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Housing: a national overview
Building and Environment, Vol. 26, No. 3, pp. 235-240, 1991. Printed in Great Britain.
0360-1323/91 $3.00+0.00 Pergamon Press plc.
Housing: a National Overview D. M. S U K T H A N K A R * A shelter program in a developing country for the underprivileged calls for identification o f resource potential, its mobilization and effective channeling. The instrument that acts as the conduit is a national policy. India, in spite o f its pronounced commitment to shelter the shelterless, did not have until now any policy paper in this direction approved by its parliament or the government. There may still be a gap between the objective and the achievement but a beginning has been made. For a large country like India, where housing is a state subject and the policy centralized, there are bound to be areas o f conflicts that will have to be streamlined during the next few years. The author, who had steered the national policy, brings out salient features which defines the role o f the government as a facilitator rather than builder. The readers may find the paper interesting as it covers the entire gamut o f the various aspects that requires government back-up which is a prerequisite for launching shelter programme at the national level particularly where resources militate against will. (Ed.)
PRESENT SCENARIO
the rate of ten new houses per thousand of population per annum, recommended by the United Nations for balanced development, India adds barely four dwelling units per thousand of population per annum. If the present trends continue unabated and no further remedial measures are taken, the shortfall in the year 2001 is estimated to increase to 39.1 million dwelling units. Apart from a serious shortage of dwelling units, the physical condition of the existing ones has also substantially deteriorated over the years and they are now in a dilapidated condition, showing a dismal housing scenario in India. The estimated age composition of the 1981 housing stock indicates that about 21% of the stock is more than 40 years old and about 10% of the stock more than 60 years old. Most of the units are dilapidated and warrant replacement at the earliest opportunity. Large-scale migration and population from the country to the urban centres and metropolises has worsened the shelter problem in the urban areas, resulting in everincreasing sprawls, squatter settlements, over-congestion of traffic, a lack of adequate drinking water and basic amenities of life and a complete deterioration of the urban eco-system. Decay and blight have occurred and threaten to permeate the process of urban growth. The above scenario recounts the grim state of housing in India and the formidable task ahead in terms of the creation of substantial new housing stock, maintenance and upgrading of the existing housing stock, and improvement of the disadvantaged settlements and urban renewal.
THE P R E D I C T I O N that the shelter problem will become critical by the turn of the century was the dominant concern of the United Nations when it declared 1987 as the International Year of Shelter for the Homeless (IYSH), The plight of the shelterless millions, the steady deterioration of the ecology of habitats and the urge to arrest this unabating trend prompted the adoption of a definite policy framework. These are aptly encapsulated in the objectives of IYSH : (i) to demonstrate policies and strategies for improvement of shelter and neighbourhoods of the poor and the disadvantaged by the year 1987, and (ii) to implement those policies and strategies so that benefit accrues to all the world's homeless by the year 2000. The activities undertaken to meet these objectives were meant to focus attention not only on the basic shelter issues but also on the infrastructural deficiencies in the housing situation for the poorest of the poor, both in urban and rural areas. Although shelter, as a basic and integral part of human existence, has caught the attention of policy-makers, planners and the contemporary leadership, yet grappling with the dimensions of the problem and trying to bridge the yawning gap between the supply of and demand for shelter in our country is an enormous and challenging task. The shortfall in the housing units in the year 1985 was estimated by the National Building Organization (NBO) on the basis of the census data (1971) to be 24.7 million housing units (Table 1). The backlog in housing is on the rise from year to year as construction of houses fails to keep pace with the population which is increasing at a rate of 2.2% per annum. As against the addition at
RECENT ACHIEVEMENTS It will certainly be distorting the facts to state that the government has been an indifferent spectator to housing and the above scenario. Numerous activities and programmes for the construction of new dwelling units, distribution of house sites, provision of basic amenities of water supply, sanitation etc. have been undertaken in
* Chief secretary to the Government of Maharashtra, India, former Secretary to Government of India, Ministry of Urban Development. 235
236
D. M . S u k t h a n k a r
Table 1. Estimate/projections of housing stock and housing shortage (in millions). 1985
2001
Particulars
Rural
Urban
Total
Rural
Urban
Total
1. Number of households 2. Housing stocks a. Pucca (permanent)
103.3
32.3
135.5
142.8
44.5
187.3
17.9 35.5
19.3 7.0
27.2 42.5
23.9 47.4
25.9 9.3
49.8 56.7
31.1 10.7 95.2 84.3 18.8
0.5 2.9 29.7 26.3 5.9
31.6 13.6 124.9 110.8 24.7
41.7 14.3 127.3 113.0 29.8
0.7 3.8 39.7 35.2 9.3
42.4 18.1 167.0 148.2 39.1
b. Semi-pucca
c. Serviceablekutcha (temporary) d. Unserviceablekutcha (a+b+c) 3. Useable housing stock* 4. Housing shortage (1-3)
* In rural areas useable housing stock comprisespucca, semi-pucca and serviceablekutcha and in urban areas, it comprisespucca and semi-pucca. Estimates/projectionsare based on the assumption that every household, whether in urban areas or rural areas, should have a housing unit to itself. successive plans. This has effectively forestalled any cataclysmic situation. Disadvantaged sections of society have always been uppermost in the government's scheme of things. During IYSH, the country had reaffirmed its commitment to help alleviate the plight of the shelterless and the inadequately sheltered. Points 14 and 15 of the 20-point programme of the former Government of India-1986 had been designated as National Demonstration Projects in order to give an effective thrust to housing for the people and improvement of slums. The 35 point programme of the present Government of India reemphasizes these in addition to stressing the need for integrated urban and rural developments. The present programme, now in a formative stage, goes a step further in formulating a national objective in the housing sector in physical terms. The schemes for the provision of house sites to rural landless workers ; grants of construction assistance; Indira Awas Yojna (India Shelter Programme); housing schemes for the economically weaker sections and low income groups; and environmental improvement of slums are well thought out schemes to provide shelter to the poor, the rural landless labourers, the scheduled castes and tribes and freed bonded labour, urban squatters, slum-dwellers, etc. The targets, cumulative achievements and percentage of achievement of annual targets for the above mentioned schemes are given in Table 2. The Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) sanctioned 333 new schemes during the
IYSH, with a project cost of Rs 259 crores (one crore = ten million) and a loan component of Rs 166 crores, which will benefit around 1,200,000 people belonging to the economically weaker sections of society. From the time of its inception till 30 January 1987, HUDCO had sanctioned 5113 housing schemes at a projected cost of Rs 4035.31 crores, with a loan component of Rs 2680.70 crores, leading to the construction of 27,11,319 residential units (in urban and rural areas), 7092 non-residential units and 2,85,345 basic sanitation units in various parts of the country, as a part of the social housing projects. In addition, HUDCO has developed 206,882 plots during this period. At the instance of the Ministry of Urban Development, and in collaboration with the Slum Department, the Delhi Development Authority and HUDCO, an experimental housing scheme, namely the National Site and Shelter Demonstration Project, was undertaken in Delhi in the context of the IYSH. The project was to be implemented by the joint efforts of the Slum Department of the DDA, HUDCO, CBRI, All India Women's Conference and the Shramik Vidyapeet, New Delhi. It would try to demonstrate a package of approaches and activities for shelter and community development, including planning related to the life-style of the poor, use of relevant building technologies, self-help construction and community development with the involvement of nongovernment organizations. In the selection of the beneficiary families, priority was accorded to the families of construction workers and families with women as heads
Table 2.
Point No. 14(a) 14(b) 14(c) 14(d) 14(e) 15
Scheme House sites to rural landless workers Construction assistant on allotted house sites Indira Awas Yojna EWS housing LIG housing Improvement of slums
Type of families dwelling units
Target 1987-88 annual
Cumulative achievement 1 April 198730 November 1987
Percentage of achievement ofannual report 1987-88
Rural
549,900
617,162
112
Rural
365,366
224,409
61
Rural Urban Urban Urban
133,042 108,026 40,567 1~540,780
161,73l 63,779 18,431 97,026
122 59 45 63
Housing : a National Overview
of households. Further, the concept of the "cluster condominium" evolved by HUDCO will be adopted for community development in the proposed settlement. The planning concept visualized has considerable flexibility and can be modulated to suit the site as well as the needs, resources and means of individual families ; further, costeffective technologies developed by the CBRI would be used in the implementation of the project. The beneficiary families are being organized into cooperative societies to undertake the project on a self-help basis with professional project management support provided by HUDCO. The Department of Building Technology, the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi and the Integrated Project Management Groups, New Delhi have been identified for the Project Management. Groups Women's Conference and the Shramik Vidyapeet, New Delhi, have been identified as the non-governmental organizations to assist in the development of the community. This experimental project has attracted wide attention and others are evincing keen interest in the implementation of this demonstration project. This novel experiment, involving the vulnerable sections of the population in self-help house construction through the medium of cooperatives, with a complete package of assistance and technical and managerial support from official and non-official agencies, successfully implemented, will add a new dimension to the housing and human settlement development programme in India. The NBO took up a number of special activities to transfer the research findings to the field with a view to providing better and livable housing at low cost specially for the economically weaker sections of society, in both urban and rural areas. To cater for the needs of the various states in regard to the provision of better housing for the weaker sections in rural areas and for the economically weaker section in urban areas, the Government of India has set up 15 Regional Housing Development Centres (RHDC) in different geo-climatic regions of India. These centres have been undertaking research, training and extension activities in urban and rural housing and village planning. The complexes at Bhopal, Bombay and Hyderabad were opened in 1986. The RHDCs are actively engaged in the promotion of new and innovative methods of construction for reducing construction cost of houses in urban and rural areas. During 1987, the projects taken up had specially kept in view the objectives of the IYSH and were oriented towards finding suitable solutions to the problem of providing shelter for the poor and the disadvantaged, such as the landless agricultural workers, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. Six are in progress and further 25 projects involving an outlay of Rs 5,000,000 were sanctioned. NATIONAL HOUSING POLICY Ever since the dawn of the planning process in independent India, various social housing schemes for various categories of the population, legislative measures for the conferment of rights of tenure and schemes for distribution of house sites in both urban and rural areas have been and are being implemented, throughout India.
237
However, there was no clear pronouncement of a broadbased yet well integrated policy covering various issues relating to housing. There was, thus, a pressing need for a clear enunciation of a comprehensive National Housing Policy (NHP) expounding the main objectives, priorities and strategies for promoting a sustained development of housing. The work on the formulation of such a policy has been completed, and the policy document is now finalized after year-long widespread consultation, interaction and debate. As serviced land, finance, building materials and technology, human resources, legal environment and institutional framework are the main inputs and provide the basic setting for the promotion and development of housing, the policy outlines the important steps and measures to be undertaken for tackling effectively the Seventh Plan document which states that the major responsibility for house construction would have to be left to the private sector through selfhelp efforts. It is envisaged that the government will provide a package of supporting inputs in the role of an enabler, facilitator and promoter, rather than the builder of houses. Once the NHP is in force it will be an important landmark and a major and significant effort mounted during the International Year of Shelter for the Homeless. NATIONAL HOUSING BANK
Though the importance of housing from welfare and employment generation point of view has all along been realized, this sector was relegated to the background in terms of investment in housing as a percentage of the total investment in the country, which was 34% in the first plan and 9% in the Seventh Plan. Table 3 indicates the investment pattern during the plan periods. The crux of the matter is how to ensure a liberal flow of finance to the housing sector. Presently, finance for housing flows from both the formal and the informal sources. The formal sources comprise : (a) central and state governments through their budgetary allocations ; (b) general financial institutions and organizations like Life Insurance Corporation, General Insurance Corporation, commercial banks, provident funds, etc; and (c) specialized housing finance institutions, i.e. Housing and Urban Development Corporation Ltd., apex and primary cooperative housing finance companies set up in the private sector. The housing finance institutions also receive off-shore line of credit from the World Bank, etc. The informal sources include households and public and private sector employers providing housing loans. to their employees. The contribution of formal to the informal sources will be roughly 25 : 75, which will indicate a meagre and hesitant flow of finance through the formal sector financing institutions. The absence of a specialized housing finance system was felt since the 70s Commission had recommended in 1971 the creation of specialized housing finance institutions to enlarge the flow of funds to the housing sector. The Seventh Five Year Plan document also reiterated, in
D. M. Sukthankar
238
Table 3. Total investment in the economy (Rs in crores) Plan period
Public
Private
Total
First plan Second plan Third plan Fourth plan Sixth plan Seventh plan
1560 1800 3360 3650 3100 6750 6100 4300 10,400 13,655 6980 22,635 97,500 74,710 17,722 168,148 180,000 34,914
the same vein, the creation of the National Housing Bank on the lines of the National Agricultural Bank for Rural Development (NABARD) as a national level apex institution for housing finance. It is quite heartening to mention that both Houses of Parliament have already approved the National Housing Bank Bill, which will usher in a specialized housing finance institution in the country, and will pave the way for easy and liberal flow of funds for the creation of new housing stock as well as for renovation, upgrading and expansion of the existing housing stock in the country. The Reserve Bank of India has provided the initial equity contribution of Rs 100 crores for the National Housing Bank (NHB). The NHB will be the apex level housing finance institution to promote, at the state, regional and local levels, a series of housing finance institutions and lay the foundation of appropriate lower level financial organizations to meet the individual credit needs of potential owners and to facilitate finance intermediaries. The NHB is also expected to extend technical and administrative guidance to housing finance institutions at the local and regional levels, offer advisory services to saving mobilization, credit appraisal, and credit disbursement and recovery, and identify the legal, fiscal, institutional and other constraints and suggest measures to remove them. The housing finance system will have, as an integral part, an elastic and widespread resources mobilization strategy which will cover the ultimate source of saving in the economy, namely, the household sector. Innovative savings and mortgage instruments will be developed for this purpose. Institutional mechanisms will also be developed to provide households with greater access to affordable credit on an individual, group and cooperative basis. The housing finance institutions will pay attention to meet the credit needs of (a) public, cooperative and private agencies engaged in land and upgradation, (b) employees and workers and (c) producer of building materials and components in both the organized and informal sectors.
BUILDING MATERIALS The traditional building materials like cement, steel and bricks, hold a complete sway over building construction. The only way of maximizing house construction is by making optimum use of available resources through utilization of rational designs, locally available materials, upgrading of the skills of con-
Investment in (Rs in crores) Public
Private
Total
250 300 425 101,491 625 82,458
900 1150 1000 1300 1125 1550 11,500 12,991 2175 2800 2900 31,458
Investment in housing as percentage of total investment in the economy 34 19 15 7.5 12 9
struction workers and efficient and improved techniques of construction. Realizing that India, with the present state of its economy and level of development, with people below and around the poverty line, will not be in a position to afford a house as per the specifications provided in the National Building Code, the Indian Standards Institution has formulated a new standard, IS: 8888/1978, the first of its kind, which enunciates the guidelines for the design of low-cost housing, without sacrificing the minimum standards of safety etc., so that a large number of affordable dwelling units particularly for the economically weaker sections could be constructed in this country in the foreseeable future. From Table 4, which gives a breakdown of construction costs (source: NSSO 34th Round, 1979-80), it can be seen that the concept of low-cost housing is synonymous with low or reduced costs of building materials. The labour and other service components are relatively inelastic and do not much influence the cost of construction. In the backdrop of rising costs of traditional building materials (Table 5) and the enormous task before the government to enable millions of people to secure affordable shelter, India has no soft options but must adopt on a large scale locally available low-cost building materials and appropriate technology. A number of local building materials like mud, bamboo, thatch, stones etc. are being introduced in the construction of houses. Through use of these local building materials by suitable adaptation, the durability of houses can be increased. Mud is a common construction material, mainly in the rural areas. For waterproofing, a bituminous emulsion is mixed in mud plaster prepared for plastering. This saves houses from erosion by rain. The' other important item in the construction of houses is thatch which includes materials like coconut leaves, reeds, etc. These materials are used mainly for roofing. Application of fire retardant and water repellent treatment reduces the risk from fire or erosion and adds to the longevity of the structures. There are many other materials like bamboo, stone, etc., which can also be used in the construction of houses. ALTERNATIVE BUILDING MATERIALS To economize on the use of conventional and relatively costly building materials like cement and steel and
Housing : a National Overview
239
Table 4. Breakdown of construction costs. I
II
III
72.04 23.13 4.83
73.48 23.04 3.48
72.80 22.91 4.29
100.00
100.00
74
55
Size class of towns IV-VI All 71.10 22.75 6.15
72.34 23.00 4.66
100.00 100.00 39
Item (i) Materials (ii) Labour (iii) Services
I00.00
67
235
Sample size
Table 5. Prices of building materials and index of cost 1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
452.9 376.9 479.9 251.5 412.5 372.3 281.2
528.7 462.7 718.3 347.6 432.7 388.2 305.2
675.8 489.3 786.0 407.6 408.3 388.2 322.6
689.1 522.9 031.2 449.3 427.9 385.3 344.7
733.6 576.1 859.8 490.1 436.2 421.2 387.1
timber, some substitutes and alternative materials are necessary. A lot of research effort is being made to develop such materials and propagate their use. It has been found that the cost of construction can be reduced significantly through proper use of these alternative materials. Some of these materials and the uses to which they can be put are given below.
Hydrated lime and lime pozzolana This is a substitute for cement and can be used in the preparation of mortar, plaster, foundations etc. Over 50 plants with a total capacity of half a million tonnes have been established in the country. The use of hydrated lime and lime pozzolana will make a substantial saving in construction costs and would allow the use of cement in appropriate sophisticated structures.
Asphaltic corrugated roofin9 sheets Waste paper and bitumen are being manufactured which are lightweight and waterproof and cost almost half the value of asbestos cement sheets. They can be more conveniently used for semi-permanent shelters. Seven plants are manufacturing this product in India. Since these sheets are not brittle, they can be conveniently transported. There are many other materials like fly-ash, cellular concrete, and secondary species of timber, to mention a few, that can be conveniently used in the construction of houses.
New buildin9 materials from industrial and agricultural wastes Various types of new building materials based on rice husk, fly-ash, timber waste, red mud, blast furnace slag, coir waste, etc., have been developed and are being increasingly used. The uses of these materials offer the following advantages : 1. economy in cost 2. saving in disposal cost
3. 4. 5. 6.
Building material Bricks Barsand rods Logs,timber and bamboo Cement Sheetglass Sanitary wares Paints and varnishes
reduction in denudation of agricultural areas savings in fuel ecological benefit recycling of wastes.
Application of modern techniques The obsolescence of the production process of traditional building materials is largely responsible for the steep rise in costs. The application of modern technology and processes of production would substantially reduce the cost of construction. Bricks, for example, constitute about 17% of the total cost of building. Use of thermally efficient kilns and mass producing brick-laying machines will substantially reduce the cost.
Research and development In an under-developed economy like India, research activities should lead to innovations in cost-effective, easily accessible building materials and simple techniques acceptable to the common man. It is a common experience that the users and consumers of building materials, particularly in India, live under a shadow of ignorance of research efforts and the findings made in the research institutes. The low cost alternative building materials innovated by the research institutes scarcely reach the common man and even the builders organizations. In order to ensure that the fruits of research and development efforts reach the field and are widely accepted, a network of building centres needs to be created and developed throughout the length and breadth of the country so that the people have an easy access to the newly developed low-cost building materials, followed up with adequate facilities of training in their use and application. Building centres have, therefore, a vital role to play as production, training and extension centres for promoting the use of new and improved materials and technology. The Conference of Housing Ministers resolved that the building materials and techniques evolved by research institutions and organizations such as the Central Build-
D. M. Sukthankar
240
ing Research Institute (CBRI), Structural Engineering Research Centre (SERC), Regional Research Laboratory (RRL), NBO etc. should be adopted in the housing sector and that the housing boards and authorities should use these materials and techniques in at least 10% of their housing construction programme. A close liaison and coordination between the organizations promoting the production and use of new building materials on the one hand and the professionals, project authorities, craftsmen and users on the other is essential for ensuring a smooth and expeditious transfer of technology. Building centres, it is expected, would emerge as the strongest link in the chain of technology transmission. "Nirmity Kendra", a building centre established in Quilon in Kerala bears good testimony to this.
COOPERATIVES The cooperative movement has played a vital role in providing housing to many families who would not normally have been able to look forward to home ownership. The extent of progress of housing cooperatives in the country can be gauged from the fact that as against 5564 million members and a working capital of Rs 530 million in 1959-60, there were over 34,000 societies with 1.86
million members and a working capital of Rs 12,400 million in the year 1985. The structure of the cooperative housing movement obtained a strong organizational base in 1969, when the National Cooperative Housing Finance (NCHF) was set up for coordinating and guiding the activities of cooperative societies in the country. The cooperative housing structure in the country consists of two tiers. At the grass roots level, primary cooperative housing societies are formed by the people. At the state level, these societies are affiliated to the apex cooperative housing finance society. The apex body channels funds through the primary societies within its jurisdiction. The cooperative housing societies have helped to add 1.2 million housing units to the housing stock of the country. A recent study conducted by the N C H F has revealed that about 59% of the houses constructed by the societies are for members belonging to the economically weaker section and low income groups. A much bigger and more purposeful role for housing cooperatives in the future is therefore envisaged. The observance of 1987 as the IYSH certainly brought into focus the plight of the shelterless, the inadequately sheltered, and galvanized housing efforts and activities and promoted the policy initiative to overcome the housing shortage in the years to come.
0360-1323/91 $3.00+0.00 Pergamon Press plc.
Housing: a National Overview D. M. S U K T H A N K A R * A shelter program in a developing country for the underprivileged calls for identification o f resource potential, its mobilization and effective channeling. The instrument that acts as the conduit is a national policy. India, in spite o f its pronounced commitment to shelter the shelterless, did not have until now any policy paper in this direction approved by its parliament or the government. There may still be a gap between the objective and the achievement but a beginning has been made. For a large country like India, where housing is a state subject and the policy centralized, there are bound to be areas o f conflicts that will have to be streamlined during the next few years. The author, who had steered the national policy, brings out salient features which defines the role o f the government as a facilitator rather than builder. The readers may find the paper interesting as it covers the entire gamut o f the various aspects that requires government back-up which is a prerequisite for launching shelter programme at the national level particularly where resources militate against will. (Ed.)
PRESENT SCENARIO
the rate of ten new houses per thousand of population per annum, recommended by the United Nations for balanced development, India adds barely four dwelling units per thousand of population per annum. If the present trends continue unabated and no further remedial measures are taken, the shortfall in the year 2001 is estimated to increase to 39.1 million dwelling units. Apart from a serious shortage of dwelling units, the physical condition of the existing ones has also substantially deteriorated over the years and they are now in a dilapidated condition, showing a dismal housing scenario in India. The estimated age composition of the 1981 housing stock indicates that about 21% of the stock is more than 40 years old and about 10% of the stock more than 60 years old. Most of the units are dilapidated and warrant replacement at the earliest opportunity. Large-scale migration and population from the country to the urban centres and metropolises has worsened the shelter problem in the urban areas, resulting in everincreasing sprawls, squatter settlements, over-congestion of traffic, a lack of adequate drinking water and basic amenities of life and a complete deterioration of the urban eco-system. Decay and blight have occurred and threaten to permeate the process of urban growth. The above scenario recounts the grim state of housing in India and the formidable task ahead in terms of the creation of substantial new housing stock, maintenance and upgrading of the existing housing stock, and improvement of the disadvantaged settlements and urban renewal.
THE P R E D I C T I O N that the shelter problem will become critical by the turn of the century was the dominant concern of the United Nations when it declared 1987 as the International Year of Shelter for the Homeless (IYSH), The plight of the shelterless millions, the steady deterioration of the ecology of habitats and the urge to arrest this unabating trend prompted the adoption of a definite policy framework. These are aptly encapsulated in the objectives of IYSH : (i) to demonstrate policies and strategies for improvement of shelter and neighbourhoods of the poor and the disadvantaged by the year 1987, and (ii) to implement those policies and strategies so that benefit accrues to all the world's homeless by the year 2000. The activities undertaken to meet these objectives were meant to focus attention not only on the basic shelter issues but also on the infrastructural deficiencies in the housing situation for the poorest of the poor, both in urban and rural areas. Although shelter, as a basic and integral part of human existence, has caught the attention of policy-makers, planners and the contemporary leadership, yet grappling with the dimensions of the problem and trying to bridge the yawning gap between the supply of and demand for shelter in our country is an enormous and challenging task. The shortfall in the housing units in the year 1985 was estimated by the National Building Organization (NBO) on the basis of the census data (1971) to be 24.7 million housing units (Table 1). The backlog in housing is on the rise from year to year as construction of houses fails to keep pace with the population which is increasing at a rate of 2.2% per annum. As against the addition at
RECENT ACHIEVEMENTS It will certainly be distorting the facts to state that the government has been an indifferent spectator to housing and the above scenario. Numerous activities and programmes for the construction of new dwelling units, distribution of house sites, provision of basic amenities of water supply, sanitation etc. have been undertaken in
* Chief secretary to the Government of Maharashtra, India, former Secretary to Government of India, Ministry of Urban Development. 235
236
D. M . S u k t h a n k a r
Table 1. Estimate/projections of housing stock and housing shortage (in millions). 1985
2001
Particulars
Rural
Urban
Total
Rural
Urban
Total
1. Number of households 2. Housing stocks a. Pucca (permanent)
103.3
32.3
135.5
142.8
44.5
187.3
17.9 35.5
19.3 7.0
27.2 42.5
23.9 47.4
25.9 9.3
49.8 56.7
31.1 10.7 95.2 84.3 18.8
0.5 2.9 29.7 26.3 5.9
31.6 13.6 124.9 110.8 24.7
41.7 14.3 127.3 113.0 29.8
0.7 3.8 39.7 35.2 9.3
42.4 18.1 167.0 148.2 39.1
b. Semi-pucca
c. Serviceablekutcha (temporary) d. Unserviceablekutcha (a+b+c) 3. Useable housing stock* 4. Housing shortage (1-3)
* In rural areas useable housing stock comprisespucca, semi-pucca and serviceablekutcha and in urban areas, it comprisespucca and semi-pucca. Estimates/projectionsare based on the assumption that every household, whether in urban areas or rural areas, should have a housing unit to itself. successive plans. This has effectively forestalled any cataclysmic situation. Disadvantaged sections of society have always been uppermost in the government's scheme of things. During IYSH, the country had reaffirmed its commitment to help alleviate the plight of the shelterless and the inadequately sheltered. Points 14 and 15 of the 20-point programme of the former Government of India-1986 had been designated as National Demonstration Projects in order to give an effective thrust to housing for the people and improvement of slums. The 35 point programme of the present Government of India reemphasizes these in addition to stressing the need for integrated urban and rural developments. The present programme, now in a formative stage, goes a step further in formulating a national objective in the housing sector in physical terms. The schemes for the provision of house sites to rural landless workers ; grants of construction assistance; Indira Awas Yojna (India Shelter Programme); housing schemes for the economically weaker sections and low income groups; and environmental improvement of slums are well thought out schemes to provide shelter to the poor, the rural landless labourers, the scheduled castes and tribes and freed bonded labour, urban squatters, slum-dwellers, etc. The targets, cumulative achievements and percentage of achievement of annual targets for the above mentioned schemes are given in Table 2. The Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) sanctioned 333 new schemes during the
IYSH, with a project cost of Rs 259 crores (one crore = ten million) and a loan component of Rs 166 crores, which will benefit around 1,200,000 people belonging to the economically weaker sections of society. From the time of its inception till 30 January 1987, HUDCO had sanctioned 5113 housing schemes at a projected cost of Rs 4035.31 crores, with a loan component of Rs 2680.70 crores, leading to the construction of 27,11,319 residential units (in urban and rural areas), 7092 non-residential units and 2,85,345 basic sanitation units in various parts of the country, as a part of the social housing projects. In addition, HUDCO has developed 206,882 plots during this period. At the instance of the Ministry of Urban Development, and in collaboration with the Slum Department, the Delhi Development Authority and HUDCO, an experimental housing scheme, namely the National Site and Shelter Demonstration Project, was undertaken in Delhi in the context of the IYSH. The project was to be implemented by the joint efforts of the Slum Department of the DDA, HUDCO, CBRI, All India Women's Conference and the Shramik Vidyapeet, New Delhi. It would try to demonstrate a package of approaches and activities for shelter and community development, including planning related to the life-style of the poor, use of relevant building technologies, self-help construction and community development with the involvement of nongovernment organizations. In the selection of the beneficiary families, priority was accorded to the families of construction workers and families with women as heads
Table 2.
Point No. 14(a) 14(b) 14(c) 14(d) 14(e) 15
Scheme House sites to rural landless workers Construction assistant on allotted house sites Indira Awas Yojna EWS housing LIG housing Improvement of slums
Type of families dwelling units
Target 1987-88 annual
Cumulative achievement 1 April 198730 November 1987
Percentage of achievement ofannual report 1987-88
Rural
549,900
617,162
112
Rural
365,366
224,409
61
Rural Urban Urban Urban
133,042 108,026 40,567 1~540,780
161,73l 63,779 18,431 97,026
122 59 45 63
Housing : a National Overview
of households. Further, the concept of the "cluster condominium" evolved by HUDCO will be adopted for community development in the proposed settlement. The planning concept visualized has considerable flexibility and can be modulated to suit the site as well as the needs, resources and means of individual families ; further, costeffective technologies developed by the CBRI would be used in the implementation of the project. The beneficiary families are being organized into cooperative societies to undertake the project on a self-help basis with professional project management support provided by HUDCO. The Department of Building Technology, the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi and the Integrated Project Management Groups, New Delhi have been identified for the Project Management. Groups Women's Conference and the Shramik Vidyapeet, New Delhi, have been identified as the non-governmental organizations to assist in the development of the community. This experimental project has attracted wide attention and others are evincing keen interest in the implementation of this demonstration project. This novel experiment, involving the vulnerable sections of the population in self-help house construction through the medium of cooperatives, with a complete package of assistance and technical and managerial support from official and non-official agencies, successfully implemented, will add a new dimension to the housing and human settlement development programme in India. The NBO took up a number of special activities to transfer the research findings to the field with a view to providing better and livable housing at low cost specially for the economically weaker sections of society, in both urban and rural areas. To cater for the needs of the various states in regard to the provision of better housing for the weaker sections in rural areas and for the economically weaker section in urban areas, the Government of India has set up 15 Regional Housing Development Centres (RHDC) in different geo-climatic regions of India. These centres have been undertaking research, training and extension activities in urban and rural housing and village planning. The complexes at Bhopal, Bombay and Hyderabad were opened in 1986. The RHDCs are actively engaged in the promotion of new and innovative methods of construction for reducing construction cost of houses in urban and rural areas. During 1987, the projects taken up had specially kept in view the objectives of the IYSH and were oriented towards finding suitable solutions to the problem of providing shelter for the poor and the disadvantaged, such as the landless agricultural workers, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. Six are in progress and further 25 projects involving an outlay of Rs 5,000,000 were sanctioned. NATIONAL HOUSING POLICY Ever since the dawn of the planning process in independent India, various social housing schemes for various categories of the population, legislative measures for the conferment of rights of tenure and schemes for distribution of house sites in both urban and rural areas have been and are being implemented, throughout India.
237
However, there was no clear pronouncement of a broadbased yet well integrated policy covering various issues relating to housing. There was, thus, a pressing need for a clear enunciation of a comprehensive National Housing Policy (NHP) expounding the main objectives, priorities and strategies for promoting a sustained development of housing. The work on the formulation of such a policy has been completed, and the policy document is now finalized after year-long widespread consultation, interaction and debate. As serviced land, finance, building materials and technology, human resources, legal environment and institutional framework are the main inputs and provide the basic setting for the promotion and development of housing, the policy outlines the important steps and measures to be undertaken for tackling effectively the Seventh Plan document which states that the major responsibility for house construction would have to be left to the private sector through selfhelp efforts. It is envisaged that the government will provide a package of supporting inputs in the role of an enabler, facilitator and promoter, rather than the builder of houses. Once the NHP is in force it will be an important landmark and a major and significant effort mounted during the International Year of Shelter for the Homeless. NATIONAL HOUSING BANK
Though the importance of housing from welfare and employment generation point of view has all along been realized, this sector was relegated to the background in terms of investment in housing as a percentage of the total investment in the country, which was 34% in the first plan and 9% in the Seventh Plan. Table 3 indicates the investment pattern during the plan periods. The crux of the matter is how to ensure a liberal flow of finance to the housing sector. Presently, finance for housing flows from both the formal and the informal sources. The formal sources comprise : (a) central and state governments through their budgetary allocations ; (b) general financial institutions and organizations like Life Insurance Corporation, General Insurance Corporation, commercial banks, provident funds, etc; and (c) specialized housing finance institutions, i.e. Housing and Urban Development Corporation Ltd., apex and primary cooperative housing finance companies set up in the private sector. The housing finance institutions also receive off-shore line of credit from the World Bank, etc. The informal sources include households and public and private sector employers providing housing loans. to their employees. The contribution of formal to the informal sources will be roughly 25 : 75, which will indicate a meagre and hesitant flow of finance through the formal sector financing institutions. The absence of a specialized housing finance system was felt since the 70s Commission had recommended in 1971 the creation of specialized housing finance institutions to enlarge the flow of funds to the housing sector. The Seventh Five Year Plan document also reiterated, in
D. M. Sukthankar
238
Table 3. Total investment in the economy (Rs in crores) Plan period
Public
Private
Total
First plan Second plan Third plan Fourth plan Sixth plan Seventh plan
1560 1800 3360 3650 3100 6750 6100 4300 10,400 13,655 6980 22,635 97,500 74,710 17,722 168,148 180,000 34,914
the same vein, the creation of the National Housing Bank on the lines of the National Agricultural Bank for Rural Development (NABARD) as a national level apex institution for housing finance. It is quite heartening to mention that both Houses of Parliament have already approved the National Housing Bank Bill, which will usher in a specialized housing finance institution in the country, and will pave the way for easy and liberal flow of funds for the creation of new housing stock as well as for renovation, upgrading and expansion of the existing housing stock in the country. The Reserve Bank of India has provided the initial equity contribution of Rs 100 crores for the National Housing Bank (NHB). The NHB will be the apex level housing finance institution to promote, at the state, regional and local levels, a series of housing finance institutions and lay the foundation of appropriate lower level financial organizations to meet the individual credit needs of potential owners and to facilitate finance intermediaries. The NHB is also expected to extend technical and administrative guidance to housing finance institutions at the local and regional levels, offer advisory services to saving mobilization, credit appraisal, and credit disbursement and recovery, and identify the legal, fiscal, institutional and other constraints and suggest measures to remove them. The housing finance system will have, as an integral part, an elastic and widespread resources mobilization strategy which will cover the ultimate source of saving in the economy, namely, the household sector. Innovative savings and mortgage instruments will be developed for this purpose. Institutional mechanisms will also be developed to provide households with greater access to affordable credit on an individual, group and cooperative basis. The housing finance institutions will pay attention to meet the credit needs of (a) public, cooperative and private agencies engaged in land and upgradation, (b) employees and workers and (c) producer of building materials and components in both the organized and informal sectors.
BUILDING MATERIALS The traditional building materials like cement, steel and bricks, hold a complete sway over building construction. The only way of maximizing house construction is by making optimum use of available resources through utilization of rational designs, locally available materials, upgrading of the skills of con-
Investment in (Rs in crores) Public
Private
Total
250 300 425 101,491 625 82,458
900 1150 1000 1300 1125 1550 11,500 12,991 2175 2800 2900 31,458
Investment in housing as percentage of total investment in the economy 34 19 15 7.5 12 9
struction workers and efficient and improved techniques of construction. Realizing that India, with the present state of its economy and level of development, with people below and around the poverty line, will not be in a position to afford a house as per the specifications provided in the National Building Code, the Indian Standards Institution has formulated a new standard, IS: 8888/1978, the first of its kind, which enunciates the guidelines for the design of low-cost housing, without sacrificing the minimum standards of safety etc., so that a large number of affordable dwelling units particularly for the economically weaker sections could be constructed in this country in the foreseeable future. From Table 4, which gives a breakdown of construction costs (source: NSSO 34th Round, 1979-80), it can be seen that the concept of low-cost housing is synonymous with low or reduced costs of building materials. The labour and other service components are relatively inelastic and do not much influence the cost of construction. In the backdrop of rising costs of traditional building materials (Table 5) and the enormous task before the government to enable millions of people to secure affordable shelter, India has no soft options but must adopt on a large scale locally available low-cost building materials and appropriate technology. A number of local building materials like mud, bamboo, thatch, stones etc. are being introduced in the construction of houses. Through use of these local building materials by suitable adaptation, the durability of houses can be increased. Mud is a common construction material, mainly in the rural areas. For waterproofing, a bituminous emulsion is mixed in mud plaster prepared for plastering. This saves houses from erosion by rain. The' other important item in the construction of houses is thatch which includes materials like coconut leaves, reeds, etc. These materials are used mainly for roofing. Application of fire retardant and water repellent treatment reduces the risk from fire or erosion and adds to the longevity of the structures. There are many other materials like bamboo, stone, etc., which can also be used in the construction of houses. ALTERNATIVE BUILDING MATERIALS To economize on the use of conventional and relatively costly building materials like cement and steel and
Housing : a National Overview
239
Table 4. Breakdown of construction costs. I
II
III
72.04 23.13 4.83
73.48 23.04 3.48
72.80 22.91 4.29
100.00
100.00
74
55
Size class of towns IV-VI All 71.10 22.75 6.15
72.34 23.00 4.66
100.00 100.00 39
Item (i) Materials (ii) Labour (iii) Services
I00.00
67
235
Sample size
Table 5. Prices of building materials and index of cost 1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
452.9 376.9 479.9 251.5 412.5 372.3 281.2
528.7 462.7 718.3 347.6 432.7 388.2 305.2
675.8 489.3 786.0 407.6 408.3 388.2 322.6
689.1 522.9 031.2 449.3 427.9 385.3 344.7
733.6 576.1 859.8 490.1 436.2 421.2 387.1
timber, some substitutes and alternative materials are necessary. A lot of research effort is being made to develop such materials and propagate their use. It has been found that the cost of construction can be reduced significantly through proper use of these alternative materials. Some of these materials and the uses to which they can be put are given below.
Hydrated lime and lime pozzolana This is a substitute for cement and can be used in the preparation of mortar, plaster, foundations etc. Over 50 plants with a total capacity of half a million tonnes have been established in the country. The use of hydrated lime and lime pozzolana will make a substantial saving in construction costs and would allow the use of cement in appropriate sophisticated structures.
Asphaltic corrugated roofin9 sheets Waste paper and bitumen are being manufactured which are lightweight and waterproof and cost almost half the value of asbestos cement sheets. They can be more conveniently used for semi-permanent shelters. Seven plants are manufacturing this product in India. Since these sheets are not brittle, they can be conveniently transported. There are many other materials like fly-ash, cellular concrete, and secondary species of timber, to mention a few, that can be conveniently used in the construction of houses.
New buildin9 materials from industrial and agricultural wastes Various types of new building materials based on rice husk, fly-ash, timber waste, red mud, blast furnace slag, coir waste, etc., have been developed and are being increasingly used. The uses of these materials offer the following advantages : 1. economy in cost 2. saving in disposal cost
3. 4. 5. 6.
Building material Bricks Barsand rods Logs,timber and bamboo Cement Sheetglass Sanitary wares Paints and varnishes
reduction in denudation of agricultural areas savings in fuel ecological benefit recycling of wastes.
Application of modern techniques The obsolescence of the production process of traditional building materials is largely responsible for the steep rise in costs. The application of modern technology and processes of production would substantially reduce the cost of construction. Bricks, for example, constitute about 17% of the total cost of building. Use of thermally efficient kilns and mass producing brick-laying machines will substantially reduce the cost.
Research and development In an under-developed economy like India, research activities should lead to innovations in cost-effective, easily accessible building materials and simple techniques acceptable to the common man. It is a common experience that the users and consumers of building materials, particularly in India, live under a shadow of ignorance of research efforts and the findings made in the research institutes. The low cost alternative building materials innovated by the research institutes scarcely reach the common man and even the builders organizations. In order to ensure that the fruits of research and development efforts reach the field and are widely accepted, a network of building centres needs to be created and developed throughout the length and breadth of the country so that the people have an easy access to the newly developed low-cost building materials, followed up with adequate facilities of training in their use and application. Building centres have, therefore, a vital role to play as production, training and extension centres for promoting the use of new and improved materials and technology. The Conference of Housing Ministers resolved that the building materials and techniques evolved by research institutions and organizations such as the Central Build-
D. M. Sukthankar
240
ing Research Institute (CBRI), Structural Engineering Research Centre (SERC), Regional Research Laboratory (RRL), NBO etc. should be adopted in the housing sector and that the housing boards and authorities should use these materials and techniques in at least 10% of their housing construction programme. A close liaison and coordination between the organizations promoting the production and use of new building materials on the one hand and the professionals, project authorities, craftsmen and users on the other is essential for ensuring a smooth and expeditious transfer of technology. Building centres, it is expected, would emerge as the strongest link in the chain of technology transmission. "Nirmity Kendra", a building centre established in Quilon in Kerala bears good testimony to this.
COOPERATIVES The cooperative movement has played a vital role in providing housing to many families who would not normally have been able to look forward to home ownership. The extent of progress of housing cooperatives in the country can be gauged from the fact that as against 5564 million members and a working capital of Rs 530 million in 1959-60, there were over 34,000 societies with 1.86
million members and a working capital of Rs 12,400 million in the year 1985. The structure of the cooperative housing movement obtained a strong organizational base in 1969, when the National Cooperative Housing Finance (NCHF) was set up for coordinating and guiding the activities of cooperative societies in the country. The cooperative housing structure in the country consists of two tiers. At the grass roots level, primary cooperative housing societies are formed by the people. At the state level, these societies are affiliated to the apex cooperative housing finance society. The apex body channels funds through the primary societies within its jurisdiction. The cooperative housing societies have helped to add 1.2 million housing units to the housing stock of the country. A recent study conducted by the N C H F has revealed that about 59% of the houses constructed by the societies are for members belonging to the economically weaker section and low income groups. A much bigger and more purposeful role for housing cooperatives in the future is therefore envisaged. The observance of 1987 as the IYSH certainly brought into focus the plight of the shelterless, the inadequately sheltered, and galvanized housing efforts and activities and promoted the policy initiative to overcome the housing shortage in the years to come.