Delivering Low Income Housing-Role of Access to Land and Credit in Gujarat, India

Jay Mittal¹, H. M. Shivanand Swamy²

¹Auburn University, Auburn, USA.
²CEPT University, Ahmadabad, India.

DOI: 10.4236/cus.2014.23023                

Abstract

Housing, particularly for the poor and marginalised, is a complex urban problem that occupies centre-stage in present-day development issues. Access to housing is influenced by two major fac-tors—land, and finance. Absence of either (or both) of these results in mushrooming of high density, environmentally insanitary living areas commonly referred to as slums. The poor and vulnerable sections increasingly struggle to secure adequate quality of shelter, because of their inability to access land at affordable rates and finance to be built. As the inflow of the poor from rural to urban is, by now, accepted as inevitable, providing housing and economic opportunities for these would have to form part and parcel of any sustainable urban development strategy. In the state of Gujarat, formal housing supply is unable to meet even a fraction of the housing demands in urban areas. Thus a mix of private and informal sector housing has emerged in the past few decades. During the 1990s, the involvement of NGOs in facilitating access of the poor to housing finance also became increasingly significant. This paper presents a critical review of housing delivery systems in urban Gujarat with an emphasis on the poor. A schematic design for delivery of land and access to housing finance for poor households has also been presented.

Keywords

Urban Housing, Land Servicing, Housing Finance, Micro Credit, Low Income Households

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	Acharya, S. (2000). Paper on Housing Finance in India. Ahmadbad: CEPT.
[2]	Basu, D. N., & Mehta, V.K. (1993). Housing Finance System in India—As It Was and as It Is Emerging. New Delhi: Ministry of Urban Development, NIUA, Government of India.
[3]	Bertrand, R. (1991). Housing Reforms in Socialist Economies. World Bank Discussion Paper 125, Washington DC: The World Bank.
[4]	Census of India (2001). Provisional Census Tables. New Delhi: Government of India.
[5]	CEPT & UD & UH (CEPT and Urban Development & Urban Housing Department) (2000). Base Paper on Urban Housing. Gandhinagar: Government of Gujarat.
[6]	Directorate of Economics & Statistics, Government of Gujarat (1999). Socio-Economic Review. Gandhinagar: Government of Gujarat. Budget Publication No. 30
[7]	General Administrative Department, Government of Gujarat (2000). Development Programme (2000-2001). Gandhinagar: Government of Gujarat, Budget Publication No. 31.
[8]	GSDMA (Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority) (2001). Fact Sheets. Gandhinagar. http://www.gsdma.org/factsright.htm
[9]	Gujarat Social Infrastructure Development Board (2000) Human Development Vision 2010. Gandhinagar: Government of India.
[10]	HSMI (1992). Access of the Poor to Urban Land. New Delhi: HSMI.
[11]	Lall, V. D. (1996). Assessment of Housing Need. In National Housing Seminar, Technical Session No. 1. New Delhi: Society for Development Studies.
[12]	Mehta, D. and Mehta, M. (1991) Land for Shelter, Delivery of Serviced land in Metropolitan Areas (Vol.1—Summary and Policy Decisions). Ahmedabad: CEPT.
[13]	Mehta, D. and Mehta, M. (1989). Housing Finance Systems in Metropolitan Areas in India. Ahmedabad: CEPT.
[14]	Mittal, J. (2014). Self-Financing Land and Urban Development via Land Readjustment and Value Capture. Habitat International, 44, 314-323.
[15]	Mittal, J. (2013). Extending Land Readjustment Schemes to Regional Scale: A Case of Regional Ring Road via Mosaicking Neighborhood Level Plans. Real Estate Finance Journal, 30, 62-73.
[16]	Mongia, J. N. (1996). Role of Government, NGO’s, CBO’s and Other Stakeholders in the Housing Sector. In National Housing Seminar—Adequate Shelter for All, Technical Session No. 6. New Delhi: Socio Economic Research Foundation.
[17]	Nair, T. S. (1999). Housing: The Missing Concern. In Economic and Political Weekly (pp. 1871-1872).
[18]	Pulley, R. V. (1989). Making the Poor Creditworthy. World Bank Discussion Paper 58, Washington DC: The World Bank.
[19]	Renauld, B. (1991). Housing Reforms in Socialist Economies. World Bank Discussion Paper 125, Washington DC: The World Bank.
[20]	Stuyk, R., Ferguson, B., & Ravicz, M. (1991). Market Oriented Housing Finance in India: The National Housing Bank’s First Two Years. Urban Institute: USAID.
[21]	Swamy, S. (2001). Urban Health Mapping. Ammadabad: CEPT, GMFB.
[22]	Tiwari, A. (1999). Impact of ULCRA on Land and Real Estate Market of Ahmedabad. Unpublished Dissertation, Ahmedabad: School of Planning, CEPT.
[23]	USAID (1988). An Urban/Shelter Strategy for India-Draft 1. New Delhi: USAID.
[24]	http://www.sdsindia.org/policy.htm