India, July 31 -- For nearly three decades, every few years, 72-year-old Viraf Kapadia lived with the same uncertainty: would he still have a home?

A resident of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet's (BPP) Godrej Baug at Nepean Sea Road, Kapadia has spent 28 years leasing his apartment, worried about being considered a trespasser if the lease agreement were to lapse.

That uncertainty may soon end for nearly 1,900 Parsi-Zoroastrian families in Mumbai. In what is being described as one of the most significant housing policy shifts in recent years, the BPP, the apex body of the community, approved a proposal on June 10 allowing all residents living on leave-and-licence agreements to convert to a tenancy arrangement under the Maharashtra Rent Contro...