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THEME PAPER
SHELTER FOR INDIA’S URBAN POOR
–Building Resilience through Integrated Community
Planning and Housing for All
Each year, World Habitat Day households lived in 1-room
UH-HABITAT INDIA (WHD), marked on the first Monday unit, and 30 percent of urban
of October, presents an opportunity households lived in 2-room
to celebrate the achievements made units , laying out the scale of
2
towards the well-being of urban overcrowded habitable spaces.
residents.In keeping with the tradition Overall, it is estimated that India
The key message of to highlight an important urban issue faces an urban housing shortage
WHD 2020 theme every year, the theme of WHD 2020 of 12 million units mostly in
– “Housing for All”, is “Housing for All – A Better Urban Low Income Groups (LIGs) and
emphasizes that Future.” Economically Weaker Sections
“Housing is the building INTRODUCTION (EWSs). 3
block of people’s health, The infliction of COVID-19, an
dignity, safety, wellbeing COVID-19 has drawn unprecedented pandemic, has
and inclusion”. In this attention to the housing crisis had a sobering effect in urban
decade for action to Placing housing at the center areas. Major cities in most states
achieve New Urban underscores the deeply are the worst affected and also
Agenda and Sustainable entrenched urban plight of represent a large share of their
Development Goals by our cities. 65 million persons, state’s COVID-19 caseload.
2030, India can build that is 1 in every 6 persons, Mumbai accounts for 55%
on the momentum lived in slums and informal of Maharashtra’s total cases,
of urban flagship settlements in India in 2011. Chennai accounts for 70%
programs and accelerate The existence of 33,510 slums, of Tamil Nadu’s total cases,
surveyed in 2013, is another
the transformation of staggering statistic. Long- Ahmedabad accounts for 70%
of Gujarat’s total cases, and
cities into inclusive and term marginalization of these Pune, Indore, Jaipur are the
sustainable hubs. areas, is visible in poor access most affected in their respective
to water & sanitation (WASH) states. It is no coincidence that
amenities in slum households Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh,
- 43.3% households did not West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh,
have water inside their homes Tamil Nadu and Madhya
and 44% did not have toilets Pradesh which have almost
Key Words: Housing, Social Protection, inside houses. Inadequate 70% of the total urban slum
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Community Planning, Slum housing is a challenge even populationare also areas where
upgradation outside the perimeters of slums COVID-19 has taken deeper
and informal settlements. As root. The pandemic also exposed
Contributed by UN-Habitat India (parul. of 2011, 32 percent of urban vulnerabilities especially for
agarwala@un.org), New Delhi. 3 3
October 2020 Volume 21 No. 2-SHELTER 3
