Building and Environment, Vol. 26, No. 3, pp. 235-240, 1991. 0360-1323/91 $3.00+0.

00
Printed in Great Britain. 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
THE P R E D I C T I O N that the shelter problem will
balanced development, India adds barely four dwelling
become critical by the turn of the century was the domi-
units per thousand of population per annum. If the pre-
nant concern of the United Nations when it declared 1987
sent trends continue unabated and no further remedial
as the International Year of Shelter for the Homeless
measures are taken, the shortfall in the year 2001 is esti-
(IYSH), The plight of the shelterless millions, the steady
mated to increase to 39.1 million dwelling units.
deterioration of the ecology of habitats and the urge to
Apart from a serious shortage of dwelling units, the
arrest this unabating trend prompted the adoption of a
physical condition of the existing ones has also sub-
definite policy framework. These are aptly encapsulated
stantially deteriorated over the years and they are now
in the objectives of IYSH :
in a dilapidated condition, showing a dismal housing
(i) to demonstrate policies and strategies for improve- scenario in India. The estimated age composition of the
ment of shelter and neighbourhoods of the poor and 1981 housing stock indicates that about 21% of the stock
the disadvantaged by the year 1987, and is more than 40 years old and about 10% of the stock
(ii) to implement those policies and strategies so that more than 60 years old. Most of the units are dilapidated
benefit accrues to all the world's homeless by the year and warrant replacement at the earliest opportunity.
2000. Large-scale migration and population from the coun-
try to the urban centres and metropolises has worsened
The activities undertaken to meet these objectives were
the shelter problem in the urban areas, resulting in ever-
meant to focus attention not only on the basic shelter
increasing sprawls, squatter settlements, over-congestion
issues but also on the infrastructural deficiencies in the
of traffic, a lack of adequate drinking water and basic
housing situation for the poorest of the poor, both in
amenities of life and a complete deterioration of the
urban and rural areas.
urban eco-system. Decay and blight have occurred and
Although shelter, as a basic and integral part of human
threaten to permeate the process of urban growth.
existence, has caught the attention of policy-makers,
The above scenario recounts the grim state of housing
planners and the contemporary leadership, yet grappling
in India and the formidable task ahead in terms of the
with the dimensions of the problem and trying to bridge
creation of substantial new housing stock, maintenance
the yawning gap between the supply of and demand for
and upgrading of the existing housing stock, and
shelter in our country is an enormous and challenging
improvement of the disadvantaged settlements and urban
task. The shortfall in the housing units in the year 1985
renewal.
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 RECENT ACHIEVEMENTS
is on the rise from year to year as construction of houses
fails to keep pace with the population which is increasing It will certainly be distorting the facts to state that the
at a rate of 2.2% per annum. As against the addition at government has been an indifferent spectator to housing
and the above scenario. Numerous activities and pro-
* Chief secretary to the Government of Maharashtra, India, grammes for the construction of new dwelling units, dis-
former Secretary to Government of India, Ministry of Urban tribution of house sites, provision of basic amenities of
Development. water supply, sanitation etc. have been undertaken in
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 103.3 32.3 135.5 142.8 44.5 187.3

2. Housing stocks
a. Pucca (permanent) 17.9 19.3 27.2 23.9 25.9 49.8
b. Semi-pucca 35.5 7.0 42.5 47.4 9.3 56.7
c. Serviceablekutcha
(temporary) 31.1 0.5 31.6 41.7 0.7 42.4
d. Unserviceablekutcha 10.7 2.9 13.6 14.3 3.8 18.1
(a+b+c) 95.2 29.7 124.9 127.3 39.7 167.0
3. Useable housing stock* 84.3 26.3 110.8 113.0 35.2 148.2
4. Housing shortage (1-3) 18.8 5.9 24.7 29.8 9.3 39.1

* 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 cata-
clysmic situation. Disadvantaged sections of society have
always been uppermost in the government's scheme of
things. During IYSH, the country had reaffirmed its com-
mitment 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 improve-
ment 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 devel-
opments. The present programme, now in a formative
stage, goes a step further in formulating a national objec-
tive 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 resi-
dential units (in urban and rural areas), 7092 non-resi-
dential units and 2,85,345 basic sanitation units in vari-
ous 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 exper-
imental 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 Con-
ference and the Shramik Vidyapeet, New Delhi. It would
try to demonstrate a package of approaches and activities
for shelter and community development, including plan-
ning related to the life-style of the poor, use of relevant
building technologies, self-help construction and com-
munity development with the involvement of non-
government organizations. In the selection of the ben-
eficiary families, priority was accorded to the families of
construction workers and families with women as heads

Table 2.

Type of Cumulative Percentage of

families Target achievement achievement
Point dwelling 1987-88 1 April 1987- ofannual
No. Scheme units annual 30 November 1987 report 1987-88

14(a) House sites to rural landless Rural 549,900 617,162 112

workers
14(b) Construction assistant on allotted Rural 365,366 224,409 61
house sites
14(c) Indira Awas Yojna Rural 133,042 161,73l 122
14(d) EWS housing Urban 108,026 63,779 59
14(e) LIG housing Urban 40,567 18,431 45
15 Improvement of slums Urban 1~540,780 97,026 63
 Housing : a National Overview
of households. Further, the concept of the "cluster con-
dominium" evolved by HUDCO will be adopted for com-
munity 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, cost-
effective 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 pro-
fessional 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 com-
munity. 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 imple-
mented, 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 activi-
ties 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 con-
struction 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 pro-
viding 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 inde-
pendent India, various social housing schemes for vari-
ous 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 broad-
based 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, inter-
action 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 tack-
ling effectively the Seventh Plan document which states
that the major responsibility for house construction
would have to be left to the private sector through self-
help 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 Home-
less.
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, provi-
dent funds, etc; and
(c) specialized housing finance institutions, i.e. Hous-
ing 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 indi-
cate 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 insti-
tutions to enlarge the flow of funds to the housing sector.
The Seventh Five Year Plan document also reiterated, in
238 D. M. Sukthankar
Table 3.
Total investment in
the economy
(Rs in crores)
Plan period Public Private Total
First plan 1560 1800 3360
Second plan 3650 3100 6750
Third plan 6100 4300 10,400
Fourth plan 13,655 6980 22,635
Sixth plan 97,500 74,710 17,722
Seventh plan 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 insti-
tution for housing finance. It is quite heartening to men-
tion 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 insti-
tution to promote, at the state, regional and local levels,
a series of housing finance institutions and lay the foun-
dation 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, cre-
dit appraisal, and credit disbursement and recovery, and
identify the legal, fiscal, institutional and other con-
straints and suggest measures to remove them. The hous-
ing 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 pro-
vide households with greater access to affordable credit
on an individual, group and cooperative basis. The hous-
ing finance institutions will pay attention to meet the
credit needs of (a) public, cooperative and private agenc-
ies engaged in land and upgradation, (b) employees and
workers and (c) producer of building materials and com-
ponents in both the organized and informal sectors.
BUILDING MATERIALS
The traditional building materials like cement, steel
and bricks, hold a complete sway over building con-
struction. The only way of maximizing house con-
struction is by making optimum use of available
resources through utilization of rational designs, locally
available materials, upgrading of the skills of con-
Investment
Investment in in housing
(Rs in crores) as percentage of
total investment
Public Private Total in the economy
250 900 1150 34
300 1000 1300 19
425 1125 1550 15
101,491 11,500 12,991 7.5
625 2175 2800 12
82,458 2900 31,458 9
struction workers and efficient and improved techniques
of construction.
Realizing that India, with the present state of its econ-
omy 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 for-
mulated 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 stan-
dards 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 fore-
seeable future.
From Table 4, which gives a breakdown of con-
struction 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 con-
struction material, mainly in the rural areas. For water-
proofing, 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 treat-
ment 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.

Size class of towns

I II III IV-VI All Item

72.04 73.48 72.80 71.10 72.34 (i) Materials

23.13 23.04 22.91 22.75 23.00 (ii) Labour
4.83 3.48 4.29 6.15 4.66 (iii) Services
100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 I00.00
74 55 39 67 235 Sample size

Table 5. Prices of building materials and index of cost

1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 Building material

452.9 528.7 675.8 689.1 733.6 Bricks

376.9 462.7 489.3 522.9 576.1 Barsand rods
479.9 718.3 786.0 031.2 859.8 Logs,timber and bamboo
251.5 347.6 407.6 449.3 490.1 Cement
412.5 432.7 408.3 427.9 436.2 Sheetglass
372.3 388.2 388.2 385.3 421.2 Sanitary wares
281.2 305.2 322.6 344.7 387.1 Paints and varnishes

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 advan-
tages :
1. economy in cost
2. saving in disposal cost
3. reduction in denudation of agricultural areas
4. savings in fuel
5. ecological benefit
6. recycling of wastes.
Application of modern techniques
The obsolescence of the production process of tra-
ditional 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, eas-
ily accessible building materials and simple techniques
acceptable to the common man. It is a common experi-
ence 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 devel-
opment 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-
240 D. M. Sukthankar
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 organ-
izations promoting the production and use of new build-
ing 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 estab-
lished 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 nor-
mally 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 coop-
erative 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 pri-
mary 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 hous-
ing shortage in the years to come.