Roof above the head : Qualitative assessment of rural housing in India

The development of rural housing in a manner that results in adequate, quality shelter for inhabitants of Mahatma Gandhi’s “real India” is a challenge before the nation. What are the issues confronting rural housing development in India? The litany of its woes is endless. At first impression, rural housing is vulnerable to weaknesses in the delivery system for housing materials and services. Gradually, it dawns on the observer that the sector is deeply affected by the infrastructure deficit – roads, electricity supply, drinking water and sanitation. It has been bypassed by the numerous economic revolutions that have made India a vibrant economic superpower. For instance housing finance, which played a key role in the urban housing explosion, is conspicuous by its absence in the rural setting. Additionally, the limited mobility of rural households, the lack of vibrancy in the market for village properties and the marked volatility in agricultural incomes combine to dampen the prospects of this nebulous sector. The massive scale of the problems bedeviling the shelter situation in rural India, especially where it concerns the poor who constitute a large proportion of its population, may be understood through the myriad ‘absences’ that erect obstacles in the way of positive change. There is real paucity of common or village (non-agricultural) land for meeting the housing needs of the poor; whatever little is available is put to stress by challenging demands from other sectors. This leads to the collapse of the government’s social housing development programme—Indira Awas Yojana (IAY). The absence of adequate and comprehensive land records creates a forbidding situation for institutions interested in rural housing finance. How do people build houses under these conditions? This report summarises the discussions the study team had with a number of officials, beneficiaries of government programmes and members of households in the selected villages spread over the country. (This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)