v. Bombay Municipal Corporation, Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation v. Nawab Khan Gulab Khan and Others, and Ajay Maken v. Union of India, among others.To fulfil this constitutional right for Umiya Hall’s migrant workers, the authorities must conduct a survey in tune with the order of the Gujarat high court dated February 9, 2023 – which as mentioned above directed the Ahmedabad collector to consider litigants’ demands sympathetically and extend benefits wherever applicable – and provide a plan of action.After this, they should follow due process in cases where evictions are inevitable and provide alternative accommodation until a more permanent solution, such as ARHC and SUH, is available.They should undertake the crucial task of assessing the quality of units available under existing schemes and consult with residents and civil society organisations to rectify any gaps.There is no one solution that fits all situations, and the specific context of residents and their needs must be taken into account. Housing is an essential human right, and providing decent housing to those who build and maintain the city should be the moral and constitutional imperative of those tasked with governing the city.Till housing justice is achieved for all, masking the failure of the state in this regard under greening logics of urban land accumulation should continue to be questioned.Anamika Singh and Mallica Patel are with the Centre for Labour Research and Action, a grassroots organisation committed to advancing the rights of migrant workers in India’s informal sector.*Names have been altered to protect the identity of the person.