‘Make housing plans keeping urban poor in mind’

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 28 

The Punjab Regional Chapter (PRC) and the Institute of Town Planner-India (ITPI) in collaboration with the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE ), India, organised a seminar on the topic, “21st Century Smart Cities - Housing for All”, at the PRC building here today.

The focus of the seminar was to gather insights and explore solutions to facilitate quality housing for the rapidly rising urban population in India.

Anumita Roy Chowdhury, Executive Director, CSE, said, “The big question today is not how to provide for affordable housing for urban poor. Instead, it is how to build them in a way that is comfortable, resource efficient, sustainable and most importantly affordable.”  

She said, “There is a huge exclusion in financing for housing and schemes are plagued by poor design and implementation.”

She said Punjab was one of the fewer states where urban poverty was greater than rural poverty, adding that the housing schemes should be planned catering to the urban poor. 

She said the share of informal economy and poor settlements was steadily rising and hence this number should be reflected in housing policies. 

She proceeded by highlighting the dire need to incorporate requirements of the impoverished population in formal housing provisions, considering the lower income rung constitutes 96 per cent of the national housing shortage. 

PSN Rao, Chairman, Delhi Urban Arts Commission, Delhi, explained various national housing policies such as the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yaojana (PMAY) and the need for states to gear up for the formulation of comprehensive housing policies with an focus on inclusion of weaker sections of society. 

KS Akode, president, ITPI, and the Chief Planner, Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation, shared experiences from Maharashtra and stressed on the complex issue of slums on green zones. 

D S Meshram, president emeritus, ITPI, summarised the raised concerns by key speakers over the provision of housing for weaker sections of society and said it was planners’ duty to see how our schemes and policies captured the requisites in a sustainable manner.