Mainstreaming Sustainable
Social Housing in India
Housing
is one of the fundamental requirements for a society. It is a
fundamental human right which ensures access to a safe, secure,
habitable and affordable home. In India, severe housing shortage has
been a persistent issue. According to a report submitted by a technical
committee to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (MHUPA),
India's urban housing shortage is estimated at nearly 18.78 million
households in 2012. Skyrocketing prices of land, growing urban
population and real estate in urban areas have induced the poor and the
economically weaker sections of the society to live in slums and
squatter settlements.
Government Efforts: Current Policies to Bridge the Gap
Given the existing
extent of the housing challenge in India, numerous policies and
'missions' have been enacted at the national level. Their limited impact
has been attributed to some degree to their lack of interconnectedness
and policy disincentives towards an urban economy. Through the 'Housing
for All by 2022' programme, the Indian government intends to close this
gap by aiming to construct 20 million units, through a combination of
slum upgradation projects in partnership with the private sector, direct
government-led housing delivery, a credit-linked subsidy scheme, as well
as support to beneficiary-led construction. Since housing is by
definition an energy and resource intensive sector, this will require
not only human and financial resources at an unprecedented scale, but
natural resources too. This represents both, a grave danger in terms of
environmental degradation, and also an opportunity for introducing
life-cycle thinking into the building sector and promoting economic
inclusion for millions.
Mainstreaming Sustainable Social Housing in India Project (MaS-SHIP)
In this regard,
Development alternatives is a part of a consortium between four partners
along with Oxford Brookes University (Oxford, UK), The Energy and
Resource Institute (TERI) and UNHABITAT(UN-H), with support from United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as part of their 10 Year Framework
of Programmes (10YFP) on Sustainable Consumption and Production to
promote sustainability in terms of environment performance,
affordability and social inclusion as an integral part of social
housing.
Aim
and Approach
The primary focus of
the project is to enhance sustainability in the construction of social
housing through adoption of suitable construction, as well as operations
and management practices, with the goal to promote sustainability in
urban social housing in India.
This will be achieved
through evidence generation and establishment of baseline performance of
a range of best practices with respect to sustainable building materials
and construction technologies. This is done by documenting the
manufacturing phase of building materials, the construction phase and
the usage phase of a building through a series of surveys with
manufacturers, developers and homeowners. The findings are then shared
and discussed with the construction industry stakeholders to develop an
overall understanding of the changes required in institutional
mechanisms to mainstream sustainable social housing.
To implement the
required measures, policy/practice briefings for policy-makers and
practitioners would be developed. These would be based on the key
findings of the study with respect to required mechanisms to
mainstreaming sustainability aspects in affordable urban housing at the
national and sub-national levels.
Task
at Hand
The primary task for
any such endeavour is to, in fact, find the gaps and bridge all the
aspects related to the habitat industry and effectually achieve holistic
development. MaS-SHIP studies the existing scenario through the lens of
various sectors of the industry to understand the existing potential. In
order to use this potential, all the different sectors of the
construction industry need to recognise it and come together to
successfully tackle the housing shortage. Accommodation of these needs
can be done by influencing all the different stakeholders and the policy
reforms which improve the implementation structure. With the nation
actively prioritising the housing issue through initiatives such as PMAY
(Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna), such opportunities can be effectively
utilised.
■
Astha Saxena
Research Fellow, Policy and Planning Domain
Development Alternatives
asaxena@devalt.org
Back to Contents
|