Between Policy and Practice: Assessing Housing Policies and Informal Settlements in Jaipur

Abstract Informal and unauthorized housing has become a defining feature of urbanization in Indian cities, challenging conventional distinctions between planned and unplanned development. While such settlements are often framed as failures of urban governance, emerging scholarship suggests that informality is frequently produced, managed, and sustained through state policies themselves. This paper examines this paradox through an in-depth analysis of housing policies, land laws, and regularization practices in Jaipur, Rajasthan. Drawing on a historical–institutional analysis of planning documents, housing legislation, master plans, and policy amendments from the 1940s to 2022, the study traces how successive governments have responded to housing shortages through cycles of deregulation and regularization. Particular attention is given to the role of cooperative housing societies and land-use conversion mechanisms under the Rajasthan Land Revenue Act, which have enabled the proliferation of unauthorized colonies occupying a legally ambiguous space between formality and illegality. The findings demonstrate that unauthorized colonies in Jaipur are not merely outcomes of regulatory failure or subaltern informality, but are actively shaped by state actions that normalize and institutionalize informality over time. Repeated relaxation of planning standards and shifting cut-off dates for regularization have created strong expectations of eventual legality, influencing land markets, infrastructure provision, and residential choices across income groups. The paper argues that this form of ‘lawful informality’ has profound implications for urban planning, environmental sustainability, and infrastructure governance. By situating Jaipur within broader debates on state-produced informality, the study contributes to a deeper understanding of how urban policy itself becomes a central driver of informal urbanization in India.