Shelter in Chennai 4
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Shelter is a basic need of man; it is one of the basic human needs just next to food and clothing. The importance of shelter was internationally accepted from the dawn of history. The traditional people, who lived between 10,000 and 2,000 B.C. built houses like pit dwellings, lake dwellings, huts, etc. However, the importance of housing increased over the years due to development of civilization. In the Asiatic age people gave importance to housing, wanting only a protection against wild animals, natural calamities and also against enemies.
The requirement of housing is growing in the context of the development of knowledge, changes in the civilization, people becoming more aware about the privacy, sanitation, consciousness of health, environment, infrastructural facilities etc. He becomes a rational of better physical as well as infrastructural facilities, which provides a comfortable and easy life. With the discovery of electricity and other infrastructure housing has become very important, having electricity, toilet, bath, washbasin etc. within the house itself. The house becoming a comfortable place has changed the old concept of protection from animals and extreme weather conditions. In most of the well-developed nations, the technocrats, as well as executives bring work to their homes in briefcases and get it done in the home at night. With the invention of television, radio, computer, recorded music etc. the recreational activities within the house has also enhanced considerably. As per the knowledge the man spent a considerable part of his lifetime within the house. It clearly shows the fact that the house is a part and parcel of a man’s life.
The requirements of housing are growing in the context of rapid pace of urbanization, increasing the level of migration especially from the rural areas to cities in search of livelihood, employment and all, mis-match between the demand and supply of shelter and other services at affordable prices and inability of most of the new as well as poorer sections to assess formal land markers in urban areas due to the high cost of land values and their low incomes, leading to a non – sustainable situation. Urban population of India is likely to grow from 285.3 million in 2001 to 360 million in 2010, 410 million in 2015, 468 million in 2020 and 533 million in 2025 as per the projection based on the historical growth pattern of our population (1901-2001). The current projection of population based on the historical growth pattern (1901-2001) nearly 36 per cent of the population is likely to urbanize by 2025. However, the current pace of development is particularly high and that will increase further growth in growing investment, the actual growth of urban population is likely to be more than these projections.
The decadal growth rate of urban population in India is significantly higher than the rural population, being 23.9 per cent and 20 per cent during 1981-1991 and 21.4 per cent and 18 per cent during 1991 - 2001 respectively. Although India is under growing rapid pace of development, job opportunities are not growing in the same proportion. This is largely contributed to a near stagnation in the primary agricultural sector during the recent period; although the employment in tertiary / service sector such as trade, commerce, hotel, restaurant, transport, insurance, communication, financial, real estate and other business activities have shown significant increase.
Housing, besides being a very basic requirement for the urban people, also holds the key to accelerate the speed of the development of the nation. Investment in housing industry like any other industry, has a multiplier effect on income and employment, which in turn leads to the overall development of the economy. It is estimated that overall employment generation in our economy due to the additional investment in housing as well as construction industry is eight times the direct employment. Housing provides employment to a cross section of people, which importantly includes the weaker sections of the society. Housing also provides opportunities for home based economic activities. At the same time, adequate housing also decides the health status of the occupants. Therefore, on account of health, income and employment considerations, housing is a very important tool for removing poverty, generation of employment and improving the health status of people. Therefore, on account of health and income considerations, housing is a very important tool to alleviate poverty and generate employment.
Magnitude of housing requirements is linked to pattern of growth, settlement status and overall shelter quality. Cities and towns, which are growing at faster rate, need to develop and deliver a faster and greater supply of housing. Growth of slums in India has been at least three times higher than the growth of urban population, leading to sizeable number of urban population living in the slums. Therefore housing activities are to be planned according to the growth pattern of different settlement/ cities. The people themselves with their own resources construct majority of the houses in India. Therefore, the main role of the government at all levels is not to seek to built houses itself but to act as a catalyst and make appropriate investments and create conditions where the poor people may gain and secure good housing and remove the existing difficulties in the housing system. In order to remove these problems National Housing Policy was framed and it has certain well-defined aims.
Aims of Housing Policy
The housing and habitat policy aims at:
1. Creation of adequate housing stock both rental as well as the ownership basis.
2. Facilitating accelerated supply of serviced land and housing with particular focus to economically weaker sections and lowest income groups categories and taking in to account the need for the development of supporting infrastructure and basic services to all categories.
3. Facilitate upgradation of infrastructure of towns and cities and make these comparable to the needs of the times.
4. Ensuring that all dwelling units have easy accessibility to basic sanitation facilities and drinking water.
5. Promotion of larger flow of funds to meet the revenue requirements of housing and infrastructure using innovative tools.
6. Providing quality and cost effective housing and shelter options to cities especially the vulnerable groups and the poor.
7. Using technology for modernizing the housing sector into increase efficiency, productivity, energy efficiency and quality. Technology would be particularly harnessed to meet the housing needs of the poor and also specific requirements of green housing.
8. Guiding urban and rural settlements so that a planned and balanced growth is achieved with the help of innovative methods such as Provision of urban Amenities in Rural Areas (PURA) leading to in-situ urbanisation.
9. Development of cities and towns in a manner which provides for a healthy environment, increased use of renewable energy sources and pollution of free atmosphere with the concern of solid waste disposal, drainage, etc,.
10. Using the housing sector to generate more employment and achieve skill upgradation in housing and building activity, which continues to depend on unskilled and low wage employment to a large extent.
11. Removing legal, financial and administrative barriers for facilitating access to tenure, land, finance and technology.
12. Progressive shift to a demand driven approach and from a subsidy based housing scheme to cost recovery cum subsidy schemes for housing through a pro-active financing policy, including micro financing, self help group schemes.
13. Facilitating, restructuring and empowering the institutions at state and local governments level to mobilize land and planning and financing for housing and basic amenities.
14. Forging strong partnership between the private, public and co-operative sectors to enhance the capacity of the construction industry to participate in every sphere of housing and urban infrastructure.
15. Meeting the special needs of the scheduled caste/ scheduled tribes/ disabled/ freed bonded labourers/ slum dwellers, elderly women, street vendors and other weaker sections of the society.
16. Involving disabled, vulnerable sections of the society, women and weaker sections in formulation, design, and implementation of the housing schemes.
17. Protecting and promoting our cultural heritage, architecture and traditional skills and
18. Establishing a management information system in the housing sector to strengthen monitoring of building activity in the country.
On the basis of the aims of the housing policy of the Government of India, both center and state governments would be carrying out certain initiatives at all levels of governments. They are
1. Take steps to bring in planning, housing, financial, regulatory, institutional and legal reforms.
2. Devise macro economic policies to enable flow of resources to the housing and infrastructure sector.
3. Evolve plans, strategies and parameters for optimal use of available resources, including land for sustainable development.
4. Devise action plans for the provision and creation of adequate infrastructure facilities like water sources, connectivity and power supply.
5. Develop and enforce appropriate ecological standards to protect the environment and provide a better quality of life in human settlements.
6. Continue and pursue urban reforms with focus on revision of bye-laws, municipal laws, simplification of legal and procedural framework, initiation of partnership, reduction of municipal manpower, introduction of property title, introduction of regulators, implementation of urban street vendor policy, etc,.
7. Provide fiscal concessions for housing, infrastructure, regulatory and monitoring mechanism to ensure that the concessions are correctly targeted and utilized.
8. Develop convergence and integration between the urban sector initiatives and financial sector reforms.
9. Mobilize global resources in housing and urban infrastructure sectors.
10. Strengthen a nation wide, state wide and local level Management Information system on house building activities to help in designing and developing housing programmes and also assist in decision making.
11. Promote incentives in private sector and co-operatives in undertaking housing and infrastructure projects for all segments in urban areas.
12. Encourage non-governmental organisations/ central business organisations and partnership with Urban Local Governments/ Government Bodies in housing, micro finance and infrastructure activities.
13. Facilitate training of construction workers by converging other developmental programmes.
14. Promote Research and development, innovative building materials, transfer of technology, energy efficient construction to these sectors.
From being a problem to be sold by constructing large number of houses not only by the public sector but it is the co-operation of both public and private, called joint venture, shelter activity must now become means of mobilizing the motivations, energies and resources of the people so as to lead a fast sustainable development. This was the main idea behind the housing sector especially in urban areas of India. It must be treated as an integral factor for attaining economic growth with stability of the country with special emphasis on economically poor sections of the society. In order to attain the aims of the housing policy in the coming years, the policy makers, researchers, academicians, social scientists, planners, etc. should take into account certain well-established norms, which are very essential for successful implementation as well as preparation of policy decisions.
1. Benefit cost ratio analysis should be conducted, which shall give more importance to structural change, irrespective of all the sections of the society.
2. A well-coordinated, versatile and well-defined policy of housing aims at exploiting all the available resources, co-operation of private as well as public leads to a self-reliance in the housing problem.
3. The top most aim of the housing policy is the dwelling place for house less people. For attaining this aim an improvement in the built environment of the neglected homeless is very essential and it place as a catalyst of socio-economic development.
4. A well-oriented housing activity creates a multiplier effect through widespread social, economical, psychological and other benefits.
5. The role of informal sector especially in urban sector has a vital importance and perspective role to play, provided that necessary support systems are available to it.
6. Generally accepted norm of the housing is that of low cost building and long-term durability of houses. This is very important especially for poorest sections of the society and informal sector.
7. The easy way for attaining development in housing sector or to speed up the activity is through the improvement in the informal sector mainly by providing material goods at the lower level, cash aid, technical advise, use of locally available resources, etc,.
8. To attain the optimum potential that improved shelter has to offer to the nation, the decision must necessarily be self financing and viable. Moreover before implementing any scheme regarding housing needs a well-defined study that clearly aims at economic conditions of the concerned people. Only in a professionally sound manner, can we attain the level of efficiency of activities required.
9. In addition to the above-mentioned, well defined technologies and institutions which specialize in these type of activities and judicious mix of old and new methods, considering our age old traditional, conservative and most modern, sophisticated world can provide more broad based access to these facilities.
10. The worthiness of the shelter technologies must now be measured in the international standard that have rarely been used in the past.
Inspite of the efforts of governments, center, state and local governments, the active co-operation of public and private and non-governmental organisations, the housing problem continues to be a big issue in our economy. The difference between the demand for housing and supply of housing in our country especially in urban areas of India has been continuously widening. In order to assess the housing problem of India as well as Tamil Nadu, first we want to know the number of households as well as the number of residential houses. The information regarding the number of residential houses and households in India and Tamil Nadu during 1991-2001 is presented in Table 4.1.
Table: 4.1 Residential Houses and Households in India and Tamil Nadu During 1991 & 2001.
(Lakh)
No / Area/ Year / Households / Residential Houses1. / India
a. 1991
i. Rural / 1115.90 / 1079.40
ii. Urban / 404.20 / 390.70
iii. Total / 1520.10 / 1470.10
b. 2001
i. Rural / 1382.72 / 1290.53
ii. Urban / 536.92 / 502.23
iii. Total / 1919.64 / 1792.76
2. / Tamil Nadu
a. 1991
i. Rural / 84.33 (7.56) / 83.70 (7.75)
ii. Urban / 41.08 (10.16) / 40.42 (10.35)
iii. Total / 125.42 (8.25) / 124.13 (8.44)
b. 2001
i. Rural / 82.74 (5.98) / 80.38 (6.23)
ii. Urban / 58.97 (10.93) / 55.62 (11.07)
iii. Total / 141.71 (7.38) / 136.00 (7.59)
Source:- Tables on Households and Amenities, Census of India, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, 1991 and 2001.