(Download) Yojana Magazine Free PDF Archive : September-2017

Affordable Housing in Urban
Areas
Durga Shanker Mishra - 7
Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation
and Resettlement
Amlanjyoti Goswami
Gautam Bhan-15
Financing Affordable Housing
Charan Singh - 20

Special Article

Regulating Real Estate Sector
Ranjeet Mehta - 25
Green Technologies in
Affordable Housing
Yashkumar Shukla - 28
Housing the Poor in Smart
Cities
Usha P Raghupathi - 33
do you know?
cooperative housing movement
in India - 48
Infrastructure Requirements

For Housing for All

Krishna Dev - 37
Building durable and quality
houses in Rural Areas
Sameera Saurabh
Rahul Singh - 43
sankalp se siddhi - attainment
through resolve - 52
Mahatma Gandhi’s Clarion Call
“Do or Die”
A Annamalai - 54

Focus

India at 70: A vibrant democracy
Balmiki Prasad Singh - 57
Development Roadmap-50

Aroof over one's head is a dream that every human being aspires for. While the rich and famous create palatial abodes for themselves, the poor man tries to buildhimself and his family a shelter be it only a plastic tent.

Housing, at one time was never an issue in the Indian context. The joint family system meant that there was one house for the entire family and all the family members lived in the family home. The trend of migration to cities for jobs first raised the issue of a house for a family. The advent of the nuclear family system further exacerbated the situation with parents and children living away from each other. Rising concentration of people in urban areas also resulted in an increase in the number of people living in slums and squatter settlements. According to 2011 census, the urban population of India increased by 91 million over a period of 10 years. The census projected housing shortage at 18.78 million in the beginning of 2012 with majority of it coming from economically weaker sections (EWS) or Low Income Groups (LIG).

Affordable housing has, thus, become one of the biggest challenges of the present times. Planning for a home has become imperative for the younger generation today who are often forced to begin their career with the quest for a permanent home for themselves. Skyrocketing prices of land and real estate in urban areas have made houses unaffordable. Ever rising rents, fleecing builders, unapproved land use, sub standard building material etc have all widened the gap between supply and demand.

It is in such situations that the Government regulations play an important role. While the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill ensured proper and justified use of the land for various purposes, the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act was introduced by the government to protect interests of home buyers. Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Housing for All Urban has been introduced to solve the housing problem of the Indian middle, lower middle class and below poverty level class of its citizens. PMAY-G aims at providing a pucca house, with basic amenities, to all households living in kutcha and dilapidated houses, by 2022. On the financing front, while National Housing Bank regulates housing finance companies, RBI regulates commercial banks and partially cooperative banks. The Credit linked subsidy schemes have facilitated financing of houses even for those who could otherwise not afford them.

Infrastructure is another important dimension of housing. Adequate infrastructure facilities like roads, metro trains, schools, hospitals, shopping areas and children's play areas are a must for making “Housing for all by 2022” a success. Use of durable and environment friendly material in construction is equally important in today’s scenario. A design needs to be such that it ensures that the house withstands the ravages of time and nature. Green technology can make the house environment friendly and also obviate the necessity to use artificial coolers in the summer and heaters in the winter. Smart cities Mission and Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) aim to address these issues by promoting cities that provide core infrastructure and give the citizen a clean and sustainable environment and also address issues of improved quality of services.