How to address housing issues of urban poor- A perspective
Housing issues of urban poor- How to address?
Successive Governments are making tall claims like housing for all,
bigger & comfortable housing etc & keeping on promising. Can Government
alone can address these growing needs of housing? MY ANSWER IS BIG NO.
With migration
of poor to meet growing demand of service sector , increasing population growth
among poor, nuclear families, change in social status due to inflation , the
demand for urban housing for poor is growing at faster phase.
Growing demand
for land in prime areas, hunger for large bungalows etc is making land as a
scarce commodity in cities and becoming as major hurdle to fulfill the dream
housing. Quality of housing undertaken particularly verticals proved to be
unfit for living in two to three years time.
Domestic help,
drivers etc are becoming a must for urban middle class and unless until their
housing needs are addressed the services will become expensive and will lead to
unrest among those sections. It is not feasible for poor to come from far way
places to work as our public transport is not efficient and displacement is
more of an emotional issue.
Governments can
think of people participation and make the service sector housing mandatory as
part of main housing. Once the concept is accepted the modalities can be worked
out and fine tuned.
We are talking about major
urban development interventions & promoting concept of smart cities etc.
Hope these sort of essential needs are taken care.
BGR
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