This report has been possible owing to the hard work and support of several individuals. Even so, it has been difficult to do justice to the terms of reference assigned to us. We could, at best, outline the broad contours of an approach. The details are specific to different aspects of the terms of reference would have to be worked out by the relevant ministries and, in many cases, the state and local governments.

The attempt in this report has been to try and build on the existing frameworks, to urge the implementation, to the maximum possible extent, of many relatively progressive statutory provisions and government schemes. Even so, many will find our recommendations not going far enough, and differ with our mix of idealism and pragmatism

We are thankful to the Government of India and, in particular Dr. N. Chatterjee, Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation(Mo/HUPA) for the trust reposed in us. Besides the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog, eight Ministries/ Departments of the Governments of India were represented on working group. In addition, we had the benefit of respected academics, civil society and multilateral organisations. All these members provided unstinted support and the deliberations were immensely benefitted by their views and analysis. Special thanks are due to the Member Convenor, Shri Rajiv Ranjan Mishra, Joint Secretary (Housing) and Shri S.P. Singh, Director (Housing), M/o HUPA

The Working Group was also fortunate to receive very valuable suggestions from many quarters. in particular Priya Deshingkar, Research Director, Migrating out of Poverty Research Consortium at the University of Sussex and Dilip Ratha of the World Bank and Head - Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development.

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