HOUSING

Problem Of Housing In India And Its Solution

SUBMITTED BY – SUBMITTED TO –
JASKIRAT (1731681) AR. PREETI BHATIA
Content
1. Urbanisation
2. Causes of Urbanisation
3. Positive Effects of Urbanisation
4. Negative Effects of Urbanisation
5. Housing and its Role
6. Magnitude of Housing Problem
7. Housing Problem
8. Problems faced due to Affordable Housing
9. Overcome these Problems
10.Solution by the Government
Urbanisation
Urbanisation is a process by which a society’s population increases its concentration in
urban areas such as town and cities. In short, the increase in urban population either by
migration from rural areas or by their internal growth is called urbanization.

Causes and Effects of Urbanisation in India –

Urbanisation has become a common feature of Indian society.
Growth of Industries has contributed to the growth of cities.
As a result of industrialization, people have started moving towards the industrial areas
in search of employment.
This has resulted in the growth of towns and cities.

Urbanisation denotes a diffusion of the influence of urban centers to a

rural hinterland.
Urbanisation can also be defined as a process of concentration of
population in a particular territory.
Causes of Urbanisation –
1. Emergence of large manufacturing centers.
2. Job opportunities: There are ample job opportunities in mega cities therefore
village people or individuals from town frequently migrate to these areas.
3. Availability of transportation: Due to easy transport, people prefer to stay in big
cities.
4. Migration: Migration is main cause for rapid growth of mega-cities. Migration has
been going on over centuries and it is normal phenomenon.
5. Infrastructure facilities in the urban areas: Infrastructure has vital role in the
process of urbanization in the development of countries. As agriculture becomes
more fruitful, cities grow by absorbing workforce from rural areas. Industry and
services increase and generate higher value-added jobs, and this led to economic
growth.
6. Growth of private sector.
7. Migration of rural people to urban areas.
8. Employment opportunities in urban centers.
9. Transport and communication facilities.
10. Educational facilities.
11. Increase in the standard of living.
Positive Effects of Urbanisation –
 Change in Dress habits.
 Adoption of modern Technology
 Enlightenment of women.
 Modern transport and communication. e.g. Cell phones have become common even
among rural people.
 Active involvement in politics.
 Growth of infrastructure like Banks, Post office.
 Awareness among rural consumers.
 The literacy rate has increased among the rural people. They have become more
modernized.
 Spread of education
Negative Effects of Urbanisation –
Economic effect:
In many developing countries where economies are growing, the growth is often erratic
and based on a small number of industries.
For young people in these countries, barriers exist such as lack of access to financial
services and business advisory services , difficulty in obtaining credit to start a
business.

Environmental effects:
The existence of urban heat islands has become a growing concern over the years. An

urban heat island is formed when industrial and urban areas produce and retain heat.
Much of the solar energy that reaches rural areas is consumed by evaporation of water
from vegetation and soil. In cities, where there is less vegetation and exposed soil, most of
the sun's energy is instead absorbed by buildings and asphalt; leading to higher surface
temperatures.

Unemployment:
The problem of joblessness is also serious as the problem of housing. Urban

unemployment in India is estimated at 15 to 25 per cent of the labor force. This

percentage is even higher among the educated people.
Negative Effects of Urbanisation (continued..) –
Slums and Squatter Settlements:
The natural development of unchecked, unexpected and random growth of urban areas is

the growth and spread of slums and unlawful resident settlements which present a
prominent feature in the environmental structure of Indian cities, particularly of urban
centers.
The fast urbanization in combination with industrialization has resulted in the

enlargement of slums.
The explosion of slums occurs due to many factors, such as, the lack of developed land

for housing, the high prices of land beyond the reach of urban poor, a large influx of rural
migrants to the cities in search of jobs.
Housing –
.Thus housing can be defined as a component architectural structure within a total
system consisting of various settlement variables.

Role of Housing –
Housing is closely associated to the process of overall socio-economic development.
 It provides shelter and raises the quality of life.
Itgenerates conditions which are congenial to the achievement of social objectives such
as health, sanitation and education.
 It provides employment opportunities to the rural and urban people.
 Moreover it helps to improve urban rural equality by narrowing down the difference in
the standard of living.
Thus housing performs multiple functions including many social needs of the
household.
Magnitude of Housing problem –
The magnitude of the problem of housing in India is quite wide. The problem has both
quantitative and qualitative dimensions.
According to 1991 census, the housing shortage was 18.5 million dwelling units, out of
which 13.7 million for rural areas and 4.8 million for urban areas 41.6 % was living in pucca
houses, 30.9% was living in semi-pucca houses and 27.5% was living in kutcha (kachcha)
houses.

Qualitative aspect of Housing Problem:

Qualitatively speaking the state of housing in India is miserable. About 80% houses in rural
areas do not have basic amenities like safe drinking water, bathroom, toilets etc.
Ninth Five year Plan has recorded the inter State variation in housing shortage. There is a
large concentration in a few States.
For example, Bihar accounted for one third of the housing scarcity followed by Andhra

Pradesh, Assam, U.P. and West Bengal. In 2000, about 48.7 million people were living in
urban slums in unhealthy conditions. According to Ninth Five -Year Plan, 18.77 million
houses are kutcha houses. They are thatched houses made of mud, straw and bamboos.
These are unable to face natural disaster like cyclone and floods etc.

Quantitative aspect of Housing Problem:

Quantitatively speaking, there is acute shortage of housing in rural and urban areas in
India. Presently, there is shortage o f 310 lakh houses in India. Out of which 206 lakh
houses are in rural area and 104 lakh houses in urban areas.
Housing Problem –
Housing problems:
It is another intense problem due to urbanization in India.
 Overcrowding leads to a constant problem of scarcity of houses in urban areas.
This problem is particularly more severe in those urban areas where there is large
invasion of jobless or underemployed immigrants who could not find place to live when
they come in cities and towns from the nearby areas.
The major factors for housing problems are lack of building materials and financial
resources, insufficient expansion of public utilities into sub-urban areas, poverty and
unemployment of urban immigrants, strong caste and family ties and lack of enough
transportation to sub-urban areas where most of the available land for new construction
is to be found.

Proper infrastructure and utilities:

In today's economy driven society, majority of nations in the world are focusing on the
development of major cities as the center of government and business.
As such, the cities will be certainly equipped with a better infrastructure and utilities
such as roads and transportation, water, electricity and others.
Apart from that, the communication and internet coverage also are good in the cities
which are believed as one of the pulling factors of migration.
Housing Problem (Continued..) –
Decline in quality of living for urban dwellers:
Urbanization is major concern for management researchers because it decline in quality of living for
urban inhabitants.
As the metropolis becomes a developed city, the land value will also increase.
The housing provision will focus more to fulfill the needs of the high-income group.
As such, there will be a problem in the provision of housing, especially for the middle and low class
people.
The supply of housing for the urban poor is still inadequate as the cost of these houses is very high to
which low and middle-income group cannot afford.
The lack of housing provision for the low income group has led to the continuation of unlawful
resident settlements in the city.
These unlawful tenant settlements will certainly lack in proper infrastructure that will bring about
many hindrances to the urban environment and create social problems such as child education, crime,
drugs, delinquency and others.
Besideshousing problem for low income group, the process of urbanization has also increased the
demand on infrastructure and utility which cannot be fulfilled from the existing facilities.
The maintenance of drains and debris collection is incompetent which can raise other serious
problems such as flash floods and poor public health.
Thereappearance of flash floods is due to the drainage system being unable to contain surface water
run-off that has greatly increased with the higher intensity of urban activities.
Housing Problem (Continued..) –
Availability of public facilities:
To make smart city, metropolitan cities also offered better public facilities which are not
there in rural areas.
Since a variety of public facilities such as health and education are provided in the cities,
people have more choices either to use public or private.
Additionally, the provision of leisure area, postal services as well as police station and
others are also provided to meet the needs of the urban community.
In urban area, a greater variety of entertainment such as restaurants, movie theatres and
theme parks attract more people to live in cities.

Not all the urban poor live in slums, but most do:
About 1 billion people in developing countries live in slums.
Problem faced due to Affordable Housing –
1. Connectivity – For Affordable Housing to be truly sustainable, it is important for both
development and throughput to be speedy and large scale. However, the lack of
affordable and adequately sized land parcels in inner urban localities has driven the
development of Affordable Housing to urban peripheries. This is turn often poses a
challenge to the Affordable Housing customer, who requires efficient connectivity to
areas of work in city business districts. The development of effective mass rapid transit
systems is the solution to facilitate easy commute and reduce travel time.

2. Financial literacy – Unable to produce formal pay slips and other relevant
documentation to establish creditworthiness, EWS and LIG categories often find it
difficult to secure formal housing finance. Financial assistance and financial literacy
training is thus the need of the hour for the segment, and Non-Banking Financial
Companies have stepped in to provide the needful assistance to such customers in
securing home loans.
Problem faced due to Affordable Housing (continued..) –
3. Cost of ownership – Lack of affordable land, various forms of taxes and levies like VAT,
Service Tax, Stamp Duty etc. constitutes anywhere between 30% to 35% of the home
cost, which increases the cost of home ownership. This is in addition to the
inefficiencies that is brought to a project by local development rules which are more
attuned to premium housing. Moreover, the lack of affordable land options within the
city pushes the Affordable Housing corridors to the peri-urban areas which, when
coupled with the lack of mass rapid transit systems, makes it difficult for the Affordable
Housing customer to take the all-important decision of owning his/her first home.
Positive intervention by respective state governments along with help from the central
government will go a long way in increasing supplies within the city limits till at such
time as last mile public infrastructure like mass rapid transit, water, electricity, sewage
disposal facility, etc. is established in peri urban areas.
Means to Overcome these problems –
InIndia, housing is essentially a private activity. The state intervenes only to
provide legal status to the land. The state intervention is also necessary to meet
the housing requirements of the vulnerable sections and to create a positive
environment in achieving the goal of ‘shelter for all’ on self-sustainable basis.

In view of the above aim, the government introduced Housing and Habitat Policy in
1998, which aimed at ensuring the basic need ‘Shelter for all’ and better quality of life
to all citizens by harnessing the unused potentials in the public, private and household
sectors. The central theme of the policy was creating strong Public/Private partnership
for tackling the housing and habitat issues.

Under the new policy, government would provide fiscal concessions, carry out legal and
regulatory reforms, in short government as a facilitator would create the environment in
which access to all the requisite inputs will be in tune in adequate quantum and of
appropriate quality and standards.

Theprivate sector, as the other partner, would be encouraged to take up the land for
housing construction and invest in infrastructure facilities.

Cooperative sector and Public Housing Agencies are also being encouraged to share the
responsibility of providing housing facilities.
Solution to these problems –
The government has also introduced some schemes to curb the housing problem. They are
as follows.

Subsidized industrial housing scheme:

Thisscheme was started in September 1952, to provide houses to the laborers who
worked before 1948 and 1952. The Government of India gave loans to the extent of 65
per cent to various industries, state government, legal housing construction societies and
cooperative societies to construct houses for the laborers. The laborers could purchase
these houses according to the rules framed by the government.

But these houses could not be sold or alienated without prior permission of the
government. But this scheme did not succeed much because of the lack of cooperation of
mill owners. In the third Five-Year-Plan, it was made obligatory for mill owners to provide
housing facilities to their laborers. In the fourth Five-Year-Plan, a provision of Rs. 45crore
was made for this purpose. The fifth plan also included similar provisions. Apart from
the central government, state governments have also formed various Housing Boards and
implemented societies and various schemes.

LIG housing schemes:

Thisscheme was started in 1954. Persons who have income less than Rs. 600 per
annum could get a loan up to 80 per cent. Local and cooperative bodies are given such
loans.
Solution to these problems (continued..) –
Slum clearance and improvement scheme:
This scheme was started in the year 1956 to give financial assistance to the state
governments and local bodies for improving the slum areas. It was estimated then that
about 12 lakh houses were not fit for dwelling. Hence, the long-term and short-term
schemes were started. But as it was not possible to provide houses to all the people living
in slum areas, this scheme could not progress satisfactorily.

Middle-income group housing scheme:

Under this scheme, the people of middle-income group are given loans for constructing
the houses. The state government also gives loans on low rates of interest.

Rental housing schemes:

This scheme was started in 1959 to provide houses on rent to the state government
employees.

Land acquisition and development scheme:

The government felt that the LIG and middle-income group people could construct
houses if land was made available to them
ona reasonable price. For this purpose, a plan was set up under which the state
governments could acquire land and plots at suitable places, develop them and give
them away to the needy people.

Source - https://www.slideshare.net/aashishkumargupta31/urbanization-and-housing-problems