UNIT II SOCIO-ECONOMIC ASPECTS

Social economic factors influencing housing affordability equity in housing development

sites and services/-slum up gradation community participation Indira Awas Yojana ,
Crime prevention, Health principles in Housing.

Socio economic character of housing

Economic characters affecting housing design

Affordability

Affordable housing refers to housing units that are affordable by that section of society whose income
is below the median household income.

Tenure

Housing tenure describes the legal status under which people have the right to occupy their
accommodation. The most common forms of tenure are:

Home-ownership: this includes homes owned outright and mortgaged

 Renting: this includes social rented housing and private rented housing.

Row houses

One of a series of houses, often of similar or identical design, situated side by side and joined by common
walls. A house having at least one side wall in common with a neighboring dwelling. It has front and back
yard through which the light and ventilation will be received. In some cases it will be received from roof.

Sites and services scheme

Rapid growth of urban areas in most developing countries in the last few decades has led to shortfall in
many sectors, primarily housing. The problem has been two-fold: on one hand, the majority of the people
moving to the urban areas have lacked the necessary asset and financial holdings in order to acquire a
"decent" house. On the other hand, the designated government agencies and bodies have not provided
sufficient housing units which are affordable for the poor majority in urban areas. The proliferation of
slums and squatter settlements has been a result of this scenario. But a growing understanding of the
dynamics involved in the development and expansion of squatter settlements has led to a number of
innovative housing schemes in various developing countries to solve the "dilemma" of housing.
Particularly with the intention of improving the environmental quality of squatter settlements and provide
it with the basic necessary infrastructure, one such innovative schemes which has received wide
acknowledgement and following has been "sites-and-services" schemes.

Sites-and-services schemes became the byword for solving the problem of squatter settlements.
Squatter settlements were and has always been considered illegal and in order to relocate and
rehabilitate the squatters (as a function of "slum clearance"), plots of land (or sites) with infrastructure
on it (or services) were provided, and the beneficiaries had to, in most of the projects, build their own
houses on such land. There are a wide variety of sites-and-services schemes, ranging from the
subdivided plot only to a serviced plot of land with a "core" house built on it.

THE BASIC PRINCIPLES

The key components of a housing scheme are the plot of land, infrastructure (like roads, water supply,
drainage, electricity or a sanitary network), and the house itself. Various inputs that go into them include
finance, building materials/technology, and labour.
Thus, the sites-and-services approach advocated the role of government agencies only in the preparation
of land parcels or plots with certain basic infrastructure, which was to be sold or leased to the intended
beneficiaries.

The next step of actual house building was left to the beneficiaries themselves to use their own
resources, such as informal finance or family labour and various other types of community participation
modes to build their house. The beneficiaries could also build the house at their own phase, depending on
the availability of financial and other resources. This adopted the basic principle of the development of a
squatter settlement but without the "squatting" aspect.

TYPOLOGIES IN SITES-AND-SERVICES SCHEMES

Some of the variations attempted in sites-and-services projects include:

Utility wall: A "utility" wall is built on the plot which contains the connections for water, drainage,
sewerage and electricity. The beneficiaries had to build the house around this wall, and utilize the
connections from it. Some projects provided this utility wall in the form of a sanitary core consisting of a
bathroom/toilet, and/or a kitchen.

Latrine: Due to its critical waste disposal problem, many project provide a basic latrine (bathroom and/or
toilet) in each plot.

Roof frame/ shell house, core house: The roof is the costliest component of a house and requires skilled
labour to build. Therefore, some projects provide the roof structure on posts, and the beneficiaries have
to build the walls according to their requirements. Conversely, a plinth is sometimes built by the
implementing agency, which forms a base over which the beneficiaries can build their house. Other
variations to this are the shell house (which is an incomplete house consisting of a roof and two side
walls, but without front or rear walls) and a core house (consisting of one complete room).

SHORTCOMINGS OF THE SITES-AND SERVICES APPROACH

With several assumptions and misconceptions regarding low-income families, sites-and-services projects
have been subject to many shortcomings in its conception, identification of beneficiaries, implementation
and cost recovery. Thus sites-and-services schemes have often been rendered unaffordable or
inaccessible for the lowest-income groups by bureaucratic procedures, institutional requirements and
political problems. Some of the constraints have been:
Location: With high land costs in urban areas, most sites-and-services schemes are location on the fringe
where such costs are not very high. This however causes two problems: one, the large distance between
the site and existing delivery networks, off-site and on-site provision of infrastructure is high and
construction can be delayed. Two, the extra distances that the beneficiaries have to travel (and the
consequent extra costs) to the employment centres would discourage many beneficiaries to take
advantage of such schemes.

Bureaucratic Procedures: Selection procedures, designed to ascertain that applicants meet eligibility
criteria, tend to be cumbersome, time-consuming and full of bureaucratic pitfalls, and provide
opportunities for corruption. Besides, for many low-income families, the eligibility criteria are impossible
to meet due to informal sector jobs or low/irregular incomes.

Delay in provision of Services: Due to a lack of coordination between the various implementation agencies
and a "spread" of responsibility of providing the infrastructure and services, there is considerable delay
in the final provision the services, even after the land has been allocated to the beneficiaries.

Standards: High standards of construction and building quality are set by the implementing agencies
making such schemes unaffordable to the target beneficiaries. Some sites-and-services schemes, for
example, prohibit income generating activities on residential plots, including rental of rooms: they,
thereby, limit the opportunities of residents to earn an (additional) income to pay for their plot and their
house.

Cost Recovery: Most sites-and-services schemes are plagued by poor cost recovery. One reason is the
high costs that beneficiaries have to bear shortly after moving into the scheme. They have to pay for the
plot as well as construction of the house, while they might be facing loss of income due to the move to the
new scheme. Transport, water and electricity costs add to the burden which they might not have had
before. But some of the main reasons for poor recovery has been delay in provision of services,
inadequate collection methods, lack of sanctions for non-payment and absence of political will to enforce
payment.

Case study for site and services scheme

Equity in housing

The value of ownership built up in a home or property that represents the current market value of the
house less any remaining mortgage payments. This value is built up over time as the property owner pays
off the mortgage and the market value of the property appreciates.

Simply put Home Equity is Market Value minus Mortgage Balance. If I have lines of credit against my home,
that is also deducted from the Market Value of my home. If my home is worth Rs 40 lakhs and my
mortgage balance is Rs 30 lakhs I have equity of Rs 10 lakhs

INDIRA AWAS YOJANA

Indira Awaas Yojana is a social welfare flagship programme, created by the Indian Government, to
provide housing for the rural poor in India.

The differentiation is made between rural poor and urban poor for a separate set of schemes operate for
the urban poor(like the Basic Services for Urban Poor).

This scheme was launched by Rajiv Gandhi,the Prime Minister of India at that time.

It is one of the major flagship programs of the Rural Development Ministry to construct houses for BPL
population in the villages.

Under the scheme, financial assistance worth Rs.70,000/- in plain areas and Rs.75,000/- in difficult
areas (high land area) is provided for construction of houses.

The houses are allotted in the name of the woman or jointly between husband and wife.

The construction of the houses is the sole responsibility of the beneficiary and engagement of
contractors is strictly prohibited.

Sanitary latrine and smokeless chullah are required to be constructed along with each IAY house for
which additional financial assistance is provided from Total Sanitation Campaign and Rajiv Gandhi
Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana respectively.

This scheme, operating since 1985, provides subsidies and cash-assistance to people in villages to
construct their houses, themselves.

History
Started in 1985 as part of the Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Programme (RLEGP), Indira Awaas
Yojana (IAY) has been operating as an independent scheme since 1996.
From 199596 the scheme has been further extended to widows or next-of-kin of defence personnel
killed in action, ex-servicemen and retired members of the paramilitary forces who wish to live in rural
areas as long as they meet basic eligibility criteria.

Purpose

The broad purpose of the scheme is to provide financial assistance to some of the weakest sections of
society for them to upgrade or construct a house of respectable quality for their personal living.
The vision of the government is to replace all temporary (kutchcha) houses from Indian villages by 2017.

Eligibility Criteria

Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes, freed bonded labourers, minorities and non-SC/ST rural households
in the BPL category, widows and next-of-kin to defence personnel/paramilitary forces killed in action
(irrespective of their income criteria), ex-servicemen and retired members of paramilitary forces
residing in rural areas form the primary target group of eligible candidates for the IAY Scheme.

Implementation

IAY is an allocation based, centrally sponsored scheme funded on a cost sharing basis between the
Central Government and the State Government in the 75%:25% ratio, except in case of North-eastern
states and Union Territories (UTs). For NE states the central government funds 90% and 100% for the
UTs.
The funds are allocated to the states based on 75% weightage of rural housing shortage and 25%
weightage of poverty ratio. The housing shortage is as per the official published figures of Registrar
General of India based on the 2001 Census individual capacity

Current provisions
As per the Budget 2011, the total funds allocated for IAY have been set at 100 billion (US$1.6 billion) for
construction of houses for BPL families with special focus on the Left Wing Extremist (LWE) districts.

Impact

Since 1985, 25.2 million houses have been constructed under the scheme. Under the Bharat Nirman Phase
1 project, 6 million houses were targeted and 7.1 million actually constructed from 200506 to 2008
09.[8] Additional, 12 million houses are planned to be constructed or renovated under the Bharat Nirman
Phase 2.[8]
According to the official 2001 figures, the total rural housing shortage is 14.825 million houses.[8] A
yearwise breakdown is given below for the last 5 years:[8]

S. No. Year Total

1 20052006 1,551,923

2 20062007 1,498,367

3 20072008 1,992,349

4 20082009 2,134,061

5 20092010 3,385,619

Total 10,562,319

Management Information System (MIS

A software called AWAAS Soft was launched in July 2010 to assist in improved administration of this
scheme.

Health principles in housing

1. Living Unit and Structure

A. Human Factors

1. Shelter Against the Elements

The first consideration in housing is design, materials, onstruction, maintenance,and arrangement which
will adequately
protect the occupants from the elements. The type and degree of protection to be provided is somewhat
dependent upon climatic conditions including cold and heat, solar radiation, wind,snow, precipitation, and
other prevailing or anticipated local weather conditions.

2. Maintenance of a Thermal Environment

Which Will Avoid Undue But Permit Adequate Heat Loss from the Human Body .The factors which produce
human responses to the thermal environment include:
a. Ambient air temperature
b. Radiant heating or cooling effects of suirfaces
to which the occupant is exposed
c. Air movement
d. Relative huimidity
e. Clothing
f. State of exertion or rest
g. Personal factors such as age and physical condition.

3. Indoor Air of Acceptable Quality

Contaminants of indoor air include those produced by the normal body odors and expired air of room
occupants, by
their smoking, by cooking and heating appliances and practices, dust, and those introduced from without.
Another form of contaminant is the airborne pathogenic microorganism, not considered to be of primary
importance in the home because close contacts among the family provide more direct means of
transmitting such organisms.

4. Daylight, Sunlight, and Artificial Illumination

Adequate, properly designed, located and controlled natural and artificial illumination are directly related
to health, safety, and sanitation. The desire for daylighting is indicated by common standards which
require a window or glass area of at least one-eighth to onetenth the floor area.

5. In Family Units, Facilities for Sanitary

Storage, Refrigeration, Preparation, and Service of Nutritional and Satisfactory Foods and Meals Every
living unit occupied by one or more persons and used for the preparation of meals should be provided
with suitable kitchen space to store, prepare, and serve foods in a sanitary and efficient manner.
6.Adequate Space, Privacy and Facilities for the Individual, and Arrangement and Separation for
Normal Family Living
A necessity for health is design and arrangement to provide the amount and separation of space
required for various household purposes, to enable occupants to sleep, rest, and relax, read, carry on
conversations, and listens to radio or watch television without being disturbed or disturbing another
occupant.
7. Opportunities and Facilities for Home Recreation and Social Life
Special need exists for outdoor play areas on or near housing premises occupied by small children. This
can usually be provided in yards of single family homes. At new apartments, such facilities should be
planned so children can play under parent's supervision, where possible.
8. Protection from Noise from Without, from Other Units, from Certain Other Rooms, and Control
of Reverberation Noises within Housing Structures.
9.Design, Materials and Equipment Which Facilitate Performance of Household Tasks and
Functions Without Undue Physical and Mental Fatigue
10. Design, Facilities, Surroundings, and Maintenance to Produce a Sense of
Mental Well-Being
I1. Control of Health Aspects of Materials
New materials are continually being developed and utilized to construct, finish, equip, furnish, and
maintain the home. There should be nationally recognized standards and criteria governing the health and
safety aspects of materials and recognized testing laboratories for certifying materials that meet those
standards.
B. Sanitation and Maintenance
I. Design, Materials, and Equipment to Facilitate Clean, Orderly, and Sanitary Maintenance of the Dwelling,
and Personal Hygiene of the Occupants.
2. Water Piping of Approved, Safe Materials with Installed and Supplied Fixtures Which Avoid Introducing
Contamination.
3. Adequate Private Sanitary Toilet Facilities within Family Units
4. Plumbing and Drainage System Designed, Installed and Maintained so as to Protect Against Leakage,
Stoppage or Overflow and Escape of Odors
5. Facilities for Sanitary Disposal of Food Waste, Storage of Refuse, and Sanitary Maintenance of
Premises to Reduce the
Hazard of Vermin and Nuisances
6. Design and Arrangement to Properly Drain Roofs, Yards and Premises, and Conduct Such Drainage
from the Buildings and Premises
7. Design and Maintenance to Exclude and Facilitate Control of Rodents and Insects
8. Facilities for the Suitable Storage of Belongings
9. Program to Assure Maintenance of the Structure, Facilities, and Premises in Good Repair and in a Safe
and Sanitary Condition
C.Safety and Injury Prevention
1. Construction, Design, and Materials of a Quality Necessary to Withstand all Anticipated Forces Which
Affect Structural
Stability
2. Construction, Installation Materials, Arrangement, Facilities, and Maintenance to Minimize Danger of
Explosions and Fires
or Their Spread
3. Design, Arrangement and Maintenance to Facilitate Ready Escape, in Case of Fire or Other Emergency
4. Protection against All Electrical Hazards, Including Shocks and Burns
5. Design, Installation and Maintenance of Fuel-Burning and Heating Equipment to Minimize Exposure to
Hazardous or Undesirable Products of Combustion, Fires or Explosions, and to Protect Persons against
Being Burned
6. Design, Maintenance, and Arrangement of Facilities, Including Lighting, to Minimize Hazards of fall,
Slipping, and Tripping
7. Facilities for Safe and Proper Storage of Drugs, Insecticides, Poisons, Detergents, and Deleterious
Substances
8. Facilities and Arrangements to Promote Security of the Person and Belongings

2. Residential Environment
A. Community or Individual Facilities
1. An Approved Community Water Supply or,Where Not Possible, an Approved Individual Water Supply
System

2. An Approved Sanitary Sewerage System

3. An Approved Community Refuse Collection and Disposal System,
4. Avoidance of Building on Land Subject to Periodic Flooding, and Adequate Provision for Surface
Drainage to Protect Against Flooding and to Prevent Mosquito Breeding
5. Provision for Vehicular and Pedestrian
6. Street, Through-Highway Location and Traffic Arrangements to Minimize Accidents,
7. Community Housekeeping and Maintenance
B. Quality of the Environment
1. Development Controls and Incentives to Protect and Enhance the Residential Environment
2. Arrangement, Orientation, and Spacing of Building to Provide for Adequate Light, Ventilation, and
Admission of Sunlight
3. Provision of Conveniently Located Space and Facilities for Off-Street Storage of Vehicles.
4. Provision of Useful, Well-Designed, Properly Located Space for Play, Relaxation, and Community
Activities for Daytime and Evening 'Use in All Seasons 5. Provision for Grass and Trees
6. In Communities, Improved Streets, Gutters, Walks, and Access Ways
7. Suitable Lighting Facilities for Streets, Walks, and Public Areas

Community participation

Introduction

For any developmental process, involving the people is must which will be helpful in all the design
solutions. They are the one who is going to reside their and their Participation should be justified on the
basis of its contribution toward the objectives of housing and urban management.

Planning for engagement

A key task for public agencies and officials in planning community engagement is to assess which
engagement techniques are most appropriate in the particular circumstances.

Deciding on the level of engagement

Careful consideration needs to be given to determining and delivering an appropriate level of
engagement, deciding which stakeholders should be involved, the issue to be considered and the
objectives of engagement.

Choosing engagement techniques

When deciding which engagement method or technique to use in a particular situation or with a particular
group, it is important to consider a number of issues including:
agency issues
community issues and
process issues.

Process issue
Information-sharing techniques

1. Advertising
2. Online information processes
3. Briefings
4. Education and awareness programs
5. Fact sheets
6. Newsletters
7. Media stories
8. News conferences
9. Displays
10. Newspaper inserts
11. Community fairs or events
12. Community meetings
13. Shop fronts
14. Informal club forums

Consultation techniques (few among 28 techniques)

Discussion groups and workshops

One-on-one interviews
Open days
Charrettes
A charrette or inquiry by design workshop is an intensive workshop where stakeholders come together
to identify issues, deliberate about preferred outcomes and create plans for the future.
Imagine
Imagine is a new approach to community participation based on appreciative inquiry. Appreciative
inquiry can be used to discover, understand and foster innovations in communities by gathering positive
stories and images and constructing positive interactions.
Photovoice
Photovoice involves providing cameras (generally disposable) to people in the community to identify,
record, represent, and enhance their community through photography.
Policy Action Teams
Policy Action Teams are responsible for an intensive program of policy development around a particular
issue e.g. anti-social behaviour in a disadvantaged neighborhood.
Fishbowls
A fishbowl is a discussion strategy that seeks to maximize participation in identifying and understanding
issues in response to set questions.
Planning for Real
Planning For Real has been used to give people a voice in decisions affecting their neighbourhoods
and communities.

Deliberative polling

Deliberative polling is an attempt to use public opinion research in a new way. A random, representative
sample is first polled on an issue

Summits
A summit is a large scale, time limited event which brings together large numbers of diverse participants
to consider information, engage in dialogue and to make recommendations for action.
Collective learning technique

The aim of the World caf is to create a discussion environment that feels like a caf. World caf can
either be conducted online or in a public space.
Community visioning
It normally involves the facilitation of sessions in which participants are asked to close their eyes and
imagine what their community looks like now, and what it could look like into the future.
Community cultural development

Community cultural development refers to a cluster of community-based arts practices that involve
artists working with community members to build skills, to share information, understandings and
experiences and to actively involve people in developing their community and/or their culture.

Conclusion

Providing participants with feedback - Providing feedback to those who have participated in
an engagement process, allows them to see whether their views have been accurately represented when
decisions are being made.
Following up on engagement - Follow-up strategies provide those who participated in an engagement
process with advice regarding progress made in addressing the issues raised.

Slum upgradtion
Crime prevention through housing design

Principles
1. Surveillance. Involves the location and use of physical features, electrical and mechanical devices,
activities, and people to maximize visibility. It creates a risk of detection for intruders and a perception
of safety for legitimate users.

2. Access control. Employs people, electrical and mechanical devices, and natural measures to create a
perception of risk to intruders and deny them access to targets. It also guides legitimate users safely
through the environment.

3. Territoriality. Uses physical features and activities to express ownership and control of the
environment and promotes pride in the environment. It also discourages presence of outsiders by
controlling the movement of people and vehicles, having someone be responsible for maintaining all
areas in the environment for their intended uses, and delineating public, semipublic/private, and private
spaces, and controlling the movement of people and vehicles.

4. Maintenance. Allows the continued use of areas for their intended uses and maintains the
effectiveness of measures employed for
surveillance, access control, and territoriality.

Principles

1. allow for clear sight lines, 2. provide adequate lighting, 3.

minimise concealed and isolated routes, 4. avoid entrapment,
5. reduce isolation, 6. promote land use mix, 7. use of
activity generators, 8. create a sense of ownership through maintenance and management, 9. provide
signs and information and 10. improve overall design of the built environment.