“Housing for All” in India focusing on the poor will remain a key electoral mandate for successive government irrespective of party affiliations. The only expectation with the upcoming national elections in India later this year 2014 is for a change in policy perspective to truly facilitate housing for the poor. There are workable and scalable housing solutions abound and the policy makers need only look at field practices to design policy that is flexible and accommodates these innovations rather than stifling them. Read more.
Submitted by Rakhi Mehra — Thu, 03/20/2014 – 08:22
It has been an interesting and intense week of strategic planning at the Global Land Tenure Network (GLTN) partner’s forum at The Hague. The Network was set up in 2008 under the UN Habitat with the objective of improving land and tenure rights. Over the last five years it has invested in tool development and engaged partner agencies in the training and delivery of capacities at the international, regional and national level. Read more.
Submitted by Rakhi Mehra — Fri, 11/15/2013 – 05:29
Slums in the census are defined as “residential areas where dwellings are unfit for human habitation” because they are dilapidated, cramped, poorly ventilated, unclean, or “any combination of these factors which are detrimental to the safety and health”. For the latest round, the census designated slums in three different ways – notified, recognized and identified (identified slums do not have legal status as a slum, but must consist of at least 60-70 tenements with at least 300 people). Read more.
Submitted by Rakhi Mehra — Wed, 10/09/2013 – 07:42
Manmohan Singh, India’s prime minister, speaking during India’s 66th independence day, admitted that the government has not done enough on skill building for India’s youth and announced the setting up of a national skill development agency (NSDA). Read more.
Submitted by Rakhi Mehra — Mon, 08/19/2013 – 05:52
This year we have been witness to two deadly building collapses. Or at least two have been widely covered by the media. The first one reported was in Thane (Mumbai), with a toll of 74 lives of mostly low-income renter families. The second one happened in Savar, Bangladesh. Over 700 people lost their lives. Read more.
Submitted by Rakhi Mehra — Mon, 06/10/2013 – 21:02
The term Private Public Partnerships (PPP) in India is a dirty one. While partnerships present an opportunity for stakeholder collaboration that generate value by pooling of complementary expertise and resources, the practice in India has meant subcontracting of tasks and strategy by public sector to the private sector with little accountability or responsibilities on outcomes. The only driver of the partnership has been project finance and profits. This has been especially true in housing or slum redevelopment schemes from Dharavi in Mumbai to Katputali colony in Delhi driven by PPPs between city governments and large private developers. Maximizing the value of land while delivering maximum number of low-income housing are contradictory and misleading national policy objectives with fatal social outcomes. Read more.
Submitted by Rakhi Mehra — Fri, 04/05/2013 – 04:51
The Indian nation is determined to meet its goal on financial inclusion. How financially inclusive is the city of Mumbai?
As the financial capital of the country, Mumbai, with a population of 18.8 million, has more than 1,600 bank branches. But when it comes to the poor and informal sector workforce, let’s see how it fares.
Submitted by Rakhi Mehra — Tue, 03/12/2013 – 05:42
The self-construction opportunity: A bottom-up answer to low-income housing — Part II
This is a two-part blog on the self-construction housing opportunity in India’s informal settlements. Part II highlights innovations needed to address issues of safety and quality in self-constructed housing, guidelines circulated by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), and what we can do to make innovations and information more accessible to communities. Part I highlighted the urgency to acknowledge and facilitate the self-construction market and shared experiences from the mHS pilot.
Submitted by Rakhi Mehra — Tue, 01/22/2013 – 08:20
Despite the Ministry of Housing revising the categories of urban poor (EWS) and low income (LIG) groups with annual incomes up to Rs 100,000 (USD 1800) and Rs 200,000 (USD 3600) per year respectively, the new estimates will still leave out 60% of Mumbai’s population from accessing the national government affordable housing programs. That is a hard measure to accept when the reality in Mumbai is that 2 in 3 people (or about 60%) live in substandard housing or lack security of tenure in current housing arrangements.
Submitted by Rakhi Mehra — Sat, 01/12/2013 – 00:40
From such megacities as Delhi and Mumbai to smaller cities such as Jaipur, Ahmedabad, and Dehradun, self-construction is visible throughout India, a country where over 60 percent of the urban poor live in settlements where units have been self-constructed. Contrary to popular belief, these settlements are not all “slums” as seen near railway stations or large drains, but a range of neighborhoods — including urban villages, unauthorized and planned colonies that vary both in terms of their legal status (right to sell, build, mortgage) and access to urban infrastructure and services. In the absence of scalable private and government housing initiatives, these low-income neighborhoods are the largest source of affordable housing for the country’s poor. Read and discuss.
Submitted by Rakhi Mehra — Thu, 09/06/2012 – 01:00 