The Hindu      15.11.2010

Slum-dwellers will soon have a hard roof over their heads

For a better living:In congested areas in Bangalore where land is scarce, slum-dwellers

Bangalore: Karnataka is expected to be one of the first beneficiaries of a major subsidised housing programme ‘Rajiv Awas Yojana' for the benefit of the urban poor to be taken up by the Union Government.

Bangalore with 577 slums and with a population of nearly 10 lakh living there will stand to be the biggest beneficiary.

To begin with, people residing in a total of 3.05 lakh dingy structures or thatched huts in the slums of all the nine corporations in the State, including that of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike, will be provided with reinforced concrete housing. The Centre will provide an interest subsidy of 5 per cent while the beneficiary will have to pay the balance of 3 per cent. The Government has tied up with banks for the housing loan (at an interest rate of 8 per cent) which will also be repaid by the beneficiaries over an extended period.

Review of preparations

A high-level committee, headed by the Secretary, Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Kiran Dhingra which was in Bangalore recently to conduct a review of the preparations for the implementation of the massive housing scheme for slum-dwellers, has appreciated the ground work done and has promised that funds would be made over to the State at the earliest. The housing scheme, in the first phase, will be implemented in the districts of Gulbarga, Shimoga, Bellary, Mysore, Mangalore, Davangere, Hubli-Dharwad, Belgaum, Tumkur and Bangalore.

In some of the congested areas, particularly in Bangalore where land is scarce, the slum-dwellers will be provided flats in multi-storeyed apartments.

Under the self-financing housing scheme, the Union Government will provide an interest subsidy of 5 per cent to the beneficiaries while the State Government has been vested with the responsibility of providing the requisite land for the housing programme apart from tying up with the nationalised banks for the housing loans.

Added to this, the State Government will also provide drinking water and electricity connections to the houses, and the water and electricity rates to such households will also be subsidised.

Sources in the State Government told The Hindu that a meeting held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary S.V. Ranganath, after taking note of the difficulties that slum-dwellers would experience in obtaining housing loans, decided to involve the Karnataka Slum Clearance Board and other government agencies in undertaking the massive construction of houses for the poor.

Under the scheme, the government agencies would obtain loans from financial institutions and thereafter sell the flats to the beneficiaries with an inbuilt subsidy provided by the Centre and the State Government.

The State Government has constituted a high-level committee, under the chairmanship of Additional Chief Secretary and Principal Secretary, Urban Development, Subhir Hari Singh, to oversee the implementation of the programme.

It is said, as part of urban development initiatives undertaken by the Centre, that all States were directed to undertake a comprehensive survey of the urban poor and thereafter submit a report to the Centre.

Karnataka, which commenced this exercise about a year ago, extensively utilised the services of the personnel of all corporations apart from that of the Directorate of Municipal Administration to complete the survey in a short span of time.

Apart from collecting information on the population residing in the nearly 1,125 slums in the nine corporations, the authorities have also collected information on their health status, their education, economic status etc.

The authorities have also conducted a GIS mapping of all the slums on scientific lines.

The Deccan Chronicle  02.11.2010

Nov. 1: According to a field survey conducted by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, 4,463 people, including children, sleep on the footpaths of the Greater Hyderabad area at night. This figure does not include those who sleep in carts and rickshaws or under flimsy plastic sheets.

The GHMC conducted this first ever field survey to identify the homeless in the city following an undertaking given to the Supreme Court that it will set up night shelters for all the homeless people in the city.

The first night shelter is to be put up before Diwali. However, a major problem is where these shelters should be built. Ms Bilkiz Fathima of the Andhra Pradesh Mahila Welfare Society that runs a home-cum-school for street children in the old city, said, “The people who sleep on footpaths will not come to the night shelters if they are set up at some place far away from where they are working. For example, several of the homeless identified in the survey work as hamals and sweepers in shops at Begum Bazar and then sleep on footpaths at night.”

She says resistance from local residents to have shelters for the homeless in their midst may force the GHMC to set up these shelters in remote areas outside the city, but if this happens, the homeless workers from Begum Bazar, for instance, will not come. “The project will end up as a failure. The night shelters should be easily accessible as most of the homeless work during the day,” she said.

Experts and NGOs who have been working on the issue agree that first awareness must be created among local residents of their social responsibility to allow the homeless to be accommodated in ‘homes’ being set up in the midst of residential and commercial areas.

Ms K. Anuradha of Aman Vedika, an NGO that is associated with the Supreme Court to oversee the implementation of the night shelters project, said that the resistance from local residents is due to the fear that there could be some anti-social elements among the homeless.

“Citizens directly express fears about their safety and security and the impact of street children’s behaviour on their own children. Immediate success cannot be expected in projects of this kind and it should be a continuous exercise and not stopped mid-way as was the case with GHMC’s beggar rehabilitation project.”

Ms Fathima, who participated in the survey along with the GHMC, emphasises the need to constantly upgrade the figures. “This was only phase-I of the survey. It should be done periodically as the population of migrants to the city is on the rise.”

Social worker, Ms Indira, pointed out that unless proper facilities are provided in the night shelters, such as decent and free sanitation facilities, the project will not find many takers.

People presently sleeping on footpaths spend close to `20 per day on toilet and bathroom facilities, she said, and added that food, clothing, medication, counselling and education of children, imparting self-employment skills and training can be taken up in phase-II of the project.

The National Policy on Housing and Habitat, 1998, aims to provide the basic need of shelter for all, and until this objective is achieved, it is necessary to provide some kind of shelter to the absolutely shelterless urban poor, particularly street children, destitute women and migrant labourers.

However, the civic body has failed to set up even a single night shelter in the last 12 years. Other cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, and Kolkata have done much better. Ms G. D. Priyadarshini, Additional Commissioner, Urban Community Development, GHMC, said the first of the night shelters would be set up in the city before the Diwali festival. “Though we need about 25 night shelters to accommodate nearly 4,500 men, women and children, we will set up 10 night shelters in the first phase,” she said.

“Though we searched for private rented buildings to set up night shelters, it has now been decided to accommodate the shelterless in GHMC community halls and vacant government buildings. We are also seeking police help to identify any men, women or children with a criminal background and how to take up their rehabilitation,” she said.

Corporate houses like Infosys, Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences, Grand Kakatiya Hotel and Towers, Taj Krishna, as well as NGOs and individuals have started donating bed-sheets, beds etc and have pledged to provide facilities in night shelters, the GHMC additional commissioner said.

Reminded that the GHMC’s beggar rehabilitation project, on similar lines, had flopped, the GHMC officer said efforts to rehabilitate the needy should not be stopped.