Housing and its Context in Human Living

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Housing and its Context in Human Living

*Jit Kumar Gupta

** [email protected]

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Introduction

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Shelter being a basic human necessity, there’s nothing critical and fundamental in human living than having a pucca roof over a person’s head. As per Menon, in his foreword to” Making Affordable Housing A Reality in Cities”- A world in which only a few can afford housing is not sustainable. Everyone deserves a safe place to live: it can transform the quality of life of individuals and families. Today, however, most cities around the world are facing major challenges in providing safe and adequate housing for their people, especially cities that are growing rapidly and where the affordable housing options are limited’. According to UN figures, only 13% of the world’s cities have affordable housing (UN HABITAT, 2016). In 2014, McKinsey estimated that 330 million urban households were living in substandard housing or were financially stretched by housing costs (McKinsey Global Institute, 2014). This number is projected to rise to nearly 440 million households, or 1.6 billion people, by 2025 – and 2.5 billion people by 2050. In Africa, over 50% of the population live in substandard conditions; whereas in India and China, nearly a quarter of the population live in informal settlements (Florida, 2017). Studies have shown that cities in less developed countries are found to be significantly less affordable (28% less affordable) than cities in more developed countries.?(Kallergis, et al., 2018). Looking at the global canvas, providing affordable shelter to all its residents remains the greatest challenge for all the nations, communities and governments. Cities are increasingly realizing the need for action. In 2016, Habitat III in Quito adopted the New Urban Agenda, requiring states to promote “‘national, sub-national and local housing policies that support the progressive realization of the right to adequate housing for all by 2030. It encourages an integrated and inclusive approach to housing that interlinks education, employment, health , basic and social services, through collaboration among governments, civil society organizations, major interest groups and the private sector, nationally both internationally and regionally. Well-being of both individuals and families, is substantially affected when the need for satisfactory housing is not met. Access to adequate housing has long been viewed as a basic human right and is considered to be an integral factor for the enjoyment of other economic, social and cultural rights. According to the United Nations (UN) Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, satisfactory housing consists of: legal security of tenure; availability of accessible services, facilities and infrastructure; habitability; accessibility (eg. access to employment, health services, schools, etc.); cultural adequacy; and affordability.

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For a shelter-less person, getting a house is known to bring about a profound social change in his/her status, safety, security and welfare, endowing them with an identity and integrating them with?social milieu. As provider of social security, distinct identity and assured quality of life, securing ownership of an appropriate home has emerged as the lifetime ambition of every individual and family. Spending more than one-third of its life within four walls of the home, housing has emerged as the major determinant of quality of life, health and hygiene. Besides physical, social and health connotations, housing has major economic implications for both human beings and nations. Being one of the key promoter of industrialization, with more than 290 industries involved in producing materials used in the construction,?goods and services, housing has been found to be one of the largest contributors to the economy besides providing large employment to both skilled and unskilled manpower. Considering its multiple connotations and distinct advantages, providing housing has emerged as priority for both society and nation.

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As per UN mandated, Fact Sheet No.21, The Human Right to Adequate Housing; the right to adequate housing forms a cornerstone of the Global Shelter Strategy. The right to adequate housing is universally recognized by the community of nations . . . All nations without exception, have some form of obligation in the shelter sector, as exemplified by their creation of housing ministries or housing agencies; by their allocation of funds to the housing sector; and by their policies, programs and projects . . . All citizens of all States, poor as they may be, have a right to expect their governments to be concerned about their shelter needs, and to accept a fundamental obligation to protect and improve houses and neighbourhoods, rather than damage or destroy them. Adequate housing is defined within the Global Strategy in terms of: adequate privacy, adequate space, adequate security, adequate lighting and ventilation, adequate basic infrastructure and adequate location with regard to work and basic facilities-all at a reasonable cost.

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Habitat III in the year 2016, adopted the New Urban Agenda which mandated states to promote, ‘national, sub-national and local housing policies that support the progressive realization of the ‘Right to adequate housing for all,’ by 2030. The task was mandated to be achieved by adopting an integrated and inclusive approach to housing that interlinks education, employment, health and basic and social services through collaboration among governments, civil society, organizations, major interest groups and the private sector, nationally, internationally and regionally. According to the United Nations (UN) Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, satisfactory housing consists of: legal security of tenure; availability of accessible services, facilities and infrastructure; habitability; accessibility (e.g. access to employment, health services, schools, etc.); cultural adequacy; and affordability.

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Considering the international mandate to focus on providing adequate housing for all and following the global pattern, number of steps were taken and housing policies were put in place by the Government of India. First such policy was positioned in the year 1988, which aimed at providing shelter to all, with the objective that every family must have a dwelling unit of appropriate quality and space, duly supported by basic amenities of life. This was followed by National Housing Policy, 1994 which focused on transition of public sector role from provider to facilitator. The policy also enlarged the scope of housing by making it??integral part of neighborhood. Both these policies focused on addressing the issue of housing in the urban and rural areas. However, National Urban Housing and Habitat Policy 2007, was the first policy, which made urban housing as the agenda and the theme, emphasizing the need for providing and promoting housing on a large scale in urban areas with priority going to EWS and LIG categories. June 25, 2015 marks a watershed in the history of urban housing with Prime Minister of India launching Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-U), to provide housing to all urbanites by the year 2022, when India completes 75 years of independence. The objective of the Yojna is to utilize the national policy framework not only to provide just shelter for the urban poor and meet the Habitat goal of slum-less cities but also to provide healthy and enabling urban environment, to help, enable and empower marginalized section of society to come out of the poverty. Based on the efforts made, housing sector is being given high priority and accordingly ranks high on the agenda of state and central Governments.

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Role of rural-urban migration has been considered critical in widening the gap between demand and supply of the housing in urban India. Studies made have shown that migration constitutes fair proportion of urban population growth. In India, majority of migrants are from lower economic strata of financial pyramid with poor capacity and ability to rent a house etc which makes securing appropriate shelter for majority of urban residents more difficult. Considering the prevailing high rents in urban areas, it becomes impossible for the lowest-income seniors, people with disabilities, families with children, and low-wage workers to pay rent and make ends meet, harming low-income people disproportionately.

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Looking at the ever-rising land and building material prices besides large financial resources required for creating appropriate shelter through legal means, the poor urban residents and rural migrants have no option but to encroach upon available public and derelict land in the city to create temporary and makeshift arrangements due to poor financial capacity. This leads to mushrooming of slums, Jhuggi- Jhompris and shantytowns in urban areas. This pattern of urban growth has high visibility in large urban centers with 54% of population living in slums in Mumbai whereas Kolkata’s share is placed at 33%. In India more than 60 million people are residents of slums and shanty towns and the proportion is increasing rapidly.

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The makeshift shelter, lacking in the basic necessities of life and proper air, light and ventilation leads to poor health and hygiene, with poor quality of life emerging as the natural corollary of urban living for these migrants. With shelter made on the encroached public/private land, poor are said to be under perpetual fear of being displaced by the parastatal agencies with possible destruction of makeshift shelter. The fear of demolition acts as a major deterrent for poor to improve their shelter, with savings available at their disposal, leading to ever increasing housing shortage with gap between demand and supply getting wider and wider. Accordingly, providing adequate shelter for the urban migrants becomes all the more critical for orderly development of urban areas and providing appropriate quality of life.

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Indian Population Dynamics- Urbanisation

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Housing demand and pattern of population distribution are known to be closely linked. Faster rate of population growth and changing social structure are the factors which impact housing demand in any city/state/nation. Rapid Rural-Urban migration in growing economies invariably leads to ever growing demand of shelter in the urban context. Changing social structure, breaking of joint families, downsizing of families, mobility of population in search of job and education invariably leads to the need for creating large housing stock in urban areas. With fast changing urban population dynamics, majority of cities are not in a position to create appropriate typologies of adequate shelter for its rapidly growing population, leading to emergence of large number of developmental issues.

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?Source- Census of India

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Looking at the fast pace and dynamics of urbanization and following the global trends of rapid urbanization with more than half of global population living in cities, Indian cities are also growing at an unprecedented rate, presenting an incredible opportunity for the growth and development of both local and national economies, employment, infrastructure and services. With Census 2011, recording population of Urban India at 377.10 million & urbanization level of 31.16%; India has emerged as the second largest urban system globally after China. According to Census 2011, Urban population of the country is distributed in 7935 urban settlements which include; 4041 Statutory Towns; 3894 Census Town; 475 Urban Agglomerations and 981 Out-Growths. Census 2011 is credited to be a landmark in the demographic history of India for two distinct reasons involving, for the first-time urban India added more population (91 million) as compared to its rural counterpart (90 million) and number of towns and cities recorded a growth of more than 50% during the decade 2001-2011 from 5161 in 2001 to 7935 in 2011. However out of the total increase of 2774 urban centers, largest increase was recorded in the number of census towns, which was placed at 2532(91.3%) as against increase of merely 242 (9.3%) in statutory towns, clearly indicating that Indian urbanization remains distorted for the reason Census Towns have no urban status and they continue to be treated as rural settlements for all intent and purposes by the government for various schemes and programs. The issue needs to be resolved and rationalized to reflect a clear picture of Indian urbanization.

?Based on the prevailing annual urban growth rate of 3.18% as against 1.22% for rural India, it is estimated that by the year 2031, urban India will house 590 million people out of a total population of 1400 million and by 2050, urban and rural India will share parity in human numbers, with?population of 800 million and total human count placed at 1600 million (McKinsey Global Institute Report- India’s Urban Awakening: Building Inclusive Cities, Sustaining Economic Growth).

Census data for the year 2011 reveals existence of large variations?and disparity among states and regions?with regard to level of urbanization and distribution of urban population which is marked by both dualities and contradictions, showcased by high degree of concentration in large/metropolitan cities with every 6th urbanite living in 4 super- metros of India namely, Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi and Chennai; 42% urban residents housed in 53 metropolitan cities and more than 70% urbanites preferring?class 1 cities. Concentration of population in urban centers is becoming more and more pronounced with number of urban centers going up from 5161 in 2001 to 7935 in 2011 and million plus cities (Metropolitan Centers) recording 50% increase, with numbers going up from 35 in 2001 to 53 in 2011. The new entrants to the list of metropolitan cities include;?Srinagar UA , Union Territory of Chandigarh UA, Jodhpurs UA and Kota Rajasthan, Ghaziabad UA Uttar Pradesh, Ranchi UA Jharkhand, Raipur UA and Durg-Bhilainagar UA Chhattisgarh, Gwalior UA Madhya Pradesh, Vasai Virar and Aurangabad UA Maharashtra, Kozhikode UA, Thrissur UA, Malappuram UA, Thiruvananthapuram UA, Kannur UA and Kollam UA Kerala, and Tiruchirappalli UA Tamil Nadu. Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Chhattisgarh now also have million plus city/UA, Kerala now has as many as 7 million plus cities/UA, a quantum jump from the situation in 2001 when Kochi UA was?the only?million plus city/UA existing in the state.( MOHUD website). Looking at the ongoing trends of growth and development, it is estimated, number of metropolitan centers in the country will be 85 in 2031 and 100 in 2051.These cities will be housing large proportion of Indian urban population. Out of 33 ten million plus cities of the world, three cities namely Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi are located in India. As per estimates made by the United Nations in its report, ‘World Urbanization Prospect, The Revision 2014’, the number of such cities will go up to 7 in 2031 and 9 in 2051 with Delhi ranking second largest among urban agglomerations in the world, after Tokyo.

Looking at the context of urbanization among states and union territories, it has been observed that centrally administered territories are more urbanized as compared to states and among states majority of large populated states have low level of urbanization when compared with states having less population. It appears compact states having less area remain more urbanized as compared to state shaving large area and large population. North India, is traditionally known to be less urbanized, as compared to southern part of the country. Hill state of Himachal Pradesh continues to occupy lowest rank among states and union territories in the percentage(10%) of urbanization.

Among all the States and Union territories, the National Capital Territory of Delhi and the Union territory of Chandigarh are?rated as the most urbanized entities with 97.5 percent and 97.25 percent urban population respectively, followed by Daman and Diu (75.2 percent) and Puducherry (68.3 percent).Among States, Goa, occupies the highest rank in the country in urbanization and is?now recognized as the most urbanized State with 62.2 percent urban population,?marking a significant increase in urbanization since 2001 when urban population of Goa was placed at?merely 49.8%. Kerala, as a state, has also made significant progress in the domain of urbanization with urban population placed at 47.7 per cent (2011) as against 25.9 percent?a decade ago (2001). Among the North-Eastern States, Mizoram has emerged as the most urbanized state with 51.5 per cent population residing in urban settlements, though in terms of absolute contribution to total urban population in the country, Mizoram’s contribution is merely 0.1 percent. Similarly, state of Sikkim, which was just 11.0 urbanized a decade ago became almost 25 percent urbanized in 2011. Among major states, Tamil Nadu continues to be the most urbanized state with 48.4 percent of the population living in urban areas followed by Kerala (47.7 per cent), surpassing state of Maharashtra (45.2 percent). The proportion of urban population continues to be the lowest in states of Himachal Pradesh with 10.0 per cent followed by Bihar with 11.3 percent, Assam (14.1 percent) and Orissa (16.7 percent). In terms of absolute number of persons living in urban areas, Maharashtra continues to lead with 50.8 million persons which comprises 13.5 percent of the total urban population of the country. Uttar Pradesh accounts for about 44.4 million, followed by Tamil Nadu at 34.9 million.

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Looking at the emerging population scenario, large concentration of population will be witnessed in the class- 1 and million plus cities in future. Accordingly, these cities are going to face a crisis of population and crisis of poverty in future, along with unending growth of slums, propelled largely by concentrating poverty and large number of migrants. Since land prices remains in these cities high, beyond the affordability of majority of poor migrants, therefore these cities believe in marginalizing and exclusion of the poor from the formal process of development and housing. Accordingly, it will be critical that concentration of population in few urban centres need to be avoided by framing rational and realistic?policies for?promoting diversion of population in small and medium size cities. This would require focusing on small and medium towns in terms of providing basic and essential infrastructure, enabling environment and incentivizing setting up industries and creating job opportunities in these centres. This strategy of developing cities, other than metro, will help in minimizing concentration of population in large cities. In smaller cities, it is always easier and economical to create adequate stock of housing because of lower prevailing land cost and easy availability of developed land at affordable price.

Regulating rapid migration from rural India will also be critical for rationalizing rapid growth of cities and towns, because migration is known to contribute around 29% of total urban population growth in the country This could to a large extent can be made possible by effectively using the mechanism of Regional Planning instead of Urban Planning, which is known for its distinct advantage of promoting urban and rural development in tandem and not at the cost of one and another. Adopting Regional Planning will be critical to achieve the balanced growth, rational population and employment distribution?and optimum use of resources in the states and the country. In addition, it will be relevant to focus on states which have low level of urbanization and high degree of poverty and lack of education and skilled manpower. These states need resources, skilling and opportunities of gainful employment in order to minimize their dislocation from rural areas to urban settlements. States which have low level of urbanization, need to adopt a dual strategy of development. Such states would require large industries to be set up by incentivizing to create jobs and promote urbanization besides adoption of a strategy of clustering of rural areas under the mechanism of Deen Dyal Upadhya RuUrban Mission. If all village communities/settlements are linked with the urban areas through the process of clustering of villages, this country can easily fulfill the mission of Mahatma Gandhi of developing villages as self-sufficient, self-contained and self-reliant units. Skilling rural India will hold the key to minimize migration to the urban India.

India, also needs to concentrate on evolving rational and realistic policies, launching focused programs and educating masses to reduce the rapid growth of population. Experience has shown that education remains the greatest panacea to lower/reduce the population growth rate in any community and nation. Kerala has clearly demonstrated the efficacy and effectiveness of education to??rationalize the growth of population in the state, with 100% literacy. Education and population growth are known to be negatively regulated and accordingly, states must pursue the goal of making all its citizens literate so that they can understand, appreciate and promote?the role and importance?of?having small and compact family to minimize the?rapid and uncontrolled growth of towns/cities in contents and size.

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Housing Shortage

Considering the pattern of physical growth, Indian cities are no different from the global cities where growth and development is marked by deprivation and opulence. Despite distinct advantages and critical role, urban centres have, they have not been growing in a logical,?planned and rational manner. Emerging urban scenario on Indian canvas portrays; large number of slums over-shadowing the city growth; where slums and state-of-the-art buildings rub shoulders; where poverty and prosperity compete; where unplanned development has emerged as the order of the day; where informal sector govern the growth and development of cities and where basic amenities and services are eluding the majority of urban residents. Urban centres continue to face problems of acute housing shortage and rapid uncontrolled growth, resulting into haphazard expansion with sub-standard infrastructure, adversely impacting the quality of life of majority of urban residents. The existing inadequacies have resulted into uncontrolled rapid growth and proliferation of informal sector. Unprecedented rates of urbanization and population growth have made housing affordability a concern around the world. Poverty, population, pollution and inadequate housing have emerged as the major issues, challenge and greatest threat to the urban living.

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Technical Group constituted by Ministry of Housing and Poverty Alleviation (MHPUA), estimated urban housing shortage at 18.78 million dwelling units in 2012, out of which 95.6 per cent belonged to LIG and EWS categories. The shortage amongst the middle-income groups (MIG) and above was estimated?to be 4.38 percent. Besides those living in obsolescent houses, 80 percent of these households were living in congested houses and had requirement of new houses. The report also highlights that nearly one million households were living in non-serviceable katcha houses, while over half a million households were found to be in homeless conditions. Based on current trend of increase in backlog of housing, 30 million houses were projected to be required by the year 2022 ,to achieve the national goal of providing affordable shelter for all.

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As already stated, India’s urban population registered a decadal growth of 32 percent rising from 285 million to 377 million between 2001 and 2011. It is opined that this trend is likely to persist on the back of robust economic development across the country. KMPG in its projection has estimated that by 2050, 900 million people will be added to Indian cities. The rapid pace of urbanization, owing to the rural–urban migration is putting a strain on the?infrastructure in the cities. As urban development takes place, a growing concern for India’s urban planners is the massive urban housing shortage plaguing the country. The shortage, prominent within the EWS (economically weaker sections) and LIG (lower income groups), is estimated at 18.78 million households in 2012. In the given scenario, it becomes critical to fill the existing gaps in the country’s strained urban infrastructure and in particular, housing. Primarily, it would be important to address the need in the EWS (economically weaker sections) and LIG (lower income groups), which currently account for 95 percent of urban housing shortage in the country. Of the total urban housing shortage, nearly 62 percent houses are self-owned, while 38 percent families live in rented homes. Out of the total estimated shortage of 18.78 mn units; 3%(0.53mn) households are known to be homeless whereas 5% (0.99 mn) live in unserviceable( katcha) houses; number of?household living in?obsolescence houses are placed at 12% (2.27mn) whereas households living in congested houses requiring new houses were counted to be?80% (!4.99mn) of the total shortage. Thus, major shortage belongs to the category of congested houses.

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Shortage of housing is also not spread uniformly all over the physical space in the country. Large variation in shortage has been witnessed in the country among different states depending upon population and level of urbanization. Out of 28 states in the country, 10 States are known to contribute three-fourths of the urban housing shortage The State-wise data shows a mixed picture where both developed as well as less developed states have families living in poor housing conditions. Uttar Pradesh has?largest count of?housing shortage, numbering?over three million homes followed by Maharashtra (1.97 mn), West Bengal (1.33 mn), Andhra Pradesh (1.27 mn) and Tamil Nadu (1.25 mn). The top 10 states, in terms of urban housing shortage, contribute 14.3 million or 76 percent of housing shortage.

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State-wise housing shortage in 2012 (Fig in million) Source: Report of the Technical Urban Group (TG-12) on Urban Housing Shortage 2012-17, Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, September 2012

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Despite the fact that large volume of housing stock has been created since the involvement of private sector but shortage of housing has increased over the years because majority of housing created falls under the category of higher and upper- mid housing segments, for the reason these categories fetch high premium over the low-income housing. Housing for the poor and EWS categories are essentially being looked after by the parastatal agencies and to some extent by the private developers, who are required to provide housing stock for economically weaker sections to meet the legal obligation of license granted to them for setting up colonies/ townships. But in majority of cases such obligation is discharged in the shape of plots, which are beyond the affordability and capacity of the poor to pay for the high cost of land and make construction of the minimal shelter. Accordingly, these minimal opportunities are siphoned off by the speculators and high-income categories. With limited capacity and resources available with parastatal agencies, housing for the poor has remained in perpetual neglect and shortage. Ever rising cost of land, cost of construction and large number of externalities have put housing beyond the affordability and reach of?the majority of urban residents. Operational mechanism of housing market has pushed large number of urban migrants on the fringe, excluding them from formal process of owning/ renting an appropriate shelter.?However, considering enormous shortage of housing in these categories, existing shortage can be leveraged as an opportunity to create large housing stock for LIG/EWS categories, based on their affordability.

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Affordable Housing for Poor

Globally cities are in crisis when considered in the context of availability of affordable housing. In 2014, McKinsey estimated that 330 million urban households were living in substandard housing or were financially stretched by housing costs (McKinsey Global Institute, 2014). This is projected to rise to nearly 440 million households, or 1.6 billion people, by 2025 – and 2.5 billion people by 2050. In countries which are plagued by riots, internal disorders or have a problem of unrest in neighboring countries, large scale migrations/influx of refugees have been witnessed in the urban settlements. In these urban areas, large size camps mushroom for accommodating the migrants. Many refugees share accommodation or live in non-functional public buildings, collective centres, slums and informal types of settlements. Conditions often remain substandard and providing shelter?poses major challenge. It has been estimated that more than 6.6 million refugees and people in refuge-like situations live in camps, among them 4.6 million in planned/managed camps and about 2 million in self-settled camps.?While camps can be practical, particularly during emergencies, encampment results in a range of problems, including aid dependency and isolation. (UNCHR) In Africa, over 50% of the population live in substandard conditions; whereas in India and China, nearly a quarter of the population live in informal settlements (Florida, 2017). As per UNO Habitat Report 2016, only 13% of world’s cities offer affordable housing. World Economic Forum, has estimated that by 2030, three billion people on this planet will need improved housing.

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In its report, ‘10 Ways cities are tackling the global affordable housing crises’, World Economic Forum, has brought out;

‘Unprecedented rate of urbanization across the world has led to increased demand for good, affordable housing. A?recent survey ?of 200 cities polled around the globe has revealed that 90% of them were considered unaffordable when applying the widely-used standard of average house prices being more than three-times median income. Affordability is not just about the ability to buy or rent a home, but also about being able to afford to live in it. This definition of affordability goes beyond meeting expenses related to operations and maintenance, taking into consideration transport, infrastructure and services. If a home is economical enough to buy and maintain but located too far from work or school, it cannot be said to be affordable. Factors contributing to lack of affordability vary from city-to-city, but broadly include housing costs rising faster than incomes; supply of houses not keeping up with demand; scarcity of land and demographic changes such as population growth, ageing and shifts in household composition.

Affordable Housing, as a concept, approach, strategy and opportunity, has been gaining currency and attracting attention of providers and developers involved in housing because of the focus of the government to create larger stock of housing for the economically weaker sections based on their affordability. However, affordability cannot be precisely defined because of large number of variables and determinants involved into the making of affordability.

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Unpacking affordability involves study of large number of factors impacting the issue of supply and demand in the domain of housing. Affordability is not limited to merely the cost involved in being able to afford to buy or rent a house, but also ability to keep the house/ afford to live in it. Financial affordability of the house essentially is said to revolve around four key factors involving not only house purchase price, ability to finance down payment but also involves operational cost of the house and ability to financially service the loan. Going beyond meeting expenses related to operations and maintenance, affordability also involves access to transport, infrastructure and services. Houses ,even when costing less but located far from livelihood/ opportunities/amenities, cannot be called affordable because of the cost and time involved in day-to-day travel. Lack of affordability remains city specific and varies not only from city to city but also location to location within city. Affordability can be largely linked to housing costs, marginalizing household incomes, demand outpacing supply of houses, land scarcity and demographic changes involving migration, income, population growth, ageing and changes in household composition. In order to make urban settlements people centric and supportive of quality of life, cities must act to address affordability if they want to avoid a mass exodus of key workers and other talented individuals. Communities develop only when the needs of all residents are met. Ensuring affordable homes is a critical step in that direction, and provides a holistic perspective on the ongoing discussion about how best to make affordable housing for all a distinct reality (Insight Report on Affordable Housing). Considering the complexity, affordable housing has been defined differently by different agencies/institutions as detailed below;

●???????????????UN-HABITAT, defines affordable housing as “housing which is adequate in quality and location and does not cost so much that it prohibits its occupants from meeting other basic living costs or threatens their enjoyment of basic human rights” (UNHABITAT,2011)

●????????????????‘RICS Report on Making Urban Housing Work in India’, defines affordability as provision of ‘adequate shelter’ on sustainable basis, ensuring security of tenure within the means of the common urban households. Further, Affordable Housing is that which is provided to those whose??needs are not met by the open market.

●????????????????KPMG?Report on Affordable Housing- A key Growth Driver in the Real Estate Sector’ has defined?affordable?housing?in terms of three main parameters, namely income level, size of dwelling unit and affordability.

●???????????????US Department of Housing and Urban Development defines housing affordability in terms of expenditure of household on housing as proportion of annual income that should not exceed 30% of the total income.

●????????????????Task Force on Affordable Housing set up by Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, 2008, has defined affordable housing in terms of, size of dwelling and household income.

●????????????????JNNURM Mission has defined affordable housing in terms of size of dwelling units involving super built-up area/carpet area and EMI/Rent not exceeding 30-40% of gross monthly income of the buyer

●?????????????????Government of India has put a ceiling of 30 sq.m of carpet area along with other conditions as the limit for EWS category housing under PMAY

●????????????????Jones Lang LaSalle has defined affordable housing in terms of volume of habitation instead of area, provision of basic amenities, cost of the house (including purchase cost and maintenance cost) and location of the shelter.?This definition enlarges the scope and dimensions of the concept of affordable housing by:

●???????????????Adopting volume based approach instead of area, for the size of the dwelling unit, providing more flexibility in designing of the house.

●???????????????Adopting provision of the minimum physical and social infrastructure on prescribed norms, as the basis to ensure appropriate quality of life.

●???????????????Making cost of shelter broad based by including operational and maintenance cost for a reasonable period to the actual cost of the house.

●???????????????Making project attractive and affordable by limiting the cost and travel time between place of work and place of living

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Based on the studies made and analysis carried out, highest gap between demand and supply of housing is found to be in the annual income range of Rs 2-3 lakhs because of the limitations imposed by minimum disposable income surplus placed at 30-35%. This considerably reduces the capacity of this income group to own shelter, which is highly cost- intensive. Based on the defined norms and the concept given above, the cost of the dwelling unit in the affordable category calls for rationalization, in order to bring shelter within the affordability limits.?The cost of house can be made more rational and affordable; if developer’s margin is lowered down; cost of construction is reduced using state of art/ cost effective technologies; using cost- effective local building materials; materials made from waste and production of houses on a mass basis leading to economies of scale. Affordable housing is said to be essentially a volume game and not a margin game. However, location, cost of land, FAR, density, number of dwelling units permitted per unit area and government charges will continue to be major determinant of cost of dwelling unit. Considering the present status, housing can be made affordable by creating enabling environment; using mechanism of cross-subsidization; adopting project based approach; actively involving beneficiaries; using state of art and innovative technologies; inventing cost-effective materials and putting in place supportive policies of the Government.

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Common challenges in housing affordability:

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According to Insight Report on,’ Making Affordable Housing A Realty in Cities, major challenges facing in housing affordability include;

●???????????????Housing costs rising disproportionately to household incomes, particularly in the lower income households of the society in cities with inadequate supply of social/public housing.

●???????????????Ever widening gap between demand and supply of affordable housing due to limited incentives available to private sector for developing such housing.

●???????????????Scarcity of land for affordable housing?due to?lack of alignment among cities, states and federal agencies on how land is to be valued and taxed.

●???????????????Energy poverty, due to high operational cost and??low household income, high energy prices and poor building energy efficiency makes housing unaffordable.

●???????????????Demographic changes arising out of, Reduced Household size leading to large increase in the number of households and large housing demand; Rapid Population growth arising out of rapid in-migration, education, better healthcare facilities and better job opportunities; Ageing population, increasing numbers of low-income senior citizens adding to demand for affordable housing, while senior citizens who still reside in large family homes contribute to the suboptimal allocation of housing units.

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Housing costs remains a complex issue involving large components including??cost of land (costs of purchase, titling, registration duties, obtaining planning approval, and any necessary cost of environmental remediation or relocation); cost of providing infrastructure/services involving water systems, electricity grids, heating and cooling networks, roads, security systems, sanitation systems; and cost of?construction of buildings etc.(including labor and materials cost ), transportation cost, government levies, management cost and taxes.

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Image--Major factors creating road-blocks in promoting affordable Housing

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Known to have physical, social, economic, environmental, health, safety, security, identity and quality of life connotations for human living, providing adequate shelter for all in urban areas, ranks high among the priorities defined by various national and state governments, locally and globally. “Housing for All”, as the universal goal to be achieved by all nations, has also been mandated by the Habitat-II. However, considering the dynamics, ever evolving and devolving nature, coupled with existence of large number of externalities, housing has become mirage and remains elusive for large number of urban residents. As major consumer of resources, requiring land, men, materials, machinery and financial investment, providing adequate housing has emerged as the most problematic and challenging task among three defined basic human necessities of food, clothing and shelter, eluding majority of urban residents, pushing large number of urban migrants and excluding them from formal process of owning/ renting an appropriate shelter. Despite addition to large housing stock in the urban areas, the??gap between demand and supply for affordable shelter has been widening in the lower rank and file of the society. With more than 99% shortage prevailing in the economical weaker sections, urban housing shortage for the year 2022 has been placed at 30 million dwelling units. Enormity and complexity of housing problem in urban areas can be largely attributed to; non-availability of accurate database pertaining to prevailing housing shortage; land speculation; administrative glitches; inadequate financial resources; outdated construction technologies; ever rising cost of materials; poor project management; ever inreasing taxes and charges levied; marginalized role of private sector etc. Resolving issues related to housing in urban India and creating adequate stock of affordable housing, would essentially involve making land market more efficient; actively involving private/co-operative sectors; removing existing roadblocks and rationalizing all the processes which are known to hamper the creation of affordable housing; to make housing for all a distinct reality.