Housing the poor

Dr. Siddharth Agarwal; New Delhi

Op-ed: September 18, 2007, Business Standard

In 2008, for the first time in the human history, more people will begin to
live in cities than in villages. According to the State of World Population
Report 2007, the world’s urban population is 3.3 billion out of a total
world population of 6.6 billion. If the current trend continues, the number
of urban dwellers will reach almost 5 billion by year 2030. In India the
urban population is expected to become 576 million in 2030 from the
current 328 million.

With this rapid urbanization, one of the biggest challenges facing urban
planners and governments today is providing affordable housing to the
city dwellers especially the poor. Housing is integral to the well-being of a
family. Poor housing and a poor general environment (the social and
physical characteristics of the surrounding area) has been linked with
increased levels of respiratory infections and water and food borne
diseases, accidents, psychological problems and even increased mortality.
However, over a billion people around the world live in appalling
conditions of urban slums lacking the benefits of adequate housing. In
India alone, about 100 million persons live in slums and slum like
conditions without adequate basic facilities such as piped water,
sanitation, school, health etc. These numbers are expected to touch 200
million by 2020. According to a Planning Commission Report, urban
housing shortage as on March 2007 is around 24.71 million and by 2012 it
will increase to 26.5 million. 99% of this shortfall in housing is for
Economically Weaker Section (EWS) and Low Income Groups (LIG)
which contributes to squatting and slum formation.

On most of the habitat forums, the catch word these days is making cities
“slum free". However, it is important to recount that the past efforts
particularly those involving surgical removal and transplantation of slums
to the outskirts of the city have often failed in many instances. Not only
such sites lack adequate provision of basic services, they are also far away
from the employment centres of the `rehabilitated’ population which
makes it impossible and expensive for many to travel to earn their meagre
wages. Slum women who are often employed as domestic maids in the
neighbouring areas are the worst affected as they are left with no choice
but to either leave the work or leave their children alone at home for long
hours. Clearly, when dealing with such a large number of disadvantaged
human beings, it is imperative to adopt sensitive and holistic strategies
that can improve all aspects of lives of slum dwellers such as education,
health, livelihood etc.

There is a need for adequate EWS/LIG pockets or colonies on serviced

land spread across the cities and especially near employment centres
where people can live at affordable costs rather than squatting on vacant
lands. Such housing pockets could be developed by the government
bodies under the provisions of Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal
Mission (JNNURM) or the Integrated Housing and Slum Development
Program (IHSDP). Private developers, colonizers and cooperative societies
should also be encouraged further with tax benefits and other incentives
to make housing available to the economically poor at nominal rates. Joint
sector projects between governments and private sector such as Bengal
Ambuja Housing Project are few important steps which are already in
place.

Provisions for institutional housing finance to the urban poor also need to
be strengthened. Though, finance institutions like HUDCO earmark more
than 50% of its housing portfolio funds for the urban poor and make
special provisions such as lower interest rates, up to 90% of loan
component in the unit cost and longer repayment period. However,
housing loan finance still remains a distant dream for most of the urban
poor for reasons such as affordability and lack of information. There is a
need to generate demand among the urban poor by informing them
through advertising and other means of communication. The government
may consider subsidizing the interest component of such loans which can
encourage people on one hand and reduce the risk of financial
institutions. Further, the process of identification of EWS should be made
robust so that the truly needy sections are benefited and there is no misuse
of such schemes. EWS should not be considered as a homogenous group
and further sub-classifying them by some simple criteria will be important
in targeting of the poorest.

Government bodies should also seek support from NGOs and other civil
society organizations in planning houses for the poor in terms of design
and facilities. They can ensure the involvement of the urban poor in
housing and resettlement efforts so that the plan is developed by the
people themselves who have to be settled and relocated. For example, the
National Slum Dwellers Federation works actively with the Mumbai
authorities to develop and implement the resettlement plan and ensure
that the most vulnerable are not missed out. They map each household
and issue identity card to each member of the household. This ensures
transparency to the rehabilitation efforts. NGOs can also play an
important role in loan recovery by encouraging and facilitating slum
communities to save part of their earnings into recurring deposits and by
making microfinance available to them. Facilitating such regular savings
helps the more vulnerable families to take benefit of such housing
schemes.

Finally, it is also important to look for new methods of land use planning
and management factoring in the population growth projections. We can
nurture more middle level cities to offload mega cities to some extent.
These middle level and smaller cities need development focus,
infrastructure investment and political attention in order to “prepare”
them for any such role.

Housing the poor is an urgent and important need for building socially
inclusive cities offering equity of life for all. What we need is accurate
planning and mainstreaming of the urban poor in the economic growth
story of our urban areas.

Dr. Siddharth Agarwal is Executive Director, Urban Health Resource

Centre