Monday, May 18, 2009 at 11:49pm
Many or rather most of the bureaucrats and people I have spoken to in the last 4 months have been unaware of the fact that 99% of of the Urban Poor of India currently do not have homes! (Source: JNNURM) - In other words - there is an unimaginably severe shortage of affordable housing supply in the country.
While developers have the right to keep making housing for the high income segment - its the job and the duty of India's PLANNERS to ensure adequate policies for providing affordable housing for the poor. And providing policies that actually would WORK contextually in India - not ideas lifted from New York or Curitiba...
I mentioned to a senior bureaucrat recently that squatters and slum dwellers should not be banished to the outskirts of Delhi... (as has been done for the last 60 years.... far away from their sources of employment - this makes them poorer and more deprived, not to mention the increased pressures on the transportation system of the city.)
- To this he replied - "Romi - these people are ILLEGAL. They are squatting on public land!"
- To which I replied - "But Sir, when these people arrived to work in Delhi 20 years back, in order to keep our economic growth engines running... did we have enough homes ready for them? How can we hope to keep increasing our growth rates when we refuse to acknowledge the "legal" right of existence of these workers who are helping this very growth rate?
How long will the rich of Delhi continue to thrive at the cost of "cleaning out" the poor?"
I also added for his information that 70-80% of the population of the "Developed Countries" lives in Urban Areas. With Development comes Urbanization!...
UN says - by 2050 - 55% of the population of India will live in Urban Areas. In other words, we will see a 25% increase in urban population, keeping in mind an already existing 99% shortage of housing for the urban poor....
ARE WE READY FOR THIS??"
To this - I was advised to go and enlighten the Indian Ministry of Urban Development. Passing the buck is a favorite with our leaders....
Though I have not done that yet... but I think Indian Ministries are already aware of this. But the policy makers and planners are not.
And even those who are... simply don't care.
But I do, and I think we all do. I am trying to work with several professors on incorporating guidelines for spatial inclusion of sustainable and affordable housing into our cities.
I have recently refused to work on "improvement projects" in any of the redesigned and over designed rich ghettos of Delhi.... I have refused to work anywhere in Delhi unless the project area includes a 2/3 ratio of a very low income population. We planners need to look beyond the GK-2s and Lajpat Nagars and Lodhi Colonys of Delhi and think about the Mongolpuri's, Seemapuris, Dakshinpuris and Nand Nagris of Delhi.... places where 80% of the working population of the city actually lives!
When I announced this - I was declared a communist.
But I did not take too much offense at that. I think I am somewhere between a socialist and a communist... I believe lifestyles should be according to the level of work performed by individuals, while public services must be equal to all....
Many or rather most of the bureaucrats and people I have spoken to in the last 4 months have been unaware of the fact that 99% of of the Urban Poor of India currently do not have homes! (Source: JNNURM) - In other words - there is an unimaginably severe shortage of affordable housing supply in the country.
While developers have the right to keep making housing for the high income segment - its the job and the duty of India's PLANNERS to ensure adequate policies for providing affordable housing for the poor. And providing policies that actually would WORK contextually in India - not ideas lifted from New York or Curitiba...
I mentioned to a senior bureaucrat recently that squatters and slum dwellers should not be banished to the outskirts of Delhi... (as has been done for the last 60 years.... far away from their sources of employment - this makes them poorer and more deprived, not to mention the increased pressures on the transportation system of the city.)
- To this he replied - "Romi - these people are ILLEGAL. They are squatting on public land!"
- To which I replied - "But Sir, when these people arrived to work in Delhi 20 years back, in order to keep our economic growth engines running... did we have enough homes ready for them? How can we hope to keep increasing our growth rates when we refuse to acknowledge the "legal" right of existence of these workers who are helping this very growth rate?
How long will the rich of Delhi continue to thrive at the cost of "cleaning out" the poor?"
I also added for his information that 70-80% of the population of the "Developed Countries" lives in Urban Areas. With Development comes Urbanization!...
UN says - by 2050 - 55% of the population of India will live in Urban Areas. In other words, we will see a 25% increase in urban population, keeping in mind an already existing 99% shortage of housing for the urban poor....
ARE WE READY FOR THIS??"
To this - I was advised to go and enlighten the Indian Ministry of Urban Development. Passing the buck is a favorite with our leaders....
Though I have not done that yet... but I think Indian Ministries are already aware of this. But the policy makers and planners are not.
And even those who are... simply don't care.
But I do, and I think we all do. I am trying to work with several professors on incorporating guidelines for spatial inclusion of sustainable and affordable housing into our cities.
I have recently refused to work on "improvement projects" in any of the redesigned and over designed rich ghettos of Delhi.... I have refused to work anywhere in Delhi unless the project area includes a 2/3 ratio of a very low income population. We planners need to look beyond the GK-2s and Lajpat Nagars and Lodhi Colonys of Delhi and think about the Mongolpuri's, Seemapuris, Dakshinpuris and Nand Nagris of Delhi.... places where 80% of the working population of the city actually lives!
When I announced this - I was declared a communist.
But I did not take too much offense at that. I think I am somewhere between a socialist and a communist... I believe lifestyles should be according to the level of work performed by individuals, while public services must be equal to all....
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