STRATEGIES FOR HOUSING THE URBAN POOR IN DELHI

Abstract

The dissertation underlines different parameters, condition of slum clusters in Delhi and intervention of government and various government policies and guidelines for providing housing to urban poor. But level of problem is too enormous and accordingly the efforts look to be spread in bits and pieces. The current level of effort is not proving to be effective in eliminating slum and provide affordable housing to the migrant labour force from underdeveloped states to the metropolitan cities and much more is needed to be done. The research methodology was adopted in order to understand the root causes of slum formation in the cities, the research began with the understanding of the indicators to define slums, characteristics of the slum settlements, various aspects of housing and the various approaches for slum improvement. The attempts were also made to review the case studies where housing and infrastructure has been successfully provided to the poor in order to understand the conspicuous role of the poor. The findings of report highlight that housing is the most difficult basic need to fulfil worldwide, with millions of people living without habitable housing. This situation is severe in Asia and it is getting worse in urban areas. Therefore, it is an urgent requirement to develop a practical mechanism to address this issue. Government or concerned authorities should understand or study the characteristics of slum then decide which methodology and strategy should be adopted. We cannot use same strategy for all types of slums. Any development approach should be adopted according to the characteristics of the slum. Through the study, some guidelines and strategy are suggested to minimise the housing problems for urban poor to improve their living conditions. In the end a design was proposed for the development of Adarsh Nagar slum pocket in Delhi by adopting these guidelines and strategy.