planning for the urban poor in northwestern india: emerging

Planning for the Urban Poor in Northwestern India: Emerging

Policies, Practices and Issues (A Case Study of Chandigarh)

Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID)

Sector 19, Madhya Marg, Chandigarh – 160 019 (India)

A Study Conducted under HUDCO Research Grant

MANOJ KUMAR TEOTIA

Assistant Professor (HUDCO Chair Coordinator), CRRID, Chandigarh

Planning for the Urban Poor in Northwestern India: Emerging

Policies, Practices and Issues (A Case Study of Chandigarh)

MMMaaannnooojjj KKKuuummmaaarrr TTTeeeoootttiiiaaa

AAAssssssiiissstttaaannnttt PPPrrrooofffeeessssssooorrr (((HHHUUUDDDCCCOOO CCChhhaaaiiirrr CCCoooooorrrdddiiinnnaaatttooorrr)))

CCCRRRRRRIIIDDD,,, CCChhhaaannndddiiigggaaarrrhhh

MMMaaarrrccchhh 222000111333

Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID)

Sector 19, Madhya Marg, Chandigarh – 160 019 (India)

A Study Conducted Under HUDCO Research Grant

Acknowledgements

It is our proud privilege to convey our sincere gratitude to Housing and Urban Development Corporation Ltd (HUDCO), New Delhi particularly the Chairman and Managing Director, HUDCO and Executive Director (Urban and Regional Planning/ Design and Development), HUDCO for assigning this study to CRRID. The CMD, HUDCO and ED, HUDCO have been constant source of inspiration to us during entire work. We wish to thank RK Safaya for granting this study and Shri AN Krishnamurthy, Human Settlement Management Institute (HSMI), New Delhi for his guidance and support. We are thankful to other senior officials at HSMI/HUDCO i.e., Dr HS Gill, Shri A K Joshi and Mr Atul Kr Srivastava who were very cooperative and encouraging during the study. We are grateful to Dr. Sucha Singh Gill, Director-General, CRRID for taking keen interest in the study and facilitating its completion. We wish to thank Dr Ranvinder Singh Sandhu, Professor (Retd), GNDU, Amritsar for his valuable contribution. It is because of his suggestions and contribution we were able to complete the assignment. We are very grateful to him for regularly interacting with us and facilitating data collection and finalization of the study. He gave very valuable suggestions and was available even in odd hours for discussing the various chapters. His comments and suggestions had enhanced the quality of the present study. Similarly we are grateful to Ar. Jit Kumar Gupta for his valuable inputs in the study. He always comes for my support even at very short notice. I also wish to Shri Mehar Singh, Consultant, CRRID for his inputs and valuable suggestions. We express our gratitude to the beneficiaries of housing schemes, SJSRY, CDS functionaries, elected representatives and officials from various organizations/ departments such as Municipal Corporation Chandigarh (MCC), State UPA Cell-SJSRY, Chandigarh Housing board (CHB) etc for discussions on various aspects of this study and making clarifications and suggestions at various stages of the study. We wish to convey special thanks to Dr Manmohanjit Singh Hundal, a dedicated researcher, teacher and a humble friend who helped us in facilitating interviews and then analyze the responses of the participants. We are also grateful to another dear friend Mr Vivek Trivedi, SDO, Municipal Corporation Chandigarh for facilitating data collection from MCC. We wish to thank our filed researchers Mr Kuldip Singh, Mr Rajender Kumar, Ms Monika Bhardwaj, Mr Yugvinder Singh Maan, Ms Mandeep and Mr Ajai Kumar Yadav who helped us in data collection, review of literature, preparing contents, list of tables and setting of the soft copy etc pertaining to the study. I am thankful to my colleagues in account department for helping me in maintaining smooth flow of funds throughout the study and facilitating timely release of funds. Last but not least, I am thankful to Shri Braham Singh for Xeroxing the material and study report.

Manoj Kumar Teotia Principal Coordinator

CRRID TEAM

Professor Sucha Singh Gill Director General

Project Team

Mr Manoj Kumar Teotia Principal Coordinator

Consultancy/ Academic Inputs

Dr Ranvinder Singh Sandhu Consultant

Mr Mehar Singh, Mr Jit K Gupta, Dr M S Hundal

and Mr Vivek Trivedi Discussants

Administration/ Library

Mr Sandipan Sharma Account Officer

Mrs. Gursharan Kaur UDC

Ms Meena Jatana Librarian

Field and Computer work

Mr Kuldip Singh Field Assistant

Mr Rajender Kumar Field Assistant

Ms Mandeep Kaur Field Assistant

Mr Ajai Kumar Yadav Field Assistant

Ms Monika Bhardwaj Field Assistant

Mr Yugvinder Singh Maan Field Assistant

Photostat

Mr Braham Singh Photostat

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

PROJECT TEAM

LIST OF TABLES/ PLATES / SNAPS / MAPS/ FIGURES

ABBREVIATIONS

CHAPTER -1: INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………………………….1-17

CHAPTER-2: PLANNING PROCESS AND CONTEXT…………………………………………………….……18-35

CHAPTER-3: URBANIZATION, SLUMS AND POVERTY………………………………………..……………36-56

CHAPTER-4: HOUSING AND BASIC SERVICES FOR THE URBAN POOR…………………………….57-86

CHAPTER-5: URBAN POVERTY ALLEVIATION ……………………………………………………..………..87-103

CHAPTER-6: STAKEHOLDERS CONSULTATION AND PERCEPTION OF BENEFICIARIES …104-120

CHAPTER-7: CONCLUSIONS AND STRATEGIES ………………………………………………….…………121-127

REFERENCES……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….128-134

LIST OF TABLES

Tab. No Title Page No

1.1 Percentage, Decadal Variation of Urban population in North Western Region 4

1.2 Percentage of Population in Different Size Categories of Towns to Total Urban Population 4 1.3 Area under Cities and Towns in North Western Region in sq. kms (1971-2001) 4 1.4 Urban Density of Population in North Western Region (Persons/sq/km) 1971-2001 5

1.5 Projection of Urban Population (in million) & Level of Urbanization (%) 5

1.6 Percentage of Households by Type of Structure of Houses in North Western Region: 2001 6

1.7 Urban Households (%) by ‘Number of Rooms of Dwelling’ in North Western Region: 2001 6

1.8 Urban Households (%) by ‘Number of Rooms of Dwelling’ in North Western Region: 2011 6

1.9 Houseless Population in North Western Region: 2001 7 1.10 Urban Households by Access to Type of Drinking Water Sources in North Western Region 7 1.11 Distribution of Urban Households by Possession of Specified ‘Households Assets’ in North

Western Region (‘000’): 2001 7

1.12 Trends in Percentage of Urban Population below Poverty Line in North Western Region (1973-74 to 2004-05)

8

1.13 Relative share of Bottom 20% and Top 20% of urban households in consumption expenditure in North Western Region (1993-94 and 2004-05)

8

1.14 Total Urban Population, Population of cities/ towns reporting Slums and Slum Population in North Western Region (‘000’): 2001

8

1.15 Demographic Statistics, Chandigarh 12-13 2.1 Land Use Pattern in Chandigarh 33 3.1 Growth trends in urban populations of Chandigarh 38

3.2 Growth pattern of urban area and density in Chandigarh 39

3.3 Authorized and unauthorized colonies of Chandigarh,1998 41

3.4 Biometric survey of Slum Dwellers in the City 47

3.5 Social Composition of Slum Dwellers in Chandigarh 49 3.6 Social and demographic features of various slums in Chandigarh 50-51 3.7 Social and Demographic Indicators of Chandigarh in 2001 (Slum and Non-Slum Areas) 51-52 3.8 Occupational Profile of the Labour Colony-4 53

3.9 Population below Poverty Line in Chandigarh City 53

4.1 Housing stock and shortage in Chandigarh, 2001 61 4.2 Census Houses used as Residence and Residence-cum-other use by their Type of Structure 63 4.3 Percentage distribution of households by number of rooms occupied in urban India and

urban Chandigarh, 2001 64

4.4 Percentage distribution of households according to ownership and number of rooms 64 4.5 Use of material in Floor/Roof/Wall 65 4.6 Houses Constructed by the Chandigarh Housing Board (up to March, 2011) 66-67

4.7 Slum Colonies of Chandigarh identified through Biometric Survey 71

4.8 Status of Construction of 25728 Flats & their Allotment to Beneficiaries 74 4.9 Main source of drinking water: 2001-2011 83

4.10 Availability of Drinking Water Sources: 2001-2011 83 4.11 Availability and Type of Latrine Facility: 2001-2011 83 4.12 Distribution of Households by Availability of Bathing Facility, Type of drainage and Kitchen:

2011 83

4.13 Households by source of drinking water 85

4.14 Households by toilet and bath facilities 85 4.15 Households by availability of kitchen and fuel used for cooking 86 5.1 Below Poverty Line Population in Chandigarh City 90

5.2 Category/ Year wise Position of Vocational Training Programmes Conducted/No. of Trainees Trained under SJSRY

100

5.3 BPL beneficiaries trained in training programmes (2008-2011) 100

5.4 Year Wise Position Of Loan Cases Sponsored/Sanctioned/Subsidy Received Back//Net Loan Disbursed Under SJSRY

102

5.5 Details of sponsored and sanctioned loan case under SJSRY during 2010-11 102

5.6 Financial Status of the SJSRY programme 103

LIST OF MAPS

Maps No Title Page No

1 Topographic Map (Contour and Spot Height) 15 2 Pre-Chandigarh landscape 25 3 Phases in Master Plan of Chandigarh 28 4, 5 Left: Albert Meyer’s Master Plan; Right: Le Corbusier’s Master Plan for

Chandigarh 30

6 Chandigarh Periphery Area 34 7 First Slum sites Prior to 1959 43 8 Labour Colonies As a relocation measures during 1959-64 44 9 Chandigarh Existing slums 1998 45 10 Chandigarh Existing Slums 2006 46 11 Houseless Population in Chandigarh City 1998 62 12 Housing : Private and Public in Chandigarh City 1998 68 13 Chandigarh Proposed Rehabilitation Colonies 69 14 Chandigarh Dwellers of Slums and Rehabilitation Colonies 1998 70 15 Chandigarh Existing Slums 2006 75 16 Chandigarh Existing Slums 2006 91

Source for all Photographic Plates is the author unless otherwise mentioned.

LIST OF PLATES

Plate No Title Page No 1 Illegal Slums in Ramdarbar 47 2 An Encroachment Park in Ramdarbar 47

2a Waste Land (now Park) in Ramdarbar 48 2b Poor Sanitary Conditions in Ramdarbar 48 3 Labour Colony no 4 48 4 Rag picking/ Junk dealing in labours colony 54

4a Pot making in Madrasi colony 54 5 Pea peeling in Bapu Dham Colony 54

5a Rag Packing in Bapu Dham Colony 54 6 Allotment Letter 72 7 Houses Allotment in Sector – 38 west 76 8 Houses Allotment in Ramdarbar (left) and Sector- 49 (right) 76 9 Ongoing works in Dhanas (left) and MuliJagran (right) 77

10 Best city in Earmarking land for poor- Dec-09(left) Best city for planned Habited for urban poor- Dec-10 (right)

77

11 Stagnation of water and poor sanitation: Sector 38-west 79 12 Views of parks in Ramdarbar colony 80 13 Sewer pipe inside the kitchen area 80 14 Water leakage in some Houses in Ramdarbar colony 81 15 Poor sanitary conditions in Ramdarbar colony 81 16 Poor coverage and quality of basic services for urban poor in colony no.04 84 17 A model Community Development society 94 18 Capacity Buildings of CDS Functionaries 94 19 A CDS members Assisting in Recovery Derive of a bank 95 20 LPG Autos handed over to the urban poor under USEP 96 21 Skill training under STEP-UP 96 22 Secretary, MoHUPA interacting with PLHIVs benefited under SJSRY 97 23 Skill formation under SJSRY: Vacant Training of Women Beneficiaries 99 24 Various examples of self help ventures under USEP, SJSRY 101 25 Schemes and programmes under MoHUPA 125 26 A Convergence Model 126

LIST OF FIGURE

Fig. No Title Page No 3.1 Distribution of Rural- Urban Population 1901-2001 39 3.2 Decadal Growth in Urban Area(%) 39 3.3 Percentage Distribution of slum population in States/ Union

Territories 40

5.1 Number of persons below poverty line 90 5.2 Category wise BPL beneficiaries trained 100 6.1 Perception of Beneficiaries of Housing Scheme 111

ABBERIVIATIONS

BPL Below Poverty Line ULBs Urban Local Bodies CDP City Development Plan CHB Chandigarh Housing Board EWS Economically Weaker Section GOI Government of India ISHDP Integrated housing and Slum Development Programme JSY Janni Suraksha Yojna RAY Rajiv Awas Yojna UBSP Urban Basic services for the Poor NIUA National Institute of Urban Affairs MCC Municipal Corporation Chandigarh EIUS Environmental Improvement of Urban slums SJSRY Swaran Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojna JNNURM Jawaher Lal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission NSDP National slum development programme LIG Low Income Group USEP Urban self- employment Programme MIG Middle Income Group TMPH Two Million Housing Programme VAMBAY Valmiki Ambedkar Awas Yojana NSDP National Slum Development Programme MHUPA Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation PEPSU Patiala and East Punjab States Union MDGs Millennium Development Goals UNCHS United Nations Centre for Human Settlements DDA Delhi Development Authority IDFC Infrastructure Development Finance Company Limited TFUGF Task Force on Urban Governance and Financing NUHHP National Urban Housing and Habitat Policy

Planning for the Urban Poor 1

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

Growth can be sustainable only when it is inclusive. Inclusive growth calls for inclusive Cities, built on the foundations of people-centric governance and based on people’s needs, priorities and perspectives. We have to work towards an urban India which acts as an engine of both economic growth and inclusion. The common citizen, especially the poor and marginalized, must be enabled to have access to descent shelter, basic amenities, livelihoods and a voice in governance. Kumari Shelja, Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Government of India.

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND: Urbanization, migration and proliferation of slums

are interrelated processes and urban poverty seems to travel along with them. The twenty-

first century is expected to witness not only sustained population growth but also more of

urbanization. Economic vibrancy of large urban centers in offering diverse employment

opportunities and means of livelihood is the chief cause of migration to cities. In India,

migration has played an important role in accelerated urban growth. However, it

concomitantly results in transfer of rural poverty to urban areas.

Rural migrants are attracted to the urban areas for economic reasons regardless of the fact

that physical infrastructure in terms of housing, drinking water supply; drainage etc. is not

so adequate in the cities. Cities have been the hubs of economic growth. But planned

urbanization has been marred to an extent by the excessive demand for basic amenities

resulting in deterioration in the physical environment. The quality of life has thus suffered

due to continuing influx of migrants. At the same time the gap between demand and supply

of essential services and other infrastructure is widening in urban areas.


Increasing Urbanization due to natural increase of urban population, Migration and

extension of municipal boundaries is aggravating housing problem and resulting in

increase in the land prices. Developed land is not supplied according to the demand and it

is also beyond the reach of poor and this forces the poor to look for informal solutions,

which result in mushrooming growth of slums and squatter settlements. The problem of

urban slums has been faced at some point of time by almost all the major cities throughout

the developing world (Census of India 2001).

There is growing concern about the poor people living in slums, as manifested in the United

Nations Millennium Declaration and subsequent identification of development priorities by

international community including India. In the light of increasing number of slum

dwellers, governments have recently adopted a specific target on slums, i.e. Millennium

Development Goals (MDGs) which aim to significantly improve the lives of at least 100

million slum dwellers by the year 2020. Slums are a physical and spatial manifestation of

urban poverty and intra-city inequality. However, slums do not accommodate all the poor

and not all the slum dwellers are poor. Slums and poverty are closely related and mutually

reinforcing each other. The majority of slum dwellers earn their living from informal

activities located either within or outside the slum areas. Most slum dwellers are engaged

menial and less paid occupations.

The planning for the urban poor has been critically debated in India from various

perspectives. With the unexceptionally higher growth of slum population in the cities, the

planning for the poor slum dwellers has acquired tremendous importance. Although

literature is available on physical dimensions of urban planning but only few studies are

available on sociological dimensions particularly in the context of planning for the poor.

Whatever limited literature is available it is grossly inadequate to understand the

complexities inherent in this important issue. The available studies on urban planning

indicate that urban planners have not included social agenda properly in their approaches;

instead physical dimensions have been stressed upon excessively. The slum dwellers have

often been pushed on the fringe/ periphery of the cities. The increasing segregation and

isolation of slums and squatter settlements from mainstream urban settlements, inequality


in coverage and quality of housing, urban infrastructure and services within the cities and

extreme deprivation of sizeable proportion of urban population (slum dwellers) with

minimum essential civic services have been affecting social fabric of the cities. In short,

they are being marginalized socio-culturally as well as spatially. The exclusion of people

from planned and built up parts of the cities is affecting their quality of life and will have

serious implications on sustainability of urban settlements in particular and civil society in

general.

PRESENT SCENARIO: At present about one fifth of the urban population of our country

live in slums and a higher percentage in substandard housing conditions which are socially

and geographically segregated from mainstream settlements. Most of the slums are

inhabited by the urban poor whose problems have been mounting up with unprecedented

growth of population and lack of participation in urban planning and governance. The

socially differentiated and economically marginalized class of urban poor lives without

adequate access to urban infrastructure and services.

With the deficiencies in urban planning, urban institutions have been unable to cope with

the pace of rapid urbanization, which has resulted in deficiencies in urban infrastructure,

municipal services and isolation of human settlements. Studies show that poor living

conditions affect health of the urban poor most and even sometimes they are worst than

the rural poor. The condition of women and children is worst in slums. The notion of

‘culture of poverty’ as propagated by Oscar Lewis is more visible in the segregated urban

settlements, which are inhabited mainly by the slum dwellers and urban poor living at the

bottom of socio-economic scale. The lack of participation and integration of urban poor in

the planning process is one of the major factors responsible for growing incidence of

‘culture of poverty’, segregation/ isolation of settlements in urban areas. The towns and

cities in northwestern India are not an exception to this general urban scenario in India.


NORTHWESTERN INDIAN SCENERIO: The urban population in northwestern region is growing rapidly (Table 1.1). Chandigarh is highly urbanized among all the states and Union Territories in India. The level of urbanization in Punjab, is second highest in the region after Chandigarh and highest amongst the states i.e., Haryana, J&K and Himachal Pradesh. The urban population is concentrating in Class I towns (Table 1.2). Chandigarh is most urbanized Class I town in the region. The share of Class I town in urban population in Haryana is higher (72.56%), followed by J&K (63.59%), Punjab (58.32%) and Himachal Pradesh (24.34%).

Table 1.1

Percentage, Decadal Variation of Urban population in North Western Region States/UTs Urban Population (%) Decadal Variation of Urban Population

(%)

1971 1981 1991 2001 2011 1971-

81

1981-

91

1991-01 2001-2011

Punjab 23.73 27.68 29.55 33.95 37.49 44.51 28.95 37.58 25.72

Haryana 17.67 21.88 24.63 29 34.79 59.47 43.41 37.58 44.25

Himachal Pradesh 6.99 7.61 8.69 9.79 10.04 59.47 43.41 5079 12.81

Jammu & Kashmir 18.59 21.05 22.89 24.81 NA 46.86 42.33 40.29 NA

Chandigarh 90.55 93.63 89.69 89.78 97.25 81.52 36.18 40.46 26.86

Source: Various Census reports

Table 1.2

Percentage of Population in Different Size Categories of Towns to Total Urban Population

States/UTS 2001

Class I Class

II

Class III Class IV Class

V

Class VI Total

Haryana 72.56 5.78 11.9 7.66 2.03 0.07 100.0

Himachal Pradesh 24.34 - 25.86 19.06 19.09 11.65 100.0

J & K 63.59 14.57 3.97 9.93 5.16 2.78 100.0

Punjab 58.32 15.91 13.1 9.81 2.58 0.28 100.0

Chandigarh 100.00 - - - - - 100.0

Source: Census of India 2001

The area under cities and towns in Northwestern region is growing rapidly. The area has grown more than three times in case of Punjab, little less than three times in case of Haryana during 1971 to 2001. Although area under cities and towns has grown about one third times in case of Chandigarh, little more than one half time in case of HP, more than double in case of J&K (Table 1.3).

Table 1.3

Area under Cities and Towns in North Western Region in sq. kms (1971-2001) States/UTs Area (sq.kms)

1971 1981 1991 2001 2011

Haryana 452 764 967 1,280 NA

Himachal Pradesh 156 212 270 242 NA

J & K 393 587 N.A 963 NA

Punjab 692 1199 1,441 2,079 NA

Chandigarh 58 68 78 79 NA

Source: Various Reports of Census of India


Despite increase in area, the urban population density has also grown rapidly due to high growth in the population of urban areas (Table 1.4). Chandigarh has second highest population density after Delhi, followed by Haryana, Punjab, J&K and HP. Higher population density has serious implications on quality of life.

Table 1.4

Urban Density of Population in North Western Region (Persons/sq/km) 1971-2001

States/UTs 1971 1981 1991 2001 2011

Haryana 3928 3701 4194 4776 NA

Himachal

Pradesh

1556 1538 1665 2464 NA

J & K N.A 2147 - 2612 NA

Punjab 4650 3876 4160 3941 NA

Chandigarh 4044 6218 7382 10191 NA

Source: Various Reports of Census of India

The projections of population show that share of urban population (%) will continue to rise in future. Level of urban population in Punjab may touch even 45% by 2026. Haryana seems to follow Punjab. Even J&K, the predominantly hilly state is likely to cross 30%. Himachal is likely to be least urbanized in the region but implications of urbanization in hilly states seem to be more serious in hilly states.

Table 1.5

Projection of Urban Population (in million) & Level of Urbanization (%)

States/UTs 2005 2026

Urban

Population

% Urban Urban

Population

% Urban

Haryana 7.0 30.8 12.85 41.3

Himachal Pradesh 0.7 10.3 1.00 13.2

J & K 2.8 25.6 4.03 30.0

Punjab 9.2 35.8 14.41 46.0

Chandigarh 0.9 89.8 2.26 89.8

Source: Compiled from National Buildings Organization (2010)

The housing condition seems to be grim north western region. The percentage of households living in semi permanent houses is highest in HP, followed closely by J&K. The situation is not better in Haryana. Comparatively Punjab and Chandigarh have better situation. As far as temporary/ kutcha houses is concerned, the percentage of serviceable houses is highest in J&K, followed by Haryana and Punjab. The share of non-serviceable houses is highest in J&K and Haryana (Table 1.6). The congestion is another crucial issue. A high percentage of people do not have exclusive rooms. The percentage of people having one and two room houses is also very high. Chandigarh has highest percentage of people in one room house, followed by Himachal, Haryana, Punjab and J&K (Tables 1.7 & 1.8).


Table 1.6

Percentage of Households by Type of Structure of Houses in North Western Region: 2001

States/UTs % of Households by Type of Structure of Houses

Permanent/

Pucca Semi

Semi

permanent/

Total Pucca

Temporary/Kutcha Unclassi

fied Service Serviceable Non-

Serviceable

Haryana 65.79 28.25 5.95 4.91 1.04 0.01

HP 64.54 32.59 2.86 2.29 0.57 0.01

J & K 55.00 32.16 12.68 11.60 1.08 0.17

Punjab 86.10 8.87 5.02 4.11 0.92 0.01

Chandigarh 89.81 7.00 3.18 2.23 0.95 0.01


Table 1.7

Urban Households (%) by ‘Number of Rooms of Dwelling’ in North Western Region: 2001

States/UTs Percentage of Urban Households having

No Exclusive Room One

Room

Two

Rooms

Three

Rooms

Four

Rooms

Haryana 1.32 27.91 31.32 20.13 19.32

Himachal Pradesh 1.47 34..14 31.18 14.78 18.43

J & K 2.16 20.27 22.35 18.89 36.33

Punjab 0.79 26.11 29.63 20.88 22.59

Chandigarh 0.96 38.38 26.25 19.97 14.44


Table 1.8

Urban Households (%) by ‘Number of Rooms of Dwelling’ in North Western Region: 2011

States/UTs Percentage of Urban Households having

No

Exclusive

Room

One

Room

Two

Rooms

Three

Rooms

Four

Rooms

Haryana 1.8 26.2 29.5 21.3 12.9

Himachal Pradesh 1.7 27.4 30.4 16.5 11.7

J & K 2.8 15.0 22.4 23.1 15.6

Punjab 1.1 23.0 31.0 21.8 12.9

Chandigarh 1.4 39.3 25.4 18.7 8.6

Source: Census of India 2011 The houseless population in northwestern region is also high and Punjab and Haryana have

large number of people without houses in urban areas (Table 1.9). Problem of housing

becomes even more crucial with the problem of basic services. The coverage of basic

services such as drinking water is poor in urban areas of northwestern India. The access of safe

drinking water still a distant dream for many, as many households are not having access to taps.


The people are still compelled to fetch water from unhygienic sources of water (Table 1.10).

Possession of assets like television, telephone and means of transportation are considered crucial

for standard of living. The data indicate (Table 1.11) that there is still large number of people

who do not possess these assets.

Table 1.9

Houseless Population in North Western Region: 2001

States/UTs Houseless Population

Total Rural Percentage Urban Percentage

Haryana 59,360 35,384 60 23,976 40

Himachal Pradesh 8,364 7,047 84 1,317 16

J & K 12,751 10,129 79 2,622 21

Punjab 46,958 23,549 50 23,409 50

Chandigarh 2,722 41 2 2,681 98

Source: Census of India 2001 Table 1.10

Urban Households by Access to Type of Drinking Water Sources in North Western Region

States/UTs Urban Households (HHs) by Sources of Drinking Water: 2001

Urban

HHs.

(Total)

Tap Hand- Pump &

Tube well

Well Tank, Pond,

River, Lake,

etc

Total % Total % Total % Total %

Haryana 1,075 771 71.7 276 25.6 9 0.8 20 1.9

HP 143 134 93.9 5 3.2 1 0.8 3 2.1

J & K 390 342 87.5 32 8.2 5 1.2 12 3.1

Punjab 1,490 995 66.8 478 32.1 3 0.2 13 0.9

Chandigarh 181 167 92.7 13 7.2 0.01 0.0 0.3 0.2


Table 1.11

Distribution of Urban Households by Possession of Specified ‘Households Assets’ in North

Western Region (‘000’): 2001

States/UTs Urban Households (HHs) by Possession of Specified ‘Assets’

Urban

HHs

(Total)

Television Telephone Scoter,

Motor,

Moped, Cycle

Car, Jeep,

Van, etc

None of the

Specified

Assets

HHs % HHs % HHs % HHs % HHs %

Haryana 1,075 791 73.6 297 27.7 345 32.1 90 8.4 135 12.6

HP 143 109 76.1 52 36.4 25 17.2 12 8.7 20 14.1

J & K 390 296 75.9 79 20.2 76 19.6 31 8.1 38 9.7

Punjab 1,490 1,187 79.7 478 32.1 599 40.2 144 9.7 119 8.0

Chandigarh 181 137 75.7 63 34.9 83 45.8 31 17.0 12 6.6



The rapid urbanization and high density in urban areas in northwestern region has resulted in deficiencies in basic services, housing and urban poverty. The situation is worst in segregated and deprived areas like slums. Slums are considered pockets of urban poverty and extreme deprivation. The urban population living below poverty line has been declining over a period of time (Table 1.12) but slums have grown at the same time (Table 1.14). While Haryana has highest percentage of population below poverty line, Punjab, J&K and Chandigarh have almost same percentage. If non-income parameters of urban poverty like housing, basic services and livelihood are considered the level of people living below poverty line will grow considerably.

Table 1.12

Trends in Percentage of Urban Population below Poverty Line in North Western Region

(1973-74 to 2004-05)

States/UTs 1973-74 1977-78 1983 1987-88 1993-94 2004-05

Haryana 40.18 36.57 24.15 17.99 16.38 15.1

Himachal

Pradesh

13.17 19.44 9.43 6.29 9.18 3.4

J & K 21.32 23.71 17.76 17.47 9.18 7.9

Punjab 27.96 27.32 23.79 14.67 11.35 7.1

Chandigarh 27.96 27.32 23.79 14.67 11.35 7.1

Table 1.13 Relative share of Bottom 20% and Top 20% of urban households in consumption expenditure in

North Western Region (1993-94 and 2004-05) States Bottom 20% Top 20% Haryana 6.64 7.04 35.33 43.90 Himanchal Pradesh 10.78 6.29 57.38 39.24

J & K 6.76 4.87 35.96 30.40 Punjab 6.57 7.77 34.95 48.49 Chandigarh NA NA NA NA

Table 1.14

Total Urban Population, Population of cities/ towns reporting Slums and Slum Population

in North Western Region (‘000’): 2001 States/UTs Total

Population

Urban

Population

Population

of cities

reporting

Slums

Total Slum

Population

% of slum population

To total

population

of the state

To population of

cities/ towns

reporting slums

Haryana 21144564 6115304 5213913 1681117 27.5 32.2

J & K 10143700 2516638 1677549 373898 14.9 22.3

Punjab 24358999 8262511 6685183 1483574 18 22.2

Chandigarh 900635 808515 808515 107125 13.2 13.2

Source: Census of India 2011 Note: Towns/ Cities having population more than 20000/ HP did not report slums.


Despite the steady increase in urban population in the region as indicated by the tables, the

quality of planning for urban poor in North-western India is far from satisfactory. Local

institutions with weak functional and fiscal domains as well as poor resources have been

unable to cope with the growing urban challenges and promote inclusive agenda. With

globalization and privatization, consequent to rapid economic reforms, there is an

increasing pressure on local institutions to mobilize greater resources both from their own

sources and from capital markets to push forward the agenda for the poor.

There seems to be consensus that state and parastatal agencies such as urban local bodies

(ULBs), state urban development agencies, housing boards and development authorities

must accelerate the task of urban poverty alleviation, housing and basic services to the

poor and improve their efficiency in the wake of growing demand of poor citizens for

efficient delivery of services, housing and livelihood etc. Chandigarh, although a planned

city, is no exception to the general urban scenario in the northwestern region of the

country.

CHANDIGARH: THE CASE STUDY AREA: Chandigarh, the new planned city of India grew

with unplanned growth of squatter settlements from the beginning. The slums with poor

housing conditions and services grew due to lack of planning of housing for the labour who

worked during initial construction activities and then other informal activities. The local

administration had made efforts from time to time to rehabilitate slum dwellers but slum

population continued to multiply. It is only recently the task of planning for the poor seems

to have been taken seriously to provide housing and basic services to the poor in

Chandigarh. This study is an effort to see the issue of planning for the urban poor in

Chandigarh in the context of emerging policies, practices and issues to highlight some of

the lessons which could be learned by other cities facing similar crucial problem.

Studies show that city has been facing problems from early years of its construction due to

migration and haphazard growth of slums and poor planning for the poor. Sarin (1982) in

her book on Urban Planning in the Third World: The Chandigarh Experience, highlighted the

conflicts and contradictions in urban planning in Chandigarh. It has highlighted the


structural limitations against genuine improvement for the working poor, be it with respect

to a solution to their housing problems, or in terms of opportunities for meaningful and

productive employment. The policies adopted by Chandigarh Administration could ‘offer a

little, social and material improvement to the living and working conditions of the working

poor.’ The promises of betterment held out by the protagonists of such policies are no

more real or viable than those offered by Le Corbusier in support of his plan-of offering ‘all

amenities of life to the poorest of the poor of the city’s inhabitants to lead a dignified life’.

None of the planning frameworks reviewed, irrespective of their levels of ‘sophistication’ in

terms of incorporating inputs from several disciplines, directly addressed itself to dealing

with the priority needs and problems of the working poor. Sarin also described that the

development of the city, showcasing how concepts inherent in the master plan and the

policies pursued in its implementation not merely ignored, but totally excluded a major

section of the population from ‘legal’ housing and employment. Sarin critically analyzed the

western origin of the planning process/ approaches/ concepts applied in the city and the

process by which Le Corbusier finalized its master plan in a matter of days. As the city

developed, it became evident that the concepts of the master plan could not be fully

implemented and social forces determined the temporary resolution of conflicts inherent

in the plan.

A comprehensive study by Kalia (1987) on Chandigarh: The Making of an Indian City, has

highlighted that ‘Chandigarh turned out to be a designed city, not a planned one. Chandigarh

is neither success nor failure’. Different from an “organic city”, which has developed and

grown without benefit of centralized planning, a planned city is attractive as a policy tool

precisely because it provides the creator with the opportunity to restructure in accordance

with his or her understanding of society. At its core, therefore, the creation of a new city is

a moral and social act to improve the urban condition. Its origins are in social reform and

its objectives are to restructure urban form and life to achieve more balanced growth

among nature, technology and economic and social classes. In Chandigarh, these objectives

were defined by Le Corbusier and endorsed by Nehru. These objectives have not been fully

accomplished in Chandigarh which can be attributed to the absence of local authority, lack

of understanding of the local culture and values on the part of the planners, and to the


subsequent history of the region. Considering the gravity and impact of urban poverty and

the quality of environments and growth of development of the ‘city beautiful’ Chandigarh

administration has undertaken major housing and urban poverty alleviation initiatives and

provide basic amenities to the poor. In the process Chandigarh is fast emerging as a success

story for initiating pro poor reform agenda. The study of success stories initiated by

Chandigarh can become policy guidelines for implementing reforms in other municipalities

of north-western states. As such a detailed study of Chandigarh with research input from

inter-sectoral dimension of urban poverty alleviation can help in evolving a comprehensive

model of inclusive pro poor policy agenda in the region. This will help the municipalities of

north-western states to strengthen their policy planning capacity, efforts and practices for

effective urban poverty alleviation, housing and basic services. Keeping above in mind the

present study will have the following objectives

OBJECTIVES: The study has been conducted to achieve the following objectives:

To understand the interconnected issue of planning for the urban poor in terms of

housing, basic services and livelihood provision for the urban poor

To critically analyze the emerging policies, practices and issues in the context of

planning for the poor

To develop strategies towards ensuring better planning for sustainable living

conditions for the urban poor

METHODOLOGY:

The data for study has been collected from primary and secondary sources of

information.


The secondary sources include books, periodicals, newspapers, articles in journals,

relevant official websites relating to the topic of research.

Interview Schedule method along with observation method has been used to elicit

views of the respondents/ beneficiaries regarding the issues and impact of the

initiatives.

Views of the officials of Municipal Corporation Chandigarh and Chandigarh Housing

Board, perception of beneficiaries and knowledgeable experts were also taken to

explore the situation.

UNIVERSE OF THE STUDY: Chandigarh has been selected for the study and it is a planned

city. It is also known as ‘City beautiful’. Chandigarh derives its name from the temple of

‘Chandi Mandir’ located in the vicinity of the site selected for the city. The deity 'Chandi',

the goddess of power and a fort or 'garh' lying beyond the temple gave the city its name

Chandigarh. It is located in western side of river Ghaggar and Shimla National highway. The

National and state highways connect this city with New Delhi, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Ambala,

Patiala, Manali and other major towns of North West India. The city has direct air links with

New Delhi and Mumbai. The city was conceived not only to serve as the capital of East

Punjab, but also to resettle thousands of refugees who had been uprooted from West

Punjab. Table 1.15 shows demographic information about Chandigarh and it also reveals

that.

Table 1.15

Demographic Statistics, Chandigarh

NO.OF DISTRICTS CHANDIGARH 1

AREA OF CHANDIGARH 114sq.km

POPULATION PERSONS 1,054,686

MALES 580,282

FEMALES 474,404

DECADAL POPULATION GROWTH 2001-2011 Absolute Percentage

DENSITY OF POPULATION (per Sq.km.)

PERSONS 154,051 17.10

MALES 73,344 14.47

FEMALES 80,707 20.50

SEX RATIO (females per 1000 males) 818


Source: Census of India, 2011, Chandigarh

The area of Union Territory of Chandigarh is 114 sq km comprising 79.34 sq km urban

(Municipal Corporation) and 34.66 sq km rural area. Since the formation of Union Territory

in the year 1966, all the functions such as water supply, sewerage, storm water drainage,

city roads, and respective departments of Chandigarh Administration looked after solid

waste management and fire wing etc. With the formation of Municipal Corporation

Chandigarh in the year 1994 (with 20 wards) with its jurisdictional area of 79.34 sq kms.

The functions of original works and maintenance for V4, V5 and V6 roads (internal); water

supply, sewerage, storm water drainage, solid waste Management and fire wing were

transferred to Municipal Corporation, Chandigarh.

It is one of the greenest cities of India with 1400 green belts / parks / gardens. Moreover it

is the regional centre of three adjoining States of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal. It is hub of

political and bureaucratic activities of adjoining States. The high profile services provided

by Chandigarh Administration and Municipal Corporation are a role model for other urban

cities in the country. At the same time city has been facing decline in its infrastructure and

basic services. The urban poor are worst affected.

Le Corbusier conceived the master plan of Chandigarh as analogous to human body, with a

clearly defined head (the Capitol Complex, Sector 1), heart (the city Centre, Sector 17),

lungs (the leisure valley, innumerable open spaces and sector greens), the intellect (the

cultural and educational institutions), the circulatory system (the network of roads, the 7

Vs) and the viscera (the industrial Area). The concept of the city is based on four major

functions: living, working, care of the body and spirit and circulation. Residential sector

constitutes the living part whereas the Capitol Complex, city centre, Educational Zone (Post

Graduate Institute, Punjab Engineering College, Punjab University) and the Industrial Area

POPULATION IN THE AGE GROUP OF 0-6 YEARS

Absolute Percentage Total Population

PERSONS 117,95 11.18

MALES 63,187 10.89

FEMALES 54,766 11.54

LITERATES Absolute Literacy Rate

PERSONS 809,653 86.43

MALES 468,166 90.54

FEMALES 341,487 81.38


constitute the working part. The Leisure Valley, Gardens, Sector Greens and Open

Courtyards etc. are for the care of body and spirit. The circulation system comprises of 7

different types of roads known as 7 Vs. Recently a pathways for cyclists called V8 were

added to this circulation system. The Capital complex comprises three architectural

masterpieces, the Secretariat, the High Court and the Legislative Assembly, separated by

large piazzas. In the heart of the Capital Complex stands the giant metallic sculpture of the

Open Hand, the official emblem of Chandigarh, signifying the city’s credo of ‘open to give,

Open to receive’.


Map 1


The city centre (Sector 17) is the heart of Chandigarh’s activities. It comprises the Inter-

State Bus Terminus, Parade Ground, District Courts, etc. on one hand, and vast business and

shopping centre on the other. The 4-storey concrete buildings house banks and offices

above and Showrooms/shops at the ground level with wide pedestrian concourses. The

Neelam plaza in the center has fountains with light and water features. Proposal to set up

an eleven story building in Sector 17 is in the offing. Sector 34 is another newly developed

commercial sector. At least three blocks in Sector 34 are proposed to have 10 story

buildings to have offices, multiplexes and hotels. As per the new proposal each building will

have its own style and will not conform to the grey look. An 8 Kms. long linear-park, known

as the Leisure Valley runs through the city from its north eastern tip to its south-western

end. The Rose Garden, Bougainvillea Garden, Shanti Kunj, Fitness Track, Topiary Park,

Terrace Garden, Hibiscus Garden, Garden of Fragrance, Garden of Annuals, Garden of Herbs

& Shrubs, Champa Park, Botanical Garden, etc. all form a part of this green belt in the city,

combining modernity with ecology. One unique feature in the layout of Chandigarh is its

roads, classified in accordance with their functions. An integrated system of seven roads

was designed to ensure efficient traffic circulation. Corbusier referred to these as the 7’ Vs.

The city’s vertical roads run northeast/ southwest (The ‘Paths’) and the horizontal roads

run northwest/southeast (‘The Margs’). They intersect at right angles, forming a grid of

network for movement. This arrangement of road-use leads to a remarkable hierarchy of

movement, which also ensures that the residential areas are segregated from the noise and

pollution of traffic.

Each ‘sector’, or the neighborhood unit, is quite similar to the traditional Indian ‘Mohalla’.

Typically, each sector measures 800 meters by 1200 meters, covering 250 acres area. Tree

plantation and landscaping has been an integral part of the city’s Master plan. Twenty six

different types of flowering and 22 species of evergreen trees have been planted alongside

the roads, complexes, residential areas and in the city parks, to ameliorate the harsh

climate of the region, especially the hot and scorching summers.

SIGNIFICANCE: ‘An appreciation of the political economy of Indian urbanization is

imperative for understanding any of its distortions or for recommending a suitable and


corrective strategy’ (TFUGF 2001). To unravel the intricacy of the planning housing, basic

services and livelihood for the poor and the role of various institutions in the same in the

context of existing policies and practices, analytical tools are required to help to place

findings in the right perspective. These are also necessary to compare the findings with

other studies and to create a semantic platform for urban planning researchers/

professionals for furthering the research and implementation of

findings/recommendations. The study was not conceived within a pre-determined

framework or school of thought and did not aim to falsify any existing theory or argument

or adopt preset research instruments. The research was guided by a number of key

questions/ objectives. Serious efforts were made to explore, analyze and utilize the

existing information in a rather eclectic manner. The study has brought out the

implications for policy and practices in the city as well as lessons for other cities.


CHAPTER 2 PLANNING PROCESS AND CONTEXT

‘Town planning, as we know it, is but a

development of the best points in existing systems

and their adoption to a greater or less extent to the

special requirements of the particular community

[Italicized passage underlined in original]

Davidge 1909-1910

The term ‘Planning’ can be defined and featured as (i) forward looking / looking into the

future; (ii) it bridges the gap between where we are (status) and where we want to go, and

(iii) it involves visualizing a future course of action and putting it in a logical way. In the

absence of planning, events are left to chance. Whatever, be the resources, in the absence

of systematic planning, the resources may not help to achieve the objectives. ‘Planning

implies a purposive direction of activities and resources to the achievement of specified

goals. This is an activity of relating means to ends. The urban planner who is engaged in the

creation of a varied set of facilities and services for large human aggregates is required to

work out the policy implications of broader socio-political-economic goals for housing,

zoning, determination of land-use patterns and provision of services’ (Gore 1971). ‘A much

better phrase to describe city planning is city building; the building of a city for all the

people, for all business, for the future as well as today’ (Howe 1912). ‘As practiced in

market economies, urban planning has consisted of the imposition of a framework of rules,

presented as being neutral, and legitimized on the grounds of being in the ‘public’ interest.

However, within the urban Third World, characterized by extreme social and economic

inequalities, it is not difficult to show that the neutrality of planning is a myth. Invariably,

its impact on different sections of the population is far from equal’ (Sarin 1982). ‘Urban


planning is above all else a social activity. An analysis of urban planning must therefore

focus on understanding the social relations planning sustains, changes, or creates anew’

(Roweis 1981).

Urbanization and planning are closely linked as ‘neither urbanization in general, nor urban

planning in particular, constitutes independent, self-determinate occurrences. Urbanization

and planning constitute an integrated social event, which is outwardly manifested in the

form of a hierarchy of complex, dense and highly polarized land use systems. Within these

systems, civil society (firms and households) and the state (urban planners) interact with

each other in highly specific and often analytically puzzling ways’ (Dear & Scott 1981).

Authors further argue that ‘urban planning acquires and changes in its specific goals,

emphases and contingent ideologies (planning theory, planning education, professional

codes of practices, etc.) in response to specific developments in urban civil society. Hence

urban planning is not, and can never be, a simple homeostatic phenomenon (such as an

invariant and logical system of decision making rules and procedures). It is, on the

contrary, an ever-changing historical process that is continually being shaped and reshaped

by a broad system of urban tensions’. ‘Planning is seen less as ‘development control’ and

more as encouraging and supporting the multiplicity of private initiatives from citizen

groups, NGOs and local, national and international enterprises that make a settlement

prosper. There is also a much greater stress placed on integrating social, economic and

environmental goals’ (UNCHS 1996). The planning also reveals the real intention of the

State towards the poor.

The major components of urban planning could be ‘settlement planning, land development,

management of environmental infrastructure and transport. Settlement planning is central

to ensuring that urban development and management meets sustainable goals’. The

common to all these components is the social planning, which takes care of participatory

dimension in urban planning. The ‘participatory tools and methods through which public

authorities can fully involve the local citizens in development projects’ (UNCHS 1996) are

important means to achieve the goals of urban planning. According to Pathak (2003), ‘the

current practice of urban planning relies on preparation of Development or Master plans


with development control regulations. Such procedures were introduced in most states by

largely following the British town-planning act of 1947. Although the British system has

undergone sustained evolution, Indian planning system has remained unchanged. In terms

of content such master plans are:

Long term (usually 20 years) plans specifying land use and density and FSI (Floor

Space Index) zoning

Designation of land for public purposes, which is to be compulsorily acquired.

Development control regulations

The procedure followed for preparation of such plans includes:

Preparation of existing land use map

Long term estimates of population based largely on the trend revealed by the census

and not on the basis of economy and employment trends

Spatial distribution of population based on desired densities.

Designation of land for public purposes like transport, education, health and

recreation facilities based on ‘planning norms’.

Development control regulations laying down the procedure to be followed by

private landowners to undertake development of their properties.

Publication of draft plan for inviting ‘suggestions and objections’

Hearing of suggestions and objections (not necessarily in the public hearing

formats)

Adoption of Final plan with the approval of the state government’.

In India, according to NIUA (1998), ‘Master Plan is a design for the physical, social,

economic and political framework for the city. The functions of the Master

Plan/Development Plan are as follows:

To guide development of a city in an orderly manner so as to improve the quality of

life of the people.

Organize and coordinate the complex relationships between urban land users;


Chart a course for growth and change, be responsive to change and maintain its

validity over time and space, and be subject to continual review;

Express the aims and ambitions of the community, delineating the form and

character it seeks to achieve and policies by which these objectives can be achieved;

Direct the physical development of the city in relation to its social and economic

characteristics based on comprehensive surveys and studies on the present status

and the future growth prospects; and

Provide a resource mobilization plan for the proposed development works.

The Master Planning methods adopted over the last few decades have not produced a

satisfactory physical environment. The urban development planning process in the past

has been unduly long and has been largely confined to the detailing of land use aspects.

The Plans have paid inadequate attention to the provision of trunk infrastructure,

environmental conservation and financing issues. They have been unrealistic and have not

been accompanied by investment programmes and capital budgets. Integrated urban

development planning approach, taking into account regional, state and national strategies

and spatial functional and other linkages between human settlements has not been given

much recognition. Also, the planning and plan implementation processes have not paid

adequate attention to the integration of land use and transport planning. The mechanism

for planning for the poor with their participation is ineffective in the process of

development planning, in both its preparation and implementation. It is more top-down

than a bottom-up approach.

Urban planning in India has been totally over-shadowed by its spatial content instead of

realization of social and economic objectives. The preservation of the plan from reality

might be because of the isolation of the Plan from the availability of financial resources for

Plan implementation. Most of the programmes are conceptual and not backed by feasibility

studies or financial resources. Investments made in contradiction to Master Plan proposals

lead to development trends contrary to those envisaged in the Plan. The Master Plan does

not incorporate the exact needs and priorities of the people. Instead of reflecting the


aspirations of the community at large, the Plan more or less reflects the values of the

administrators and planners and the ruling elites. The concern for the poor, informal

sector and similar disadvantaged groups does not get reflected in the Master Plan policies

to the level required.

The efficiency of urban settlements largely depends upon how well they are planned, how

economically they are developed and how efficiently they are managed and is largely

governed by the planning inputs. In India, there have been deficiencies in adopting and

implementing urban planning approaches/ practices. The First Five Year Plan laid stress on

the need to undertake town planning and evolve a National Town Planning Act so as to

provide for zoning and land use, control of ribbon development, location of industries,

clearance of slums, civic and diagnostic surveys and preparation of Master Plans. Also,

there was emphasis on adoption of regional planning approach to achieve balanced growth

of population, integration of agriculture and industry in rural areas and dispersal of

industry from the existing centers. The Second and Third Plans reiterated the need for a

phased programme for the survey and preparation of Master Plans of all-important towns,

and preparation of regional plans for new towns and those likely to develop rapidly.

Development Plans for 72 urban centers were prepared during the Third Plan period and

the regional studies in respect of metropolitan region around Delhi were, also undertaken.

In the Third Plan period, almost all the states had introduced town-planning legislations,

with varying scope. The Fourth Plan suggested the creation of larger planning regions and

implementation of the plans, formulated by the regional authorities by local bodies. In this

regard, the Fifth Plan emphasized on the need for institutions which would cut across the

local authorities.

The Seventh Plan stated that urban development planning should, essentially, be

supportive of the economic development in the country. The Plan stressed on the need for

interaction between physical and investment planning, and the Industrial Location Policy

was to sub serve regional and urban planning. The Eighth, Ninth plans did not introduce

any significant initiatives for involving urban poor in master plans, therefore most of the

urban areas continued to suffer due to poor or non-implementation of master plans. Due to


poor implementation of master plans in cities slums seem to have grown. ‘Nearly 28 million

persons lived in the slums in 1981, accounting for 17.5 per cent of the urban population.

The estimates for 1991 were 45.7 million slum dwellers accounting for 21.5 per cent of

population. According to the 2001 Census, there are 40.6 million persons living in slums in

607 towns/cities, and they account for 22.8 per cent of the population of these cities’. But

the 2001 census did not cover slums in the towns having population below 50000 and

slums not formally recognized. Tenth plan highlighted that city-wide master plans should

be drawn up for slum improvement with the objective of removing the slum characteristics

of the selected settlements. The annual programmes and projects, including those to be

financed out of NSDP funds, should be based on such master plans. The master plans in

many cities including one implemented in Delhi by DDA failed to achieve the goals. It was

only during Tenth Plan the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM)

and National Urban Housing & Habitat Policy 2007 and then during Eleventh Plan Rajiv

Awas Yojana (RAY) was introduced by the Government of India in which issue of pro poor

planning was considered seriously. Eleventh Five Year Plan emphasized on inclusive

development but at city level poor remains ignored or received little attention.

‘Did planned development and regulation of the land market not exist? Were there no

comprehensive development plans? Of course, there were and India did built its urban

planning regulation on Anglo-Saxon concepts of physical planning from the 1950s

onwards. During most of the 1950s and 1960s, the land use planning method was well

established. It has been argued that medium to long term land use planning is inflexible in

the face of rapidly changing development needs. Moreover, the preparation of so-called

Comprehensive Development Plans is time-consuming, costly requires well trained town

planners who are few in number, and is not sufficiently oriented towards implementation.

The conventional physical planning approach has been unsatisfying but remains to be

practiced’ (Mengers 1998). ‘Over the years, at the city level, the Master Plan approach has

emerged as the most commonly used urban planning process in the country, The main

focus of city planning today is land use planning which does not fully take in to account the

changing socio-economic conditions prevailing in the city. Similarly, there is no integration

of land use planning and standards with the socio-economic conditions in the city and the


needs of all income groups are not taken in to consideration. Major issues in urban

planning and development relate to inadequacy of base maps, weak socio economic and

physical database, financial constraints, ambitious plan proposals, lack of integration

between spatial, economic, and social planning, inadequate legislative support in certain

areas, lack of flexibility in development plans, absence of a monitoring, review and

evaluation mechanism, non availability of budgetary resources, absence of a resource

mobilization mechanism as an inbuilt provision of the plan, and non use of innovative

management planning and management techniques’ (TFUGF 2001).

In the entire process of local urban planning, social agenda is not included properly, which

is even more important than physical agenda. Affluent sections, power elite, political

decision makers and bureaucrats influence the planning and development of urban areas,

in favor of rich and do not leave adequate affordable living space/ land in build up and well

developed part of the cities for the weaker sections. There has been more emphasis on

physical dimensions and not on the social dimensions during the process of urban

planning. According to Gill (2003), ‘the concept of ‘urban planning’ has, from the very

beginning, implied ‘town planning’, mainly comprising physical/ architectural planning.

Emphasis has usually been laid upon housing, basic infrastructure and provision of basic

services, land use planning, zoning and so on. Secondly urban planning has always been

undertaken on the assumption that the population that it was going to cater to consisted of

uniform / homogeneous/ undifferentiated people, except of course, two kinds of

differentiation. One that people have different economic capacities, and therefore, different

categories of housing and residential plots are planned. Secondly, the heterogeneity in

terms of services offered within the city, has mostly been taken care of with the help of

zoning, at least in the cities, where master plans have come up. Excepting these two bases

of heterogeneity, urban planners have conventionally had hardly paid attention to other

kinds of differentiation. Here, attention is being invited towards the social and cultural and

even economic differentiation, which call for diverse approaches to urban planning’.

The Constitution (74th Amendment) Act regards urban planning including town planning as

legitimate municipal function. It also describes for the constitution of District Planning


Committees for formulating the District Development Plans and Ward Committees for

preparing Ward Development Plans with participation of local people including urban

poor. Spatial, sectoral and inclusive urban planning is a major thrust of these policy-

initiatives, but so far not very concrete has been achieved. The urban/town planning is

fragmented function to be performed by municipalities, town and country planning

departments and urban development agencies, and not by the municipalities as mandated

by the Act. Municipalities, considered to be closest institutions to the local people have not

been transferred function of urban/ town planning even after 18 years of enactment of the

CAA. Urban planning is centralized in nature.

The involvement of multiple agencies/departments urban planning without constructive

coordination and participation of local people is creating more confusion and inefficiencies.

Poor involvement of local people in local urban affairs including urban planning through

WCs and DPCs etc is affecting social and environmental fabric of cities. The urban planning

approaches/ practices seems to be too narrow, inflexible, short duration based, without

proper perspectives, vision plans. The poor projections of physical/ demographic/

financing/ management, legal and most importantly participatory dimensions of urban

planning is largely due to poor research on these dimensions and their inclusion in the

policies, perspective plans, development plans and annual plans necessary for sustainable

urban development. Chandigarh despite being the planned city in India has not been an

exception to this general urban planning scenario at national level.

Conceptualization, planning and creation of the new capital city of Chandigarh revolved

around the vision and mission of Pt. Nehru first Prime Minister of independent India, Albert

Mayer and Matthew Nowicki the team of architects and first planners of the capital city and

Le Corbusier - the man who made Chandigarh a reality.


Map 2


In 1956, Patiala and East Punjab States Union (PEPSU) was merged with Punjab. This made

additional demand on the administrative apparatus of the State. The reorganization of

Punjab in 1966, and the associated constitution of the Union Territory of Chandigarh

resulted in the city becoming a triple capital- of Haryana, Punjab and the Union Territory. A

spurt in its physical growth was inevitable. ‘Prior to the construction of Chandigarh, the

present site was a typical rural tract; with rain fed subsistence agricultural economy. It was

dotted with 24 villages settlements, surrounded by cultivated land parceled into

unconsidered, irregular, small fields. Each settlement usually had a number of mango

groves remnants of which are still visible in parts of the city. The majority of houses were

Kutcha or only partially pucca (Krishan 1999).’

The city of Chandigarh covers an area of 15000 acres to be developed in three distinct

phases. Sectors 1 to 30 have been developed under Phase-I whereas Sectors 31 to 47 have

been developed under Phase-II. The sectors in Phase-I and II have been developed to a

large extent and the services in all the sectors in Phase-II have been provided. The

development of southern sectors is in progress which includes new sectors from 48 to 56.

The development work of Phase-I was started in early 50s. Most of the work in Phase-I was

completed by 1975: though some of the pockets are yet to be developed and have been

kept as reserved area. The development in Phase-II sectors was taken up simultaneously.

The planned population of Phase-I and Phase-II was envisioned to be 5.00 lakhs. However,

Chandigarh already has total population of 9.01 lakhs in 2001 which further grew to 10.55

lakhs in 2011. Chandigarh was built as a totally planned city, it was hoped that the success

of the city would make a role model for other cities of India, creating a better urban

environment.


Map 3

Map 3


Le Corbusier's Master Plan seems to have neglected the need of housing to the poor not

only for the ‘construction labor’ and people involved in the informal activities at the time of

development of the city in 1950s, 1960s and 1970s but also for the future population of

poor migrants and informal labor class. In the initial city plan ‘vertical and high rise

buildings were ruled out, keeping in view the socio economic-conditions and living habits

of the people’. The same did not change even after the increase of poor and EWS housing in

the 1980s, 1990s and the last decade of 2000. The master plan of Chandigarh realized in

two phases i.e., Phase-I consisting of 30 sectors with an area of 9000 acres (Sector 1- Sector

30) for 1,50,000 people and Phase-II consisting of 17 Sectors with an area of 6000 acres

(Sectors 31 to Sector 47) for a population of 3,50,000 has not been inclusive enough to

provide housing to the poor. Master plan tried to accommodate poor in the city through 13-

J and cheap type houses but there number was very little as compared to number of poor.

The original master plan did not consider housing requirements of the poor properly and

hence large number of slums came up in the city. The urban poor have been excluded from

mains settlement and have been rehabilitated either in peripheral areas like Ramdarbar,

one of the largest rehabilitated colony in Industrial Area Phase II.

Too much emphasis was placed on physical targets- building designs, location, green

spaces, the Capital Complex, the City Center, 7-Vs roads, etc. In the process long –term goals

of planning were practically marginalized. Economic and social issues, such as productivity,

economic utilization of space, reduction of the friction of space, improvement of

communication to suit local needs, reduction of social tensions, integration of economically

poor classes, and the achievement of collateral and overall effects, never received proper

attention. Emphasis was placed on the city itself and its periphery zone extending up to a

ten mile radius, no study however made of the impact the city would have on the region as

a whole. Chandigarh is the capital of two states of Punjab and Haryana in addition to UT

capital, having a population of more than a million. Its rapid growth and development has

also led to the fast emergence of numerous slums in different parts of the city. The lack of

basic amenities is an incubator for pandemic diseases, environmental degradation, poverty

and illiteracy. Urban areas are critical for promoting the economic growth, generating

employment and ensuring quality of life. Considering the high degree of productivity and


Map 4: Albert Meyer’s Master Plan; Map 5: Le Corbusier’s Master Plan for Chandigarh Source: Department of urban planning, Chandigarh Administration

economic contours, rational growth and development of urban centers assumes

importance. Since effectiveness and operational efficiency of urban areas depends upon

the quality of planning and development input, accordingly it is desirable that human

settlements are provided with necessary planning and development so that their orderly

growth and development is ensured. In the parlance of city planning Master Plan has been

considered as the most appropriate, potent and scientific tool for promoting systematic &

planned growth of the cities.

Key features of Master Plan: The prime objective of the Master Plan is to guide and

rationalize the future growth and development of urban centers, promote economic

development, improve service delivery, provide appropriate level of amenities, ensure

quality of life and making rational policy choices. The growth and development of

Chandigarh has been, primarily and essentially, dictated by “The Capital of Punjab

(Development & Regulation Act), 1952” which is the mother law defining the frame work of

city planning and construction of buildings. However there is no provision for preparing a

Master Plan for the city of Chandigarh in the said law. The development in the city is to be

regulated under section 4 which provides for empowering the Chief Administrative to issue

directions in respect of erection and use of buildings. Rule 5 empowers the Chief


Administrator to bar erection of buildings in contravention of building rules. In addition,

the Act provides for preservation and planting of trees, control of advertisements, and

registration of professionals. The power to frame Building Bye-Laws and Zoning Plans has

been used as the prime instruments to regulate the development of the capital city of

Chandigarh.

The first Master Plan of Chandigarh to guide the development of the city was framed by the

First team lead by Albert Mayer. However, the present city is based on the framework

provided by the second team lead by Le Corbusier. The so called Master Plan of

Chandigarh, prepared by the second team provided the basic contours of city involving

major road network, location of major land uses in terms of Capitol Complex, University,

Industry, and the City Center. It never defined the agenda for the housing of the future

population which was going to inhibit the city. The Sectors, the basic unit of planning, were

shown for residential and other uses. No brief for housing was prepared for the various

categories of population coming to the city. The residential component was defined

through the categories of residential plots in terms of Marlas and Kanals. No quantification

of the numbers and categories was carried out. In the process, the poor segment of

population got eliminated from the basic fabric of the city. In the absence of any realistic or

projected population falling in the category of urban poor, no policy frame work was put in

place. The entire approach was both piecemeal and adhoc.

In the absence of any defined policy and area earmarked for the housing of the poor, the

city witnessed enormous mushroom growth of unauthorized and substandard housing

clusters in peripheral sectors of the city. Availability of considerable open area acted as

most favorable ground for mushrooming of slums. The city witnessed large number of

slums and people living therein. Considering the strength of the slum dwellers and their

impact on the growth and development of the city, the first initiative for rehabilitation of

unauthorized settlements was taken up in the year 1974-75 whereas city development was

started in the year 1951.


There is no slum related legal framework available in the city to address the issue of shelter

for the poor. The entire mechanism is guided by the various schemes launched by the

Government of India. Chandigarh still doesn’t have any housing policy for the Union

Territory or any defined policy framework for the housing of the urban poor. However, it

has been stated by the Chandigarh Administration that all the identified slum dwellers on a

cut off date shall be rehabilitated by providing appropriate shelter. It doesn’t make any

policy framework for the future slums/ slum dwellers which may come in the city.

As per the direction of the Humble Punjab& Haryana High Court, Revised Master Plan of

Chandigarh is now in the process of finalization for a period of 20 year from 2011-2031.

The Master Plan prepared by the Chandigarh administration, is based on the detailed study

and analysis carried out of the existing frame work including Land use, Traffic and

Transportation, Infrastructure, services, trade and commerce, demography, building

controls, housing etc. The new Master Plan is now defining the housing component

including housing for the poor based on the past experience and the existing ground

realities. It is hoped that New Master Plan will come out with the rational policy framework

and realistic options for housing of the poor in order to eliminate the growth of slums in

the city. The Master Plan needs to be given the legal backing by including it in the

framework of “The Capital of Punjab (Development & Regulation Act), 1952” in order to

ensure that the recommendations and the solutions provided in the Master Plan are

implemented.

Land Use in Chandigarh

The area of the Municipal Corporation is 79.74 sq km out of 114 sq km. As regards the

existing land use (excluding the extension areas of the city) about 65 percent of area is

categorized as residential and commercial and 10 percent each is assigned towards

agriculture and water bodies and forest area respectively. On the other hand the

proportion of public and semi public use land constitutes 9 percent and transportation land

constitutes only 1 percent of the total area. A detailed land use structure of the Corporation

area has been enumerated (Table 2.1).


Table 2.1

Land Use Pattern in Chandigarh

Category Percentage of Area Area in sq. km.

Residential/ Commercial 64.82 73.90

Industrial 5.04 5.75

Public/semi-public 8.92 10.71

Transportation 1.12 1.28

Agricultural & water Bodies 9.96 11.36

Special area (Forest) 9.65 11.00

Total area 100.0 114

Source: Municipal Corporation, Chandigarh.

Periphery Control: Periphery control Act of 1952 was established to regulate

development within a 16 km limit beyond the city. As per this act, No persons shall erect

any building or lay out any means of access to a road in the controlled area except such

building as is required for purpose subservient to agriculture, poultry, dairy, etc. This was a

step towards regulating the pattern of growth around the stipulated city limits and avoids

semi-urban, urban sprawls that present unhealthy living environments and engender social

unrest and crime.

Defying Le-Corbusier dream, Chandigarh could not retain its identity as a fully planned

urban island wrapped around by a green belt of countryside. Not only has there been

considerable non planned development within the city but also extensive haphazard

growth has taken place on its periphery. There is a popular desire to find a place within or

around this city for economic opportunity and ecological quality.


Map 6: Chandigarh periphery zone

Source: Town and Country planning office, Punjab


OUTLINING SOME CRITICAL ISSUES

Certain critical issues seem to emerge in the context of master plan of Chandigarh and

planning for the urban poor in the context of housing, basic services and livelihood

generation through various policies and practices:

The urban poor/ labor was neglected in the plans of Chandigarh particularly during

initial years of construction and development during first and second phase

City has lacked a well- defined policy and area earmarked for inclusive development

of housing for the poor based on realistic population projections of the poor.

There was no legal framework in the city to address the issue of shelter for the poor

in slum areas

Absence of an inclusive strategy and agenda for earmarking the financial resources

to ensure adequate provision of basic amenities such as land, housing, water,

electricity, sanitation to the urban poor

Absence of adequate means of livelihood, employment opportunities and sources of

income for the target group

Although, there are many more components and micro-components involved in the

process of planning for the poor in the context of housing, basic services and urban poverty

alleviation, yet, considering the scope of this report, these are the focal issues that have

been discussed in detail in the following chapters in the context of the city of Chandigarh.


CHAPTER 3 URBANISATION, SLUMS AND POVERTY

TRENDS IN URBANIZATION: The 11th Five Year Plan highlights that urbanization is a key

indicator of economic development and should be seen as a positive factor for overall

development. However, the phenomenon has led to tremendous pressure on civic

infrastructure system, water supply, sewerage and drainage, uncollected solid waste, parks

and open spaces etc. as well as deterioration in the quality of city environment. Problems of

traffic congestion, pollution, poverty, inadequate housing, crime and social unrests are also

heightened. ‘Urbanization is a relatively recent but by far the most dominant social

transformation of our times. The most impressive feature of India’s urbanization is its

massive size. Urban India is in the midst of a transformation (NIUA 1998). ‘During the past

five decades, growth rates of urban population have been significant’ (Sivaramakrishnan

and Singh 2004). According to Census of India, in 1991, 25.7 per cent population of India

was living in urban areas. The same grew to 27.8 per cent in 2001 and further to 31.16% in

2011. The total number of towns/UAs has gone up from 5,161 in 2001 to 7,935 in 2011. At

the same time number of statutory towns grew from 3,799 to 4,041 and census towns grew

from 1,362 to 3,894. In 2011 urban population reached at 377.1 million. During 2001-2011,


the net increase of urban population (91 million) was even higher than the increase in rural

areas (90.4 million). Urbanization has been taking place in uneven manner. States like

Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Kerala and Punjab are most urbanized States in India.

Among Union Territories, Chandigarh is second most urbanized U.T (97.2%) after Delhi

(97.5 %).

Chandigarh has experienced urban explosion during last three decades. But the urban

demographic transition in Chandigarh has not accompanied by the corresponding

improvement in housing, basic services and livelihood. The supply of land for housing for

the poor has also been limited. The sudden sky rocketing of pricing of the housing and land

during last one decade has also excluded poor from the mainstream urban society. Slums

and poverty have emerged two major problems due to rapid urbanization in Chandigarh.

Investments to meet the gaps in urban infrastructure, basic services and housing are

grossly inadequate and have lagged behind the required levels.

In Chandigarh the urbanization pattern demonstrates interesting trends. However,

Chandigarh is a well planned city and ranks high in the country in terms of the per capita

income, but unplanned development of human settlements in the city have been common

from early years. According to 2011 Census, Chandigarh had an urban population of 10.25

lakhs. The sex ratio of population was 818 females per 1000 males. Since Chandigarh is an

educational hub, large numbers of students have been making the city home for several

years. Chandigarh is fast emerging center of trade and commerce, services, IT, business,

health care etc which seems to attract unemployed migrants and hence catalyze the pace of

urbanization. Like other metro cities of India, it provides numerous sources and options of

high income to people including highly educated, professional, skilled, semi- skilled,

unskilled and even illiterates. Influx of large number of people is already exerting heavy

pressure on basic civic facilities in the city. The level of population is increasing and the

area of open space is decreasing. The level of urbanization percentage during 1991 and

2001 did not change much but the absolute increase in the urban population was high at

2.33 lakhs during 1991-2001 and 2.16 lakhs during 2001-2011.


The population in Chandigarh town is growing rapidly and it is one of the most urbanized

Union Territory in India. Chandigarh is third most populated city of Northwest India after

Ludhiana and Amritsar. Table-3.1 revels that during 1961-71, there was a net decadal

accretion of 1.37 Lakhs and the population reached 2.57 Lakhs in1971. During this decade

Chandigarh attained the status of a Union Territory and the administrative headquarters of

Punjab and Haryana. Chandigarh has been experiencing rapid growth in its population size.

Although, initially planned for a population of half a million, its total population reached

4.52 Lakhs in 1981, 6.42 Lakhs in 1991 and 9.01 Lakhs in 2001. The urban population grew

to 8.09 Lakhs in 2001 and to 10.26 Lakhs in 2011. The present urban population of

Chandigarh is more than twice that of the number for which it was originally planned. The1

Table 3.1

Growth trends in urban population of Chandigarh

Census

year

Total no.

Of UAs/

towns*

Total

populati

on

(lakh)

Total urban

population

(lakh)

Per cent

urban

population

Decennial growth Annual

exponential

growth rate of

urban population

(percent)

Absolute

(lakh) Per cent

1971 1(2) 2.57 2.33 90.55 1.34 +134.67 8.53

1981 1(4) 4.52 4.23 93.63 1.90 +81.52 5.96

1991 1(5) 6.42 5.76 89.69 1.53 +36.18 3.09

2001 1 9.01 8.09 89.78 2.33 +40.46 3.40

2011 1 10.55 10.25 97.15 2.16 +26.86 2.39

Source: Census of India 2001, Chandigarh, Provisional Population Totals, Rural-Urban Distn., Paper -2; Census of India 2011.

With the growth of the urban population of Chandigarh, the area and density of urban

population have increased considerably. Excessive migration in search of greener pastures,

particularly employment opportunities, is due to industrialization in and around

Chandigarh, commercialization and development of secondary and tertiary sectors of

economy. This has given rise to challenges for providing safe drinking water, sewerage,

solid waste management, parking lots, roads, street lights etc., to the existing as well as the

additional population of the city. Provision for adequate urban infrastructure and services

to the slum dwellers is an equally challenging task.


Table 3.2

Growth pattern of urban area and density in Chandigarh

Years Area (sq km) Density (persons / sq km)

Urban Rural Total Urban Rural Total

1971 57.60 56.40 114.00 4044 431 2257

1981 68.33 45.67 114.00 6191 630 3961

1991 78.00 36.00 114.00 7382 1839 5632

2001 79.34 34.66 114.00 10194 2658 7900

2011 NA NA 114.00 NA NA 9252

Source: Census of India 2001, Chandigarh, Provisional Population Totals, Rural-Urban Distribution Paper -2

The population density of Chandigarh is comparable with the most populated towns of the

country and total density is second highest after NCT Delhi. The city is likely to be declared

another metropolis of the country soon. The data on area shows that the rural area is

declining and the urban area is growing. It is largely due to the growth of urban population

and merger of villages in the municipal limits. The higher density is visible in the city and

large numbers of slums have come up in various parts of the city. This is likely to affect the

social and environmental fabric of city.

Although there has been absolute increase in number of persons in urban Chandigarh but

decennial growth rate has declined sharply. May be high price of land, housing and sky

rocketing rents of properties has forced people to either move outside or to other

neighboring towns like Mohali, Panchkula and Zirakpur etc. But despite slowing down in

the decadal growth, the density of population in Chandigarh has increased alarmingly. With

Figure 3.1

Distribution of Rural-Urban Population 1901-2011

Figure 3.2

Decadal Growth in Urban Area (%)


the rapid growth of urban population in Chandigarh, the urban area and density is also

growing (Figure 1 and 2).

Growth of Slum Population: ‘Slum is usually a residential area. It is recognized by its

substandard housing and physical environment as compared to the rest of the city.’

(Sandhu 1989). According to the Census of India, 2001, ‘all areas notified as slums by the

state/local government under any Act’, and ‘all areas recognized as slum by state/local

government, which have not been formally notified as slum under any Act’ and ‘a compact

area of about 300 population or about 60-70 households or poorly-built congested

tenements, in unhygienic environment, usually with inadequate and lack of any proper

sanitary and drinking water facilities’ can be defined as slums. ‘In developing countries like

India, the growth of slums is intimately related with the process and pace of urbanization’

(Rebeiro 1982). ‘The growing urbanization in a poor and in-egalitarian country such as

India is exasperating the problem of slums. The rate of growth of slum population is far

outstripping that of the population of a city as a whole with the accompanying

deterioration of the living conditions of the slum dwellers’ (D’Souza 1989). India had about

Figure 3.3: Percentage Distribution of Slum Population in States/ Union Territories 2001

Source: Census of India2001


42.6 million slum dwellers in India. The share of Chandigarh was about 0.3% of the total

population in the country in 2001 (Figure 3). In Chandigarh, although the planners did

envisage construction of huge buildings for official, commercial and residential purposes,

requiring the services of different kind of labour force, yet they did not make provisions for

their shelter, at all in the city plan itself. They might have thought that the labour force

would go back, after the construction work was over, but this did not materialize and thus

started the process of migrant labour settling on land where ever available in Chandigarh.

There has been a multifold increase in the population of slum dwellers and households

living in unauthorized colonies’ (CRRID 1999). With inadequacies in housing stock in built-

up parts of the city, migrated population has been encroaching public land in peripheral

sectors and slums has been coming up without adequate urban infrastructure and services.

Authorized and unauthorized colonies of Chandigarh (CRRID 1999) are shown in Table 3.3.

Table 3.3

Authorized and unauthorized colonies of Chandigarh,1998

Sl. No. Authorized Sl. No. Unauthorized

1 Bapu Dham, Sector-26 1 Madrasi Colony, Sector-26

2 Khuda Lahora 2 Kumhar Colony, Sector-25

3 Kalyan Colony, Sector-25 3 Janata Colony, Sector-25

4 Mauli Jagran 4 Gwala Colony (Rly. Station)

5 Industrial Area, Phase-II 5 Randhwa Colony MM.

6 Maloya Reh. Colony 6 Gwala Colony, MM.

7 Dhanas Milk Colony 7 Sanjay Colony, MM.

8 Sector-38, Reh. Colony 8 Indira Colony, MM.

9 Dhanas EWS 9 Labour Colony, Sector-31

10 Sector-29, Reh. Colony 10 SBS Karsan Colony

11 Sector-30, Reh. Colony 11 Colony No. 5, Burail N.Pur

12 Sector-32, Reh. Colony 12 Colony No. 4, IA, Phase-I

13 Sector-37, Reh. Colony 13 Guru Sagar Sahib Colony

14 Dadu Majra, Reh. Colony 14 Hallo Majra Labour Colony

15 Palsora, Reh. Colony 15 Rajiv Colony

16 Sector-38-D, Reh. Colony 16 Palsora Labour Colony

17 Sector-38-A, Reh. Colony 17 Pandit Colony, Kajheri

18 Indira Colony Reh. Colony 18 Kuldeep Colony, Kajheri

19 Ram Darbar, Reh. Colony 19 Adarsh Colony, Badheri

20 Nehru Colony, Kajheri

21 Bhattal Colony

22 Kabarhi Market Colony

23 Labour Colony, Kajheri

24 Sanjay Colony, IA, Phase-I

25 Bhagat Singh Colony

26 Bhattha Colony

Source: Report on Baseline Socio-Economic Survey of Unauthorized and Rehabilitated Colonies in UT, Chandigarh (CRRID, 1999). The survey was conducted by CRRID in 1998.Note: HHs = Households


The CRRID (1999) survey of un-authorized and rehabilitated colonies of Chandigarh has

covered a total population of 2.27lakh persons living in 55670 households in 45 colonies

(19 authorized and 26 unauthorized). Out of 2.27 lakh persons, 1.09 lakh were living in

authorized and 1.18 lakh persons in unauthorized colonies. The population of unauthorized

colonies/slums is growing faster than the population of authorized colonies. In 1970 only

4454 ‘jhuggis’ were listed while in 1974 there number grew to 8003 and so the population

living in the slums. Census of India, 1961 reported only 1922 persons living in temporary

huts near sector 26 which increased to 22939 persons in 1971. The Census of India

indicated that population in ‘jhuggi/jhopri’ colonies of Chandigarh grew to 0.58 lakh

persons in 1991 and further to 1.07 lakh persons (13.24% of the total urban population) in

2001. Average household size in slums of Chandigarh was 3.7 as against 4.4 for the total

population. Most of the slum dwellers are migrants from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and

Jharkhand and neighboring states of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan. The better

livelihood options available in the city seem to have attracted the migrants.

During the period of 1971-2011, there has been a multi fold increase in the population of

the slum dwellers as well as households in slum colonies. Despite the serious efforts of the

administration to provide better shelter to such dwellers, there has been no dent in the

increasing influx of such migrants and their present number in the colonies calls for an

immediate programme for action as the pockets of abject poverty and the denial of basic

human needs in areas of affluence does not auger well for the city and Union Territory as a

whole.

The evolution of slums has been described in the maps below since the early years of

construction of the city. In 1950s slums came up in Sector 7, 17, 19, 24, 35 and near Capitol

Complex. Then in 1960s some Labour colonies were reported in Sector 25, west of Sector

14, Sector 26 and Industrial Area Phase I. Over a period of time slums have moved to the

periphery of the city. Majority of the slums can be seen on the southern side.


Map 7

Map 7


Map 8


Map 9


Map 10


In a Biometric Survey conducted by Chandigarh Administration, 23841 slum families in 18

slum colonies were identified for providing housing to the poor.

Table 3.4

Biometric survey of Slum Dwellers in the City

S.No Colony No. of

Families S.No Colony

No. of

Families

1 Ambedkar Colony 65 10 LBS Colony 697

2 Gursagar Colony 140 11 Madrasi Colony 3167

3 Janta Colony 1063 12 Majdoor Colony 158

4 kabari Colony 65 13 Nehru Colony 1815

5 kalyan Colony 89 14 Pandit Colony 455

6 Kuldeep Colony 144 15 Rajiv Colony 786

7 Kumhar Colony 1852 16 Sanjay Colony 243

8 Colony No. 4 5185 17 SBS Moulijagaran Colony 717

9 Colony No. 5 6970 18 Sahapur Colony 230

Source: Biometric survey (2005-06), Chandigarh Administration

The situation of urban environmental infrastructure in many rehabilitated colonies of

Chandigarh has almost similar to that of the slums. One such example is rehabilitated

colony of Ramdarbar which experienced degeneration in its environmental and social

fabric, from early years of its construction in Industrial Area Phase II. The situation was

exaggerated in 1980s due to rapid growth of population. The management of sanitation,

park management, protection of urban forestry/ environment in neighborhoods of

Ramdarbar was very poor until mid 1990s as shown in news clippings.

Plate 1: Illegal Slums in Ramdarbar Plate 2:An Encroachment Park in Ramdarbar Source: Jansatta, 23 September 1997


The deficiencies in environmental infrastructure in Chandigarh are growing with rapid

pace of urbanization and haphazard growth of unplanned settlements. Despite strong legal

provisions for protecting planned character in and around the city, authorized and

unauthorized colonies have come up. The effectiveness of the periphery control act, has

been very limited.

Plate 2a: Waste Land (now Park) in Ramdarbar Plate 2b: Poor Sanitary Conditions in Ramdarbar

Plate 3: Labor colony no.4 Source: Google Earth


Several unauthorized constructions have emerged within the periphery zone, threatening

the planned character of Chandigarh. Within the city itself, it is a commonplace to find

unplanned structures, tenements, and other unauthorized developments that violate the

very basis of a planned city. Even the government itself has violated periphery control act

by allowing cantonment boards, rehabilitated colonies and townships of Mohali,

Manimajra, Panchkula etc. Situation is grim in Labour Colony no 4 in Industrial Area Phase

I. It is very highly congested (see Google Map). The condition of housing, basic services in

the slum is apathetic. The Biometric Survey (2006) shows that 92% families are nuclear

families and 8% are joint families. The population composition of SC/ST/OBC and others in

Labours Colony 4 is given in Table 3.5.

Table 3.5

Social Composition of Slum Dwellers in Chandigarh

Scheduled Castes Scheduled Tribes Other Backward Castes Others

25% 29% 43% 3%

Source: Biometric Survey, Chandigarh Administration, 2006.

Most of the slum dwellers belong to underprivileged sections of the society such as SCs, STs

and OBCs (97%). This shows that urban poor residing in slums are socially disadvantaged

sections. The crucial aspect of this social fact is that poor migrants who largely came from

villages to the city beautiful for improving their social and economic status are still living in

segregated settlements with multiple deprivations. They have been marginalized and socio

economic inequality has even widened in the slum. People living in non slum areas do not

have social interaction with slum dwellers.

Since some of the slums/rehabilitated colonies are located in industrial areas of the city,

the poor management of industrial hazardous waste has been affecting health of the

residents living in immediate vicinity. Schemes such as National Slum Development

Programme (NSDP), Environmental Improvement of Urban Slums (EIUS), and Swarna

Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY) have not made any visible dent in level and quality

of environmental infrastructure/services, and urban poverty which continue to affect

quality of settlements in the city.


Social and Demographic features of slum dwellers:

The sex ratio of slum population was lower than non-slum urban population in Chandigarh.

Against the sex ratio of 917 in non slum areas, the sex ratio of 825 was reported in slums in

2001. Similarly female literacy rate in slums was very low at 39.5% against the male

literacy at 64.9% in 2001. The gap in literacy rate in slum and non slum areas was highest

in Chandigarh at 54.8% in slums and 82.6% in urban areas. An account of social and

demographic features of various slums in Chandigarh is given below.

Table 3.6

Social and demographic features of various slums in Chandigarh

SL

No.

War

d No

Name of the colony Total

persons

Total

males

Total

femal

e

Total

SCs

% of SC to

total

population

Sex

rati

o

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 9 8

1 5 Kumhar Colony, Sector 25 13234 7070 6164 10058 76 872

2 5 Janta Labour Colony,Sector-25 9605 5236 4369 7912 82.37 834

3 7 Sector 56 Pir Colony, Palsora 2960 1642 1318 761 25.71 803

4 7 Indira Colony, Kamal colony &

furniture shop(Palsora)

2461 1495 966 568 23.08 646

5 7 Palsora Colony no.1 Lal

Bahadur Shastri colony

3921 2306 1615 906 23.11 700

6 7 Kamal Colony Palsora

7 7 Palsora Colony no.2,Vishkarma

Colony

7624 4419 3205 2671 35.03 725

8 8 Nehru Colony, Kujheri 6605 3774 2831 3151 47.71 750

9 10 Labour Colony no.5(Nizampur

Burail)

27579 16987 10592 6473 23.43 624

10 14 Madarasi colony 10112 10112 5808 4304 2369 23.43 741

11 15 Labour colony no.4 (Industrial

area phase-i) (18489)

17619 10837 6782 4761 27.02 626

12 15 Industrial area phase-i Sanjay

Colony(near gatta factory)

870 569 47.36 148 17.01 529

13 Chandigarh(m corp)-EB

no.1005

464 270 194 253 54.53 719

14 18 Indira Awas Colony (Labour

colony near hot mix

plant(Hallomajra)

986 568 418 467 736

15 19 Shaheed Bhagat Singh colony,

Mauli jagran

2105 1218 887 1347 63.99 728

16 20 Gawala colony, near railway

station

579 317 262 0 0 826

17 20 Gawala colony(near Randhawa

farm)

401 246 155 24 5.99 630

Colony wise population 107125 62762 44363 41869 39.08 707

Source: Census 2001


Teotia et al (2007) highlight crucial gaps in slum and non slum population in Chandigarh.

Child population in slums is 22395, which is 20.9 percent of total slum population. This

ratio is considerably higher in slum areas when compared to non-slum areas (11.2 percent)

and urban areas (12.5 percent). Interestingly the child sex ratio in slum areas is better at

917 than non-slum areas (825). Another characteristic of slum population is that

proportion of Scheduled Castes population is quite high in the slums as compared to non-

slums. The slum areas of Chandigarh have the highest percentage of Scheduled Castes (39.1

percent) among all the states/ union territories of India.

The sex ratio of the SC population in slums is 814 as compared to 846 in non-slum areas.

Literacy is an important social indicator, which throws light on the quality of life. It has

long been recognized that social environment cannot improve much without attaining

higher literacy levels. The overall literacy ratio for slum areas is only 54.8 percent (the

lowest in any other slums of Indian cities) as compared to 84.6 percent in non-slum areas.

The literacy rate of males in slum areas is 64.9 percent and that for male in non-slum areas

is 90 percent. The major area of concern is the female literacy in the slum areas, which is

as low as 39.5 percent as compared to literacy rate of 82 percent for the women living in

non-slum areas.

Table 3.7

Social and Demographic Indicators of Chandigarh in 2001 (Slum and Non-Slum Areas)

Sr. No. Indicator Chandigarh Slum Area Non-Slum Area

1. Households 183885 29086 154799

2. Population 808515 107125 (13.25) 701390 (86.75)

3. Average Household Size 4.4 3.7 4.5

4. Sex Ratio 796 707 811

5. 0-6 Population (%) 12.5 20.9 11.2

6. 0-6 Sex Ratio 845 917 825

7. SC Population (%) 17.7 39.1 14.4

8. SC Sex Ratio 837 814 846

9. Percentage of Literacy

Persons 82.6 54.8 86.4

Male 86.8 65.0 90.0

Female 77.4 39.5 82.0

10. Total Workers (percentage to total population)

Persons 37.1 39.6 36.8

Male 55.1 58.3 54.6

Female 14.5 13.0 14.7


11. Main Workers (percentage to total workers)

Persons 96.9 96.2 97.0

Male 97.6 97.0 97.7

Female 93.5 90.9 93.8

12. Cultivators Workers (percentage to total workers)

Persons 0.2 0.07 0.2

Male 0.19 0.05 0.21

Female 0.26 0.19 0.27

13. Agricultural Labourers Workers (percentage to total workers)

Persons 0.07 0.05 0.08

Male 0.07 0.03 0.08

Female 0.09 0.14 0.09

14. Household Workers (percentage to total workers)

Persons 0.86 0.99 0.84

Male 0.75 0.70 0.75

Female 1.42 2.82 1.25

15. Other workers (percentage to total workers)

Persons 95.7 95.1 95.8

Male 96.6 96.2 96.6

Female 91.7 87.8 92.2

16. Marginal Workers (percentage to total workers)

Persons 3.1 3.8 3.0

Male 2.4 3.0 2.3

Female 6.5 9.1 6.2

17. Non-Workers (percentage to total workers)

Persons 62.9 60.4 63.2

Male 44.9 41.7 45.4

Female 85.5 87.0 85.2 Source: Census of India, 2001, Chandigarh.

Chandigarh slums have recorded the highest Work Participation Rate (WPR) for total (39.6

percent) as well as male workers (58.3 percent). Distribution of working population in

slums among four broad industrial categories has been given in the Table 3.7. As expected

most of the work force in slum areas are engaged in non-agricultural activities with 95.1

percent as main other workers. Slums are service providers of support activities in the

form of labour both skilled and unskilled in organized as well as unorganized sector

including domestic help or rickshaw/cart pullers, hawkers/mobile vendors, shopkeepers,

mechanised transport, cobblers, masons, carpenters, weavers, dhobi/washer men, auto

repair, electrical/electronic repair, contractors, others (domestic help, rag pickers, raddi

wala general labour etc.). The occupational profile of the Labour Colony-4 is given in Table

3.8.


Table 3.8

Occupational Profile of the Labour Colony-4

Category of worker. Percentages

Skilled Construction workers 24

Construction workers 20

Rickshaw Pullers 11

Vendors 14

Industrial Labours 23

Others 8 Source: Biometric Survey, Chandigarh Administration, 2006.

Majority of the people are engaged in construction and industrial activities. Large numbers

of slum dwellers are engaged in low paid informal activities.

Urban Poverty: Though the Chandigarh city has the highest per capita income in the

country, a section of population largely those living in slum areas are relatively very poor.

According to the latest Planning Commission estimates, the population below the poverty

line in the city in 2004-05 has been 67000 persons (7.1 percent of urban population) based

on Uniform Recall Period and 36000 persons (3.8 percent of the urban population) based

on Mixed Recall Period (Table 3.9).

Table 3.9

Population below Poverty Line in Chandigarh City

Year No. of Persons (lakh) Persons (%) Poverty Line (Rs.)

1983 1.10 23.79 101.03

1993-94 0.73 11.35 253.61

1999-2000 0.45 5.75 388.15

2004-05 (URP) 0.67 7.1 466.16

2004-05 (MRP) 0.36 3.8 466.16 Source: Planning Commission, 2001, 2007.

Though poverty in the city has declined over the period of time as indicated by the Table

3.9, a sizable proportion of population has been facing deprivations and this has been

affecting urban poor who are living in segregated settlement.

The recently completed projects on urban poverty reduction strategy for the city of

Chandigarh shows social and human deprivation in the city in terms of housing conditions,

basic amenities and civic services and most importantly livelihood options. Although urban

poverty ratio has declined but multiple challenges associated with fast growth of urban

population such as emergence of slums and environmental degradation are major


Plate 4a: Pot making in Madrasi colony

Source: Urban Poverty profile (2007), CRRID

Plate 4: Rag picking/ Junk dealing in labours colony Source: Urban Poverty profile (2007), CRRID

challenges against the city government. Although city has highest per capita income but

urban still seem to have inadequate livelihood options.

The livelihood options are inadequate to meet the basic needs of the urban poor. The

poorest among the poor live without adequate food and cloths leave aside other needs like

housing, health and education. The begging is very common at many places due to extreme

poverty and deprivation slum areas.

Plate 5: Pea pealing in Bapu Dham Colony

Plate 5a: Rag picking/ Junk dealing in Bapu Dham Colony


According to the Report on Baseline Socio-Economic Survey of Unauthorized and

Rehabilitated Colonies in UT, Chandigarh (CRRID 1999), ‘despite the serious efforts of the

administration to provide better shelter to such dwellers, there has been no dent in the

increasing influx of such migrants and their present number in the unauthorized colonies

calls for an immediate programme for action, as the pockets of abject poverty and the

denial of basic human needs in areas of affluence does not augur well for the state and the

economy as a whole’. According to Kalia (1987) ‘a major factor contributing to the growth

of unauthorized squatter colonies in Chandigarh was the city’s poor economic base. The

administration’s efforts at providing housing failed to keep pace with the phenomenal

growth rate of the city. The administration’s efforts to solve the slum problem by setting up

transit colonies have not been effective because these efforts have ignored the related

issues of income, jobs, security of tenure, land and development policy, health and above

all, education. Planned as transit colonies, they have acquired a permanent character, but

without the necessary infrastructure.’ The city has been growing with slums having

multiple social, economic and environmental deprivations. And most of the slums are

segregated from the mainstream settlement.

On the basis of above discussion it could be concluded that Chandigarh has been urbanizing

rapidly and slums have grown even faster despite city’s strong planning control. City has

strong economic base but urban poverty is still loom large and concentrated in slum areas.

The urban poor are being forced to settle in peripheral areas of the city. The exclusion of

poor slum dwellers continue to affect the social, economic and environmental fabric of the

city. The development practices adopted by the Local Government Department of

Chandigarh Administration have been pro-rich. It is visible in the form of inequality in the

quality and coverage of urban infrastructure and services in slum and non slum areas and

northern and southern sectors. Majority of the poor people live in southern sectors

particularly in peripheral area and the quality of life in these sectors is very poor in

comparison to the northern sectors, inhabited by higher income groups. The sanitary

conditions, quality of municipal roads, coverage and streetlights, parking facilities are very

poor in southern sectors. The situation is worst not only in unauthorized settlements but


also in many authorized colonies rehabilitated by Chandigarh Administration in various

phases. Sarin (1982), Kalia (1987), CRRID Survey (1999), various State Finance

Commissions, Gupta & Teotia (2004), Teotia (2002, 2003, 2007a, 2007b) have highlighted

deficiencies in urban planning, governance, infrastructure, housing and basic services in

the context of the poor. The planned character and architectural grandeur of the city has

been affected badly by the haphazard growth of slums. The depletion of green cover due to

change in land use pattern and growing level of air pollution are affecting environmental

conditions in the city.


Chapter 4 Housing and Basic Services for the Urban Poor

There is shortage of housing as well as

infrastructure both in terms of quality and

quantity. The estimated shortage of dwelling

units in urban areas is 24.71 million at the

beginning of 11th Five-year Plan. 99% of the

total shortage pertains to Economically

Weaker Sections and Low Income Groups.

Kumari Selza, Minister of Housing and Urban

Poverty Alleviation, Government of India

Shelter is one of the fundamental requirements of human beings. All types of urban human

settlements have been experiencing serious housing problem in India. The Indian

constitution provides its citizens right of movement and settlement in any part of the

country. It is government’s responsibility to protect this right and provide shelter to the

houseless poor at affordable price. The housing and basic services like water, sanitation,

road and other infrastructures are also crumbling in urban areas and situation is worst in

slums. Slums with poor infrastructure lead to several social and environmental problems

and risks. The safety and security of habitants in the slums are always at risk. The house

sing in slums are usually of poor quality sometimes of woods and plastics in used. These

material are very sensitive to fire and other disasters. The slums are also congested. A

small hutment is used for living, cooking food and other chores. Mostly women and

children have to bear the brunt of the burden of inferno. Most of the slums are

unauthorized they are built on the public land. Because of their unauthorized status

government agencies do not take responsibility to provide civic amenities to these areas.


Housing Shortage has been increasing consistently in India. Housing stock in 2001 was

50.95 million (for 55.8 million urban households). According to the report of the Technical

Group on estimation of housing shortage constituted in the context of formulation of the

Eleventh Five-Year Plan, housing shortage is estimated to be around 24.71 million. About

99% of such households are from EWS and low income groups (LIG). During the Eleventh

Plan period, total housing requirement, including the backlog, is estimated at 26.53 million.

Following legislations/programmes/ schemes have been introduced by Government of

India to tackle various dimensions of poverty, housing and livelihood etc. in urban areas

since independence:

i. Slum Areas (Improvement and Clearance) Act, 1956

ii. Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act, 1976

iii. Environmental Improvement of Urban Slums (EIUS), 1992

iv. Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), 1975

v. Urban Community Development Programme, 1979

vi. Urban Basic Services for the Poor (UBSP), 1990

vii. Nehru Rozgar Yojana (NRY), 1989

viii. National Slum Development Programme (NSDP), 1996

ix. Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY), 1997

x. National Housing and Habitat Policy, 1998

xi. Valmiki Ambedkar Awas Yojana (VAMBAY), 2001

xii. Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), 2005

xiii. National Urban Housing and Habitat Policy, 2007

xiv. Rev. Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY), 2009

xv. Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY), 2009

In spite of above mentioned efforts of the Government much has not been improved for the

poor which is clear from following facts given by 2001 Census regarding urban India:

40% families are living in one room houses

1/3 Urban households are without kitchen, bathroom, power and water supply


44% urban houses have concrete roofs

20%- 50% population live in slums

private toilets are limited to 15% and 21% community toilets

60% of urban households resort to open spaces for defection

The National Slum Policy, 2001 can be considered as one of the historical steps towards the

provision of the tenure and provision of basic services in slums. It advocates provision of

minimum basic services for all households irrespective of land tenure or occupancy status.

It also advocated the granting of tenure on all government tenable lands, including

resettlement or rehabilitated sites. Further, importance is given to security of tenure by

including it as one of the objectives of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal

Mission (JNNURM). Provision of basic services to the urban poor including security of

tenure at affordable prices, improved housing, water supply and sanitation, and ensuring

delivery of the other existing universal services of the Government for education, health

and social security was envisaged.

The National Urban Housing and Habitat Policy provides the basic framework for achieving

the objective of ‘shelter for all’. The policy was evolved in 1998 with the long-term goal of

eradicating houselessness, improving the housing conditions of the inadequately housed,

and providing a minimum level of basic services and amenities to all. It was formulated to

address the issues of sustainable development, infrastructure development, and for strong

People and public participations, (PPPs) for shelter delivery with the objective of creating

surpluses in housing stock and facilitating construction of two million dwelling units each

year in pursuance of the National Agenda for Governance. However, the housing sector has

witnessed several changes since then. The 1998 National Housing Policy has been replaced

by a National Urban Housing and Habitat Policy 2007 (NUHHP 2007) with land and the

development of civic amenities to make land habitable as its two critical elements.

The Sub-mission of JNNURM on Basic Services to the Urban Poor (BSUP) aims at proving

housing and basic services to the urban poor. Following reforms are linked with the

welfare of urban poor are:


Internal earmarking of funds for services to urban poor Provision of basic services to urban poor Earmarking of developed land to the EWS and LIGs

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (MoHUPA) is also trying to push

following 7 point charter of entitlements and amenities to poor under JNNURM.

Social security Affordable housing Tenure security Health Education Water Sanitation

The MoHUPA also initiated Interest Subsidy Scheme for the Poor to promote low cost

affordable housing. The latest development of MoHUPA is Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) which

aims to promote slum free cities by providing housing and basic services to the poor in a

time bound manner. RAY through MIS and GIS will be targeting at most of the reforms

underlined under JNNURM. The credit mobilization for the poor and micro finance is also

important component of the RAY. Despite the NUHHP, and many schemes/ programmes

and legal provisions the availability of housing to the poor continues to be inadequate.

Similar is the fate of the basic services and livelihood to the poor which continues to be

skewed in favor of rich sections of the urban society. Chandigarh, a well planned city is not

an exception to the general scenario in the context of housing and basic services in urban

India.

NATURE OF HOUSING AND HOUSING SHORTAGE IN CHANDIGARH: The housing

situation continues to be unsatisfactory for low income groups and urban poor and slum

dwellers in Chandigarh. Despite a quantitative increase in the housing stock over

successive decades the size of housing problem has acquired disturbing dimension. The

real estate boom in and around Chandigarh has made housing and land a rarest commodity

for the urban poor. The housing shortage in Chandigarh can be learned in many ways such

as Conventional method and qualitative method. According to conventional method


housing shortage is viewed as the difference between number of census housing units and

number of households. However, the housing shortage rises when it is viewed in

qualitative term, in which inadequate housing which is represented by number of

households without any room and number of overcrowded houses (means)

accommodating more than one married couple in a one room house. Table-4.1 revels that

according to conventional method, Shortage was 26688 house in urban Chandigarh in 2011

but when we add qualitative aspect to it then shortage it increase to 35969 houses.

Further, when the need is seen in relation to nuclear housing units for married couples

then there was deficit of 96371 houses. In short 41 percent households are suffering from

housing shortage in Chandigarh as from the Table 4.1.

Chandigarh has been facing shortage of housing resulting in squatting on public lands,

encroachments especially uncontrolled settlements by the poor people who cannot afford

to buy a house in urban areas. The higher costs of land and houses along with sky rocketed

rents also seem to force the poor to live in slums normally established by encroaching

public land. Table 4.1, 4.2, 4.3 and 4.4 describe housing stock and housing shortage in

Chandigarh.

Table 4.1

Housing stock and shortage in Chandigarh, 2001

Sr.

No Particulars Chandigarh

Urban

Chandigarh(2001) Chandigarh(2011)

1. Population 900,635 808,515 1054686

2. Total households 201,878 180,576 235061

3. Census houses (residence+ residence cum

other purpose)

192,555 172,078 251523 (i)

4. Minimum housing shortage (2-3) 9323 8498 16462

5. No. of household without any room 1931 1725 1900(ii)

6. Serviceable/non-serviceable 6414 5866 7381(iii)

7. Married couple without independent room 56541 49122 61402(iv)

8. Total housing shortage(4+5+6+7) 74290 65211 96371(v)

Source: Computed from Census of India 2001.

(i) It is assumed that number of houses increased at the rate of 20 percent per decade. (ii) It is assumed that number of household increased at the rate of10 percent to per decade. (iii) It is assumed that serviceable/non-serviceable houses increased at the rate of 20 percent

during the last decade. (iv) It is assumed that number of married couple without independent room increased at the

rate of 25 percent during the last decade. (v) Estimates of housing shortage


Map 11


POOR QUALITY OF STRUCTURE: Quality of housing depends upon the type of structure

can be classified into permanent, semi-permanent or temporary, depending upon the type

of material used in construction of walls and roof. The temporary structures can further be

classified into serviceable and non serviceable structures. In semi-permanent houses either

wall or the roof is made of permanent material. Serviceable temporary houses are those in

which wall is made of mud, un-burnt bricks or wood etc. Serviceable temporary houses are

one in which wall is made of grass, thatch, bamboo etc. Table 4.2 shows semi-permanent

and serviceable and non-serviceable houses in Chandigarh.

Table 4.2

Census Houses used as Residence and Residence-cum-other use by their Type of Structure

Particulars

Permanent

Semi

Permanent

Total Serviceable and Non

serviceable

Total 172,956 13,362 6,098

Rural 18,167 1,778 531

Urban 154,789 11,584 5,567 Source: Census of India 2001

OVERCROWDED HOUSING SITUATION: Size of house is important indicator of social

status and it is determined by the number of rooms. The distribution of households by the

number of rooms occupied by them reveals the quality of housing and situation of

overcrowding or adequacy of housing situation. Overall, it was considered that

Chandigarh’s housing situation would be somewhat better than that of urban India, but as

per Census 2001, 2011 Table-4.3revels that about two fifth (39.4%) households are living

in one room tenements which is higher than urban India average. The situation further

worsens as these tenements do not have kitchen, bath, toilet and proper ventilation.

Usually dwellers of such houses are poor people and proper water supply and sewerage

facility is also lacking within the houses. The situation is worst in slums and squatters.

Table 4.3 further shows that in the decade number houseless people have increase from 1.0

to 1.4 percent in Chandigarh.


Table 4.3

Percentage distribution of households by number of rooms occupied in urban India, urban Chandigarh, 2001

No. of Rooms Number of household

Per cent ages of households

Urban

India(2001)

Urban

Chandigarh(2001)

Urban

Chandigarh(2011)

No exclusive room 1,931 2.3 1.0 1.4

One Room 84,849 35.1 41.9 39.4

Two 50,056 29.1 24.8 25.4

Three 37,568 17.1 18.6 18.7

Four 15,459 8.7 7.7 8.6

Five 5,619 3.3 2.8 3.2

Six 6,756 4.0 3.3 3.5

Source: Census of India 2001,2011

OWNERSHIP OF HOUSING: Ownership occupancy is defined as the percentage of all

dwelling units which are owned by their occupants. This indicator is a measure of

residential choice. A high value for this indicator is a sign of preference for owning housing

while low value is sign of preference for renting. The incidence of owner occupied housing

is lowest among the poor. Table 4.4 reveals that in Chandigarh city about two fifth are

owner of 1 to 3 room houses and ownership increase with number of room and size of

house. Further, table also indicate that more one tenth and the households are living in

Government owned and Semi-Government owned, housing which is a unique features of

Chandigarh.

Table 4.4

Percentage distribution of households according to ownership and number of rooms

Ownership

Status

Total

households

One Room Two

Room

Three

Room

Four

Room

Five

Room

Six Room

Total Chandigarh

Owned 45.7 38.1 42.7 44.6 71.3 77.4 82.1

Rented 42.9 40.4 52.0 51.9 27.5 21.9 13.3

Any Other 11.3 21.3 5.1 3.38 1.15 2.34 4.45

Urban Chandigarh

Owned 47.2 43.2 41.2 42.8 69.9 76.1 81.6

Rented 40.36 31.2 53.3 53.7 28.8 21.3 13.6

Any Other 11.3 25.4 5.37 3.47 1.19 2.48 4.75

Source: India Census 2001


USE OF MATERIAL IN FLOOR/ROOF/WALL: It has been defined that permanent houses

are those where the wall, floor and roof is made of house is made of permanent material

like cement, brick, tiles etc. and temporary or serviceable houses are those in which wall,

floor and roof is made of mud, wood, concrete, slate, plastic, bamboo and thatch etc. Table

4.5 shows that roof, wall and floor of about one seventh houses are constructed with poor

material like mud, grass and thatch etc.

Table 4.5

Use of material in Floor/Roof/Wall

Material of Floor

Mud Wood,

Bamboo

Brick

Stone Cement Mosaic,

Floor tiles

Any

Other Material

4.7 0.1 0.9 10.5 71.5 11.4 0.9

Material of Roof

Grass, Thatch,

Bamboo,Wood,

Mud etc.

Plastic

Polythene

Tiles/ Slate G.I., Metal,

Asbestos

sheets

Brick/

Stone

Concrete Any other

material

2.4 0.8 0.6 10.1 1.9 83.2 0.2

Material of Wall

Grass, Thatch,

Bamboo,

Wood, Mud

etc.

Plastic

Polythene

Mud,

Unbrunt

brick

G.I., Metal,

Asbestos

sheets

Burnt brick/

Stone

Concrete Any other

material

0.2 0.4 2.9 0.8 89.4 4.7 0.2

Sources: Census of India 2001

From above, it can be concluded that housing shortage is acute in Chandigarh and it is

assuming alarming proportions, particularly for the urban poor, EWS, LIG and Lower

middle classes.

INITIATIVES FOR HOUSING TO THE URBAN POOR

Chandigarh Administration through Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) has been making

efforts from time to time to provide housing and basic services to the poor. The

Administration has been providing land to the Board at the concessional rate of Rs.40/- per

sq. yard although the development cost is Rs.55/-per sq. yard. The land is on a 99 years

lease; same as in the case of auctioned plots. The period for paying for the dwellings

through monthly installments vary from 18 years from economically bear sections to 10

years for middle income group. In addition there are front end costs at the time of

application and allotment. The creation of the Housing Board marked an important change


from the original frame work. It implied a withdrawal by government from the

responsibility of providing minimum housing at least to its own employees, irrespective of

their income (Sarin 1982). Till March 2011, the CHB has constructed a total of 49713

houses of various categories (Table 4.6). About 46% of these were meant for the

economically weaker section (EWS), primarily in peripheral colonies, for re-settling of un-

authorized settlements. Another 19% were for the Low Income Group (LIG), 22% for the

Middle Income Group (MIG) and 13% for the High Income Group (HIG).

Table 4.6

Houses Constructed by the Chandigarh Housing Board (up to March, 2011)

S.No. Year Site and Services EWS LIG MIG HIG Total

1 1977-1978 - 208 - - - 208

2 1978-1979 130 620 56 - 806

3 1979-1980 - 221 559 56 - 836

4 1980-1981 2560 517 588 515 202 4382

5 1981-1982 - 234 1128 946 - 2308

6 1982-1983 152 844 784 668 132 2580

7 1983-1984 - - 591 1541 180 2312

8 1984-1985 110 - 1148 403 60 1721

9 1985-1986 95 - 1094 713 270 2172

10 1986-1987 1102 - 112 256 24 1494

11 1987-1988 600 - 211 638 276 1725

12 1988-1989 - 2440 276 187 390 3293

13 1989-1990 - 404 - 592 615 1611

14 1990-1991 - - - 114 195 309

15 1991-1992 - 750 168 514 382 1814

16 1992-1993 2300 4321 - 792 258 7671

17 1993-1994 43 786 - 192 631 1652

18 1994-1995 5 - 191 218 382 796

19 1995-1996 - - 162 138 312 612

20 1996-1997 - - - 368 16 384

21 1997-1998 - - - 232 48 280

22 1998-1999 - - 480 570 642 1692

23 1999-2000 - 72 180 - - 252

24 2000-2001 - 72 218 30 6 326

25 2001-2002 - 512 - - - 512

26 2002-2003 - 544 - - - 544

27 2003-2004 - - - 432 336 768


28 2004-2005 - 240 - 184 - 424

29 2005-2006 - 608 - - 32 640

30 2006-2007 - 200 - 64 - 264

31 2007-2008 - 1818 - - - 1818

32 2009-2010 - 1520 - 256 208 1984

33 2010-2011 - 1766 - - - 1760

Total 6967 17963 8511 10675 5597 49713

Source: Chandigarh Housing Board

Most of the units raised by CHB have been for different income groups. These include High

Income Group(HIG), Middle Income Group(MIG), Lower Income Group(LIG), Economically

Weaker Section(EWS) and Sites and Services (S&S). It has been estimated that about 25

percent of the population of Chandigarh is living in CHB houses.


Map 12


Map 13


Map 14


SLUM REHABILITATION PROJECT UNDER CHANDIGARH SMALL FLATS SCHEME 2006

Chandigarh Administration has been trying to provide housing to the poor from early years

of the emergence of slums, but its efforts seem to have got momentum during last few

years. To address the problem of housing for the urban poor mainly living in slums

Chandigarh Administration implemented Slum Rehabilitation Project under Chandigarh

Small Flats Scheme 2006. Project aims at providing hygienic and better living conditions

and housing to 1,20,000 slum dwellers (23,841 families spread over 18 notified colonies as

in (Table 4.7) identified through a Bio-Metric Survey in 2006.

Table 4.7

Slum Colonies of Chandigarh identified through Biometric Survey

Sr.

No.

Name of slum colony and location Area

occupied

No. of families

identified

1 KalyanColony,Khuda Lahora near Govt. School 2 acre 89

2 Kumhar Colony,Sector25,near Punjab University 20 acre 1852

3 Shahpur Rajiv Colony, Sector 38 West 15 acre 230

4 LBS Palsora-55 opposite Phase 6, Mohali 3 acre 697

5 Gursagar Colony, Maloya near rehabilitate Colony 2 acre 140

6 Labour Colony No.4,Indi Area Phase-1, near slaugher House 40 acre 5185

7 Sanjay Colony Indi Area Phase-1, near Amrit Floor Mill 3 acre 243

8 Kabari Colon, Indi Area Phase-1,opposite Fire Office 0.5 acre 65

9 SBS Colony,Mauli Jagran, near Gurudwara of Mauli Jagra Village 4 acre 717

10 Madrasi Colony,Sector 26,Near Bapu Dham Reh Colony Phase III 3 acre 3167

11 Nehru Colony, Sector 53, Near Village Kajheri, U.T. Chandigarh 10 acre 1815

12 Pandit Colony, Sector 52, near Village Kajheri 3 acre 455

13 Mazdoor Colony, Sector 52, near Village Kajheri 3 acre 158

14 Colony No. 5, Sector 50-51, near Burail jail, U.T. Chandigarh 33 acre 6970

15 Janta Colony NA 1063

16 Ambedker Colony NA 65

17 Rajiv Colony NA 786

18 Kuldeep Colony NA 144

TOTAL 151.5 acre 23,841 Source: Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB)

Chandigarh Administration designated Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) as nodal agency

for this project. CHB plans to construct 25728 small flats at the cost of Rs 1237.70 Cr as

envisaged at the time of conceptualization of the scheme. The task of socio-economic

survey was entrusted to the Infrastructure Development Finance Company Limited (IDFC).

Digital photograph of the family, thumb and finger prints of the head of the family were

captured electronically.


Plate 6: Allotment Letter Source: Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB)

Some conditions were put for identification of slums dwellers and potential beneficiaries

new houses built by the CHB such as that name of beneficiary should appear in:

a) Bio-metric survey conducted by the Administration in the year 2006

b) Voter list of the year 2006

c) Voter list of the year in which allotment is made

d) As per revised criteria (b) above

In the event of the beneficiary name, if not appearing in the Voter list of 2006, the

beneficiary to be considered to qualify the said criteria if his/her name exists in the Voter

Lists of 2004 or 2005 and that of 2007 or 2008.

The bio metric survey of slum dwellers found an average household size of 4.5 persons/

household. As far as type of family is concerned the Majority (90%) of the slum

families were having nuclear families. The average monthly salary levels

reported by 85% of slum population ranged between Rs. 1,000 and Rs. 3,000 per month. At

the same time average monthly expenditure reported by 90% population ranged between

Rs. 700 and Rs. 3000 per month. The survey also found that 90% of families were in a

position to generate a monthly disposable surplus of Rs. 1,000 pm. The allotment to the


identified beneficiaries has to be made initially on license fee of Rs 800/-per month and

ownership rights will be given after twenty years. Therefore possession will remain with

the beneficiary for 20 years and allotment has to be in the joint name of husband & wife

(Plate 17). There is a provision of eviction only in case of allotment based on false

information or non-payment of License Fee. There is a option of conferring of ownership

rights after 20 years to those who have been in continuous and lawful occupation of the

flat.

According to Chandigarh Housing Board, some innovations were used in the process of

housing to the poor. Earlier housing units were allotted on hire-purchase basis and were

highly subsidized. This attracted large number of people. The beneficiaries encashed the

subsidy by selling of the unit and returned again to the slums. Now all allotments are done

on affordable monthly license fee basis, with the option of owning the house only after

twenty years. The process was simplified and highly transparent. A simple one page

application form was required without enclosures, attachment or proof. Single page

allotment letter, possession slip and license deed were provided. The role of any

middlemen was eliminated.

No incidental spaces were left to check the possibility of violations or encroachments.

Single multi-purpose room was provided which could be converted into two. The provision

was made for direct access to sunlight and individual water and electricity connections in

all flats. Efforts were made to have minimal relocations and land freed from slums were put

to optimum use.

The Government of India has sanctioned two projects for Chandigarh for Rs. 428.92 crores

and Rs.136.01 crores respectively for the slum rehabilitation under the Jawaharlal Nehru

Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation.

Central grant of Rs.96.02 crores and Rs.300.10 crores were approved and work is in

progress. The Chandigarh Housing Board, which is executing and implementing the

projects, has already incurred expenditure to the tune of Rs. 158.42 crores approximately


up to 31.12.2009 as against the funds released to the tune of Rs.147.86 crores (including

the state share).

Table 4.8

Status of Construction of 25728 Flats & their Allotment to Beneficiaries

Phase-I Construction of 6368 Small Flats

Sr.

No.

Location No. of Flats

proposed to be

constructed

Physical Status of

Construction

Status of Allotment

1 Sector 49

1024 Work Completed 608 Small Flats allotment to

beneficiaries

2 Sector

38(West)

1120 512 Flats completed.

608 likely to be completed by

March 2012

507 Small Flats allotted to

beneficiaries

3 Maloya-II 3648 Yet to be started ----------------------

4 Ram Darbar 576 Work Completed 414 Small Flats allotted

Phase-II Construction of 19360 Small Flats

5 Dhanas 8848 Construction of Flats completed. Beneficiaries being identified

by Estate Office, UT

Chandigarh. Internal Infrastructure in

progress.

6 Maloya-I 8896 Yet to be started ---------------------

7 Maulijagran-I 320 Yet to be started ----------------------

8 Maulijagran-II 1696 Work commenced in September,

2009. ----------------------

Likely date of completion June,

2012.Work Completed

TOTAL 25728

Source: Chandigarh Housing Board, Chandigarh

Eight locations identified for rehabilitation of 18 colonies through bio metric survey have

been shown in Map 15.


Map 15


Houses Allotted

Plate 7: Houses allotted in Sector 38 west

Plate 8: Houses allotted in Ramdarbar (left) and Sector 49 (right)


Ongoing works

JNNURM Awards to Chandigarh

According to some documents provided by Chandigarh Housing Board many beneficiaries liked the better quality of life in rehabilitated colonies. Some of the views reproduced below:

Plate 9: Ongoing works in Dhanas (left) and Mauli Jagra (right)

Plate 10: “Best city in Earmarking land for poor”- Dec 09 (left) “Best city for Best Planned Habitat for Urban poor” – Dec 10 (right)


We shifted to Chandigarh in 1990 and had been living

in Colony No.4. I used to remain sick and since the time

we have shifted in this new home, I have not fallen sick

even once.

Swarni Devi

Their daughter, Rachna, is studying in 6th class in the

Government school nearby. “I want to be a government

officer,” she proudly announces.

It was difficult time but we had never thought that we

would be able to get a house of our own ever.

Dev Raj - a gardener in private homes

I am happy to be here in his “own home” at Sector 38.

We had to bathe outside and fetch water from public

…and it is much better here.

Ambika – a daily wager from Faizabad (UP)

Chandigarh Housing Board claims that the scheme was conceptualized as one time solution

to the existing problem of slums having acute problem of housing and basic services. The

dwelling units were designed in a way that there were no incidental spaces available for

violations. Each dwelling unit has to have individual water, electric and sewer connections.

But our teams found that some of the people allotted houses are facing inconvenience.

Some of the problems faced by the beneficiaries have been highlighted in this section.


Plate 11: Stagnation of water and poor sanitation in Sector 38 West

Difficulties/ problems faced by the beneficiaries Some of the specific case studies can be seen in the case of Sector 38 west, Sector 49C and

Ramderbar colony. Our team visited these newly developed rehabilitated colonies for field

observation and collection of views of the beneficiaries as summarized here.

In Sector 38 west teams found that there is a lack of apathy among municipal and CHB

authorities on upkeep of civic amenities. People are facing problems such as poor drainage

system and sewerage system (especially for latrines), leakage of roofs and poor condition

of parks etc. Many people in this colony are suffering due to leakage of roofs and bad

condition for Sewerage System.

Since drainage is poor and water is accumulated on the roads, foul smell and mosquitoes

are common. The fear of diseases is there. People have skin problems. Skin allergy and

infections are common. To avoid this people also use their own money for cleaning of

gutters. It is a costly and time consuming affair for them.


Plate 12: Views of parks in Ramdarbar colony

Plate 13: Sewer pipe inside the kitchen area

A similar situation was reported by the people in Ramdarbar. Condition of Parks is quite

miserable. There is lack of proper maintenance of parks. As can be seen in the photograph,

the water from the gutters goes directly in the parks which have become the breeding

This is a breeding ground for diseases. People cannot use parks in this condition.

Another common problem is that Sewerage and Latrine pipes are provided from inside the

house and during the blockage in any floor, ground floor occupant suffers a lot. People want

that it should be out of house or through a separate duct.


Plate 14: Water leakage in some Houses in Ramdarbar colony

Plate 15: Poor sanitary conditions in Ramdarbar colony

Given below is the view of a newly constructed housing unit in Ramdarbar. Two owners of

different houses reported that both are suffering from same problem of leakage of water on

top floor. Top floor occupants consider that the concrete is of poor quality and cause

leakage. Inadequate space was reported by all the beneficiaries. The problems of small

bathrooms, location of latrine door from outside, absence of a separate kitchen and passing

of wastewater outlets from inside the room/ kitchen were reported by many of the

beneficiaries. The Infrastructural inadequacies could have an adverse impact on the health

of the dwellers. Sewerage pipes are not properly connected to main sewer or gutter

promoting unhygienic condition in some of the neighborhoods. There were similar

conditions in Sector 49.


To conclude the observations during visits of field teams we can underline following

points:

1. The participation of poor was nill in preparing the planning/ map of the housing

units for them.

2. The needs of urban poor were not considered while designing the housing unit.

3. Infrastructural inadequacies within and outside the housing units.

4. Use of poor quality material in construction of the houses.

5. Spatial/physical planning is not in tune with the specific requirements of the

residents.

6. Maintenance of the units and upkeep of the infrastructure is not taken seriously.

7. Poor sanitation, sewerage/ drainage systems seem to pose problem regarding

health and living condition of residents.

8. No proper course of action in place for checking grievances.

These difficulties need to be paid special consideration while formulating housing policies

for the urban poor.

Basic Services for the Urban Poor

The planned urbanization in city has been marred by unplanned growth of slums with the

spurt in demand of basic amenities by the slums dwellers for water, sewerage, drainage,

streets and sanitation facilities etc. Although there is an improvement in availability of

basic amenities to the households in rural and urban areas in Chandigarh but still there are

gaps in terms of coverage and quality. The deficiencies are more acute in slums and urban

villages, the settlements for the majority of the urban poor. It has been resulting in

deterioration in the physical environment in slum areas. Census of India 2011 shows the

data on sources/ availability of drinking water, availability/ type of latrine facility and

availability of bathing facility, type of drainage and kitchen of (Table 4.9, 4.10, 4.11, 4.12).


Table 4.9

Main source of drinking water: 2001-2011

Total/ Rural/

Urban

Total Households Tap water Well water Hand pump/

tube well

water

Other sources

of water

2011 2001 2011 2001 2011 2001 2011 2001 2011 2001

Total 235,061 201,878 96.7 91.9 0.1 0.0 2.6 8.0 0.6 0.2

Rural 6,785 21,302 95.2 85.0 0.0 0.0 3.4 14.9 1.3 0.1

Urban 228,276 180,576 96.8 92.7 0.1 0.0 2.6 7.2 0.6 0.2

Source: Census of India 2011, Houses, Household Amenities and Assets, Director of Census operations,

Chandigarh

Table 4.10

Availability of Drinking Water Sources: 2001-2011

Total/ Rural/Urban

Within the

premises

Near the

Premises

Away

2011 2001 2011 2001 2011 2001

Total 86.2 77.2 11.7 19.7 2.2 3.2

Rural 85.4 69.3 13.0 27.8 1.6 2.9

Urban 86.2 78.1 11.6 18.7 2.2 3.2


Chandigarh

Table 4.11

Availability and Type of Latrine Facility: 2001-2011

Total Rural/Urban Total Households Percentage of Households having

Water

Closet

Pit Latrine Other

Latrine

No Latrine

2011 2001 2011 2001 2011 2001 2011 2001 2011 2001

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Total 235,061 201,878 87.1 68.3 0.5 1.6 0.1 8.9 12.4 21.1

Rural 6,785 21,302 87.9 47.6 0.1 6.4 0.0 14.5 12.0 31.5

Urban 228,276 180,576 57.0 70.8 0.5 1.1 0.1 8.3 12.4 19.9


Chandigarh

Table 4.12

Distribution of Households by Availability of Bathing Facility, Type of drainage and Kitchen: 2011

Distribution of Households by Availability of

Total

Number of

Households

(Excluding

institutiona

l

households)

Bathing Facility Type of drainage Kitchen

Bathroo

m

available

Bathing

enclosure

without roof

No

Bathr

oom

Closed

drainage

Open

drainag

e

No

Drain

age

Kitchen

Availabl

e

Kitchen

inside house

does not

have kitchen

Cook

ing in

open

No

cooki

ng

235,061 86.6 3.1 10.3 87.2 8.7 4.1 73.6 23.0 2.2 1.1


Chandigarh


With the continuing influx of migrants, the gap between demand and supply of essential

basic services and other infrastructure seems to widen in urban areas. In a snapshot survey

of one of the largest slum i.e., colony number 4 of Chandigarh it was found that the basic

services for the urban poor in Chandigarh are grossly inadequate.

Drinking water supply: Water is one of the vital basic human needs. There is absence of

individual drinking water taps in premises (Table 4.13). The public stand posts are only

source of drinking water in the slum. All the households share same water facility and on

an average 100 households depend on one stand post for water supply, making the place

very congested during supply hours and process of fetching of water time consuming. The

distance of public stand post is less than 0.5 Km as there are quite a few stand posts for a

cluster of households. This is contrast to government claims for providing 100% access of

drinking water to individual households.

Plate 16: Poor coverage and quality of basic services for urban poor in Colony no 4


Table 4.13

Households by source of drinking water

Sample HHs Source of drinking water supply Distance of water sources

Public stand post No Source More than 0.5 Km. Less than 0.5 km.

50 49 (98 %) 1 (2.0%) 2 (4.0%) 48 (96.0%)

Source: Field Survey

Toilet facility: Toilet facility in households is one of the major issues that have never been

resolved in slums, despite the sanitation services are managed by public and private institutions.

It is well known fact that the majority of slum dwellers practice open defection and marginal

population uses community toilet facility. Our data revealed that only 8.0 percent households

have toilet facility in their premises. The majority of households use community toilet facility

(50%) and open defection is heavily practiced by the households (42.0%).Only negligible

proportion of households have own dry toilet, the majority of them use community toilet and

practice open defection, thereby being robbed of their dignity and privacy. Moreover, there is

always high chance of occurrence of epidemics and thereby, controlling it becomes very

daunting task. This is in contrast of Chandigarh Municipal Corporation claims for providing the

best sanitation services. It may be true in posh sectors of Chandigarh, but situation is worst in

slums like Colony no 4. Our data revealed that still about 24% of households use either separate

bathrooms or community baths, rest use the bedroom for taking bath. The multiple uses of the

only bed cum living room for bathing, cooking, sleeping, dining make the internal environment

in dwelling very unhygienic and might affect the health conditions of the dwellers.

Table 4.14

Households by toilet and bath facilities


Provision of kitchen and use of cooking fuel: The data reveals that a vast majority of

households (96%) in slums have no separate kitchen. The similar proportion was also observed

in slums by Duggal (2010). Having kitchen within room makes household dwellers vulnerable to

hazard and health risk. The majority of them (68.0%) use kerosene oil as cooking fuel, which is

considered a big health hazard. Only marginal population of slum dwellers (16.0%) use Liquid

Petroleum Gas (LPG) which is considered to be the safe fuel. Other slum dwellers use firewood

(12.0%), followed by coal (4.0%) as cooking fuels. It is a pathetic situation where slum dwellers

Sample

HHs

Toilet facilities Bathroom facilities

Own Toilet Community

Toilet

Open

defecation

Takes bath in

the room

Separate

bathroom

Community

bath

50 4(8.0) 25 (50.0.) 21 (42.0) 38 (76.0) 2 (4.0) 10 (20.0)


living and cooking in the same room. They lack ample ventilation, due to inadequate housing

and they risk their health by inhaling large amounts of harmful gases and residues.

Table 4.15

Households by availability of kitchen and fuel used for cooking

Availability of kitchen (in %) Fuel used in cooking (in %)

Sample

HHS

Has sep.

kitchen

Cooking

inside house

Cooking

outside house

Coal Kerosene Fire wood LPG/PNG

50 2 (4.0) 47 (94.0) 1 (2.0) 2(4.0) 34 (68.0) 6 (12.0) 8 (16.0)


During our visits to Colony no 4 we observed multiple deprivations in the slum. The Sulabh

Sauchalaya was locked. The condition of community toilets was very apathetic. The streets

were not clean and at most of the places water was accumulated. Similarly solid waste was

lying haphazardly. During our interaction with slum dwellers in Colony No 4, following

inadequacies of basic services were highlighted:

Inadequate access of water supply

Poor sanitation/ sweeping

Almost absence of door to door garbage collection

Lack of individual toilets and poor condition of community toilets

Inadequacy and non functioning of street lights

Dilapidated conditions of streets

Accumulation of filthy water in low lying areas

Chandigarh is considered a good example of planned city and high quality of life. Although

snapshot analysis of situation in Colony no 4 shows apathetic condition of basic services for

the poor. Studies by the author and some other scholars also confirm the poor coverage

and quality of basic services in slums in the city. The access to health, educational and

transport facilities are inadequate in most of the slums. The institutional support for basic

services, social welfare and poverty alleviation programmes seem to be inadequate in

slums.


CHAPTER 5 URBAN POVERTY ALLEVIATION

The most demanding of urban challenges, unquestionably, is the challenge posed by urban poverty; the challenge of reducing exploitation, relieving misery and creating more humane conditions for working, living and growth for those disadvantaged people who have made the city their home already or are in the process of doing so.

National Commission on Urbanization (1988)

Poverty continues to be a major menace in urban areas, and alleviation of urban poverty

has been one of the most crucial challenges in urban policy planning circles. ‘Poverty

remains a global problem of huge proportions. Of the world’s 6 billion people, 2.8 billion

live on less than two dollars a day, and 1.2 billion on less than one dollar a day. Six infants

of every 100 do not see their first birthday, and 8 do not survive to their fifth. Of those who

do reach school age, 9 boys in 100, and 14 girls, do not go to primary school’ (World

Development Report 2000-01: Attacking Poverty). ‘According to an estimate of the World

Bank (2001), more than two thirds of the world’s poor are in Asia (South Asia 43.5 per

cent, Sub Saharan Africa 24.3 per cent, East Asia and Pacific 23.2 per cent and others 9.0

per cent). The urbanization of poverty is very significant trend in the world because half of

the poor live in urban areas’ (Sandhu 2003). ‘The scale of urban poverty in India is

staggering. Current estimates suggest that in the order of 80 million people live in urban

settlements, constituting around 30 percent of the total population. These numbers are

expected to rise. If the predictions are correct and the total urban population of India over

the next 25 years increases from 27 percent of the total population to between 36 percent

and 50 percent, the number of urban poor could end up in excess of 200 million. This


means that significant reductions in poverty in India will only be achieved if the urban

dimension is included in all policy, planning and development (DFID 2007).

There is no consensus on definition of urban poverty in India. A common method to

measure the poverty at any level is based on income or consumption levels. A person is

considered poor, if his/her income level falls below some minimum level necessary to meet

the basic needs. This minimum level is basically called the ‘poverty line’. The Planning

Commission and academicians have defined urban poverty on the basis of different

parameters. ‘Urban poverty is defined in terms of minimum calorie intake, at 2100 calories

per capita per day. This is a convenient measure for identifying urban poor for the purpose

of implementing Urban Poverty Alleviation Initiatives (UPAIs). The Planning Commission’s

revised methodology of 1997 indicates an average poverty line for India at Rs.353 per

capita per month. This equals to approximately Rs.21, 180 per household per annum’

(www.indiatogether.org). The National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) estimated that

22.15 percent of the population was below the poverty line in 2004–2005, which came

down from 51.3% in 1977–1978, and 26% in 2000. The criterion used was monthly income

below Rs. 454.11 for urban areas.

‘Poverty, in a broad sense does not refer only to deprivation with reference to a minimum

basket of goods and services that are essential for existence, it also includes socially

perceived deprivation with respect to individual basic needs like shortfalls in health and

education, inadequacy of shelter and deprivation associated with rigidities in social

stratification’ (Economic Survey 2000-01). The World Development Report 2000/2001 has

highlighted that ‘Poverty is not only defined as low income and consumption but also low

achievement in education, health, nutrition, and others areas of human development.

Poverty as a whole can be powerlessness and voicelessness, and vulnerability and fear. The

different dimensions of poverty interact in different ways. World Development Report,

2000-2001 shows that ‘Special action is needed in poor areas, where a combination of asset

deprivations-including at the community or regional level-can diminish the material

prospects for poor people. Tackling this requires public support and a range of institutional

and participatory approaches. It requires providing social and economic infrastructure in


poor areas. It also requires broad based provision of basic urban services in slums, within

an overall urban strategy’ (World Bank 2001). ‘Poverty has many dimensions, with

material deprivation (commonly measured in terms of income or consumption) one

important element. But urban poverty often has a broader meaning of cumulative

deprivation, characterized by squalid living conditions; risks to life and health from poor

sanitation, air pollution, crime and violence, traffic accidents, and natural disasters; and the

breakdown of traditional family and community safety nets. Moreover, income inequality is

worsening in many urban areas, implying further exclusion of low-income groups from

employment opportunities, basic services, political representation, legal and social

protections, and amenities. Urban poverty entails a sense of powerlessness, and an

individual and community vulnerability, that undermines human potential and social

capital’ (World Bank 2000).

The advantages of urbanization are being overshadowed by increasing slums with high

concentration of poverty pockets in urban areas. Poverty manifests itself more harshly in

cities as urban poor are compelled to live in squatter areas or slums in isolation. Though it

has been a matter of contention the urban poor generally earn higher incomes as compared

to the rural poor but they suffer greater degrees of poverty in terms of overcrowding and

poor access to infrastructure and environment. Understanding the nature of poverty and

its causes is one of the most complex aspects of discourse on Poverty Alleviation. Basically

poverty is defined as a person’s lack of command over minimum basic requirements of

like- food, clothing, housing, education, medical aid etc.

Poverty is normally the result of poor income inadequate supply of goods and services to

meet the basic needs of living and inequality distribution income and wealth. Poverty is a

familiar concept and has existed in every society at all times. Poverty is multidimensional

phenomenon. It is the result of high rates of unemployment and underemployment and

therefore of lower income assets status of the poor. Though poverty in the city has declined

over the period of time (Table 5.1 & Figure 4), a sizable proportion of population has been

facing deprivations and this has been affecting urban poor who are living in segregated

settlements.


Table 5.1 Below Poverty Line Population in Chandigarh City Figure 4.1

Number of Persons below poverty line

Source: Planning Commission of India.

Although Chandigarh city has the highest per capita income in the country, yet, a section of

population largely those living in slum areas are relatively very poor. According to the

Planning Commission estimates, 5.75percent of the people in Chandigarh were below

poverty line in 1999-2000. However, according to the latest figures, the population below

the poverty line in the city in 2004-05 was 67000 persons (7.1 percent) based on Uniform

Recall Period and 36000 persons (3.8 percent of the urban population) based on Mixed

Recall Period.

There is confusion on the data on urban poverty in Chandigarh. Various sources indicate

different levels of ratio of poverty. The NSSO data shows that 6.2% of the population of

Chandigarh in 2004-05 was below poverty line. A survey conducted in 2008 shows that

there were 8717 BPL families in Chandigarh and majority of these BPL families were

staying in unauthorized colonies (63%), rehabilitated colonies (29%) and rural areas (8%).

The City Development Plan Chandigarh shows 12.9% population (94484 persons) below

poverty line in the year 2000. On the basis of these diverse versions it can easily be

concluded that city despite having strong economic base has considerable number of

people below poverty line. The poverty seems to be concentrated in slums areas identified

by the Administration for Biometric Survey of slum dwellers for providing housing benefits

under BSUP of JNNURM.

Year Persons

(Lakhs)

Persons

(%)

Poverty

Line (Rs.)

1983 1.10 23.79 101.03

1993-94 0.73 11.35 253.61

1999-2000 0.45 5.75 388.15

2004-05

(URP)

0.67 7.1 466.16

2004-05

(MRP)

0.36 3.8 466.16


Map 16


A study on ‘Urban Poverty Reduction Strategy-Chandigarh’ (PRIA 2007) has highlighted

following three crucial dimensions of urban poverty in Chandigarh:

Housing: The problem exists in slum areas in terms of coverage, quality etc.

Basic services: The coverage of basic services is not adequate in slums areas.

Livelihood: The livelihood opportunities are inadequate in slums and rehabilitated

colonies

Issues relating to housing, basic services and livelihood seem to be pertinent in the poverty

concentration areas (mainly slums and rehabilitated colonies). The progress towards

urban poverty alleviation has been tardy due to poor efforts on the part of Municipal

Corporation in the past which affected social fabric of the city.

To tackle these problems of urban poverty, the Chandigarh Administration has been trying

to provide housing and basic services to the poor through Chandigarh Housing Board (as

discussed in Chapter 4) and livelihood/ employment opportunities through Municipal

Corporation of Chandigarh (State Urban Poverty Alleviation Cell-SJSRY). The Swaran

Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY) is a centrally sponsored scheme (75:25) introduced

by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (MoHUPA) in 1997 and revised in

2009 is a major urban poverty eradication scheme to tackle the problem of poverty in

urban areas. In this section an efforts has been made to study the initiatives under SJSRY.

The major objectives of the revised SJSRY are:

To address problem of urban poverty through gainful employment to the urban

unemployed or under employed poor by encouraging them to set up self-employment

ventures (individual or group), or to take up wage employment;

To support skill development and training programmes to enable them to have access

to employment opportunities; and

To empower the community to tackle issues of urban poverty through suitable self-

managed community structures like Neighborhood Groups (NHCs), Neighborhood

Committees (NHCs) and Community Development Society (CDS).


The main components of the scheme are:

(i) Urban Self Employment Programme (USEP): The USEP provides support to an

individual urban poor beneficiary for setting up gainful self employment ventures

(loans and subsidy) in which maximum allowable support is about Rs. 2.00 lakhs of

project cost with a allowable subsidy of 25% subject to a maximum of Rs. 50,000/.

The beneficiaries contribution as margin money is 5% of the project cost.

(ii) Urban Women Self-Help programme (UWSP): The UWSP seeks to provide

assistance to groups of poor women for setting up of gainful self employment

ventures (loans and subsidy). In this component at least 5 urban poor women are

eligible for subsidy. A UWSP group is also entitled for a subsidy of Rs. 3.00 lakhs or

35% of the project cost or Rs. 60,000/ per member of the group, whatever is less.

(iii) Skill Training for Employment Promotion amongst Urban Poor (STEP-UP):

STEP-UP component provides for training the urban poor. The placement of the

trainees is also done by the accredited institutions under SJSRY.

(iv) Urban Wage Employment Programme (UWEP): The UWEP is applicable only to

towns/ cities with population upto 5 lac as per 1991 census so it is not applicable to

Chandigarh.

(v) Urban Community Development Network (UCDN): The NHGs, NHCs and CDSs

are supposed to work at different levels and should be self managed. They may have

volunteers in charge of groups of activities such as basic infrastructure, health, HIV

AIDS, education, skill and livelihoods.

The SJSRY became effective in Chandigarh in 1997 and first municipal house elected in

2006 implemented the scheme. The urban poverty alleviation activities under SJSRY have

been strengthened during last few years with the inception of UNDP-MoHUPA joint

programme and establishment of UPA& L Cell which later integrated into State UPA Cell-

SJSRY at Municipal Corporation Chandigarh (MCC). The MCC has been implementing SJSRY

by involving several NGOs and institutions. Under the flagship of State UPA Cell- SJSRY of

MCC, a number of initiatives have been initiated for alleviation of the urban poverty,

upliftment of under privileged and marginalized communities. Some of the initiatives

undertaken by the MCC are:-


Community Development Societies (CDS): 13 Community Development Societies (CDS)

have been registered under Society Registration Act 1860 in eighteen under-developed

areas i.e., slums and rehabilitated colonies. A CDS has 11 members in its governing body

including functionaries like President, General Secretary and Treasurer. Each CDS is given

Rs 3000 at the time of registration for opening bank account and Rs 21600 as an annual

honorarium to its members. In addition to this, each CDS is given stationary items, banners

as per their requirement for community development work. The members follow certain

practices in such a way that they become habitual in banking and other day to day

activities. The financial inclusion is being promoted through CDS system. The results of

experiment of involvement of in management of a vocational training programme were

quite encouraging.

These CDSs have about 150 women

members and are pillars of the SJSRY

scheme. CDSs have provided strength

to implementation of welfare schemes

and penetrate in the community

structure. Diverse roles have been

specified for the women CDSs ranging

from community mobilization, organizing community meetings to facilitating the

community. Various activities specified

for the CDSs are as under:

1. Facilitating and organizing

community structures/ groups

and promoting voluntarism;

2. Guiding and assisting the

community in assessing its

Plate 17 : A model Community Development Society (CDS)

Plate 18: Capacity building of CDS Functionaries


Plate 19: A CDS Member Assisting in Recovery Drive of a Bank

needs, organizing community structures, developing a community vision, and

formulating community development action plans;

3. Coordinating the conducting of slum, household and livelihood surveys and

maintaining database on the urban poor and their needs;

Working with the Community to implement and monitor programs or activities

under SJSRY;

Assessing skill needs of the urban poor and facilitating skill development training

and post-training handholding;

Liaising with the sectoral departments to establish initial contacts with the

community in support of their programmes;

Facilitating community empowerment through community level training,

information, sharing, exchange of experiences, community skills enhancement

programmes, etc.

Identifying suitable beneficiaries for

self-employment ventures, preparing

applications for securing bank credit

after approval of the names of

beneficiaries by the CDS, and taking

subsequent follow up with the ULBs/

Banks/ Administration until final

disposal of the applications.

Regularly following up with the financed beneficiaries to monitor the progress of

their self employment ventures as also the timely repayment of loans, etc.


Plate 20: LPG Autos handed over to the Urban Poor under USEP

Any other function as may be assigned for furtherance of the target of alleviating /

eradicating urban poverty.

A Model CDS is paid monthly honorarium of Rs 1800. This is fist of its kind initiative

in the northern region.

The CDS have been linked in recovery of bank loans under SJSRY.

Urban Self Employment Programme (USEP): The USEP seeks to provide subsidy and

facilitate credit from banks to the

urban poor for wide range of self

employment activities under SJSRY

such as motor cycle repair, electricals

and electronic repair, retailing of

garments, glass work, furniture,

welding, LPG auto, tailoring shop,

vegetable vending etc. The major

activity under this programme is to

provide credit for LPG Autos to BPL

beneficiaries. About 280 LPG Auto rickshaws have been given to BPL communities in

Chandigarh with a subsidy of 25% under Urban Self Employment Programme (USEP)

component of SJSRY. Beneficiaries are able to earn their livelihood and repay loan amount

with an average monthly installment of

Rs. 3500-4500. In addition to the

livelihood to the poor people, LPG Auto

rickshaws provide environmental

friendly transport to the common people.

It seems to be an innovative initiative to

cope with the growing challenge of

poverty and climate change. The loans for

LPG Auto rickshaws and various other

Plate 21: Skill Training under STEP-UP, SJSRY


Plate 22: Secretary, MoHUPA interacting with PLHIVs benefitted under SJSRY

loans under USEP Component seem to have brought improvement in life style among BPL

people by enhancing their monthly income.

Empanelment of Accredited & Certified Skill Training Institutions: UPA Cell has been

able to empanel accredited & certified skill training institutions such as DOEACC-Society

(Ministry of IT), Society for Promotion of IT in Chandigarh (Chandigarh Administration),

Chandigarh Institution of Hotel Management (CIHM), Commonwealth Youth Programme

(CYP), Vandana Luthra Care Centre (VLCC), Maruti Driving School (MDS), and YMCA etc for

training of the urban poor under Skill Training Employment Promotion amongst Urban

Poor (STEP-UP). Concept of placement linked skill training has been kept in place.

According to the UPA Cell, MCA & Olive Green have given 63% placement to the poor who

got training for Security Guard.

Linking CDSs with the People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIVS) and Health Related

Programmes: An effort has been made

to consider people with HIV/AIDS

(PLHIVS) under SJSRY for benefiting

them with the loans and the training

benefits. Another good feature of the

programme is involvement of members

of Community Development Societies

(CDS) in the field of Reproductive and

Mother Child Health (RCH-MCH),

HIV/AIDS, TB, Community Development.

CDSs have also been linked with State TB Society, State AIDS Control Society, and HIV/AIDS

advocacy/ training. The efforts have also been made with NRHM Chandigarh in providing

training to CDS members in Community Health Monitoring.


Some of the Trades Selected for Vocational Training: The Skill vocational training

under SJSRY is provided in the following trades (also shown in the snaps in the Plate):

Welding Driving Computer Hardware Business Process outsourcing Pottery and Garden Artifacts Security Guards Hand and Machine Embroidery Beauty and Skin Care(Basic) with Mahanadi Application &Bridal Make-up Fashion Designing and Designing of clothes Food Processing Painting and Sketching Jute & Articles making & Bag Making Medical Attendant Electrical Technician, Basic Electricity, Electronics & House Wringing, Repair &

Maintenance of Domestic Electrical Appliances House Keeping/ Food & Beverage Service Computer Fundamentals, MS-Office, Fundamentals of Networking, Accounting with

Tally, Soft Skill Training. Personality Development & Certificate in Computing Certificate in Financial Accounting, Tally & Communication Skills


Plate 23: Skill Formation under SJSRY: Vocational Training of Women Beneficiaries

Source: SJSRY Report 2008-2011, State UPA Cell-SJSRY, MCC

Physical and Financial Performance of the Scheme: The Mid Term Appraisal of the

Eleventh Five Year Plan of Chandigarh (CRRID 2010) has shown physical progress of SJSRY

scheme from 2004-05 to 2011-12. During this period vocational training was provided to

5768 BPL beneficiaries though the target was 5000. Thus the success rate of this scheme

was about 88.6% which is a fairly good performance. Another interesting feature of this

programme is that out of 5768 beneficiaries who were provided skill vocational training

5112 (88.6%) were women, 36.8% SCs 13.3% BCs and 8.5% from minority community.


This shows that a fair representation was given to the underprivileged sections. The target

for providing skill vocational training during 2011-12 was 604 beneficiaries.

Table 5.2

Category/ Year wise Position of Vocational Training Programs Conducted/No. of Trainees Trained under SJSRY Category 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-

11

2011-

12

Total % to Total

General 358 356 383 345 432 365 52 82 2373 41.1

SCs 411 262 278 287 367 435 42 44 2126 36.8

BCs 120 116 134 60 175 95 8 61 769 13.10

Minority 66 48 66 83 76 90 18 45 492 8.52

Disabled 6 - - - - - 2 - 8 0.1

TOTAL 961 782 861 775 1050 985 122 232 5768

Women (30%) as

per guidelines

891 692 778 727 937 806 90 191 5112 88.6

Men 70 90 83 48 113 179 32 41 656 11.3

Source: i.) Statistical Abstract, Chandigarh, 2008 ii) Municipal Corporation Chandigarh iii) Mid Term Appraisal of the Eleventh Five Year Plan of Chandigarh (CRRID 2010)

Table 5.3 Figure 5.2

BPL beneficiaries trained in training Category wise BPL Beneficiaries trained

programmes (2008-2011)

S.

NO.

Category No of beneficiaries

1. General 931

2. Scheduled Caste 888

3. Backward Class 339

4. Minority 229

5. Disabled 2

Total 2389



Plate 24: Various examples of self help ventures under USEP, SJSRY Source: SJSRY Report 2008-2011, State UPA Cell-SJSRY, MCC

Mid Term Appraisal (CRRID 2010) also shows the position of loan cases under SJSRY from

1998-99 to 2011-12. The Table 5.4 shows that from 1998-99 to 2011-12 a total of 3481

loan cases were sponsored to banks. Out of these 3481 loan cases 429 (35.2%) were

sponsored during 2011-12 alone. Prior to that the number of sponsored loan cases in a

year crossed the 200 mark only once (in 1998-99). The success rate of loan cases

sanctioned however is very poor. Out of 2469 loan cases sponsored by the department


from 1998-99 to 2011-12 loans was sanctioned only for 1119 cases. This shows a success

rate of less than one third. The Table further reveals that out of the 1119 sanctioned cases

loan disbursement took place only in 783 cases that is only in about 70% of the cases. From

1998-99 to 2011-12 a total net loan amount of Rs 4,86,74,008 and subsidy amount of Rs

1,01,54,529 has been disbursed. The efficacy of these schemes needs to be improved.

Table 5.4

Year Wise Position of Loan Cases Sponsored/Sanctioned/Subsidy Received Back//Net Loan Disbursed Under SJSRY Year No. of

Loan

cases

sponsore

d to

banks

No. of Loan cases sanctioned No. of cases where Subsidy

Received back

Net loan disbursed

No. No. Loan Amt Subsidy

Amt

No. of

Cases

Loan Amt Subsidy

Amt

No. of Cases

disbursed

Loan Amt Subsidy

Amt

1998-99 216 9 3,30,000 49,500 -- --- -- 9 3,30,000 49,500

1999-2000 134 83 25,49,800 3,82,470 13 2,65,000 39,750 70 22,84,800 3,42,720

2000-2001 57 37 13,87,500 2,08,125 5 1,95,000 29,250 32 11,92,500 1,78,875

2001-2002 102 17 6,13,000 91,950 -- -- -- 17 6,13,000 91,950

2002-2003 204 48 14,76,720 2,21,508 10 2,06,000 30,900 38 12,70,720 1,90,608

2003-2004 193 42 13,94,700 2,09,205 4 1,60,000 24,000 38 12,34,700 1,85,205

2004-2005 124 50 20,67,500 3,10,125 4 1,50,000 22,500 46 19,17,500 2,87,625

2005-2006 143 43 17,57,000 2,63,550 9 3,30,000 49,500 34 18,42,000 2,76,300

2006-2007 138 54 19,49,000 2,92,350 1 12,000 1,800 49 18,42,000 2,76,300

2007-2008 164 76 31,62,000 4,74,300 15 3,98,700 59,805 71 30,88,300 4,63,245

2008-2009 157 72 27,06,000 4,05,900 7 2,30,000 34,500 64 23,91,000 3,58,650

2009-2010 969 366 1,65,36,365 40,94,782 -- -- -- 69 45,43,000 9,68,450

2010-2011 451 137 1,45,26,946 36,31,715 1 1,00.000 25,000 61 77,98,705 19,49,676

2011-2012 429 85 64,81,277 16,20,294 1 1,00,000 25,000 26 21,42,000 5,35,500

TOTAL 3481 1119 5,69,37,808 1,22,55,774 70 21,46,700 3,42,005 624 3,24,90,225 61,54,604

Source: i) Municipal Corporation Chandigarh ii) Mid Term Appraisal of the Eleventh Five Year Plan of Chandigarh (CRRID 2010)

Table 5.5

Details of sponsored and sanctioned loan cases

under SJSRY during 2011-12

Loan Cases Sponsored and Sanctioned

2010-2011

Category No of Cases Sponsored No of Cases

Sanctioned

Loan Amount Subsidy amount

General 134 25 Rs.1,70,1,750/- Rs. 1,25,437/-

SC 213 36 Rs.29,32,300/- Rs. 7,33,075/-

BC 45 8 Rs. 6,05,000/- Rs. 1,51,270/-

Mino. 35 16 Rs.12, 43,665/- Rs.3,10,916/-

Disabled 2 - - -

Total 429 85 Rs64,82,715 /- Rs.16,20,698/-

Women 185 29 Rs.14,21,295/- Rs.3, 55,324/-

Men 244 56 Rs.5,06,1,420/- Rs.1,2,65,374/-


Mid Term Appraisal of the Eleventh Five Year Plan of Chandigarh (CRRID 2010) also shows

the financial status of the SJSRY programme (Table 5.6). It shows that from 2004-05 to

2009-10 (upto 30-9-09) a total expenditure of Rs 377.64 Lakhs was incurred. Out of this


amount Rs 211.70 Lakhs (about 56%) were spent on community structures and Rs

116.06Lakhs (about 31%) on USEP (training). Table 5.6 also shows a relatively very high

expenditure during 2006-07, especially on community structures.

Table 5.6

Financial Status of the SJSRY programme

S.

No

Component Year/

Compon

ent wise

grant

received

Balanc

e as on

1-4-04

2004-

05

2005-

06

2006-

07

2007-

08

2008-

09

2009-

10

upto

Sep.,

09

Total

Expend

i-ture

Balance

a on (1-

12-09)

(Rs. in

Lacks)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

(3+4+5

+6=7+8

)

10

(2-9)

1 USEP

(Subsidy)

54.03 52.24 3.65 2.73 2.42 5.45 5.10 17.77 37.12 15.12

2 ESEP

(Training)

244.81 236.19 10.28 26.08 21.86 14.39 27.34 16.11 116.06 120.13

3 DWCUA

(Subsidy)

30.58 30.58 -- -- 1.08 -- -- 1.08 2.16 28.42

4 T&C

Subsidy

7.30 7.19 0.18 -- -- -- -- -- 0.18 7.01

5 Information

Education &

Communica

tion EC)

23.42 23.42 -- 3.38 0.17 -- 6.39 0.48 10.42 13.00

6 Community

Structure

423.06 423.06 35.73 22.58 76.58 44.34 8.23 24.24 211.70 211.36

Total (Rs. in

Lakhs)

783.20 772.68 49.84 54.77 102.1

1

64.18 47.06 40.50 377.64 395.04

Source: ii) Municipal Corporation Chandigarh iii) Mid Term Appraisal of the Eleventh Five Year Plan of Chandigarh (CRRID 2010)

Mid Term Appraisal of the Eleventh Five Year Plan of Chandigarh (CRRID 2010) summed

up that “The overall performance of planning during the Tenth Five Year Plan and the first

two years of the Eleventh Five Year Plan has been satisfactory. The efforts of the

administration are directed primarily towards service activities and for urban areas. There

are needs towards efforts to achieve balanced development between northern and

southern sectors of the city, between rural and urban areas and between slum and non

slum localities. This can be rectified by upward revision of poverty line in the specific

situation of Chandigarh”. To summarize we can say that Chandigarh has started taking lead

in urban poverty alleviation programme but still a long way to go as poor continue to flock

the city in search of green pastures. More resources and strong institutional mechanism is

required to scale up the urban poverty alleviation programme in Chandigarh.


CHAPTER 6

STAKEHOLDERS CONSULTATION AND PERCEPTION OF BENEFICIARIES

Long did I cherish a desire, neither for wealth or fortune,

but my houses tucked away in a corner of the earth,

where I could be with my thoughts.

Rabinder Nath Tagore

Human visual perception is a complex process. An effort was made to know the perception

of people with regards to various aspects of dwelling units and the facilities provided to

them. Similarly views of the SJSRY beneficiaries have been recorded. A sample of 50

persons was taken for the purpose of perception and little detailed views of some

beneficiaries were also taken which have been discussed below. These persons were

selected from various rehabilitation colonies in the city.

Perception of beneficiaries of slum rehabilitation housing projects 1. Sector 38 West Lal Bahadur aged 45 years who hails from Uttar Pradesh, came ten

years ago. He belongs to Scheduled Caste category with six family

members. He runs a confectionery shop from his home and earns Rs

2500/ month. According to him there are problems like blockage of

sewerage system and unhygienic conditions due to poor drainage.

Due to this, children of residents are at risks from skin diseases. The

stagnation of water has become breeding ground for mosquitoes and

many other insects which spread diseases like Malaria, Diarrhea and


Dengue etc. There is no health facility in this locality or nearby locality.

Pimal aged 25 years came from U.P. about eight year ago. He belongs

to Scheduled Castes (SCs) Category. He is a daily wage worker and

earns about Rs 2500 per month. He pointed out the unsafe drinking

water is supplied to the residents. Water supplied in the area is some

time muddy and is unfit for drinking purposes. The unsafe supply of

water make them prone to water borne diseases such as Jaundice and

Diarrhea. The poor material used in the construction of houses results

in leakages of roofs and there is no system for replacing broken

window glasses.

Ramwati aged 35 years came from U.P. eleven years ago. Her caste is

Jaat and six members including her are living in the house. Her

husband is a daily wage worker and earns only Rs. 5500 per month.

She said that space for the kitchen is too small. The dwelling unit has a

single room with no separate space for kitchen. Ramwati also

complained that the street lights are not properly working and no one

comes to check these lights. Bank facility is not provided in this area

and Banks are at long distance from the locality.

Chinta Devi aged 38 years came from U.P. eight years ago. She belongs

to Scheduled Castes (SCs) Category and seven members are living in her

house. Her husband is a daily wage worker and earns only Rs 5000 per

month. Chinta Devi told about the problem of separate kitchen, poor

material in construction of the houses and defective water meters etc.

She said that all the people are suffering due to poor sewerage system

and drainage. Latrine pipe is provided from inside the unit and during

the blockage in any floor, ground floor occupants suffer a lot.


2. Sector 49

Chandan aged 18 years came from U.P., two years back. He belongs to

Scheduled Castes (SCs) Category. His total income is 2000 per month.

Chandan told that there is no playground and school in the locality. He

also indicated that there is leakage of roof in the house. Poor and low

quality material has been used in their construction

Lata Devi aged 40 years hails from U.P. and came about ten years ago.

She is a member of Scheduled Castes (SCs) Category and has five

members in the family. She is maid and earns only Rs 3000 per month.

She said that there is a lack of health amenities as there is no hospital.

There is not even a single shop for daily use. They have to cover a long

distance to purchase the things. There is no school in this area. They

have to cover a long distance to take the bus.

Sulochna Devi aged 38 years came from U.P. Seven years ago. She

belongs to Scheduled Castes category. Seven members are living with

her. Her husband is a daily wage worker and earns only Rs.2500 per

month. She focused on the problem of water and electricity bill. She

said that they cannot afford to pay water and electricity bills. No one

checks the meter properly and estimated bill is sent. She told that the

water meter is almost dead and not working properly.

Vimla aged 34 years came from U.P. ten years ago. She belongs to

Sheduled Caste category. There are five members in the family. Her

husband is a Mistri and earns only Rs.4000/ month. Vimla told about

the poor sewerage system, leakage of the roof, stagnation of water,

spread foul smell around the area. She said that we are not sure

whether after twenty years we will get the registry of the house or not.


3. Ramdarbar

Ashok aged 41 years came from U.P. eight years ago. He belongs to

Scheduled Caste Category. Five family members live with him. He is a

Peon and earns only Rs 5500 per month. He said that water supply does

not reach to the top floor. He said that either the pressure is low or the

supply does not reach. He also told that there is no separate place for

Aganwari, they only use a temporary room for it.

Ashok aged 38 years came from U.P. seven years ago. He belongs to

Scheduled Caste Category living with five members. He is an Auto

Rickshaw puller and earns only Rs 3000 per month. Ashok told that

most of the houses are not occupied by any one and are lying vacant or

have been rented out. The problem of theft in the area is very common.

There is no cleanliness in the area. No one comes to collect garbage.

Dustbins are also not provided.

Perception of beneficiaries of SJSRY scheme: The perceptions of beneficiaries under SJSRY have been taken from the SJSRY Report 2008-

2011, State UPA Cell-SJSRY, MCC.

Baby is 25 year old, a BPL women beneficiary of Maulijagran hails

from Uttar Pradesh. Her husband has migrated a decade ago in

search of job. She has started vegetable vending on a rehri with the

assistance of credit under SJSRY subsidy scheme so as to cater to

her family. She has taken a loan of Rs 50,000.00 with a subsidy of

Rs. 7,500.00. She has paid the full loan amount in stipulated time.

Now her per day net income is Rs 250.00 to Rs 300.00. SJSRY

assistance has proved to be a boon for her family as now she is able to provide education

and other facilities to her children.


Amswali, a 41 year old women beneficiary migrated from

Tamil Nadu, has started readymade cloth retailing

business with the assistance from SJSRY scheme in

Maulijagran. She has taken a loan of Rs 50,000.00 with a

subsidy of Rs 7,500.00. She is delighted that she is earning

Rs 7000.00 to Rs 8,000.00 per month. She is now able to

live a good quality of life and manage education of her

children in a better way. She admits that SJSRY has eliminated her poverty and related

woes in the family.

Udham Singh, a 31 year old and migrated from Uttar

Pradesh in search of job. He was earlier repairing cycles

on road side. With the assistance of SJSRY credit, he is

able to open a cycle repair shop in Khajeri colony. He has

taken a credit of Rs 40,000.00 with a subsidy of Rs.

6000.00 and has paid back the full loan amount. His

average income is Rs. 10,000.00 to Rs. 11,000.00. He is

now leading a good social life with his family. He came to

know about this scheme from a loan awareness camp and has been given support of CDS

Khajeri during loan process. This scheme has phenomenally changed his life.

Dalinder Singh, a 42 year old physically disabled BPL

beneficiary from Sector 56 colony, has taken a loan of Rs

10,000 with a subsidy of Rs 1,500 for a cycle repair shop.

He has successfully paid the loan amount in prescribed

time. Prior to taking benefit of SJSRY, he was struggling to

get a loan. His average income is Rs 300.00 to Rs 400.00 per

day. He says SJSRY has alleviated his social and economic

life standards. He is now able to provide education to his

daughters. His two daughters were also trained in Painting & Sketching and Computer

Automation & Hardware under STEP-UP.


Daya Rani, a 33 year old woman lives in Palsora. She is a yellow

card holder. Her husband migrated to Palsora from Ambala 17

years ago. He used to run a small shop of shoes that was not

enough for them because he could earn only a little amount from

their shop. Then Daya Rani came to know about the SJSRY

scheme from one the member of M.C. She got a loan of Rs. 50,000

with a subsidy of 25% and extended the business of shoes with

the help of the loan. Now she earns Rs. 5,000 per months and her

life style has changed. She is able to provide good quality education to her children.

Prem Babu Verma, a resident of Nehru colony, hails from

Lucknow and migrated to Chandigarh in 1985. He used to run a

small shop of repairing garden tools. He came to know of this

scheme from a camp organized in Nehru colony. He took a loan

of Rs. 1,00,000 under SJSRY scheme with a subsidy of 25%.

Before getting the loan he had to go outside the Chandigarh once

every 5 days to get the materials of his small shop. Now he can

buy in bulk on discount price. He buys the material only once in

two months and both his sons have joined his business. He earns nearly Rs. 20,000 per

month. He is leading a smooth life and now he has no money problem. His daughter is going

to a good school. His living standard has improved because of the scheme.

Mukesh kumar a resident of Bhaskar colony Sec. 25 hails from

Muzzafarnagar U.P. from where he migrated about 30 years ago.

He is a yellow card holder. He is handicapped and works as an

electrician. He came to know about this scheme from a camp in

secondary school sec.25. He took loan of Rs. 1,00,000 under

SJSRY scheme with a subsidy of Rs. 25,000. Now He earns Rs.

4000 per month and has improved his life standard. His children are getting good facilities

now.


Ramchander a resident of Janta colony who hails from

district Kaithal (Haryana) migrated to Chandigarh in 1989.

He is member of scheduled caste category and also a yellow

card holder. He came to know about this scheme (SJSRY)

from his neighbor. He took loan of Rs. 1, 29,790 with subsidy

of Rs. 32,447 in May 2010. He bought his own Auto. Now he

earns 300-400 per day. His lifestyle has improved a lot. Now,

he is able to provide good quality education to his children.

His elder son is studying in B.A. first year.

O. P. Sharma, resident of sector-49 Chandigarh lives in

houses for Economic Weaker Section, which were allotted in

December 2010. He is a yellow card holder. He came to know

about this scheme (SJSRY) from an auto agency. He took of

Rs. 1, 00, 000 with subsidy of 25%. Previously, he was a truck

driver but after getting loan, he bought his own auto. Now he

is leading a better life and is able to provide good facilities to

his family members.


Figure 6.1 Perception of beneficiaries about housing & basic services

Good Fair Poor Perception of beneficiaries about housing scheme seem to convey grim picture of the

housing and basic amenities in the newly developed colonies for the poor. The perception

of the people about housing units shows that they are not comfortable with the space,

internal lay out in the housing unit, facilities in and around the locality etc. Similarly people

complain about the poor maintenance of water supply, sewerage, drainage and street lights

etc. As far as perception of the people about the beneficiaries of SJSRY scheme is concerned

it is quite impressive.


PERCEPTION OF EXPERTS

M.N. Sharma (Ex-Chief Architect of Chandigarh).

He gave the title of The City Beautiful to

Chandigarh in 1968. When Chandigarh was

planned, it was planned for less than half a

million people but now 1.2 million people are

living in the city. He said that the real problem is

huge maintenance and planning costs. The

haphazard encroachments are being done by the

people in connivance with administration. A lot of policies and schemes are made for the

poor people but they do not get benefit from it. Poor people sell their houses and dwelling

units to the higher income groups for money. So the problem remains the same. He told

that the Metro Rail Project should not come to Chandigarh otherwise the problem of

electricity would further be aggravated. The problem of housing would become severe

after the introduction of metro in Chandigarh. The concept of Tri-City is ruining

Chandigarh because it is a planned city but Panchkula and Mohali are not. We should not

compare Chandigarh with the cities like Mumbai and Delhi. Lastly, he told that the

Government should introduce the schemes and projects for housing based on no profit and

no loss. Proper laws should be made by the government to stop the poor people from

selling their dwelling units to the other people. Lastly, he said that the proper laws should

be made by the government to maintain the city properly.

Madhu Sarin (Architect & Development Planner). Sarin focused

on some crucial issues and challenges in the context of planning for

the urban poor. She discussed about the absence of any planning

for the poor in the city’s development despite labour being

required for starting any construction. As a result, construction of

Le Corbusier buildings was preceded by thousands of labourers

arriving on the site and building their mud and thatch huts. The


officials assumed that the labour would go away once the buildings were completed but a

developing city requires labour for other development activities on a continuous basis.

Instead of providing for their needs, with the growth of the city, the unauthorized

settlements were moved to peripheral locations and eventually rehabilitated in one room

tenements or on small plots on land acquired from surrounding villages. This has led to

ghettoisation of the poor in peripheral locations where the quality of facilities made

available is much poorer. Urban planning needs to integrated planning for the poor from

the beginning and their spatial and social distribution within the main fabric of the city.

Amarpreet Singh (Professor at P.G.I. Chandigarh). We

discussed the emerging policies, practices and issues for the

planning of urban poor in Chandigarh. As a mature and

experienced persona Dr. Singh describes the relevant

synthesis for the same. While talking about Women Health

in the slum areas he focused on the issues of mortality and

morbidity in women. The government decreases the

mortality in an effective manner but they are not aware for

the morbidity at all. According to Dr. Singh many poor women suffer from urine problems,

uterus problems, leucorrhea, headache, cervical pain, anemia etc. some of the issues

outlined by him were:

Cultural Tolerance is another issue which is related to the bearing capacity of

women.

Iron tablet programme failed due to negligence of co-ordination of authorities of

(JSY) Janni Suraksha Yojna and lack of finance.eg...Non institutional delivery in

Shansi Tribe in 38 sec.

A record maintaining formality extends the problem, many times ambulance

shortage especially for poor give rise to the problems.

Dr. Singh also discussed the children related issues. Mid day meal is not effective

and children have health problem because nutritional requirement is not sufficient.


Moreover, staff workers do not work properly. The lack of amenities give rise to the

problem in a broader way as children get birth in ambulances and outside the

delivery room.

Dr. Singh emphasized the problems regarding housing sector. According to him, un-

necessary and unplanned digging create the problem, sewerage water mixes with the

water supply and give rise to diseases like Polio, Dysentery, Diarrhea etc. Therefore, Dr.

Singh suggested, Government should be focused on the practical issues instead of mere

programming. The staff members need to be aware and responsible enough to tackle with

the problems. There should be schemes from the government to aware the poor women

regarding their health issues and a proper strategy to implement these schemes.

Rajesh Gill (Professor and Chairperson, Department of Sociology

at Panjab University). Dr Gill discussed the most crucial

issue(urban- poverty) and pointed out that in spite of an

extensive slum rehabilitation programme implemented by

Chandigarh Administration during the last more than thirty years,

large slum colonies continue to exist at the same places. She

believes that corruption and crime have been institutionalized

among urban poor and for that bureaucracy and political forces

are responsible. Urban poor have no access to basic amenities of

life, especially those at the bottom of hierarchy. Dr. Gill concluded

that in order to improve the situation a clear enumeration of households with secure land

tenure rights needs to be undertaken. Women among urban poor need to be made

beneficiaries of State schemes on Housing, Employment, Education etc. The police officials,

School officials, Estate office etc. dealing with the poor must not treat them as vulnerable

target groups. Dr. Gill wished that self help groups must be established among urban poor

e.g. Youth club, Women Club etc. for improving their access to resources and empowering

them.


Sangita Vardhan (Chairperson of The Vatsal Chaya Trust), told

that in Chandigarh city there is a humanitarian crisis where its

low income urbanites live in filth, squalor, disease and

deprivation. Lack of due recognition of slums and jhuggi clusters

as residential areas for city planning and budgeting purposes

has meant that residents have been denied adequate essential

services. These include water, sanitation, electricity, garbage

collection, health, education. Chandigarh falls far short of giving

due regard to its urban poor no one factored in the phenomenon

of urbanization in relation to economic growth, the escalating

influx of migrant labour.

She told that in Bapu Dham there are over 2200 temporary huts and jhuggis where there

are tenants -- actual allottees who own pucca houses in the same area . The system is

subverted in most slums where relocation has been done. She told that despite the

provision of some toilets on payment basis there is large scale open area defecation in Bapu

Dham Col No 4 ,Col No 5 and no drainage or open drains. There are many slums like Shastri

Nagar, where there is severe lack of clean water –skin allergies and rashes are common

especially in children. Rotting fish bones and scales because of a fish market pose a serious

health hazard and add to very unhygienic conditions. She said that many children in the

slums start work at a very early age with no prospect of getting any education. They make

money by rag picking, selling newspapers in traffic jams, peddling drugs or begging. They

are at risk of exploitation as well as all the health problems that accompany their lifestyles.

She suggested that it is crucial to have base of good governance, an efficient and effective

governance framework which means that civic issues should be managed in an inclusive,

equitable, transparent and accountable manner. She also said that here convergence

between the departments of social welfare, education, police, women and child, health and

urban planning will bring a sea of change. She also suggested that categories of the urban

poor where each group has common deficits, cultural orientation or talents together with

income categories should be made which will need to a better picture of what they need


and this will need to an appropriate solution tailored for them. According to her, the

availability of credit has made a significant contribution to women's incomes. More than

the economic benefit it is the increments in self-confidence and self-esteem. Local

governments should develop strategies to prevent the formation of new slums.

Lastly she said that NGOs can play a vital role in improving the existing conditions of slums.

NGOs should work for the underprivileged in the slums. NGOs should work in close

coordination with government and make sure that the following facilities are available to

the slum dwellers-

Counseling services to minimize crime and other problems.

Basic amenities like schooling, proper sanitation, potable water, health facilities and

common electricity with minimal charges.

Free weekly medical and healthcare facilities

JIT KUMAR GUPTA (Architect and Planner) focused on some

crucial issues and challenges in the context of planning for the

urban poor which included - Urban poor not being made integral

part of planning process; uncontrolled encroachment on high

degree; political patronage; politician, police and administration

nexus; considering urban poor as vote bank and part of political

system. Also, un-co-ordinate approach between Punjab/

Haryana/ Chandigarh is a major hindrance. Gupta on the whole

concluded that variety of options need to be considered- to solve

the problem of housing for the poor. Shelter designs are to be critically reviewed such as

instead of attached toilets with individual has community latrines should be provided. He

suggested that a coordinated approach among Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh should be

adopted for tackling the problem of slums. Urban poor should be made integral part of

planning and development process and politician–police-bureaucrats nexus need to be

broken. He concluded that Women and children should be the focus of the approach to

create awareness about the quality of living and creating options for promoting better


quality of life. He personally believes that prime location of housing for poor must be

avoided in order to minimize the speculation in term of sale of such houses.

Vivek Trivedi (Social Development Officer- SJSRY, MCC). He gave

various suggestions for the planning of urban poor in Chandigarh.

He said that there is a need to check migration and also there is a

need to devise a mechanism to monitor it. He also said that UT has

to take up poverty alleviation programme in mission mode in

Chandigarh like MEPMA in Andhra and Kudumbshree in Kerala.

Despite Ministry’s stress on Convergence and Linkages, UT has

not been able to do it in reality. He advised that convergence is

very much required between various stakeholders and line

departments’ viz. Housing Board, health department, education

department, social welfare and ULBs. He suggested creating a position of convergence

officer who can liaise with various departments working on poverty. He is of the view that

Induction Trainings and Capacity Building Programmes for Municipal Councilors, planners,

technical officers and account officials on Municipal Management, Leadership, Model

Municipal Acts, Municipal Budget, E governance, Waste Management and Poverty

Alleviation.

R.S. Sandhu (Professor, Department of Sociology, at

Guru Nanak Dev University Amritsar) He said that

urban poor experience housing poverty, due to the

gap between policy and action. The problem is not of

land and resources but of political will. The political

will is lacking. This is because poor lack influence on

government’s policies and institutions. The

Government fails to understand the particular needs

of lower income groups. Government housing projects are so ineffective because of the

reason of diversity of need. They provide standard solution in one particular location with


little or no choice in terms of price, repayment conditions and size, and these, at best match

the priorities of only a few poor individuals or households. Detailed studies should be done

in every city to understand the shelter problems of the poor. Proper attention should be

paid to the root cause of the problem. He told us that question of the housing is related to

more general society problems like poverty and employment. At last he said that

government should understand the problem and the allocation of the resources should be

equitable.

Pallav Mukherjee (a well known architect and ex-

Nominated Councillor of the City). There are no clearly set,

transparent and accountable procedures in place – either for

works execution or accounting. In fact the audit systems –

both fiscal and performance audits are either missing or

woefully inadequate. There is no SOP which has been

approved by the people – and most systems are based on

self-serving designs by the operating clerks and officials

themselves. There are bottle-necks at every step – with a

hungry clerical mouth to be fed for anything positive to

happen. The rank of India in corruption index is amongst the highest. Even the World Bank

has indicted India in its corrupt methods of work allocation for its infra-structure and

highway projects.

He said that only 20% people in any city get benefit from the government budgets. He said

that there is absence of micro-audit and public feedback in the governance system in

India. Most projects fail in India because they are designed to self-destruct. Roads break up

within months of their laying, or re-carpeting, buildings crumble or require extensive

repair and rehabilitation, street lights more often than not – are on the blink, and the

municipal engineers would love to see the city as a perpetual ongoing huge construction

site. Social Housing – ie. Housing for the urban poor, are typically usurped by the people in

power, or sold/allocated at a price by controlling politicians. The Booth Allotment scam has

been unearthed by the same Administration which allotted them. The houses which are


given to the poor people in India are sold by them (typically benami) or are given away on

rent because of their higher prices. Then these poor people shift to another slum area. The

best example are the J.J. Colonies in Delhi – where the puny plots allotted were sold out at

very high prices to now house up-market cars like Mercedes Benzes.

Management processes have undergone sea change and up-gradation in the private sector,

but the govt. sector seems to lag way behind. Whether this is by design or lack of ability is

your call. Not a single city government has put into place automated data collection,

collation and processing into place, and making city governance people friendly seems

to the last thing anybody wants. MIS systems such as Oracle or other computer based

software are for the books only – as far as the city fathers would like to believe. And that

too is a result of the system of Election of City Councillors – where votes are more the result

of money power or the backing of a political party – in spite of there being a stipulation that

political parties are not to enter the fray. When one spends crores of rupees to get elected –

well there goes any clean and transparent mechanism for the planning and expenditure of

city projects. Especially when the Councillors who take multi-billion rupee decisions are

paid peanuts – much less than their sarkari peons, drivers and sweepers – for their

KNOWLEDGE, MANAGEMENT SKILLS, RESPONSIBILITY, DECISION MAKING CAPABILITY

AND DUE HARD WORK & DILIGENCE. The system is designed to fail – and throw up the

scum, because no sane, honest and diligent professional will throw his hat into the dirty

political arena for the peanuts that is officially paid as remuneration.

Arshinder Kaur (President and Founder, Eco and Agro Resource Management): The Urban

poor in Chandigarh irrespective of any gender travel

through the city either by walking or on the bicycles.

Cycle tracks have been laid in the city, however they

don't serve the purpose of cycle tracks, majorly

because they serve as a source of garbage collection or

it’s throwing. These cycle tracks are now examples of

liability instead of serving as investments. Accidents

observed in the past indicate that major of these accidents have been of cyclists that


belonged to the poor class living in the economically weaker sections of the city. It is time

that safer cycle tracks are developed in the city with proper and functional traffic signals

and signage both pictorially and in the vernacular. This does exist in a few parts of the city

however primarily limited with the need of making it functional where economically

weaker section rehabilitation colonies exist and in sectors such as 38 West, Daddu Majra,

Maloya, Burail, colony nos. 4&5, both the Industrial areas where heavy vehicular traffic

density exists. Mostly one observes that students of poor urban houses who go to school

living in villages of Kajheri and other colonies are trapped in heavy vehicular traffic

congestion on their bicycles among buses arriving from Sector 43 ISBT during school going

and leaving hours.

More of concern is the existence of some slum colonies on the peripheries of Chandigarh

and Mohali, which are along the exits of sewerage water of Chandigarh where diseases like

malaria are prevalent. These surroundings can be made better by rehabilitating the

margins of the sewerage water canals with trees that have the potential to absorb and grow

in these sewerage water rich conditions. The urban poor use more public transport such as

buses from Sector 43 for their long distance travelling and their major means of local

transport from the place/colony they reside to the bus station/bus stands is their bicycle.

Experience has shown that there are no safe bicycles parking stands for the people who

need to park their bicycles in order to travel by bus to distances outside Chandigarh

periphery. In this perspective, it shall also be a good investment, if cycle parking’s to adjust

at least 10-15 bicycles could be facilitated along the new bus stops being made or

rehabilitated in the southern sectors of Chandigarh.


CHAPTER 7 CONCLUSIONS AND STRATEGIES

FOR IMPROVED PLANNING FOR THE URBAN POOR

Elaboration of a balanced and realistic policy in planning and management of urbanization processes is an urgent task for most Asian countries, where the process of spontaneous urban growth have become a serious factor of intensified social tension

Zevelyov (1989)

Chandigarh being a planned city is considered as Mecca for the Town Planners and

Architects. Le- Corbusier promised to provide amenities and facilities to the poorest of the

poor so that they may lead a dignified life. Contrary to, his plan he could adjust only a

fraction of poor that is class IV and other employees only in 13-J and other cheap houses.

Chandigarh, the new city planned and constructed immediately after independence of India

grew with unplanned growth of slum/squatter settlements from the beginning. The slums

with poor housing conditions and services grew due to lack of planning of housing for the

labour who worked during initial construction activities and then other informal activities.

Later the slums were pushed on the periphery of the city.

The local administration had made efforts from time to time to rehabilitate slum dwellers

but slum population continued to multiply. It is only recently the task of planning for the

poor seems to have been taken seriously and at a larger scale to provide housing and basic

services to the poor in Chandigarh. Following critical issues emerging in the context of

master plan of Chandigarh and planning for the urban poor in the context of housing, basic


services and livelihood generation through various policies and practices call attention of

the policy planners:

The urban poor/ labour as were neglected in the plan of Chandigarh particularly

during initial years of construction and development that is during first and second

phase

City has lacked a well- defined policy and area earmarked for inclusive development

of housing for the poor based on realistic population projections of the poor.

There was no legal framework in the city to address the issue of shelter for the poor

in slum areas

Absence of an inclusive strategy and agenda for earmarking the financial resources

to ensure adequate provision of basic amenities such as land, housing, water,

electricity, sanitation to the urban poor

Absence of adequate means of livelihood, employment opportunities and sources of

income for the target group

The population in Chandigarh town is growing rapidly and it is one of the most urbanized

Union Territory in India. Chandigarh is third most populated city of Northwest India after

Ludhiana and Amritsar. With the growth of the urban population of Chandigarh, the area

and density of urban population have increased considerably. Excessive migration in

search of greener pastures, particularly employment opportunities, is due to

industrialization in and around Chandigarh, commercialization and development of

secondary and tertiary sectors of economy. This has given rise to challenges for providing

safe drinking water, sewerage, solid waste management, parking lots, roads, street lights

etc., to the existing as well as the additional population of the city. With inadequacies in

housing stock in built-up parts of the city, migrated population has been encroaching public

land in peripheral sectors and large number of slums had come up in the past. Provision for

adequate urban infrastructure and services to the slum dwellers is an equally challenging

task. The slum areas of Chandigarh have the highest percentage of Scheduled Castes among

all the states/ union territories of India which needs to draw attention of the planners.


Chandigarh has been urbanizing rapidly and slums have grown even faster despite city’s

strong planning control. City has strong economic base but urban poverty is still loom large

and concentrated in slum areas. The urban poor are being forced to settle in peripheral

areas of the city. The exclusion of poor slum dwellers continue to affect the social, economic

and environmental fabric of the city. The development practices adopted by the Local

Government Department of Chandigarh Administration have been pro-rich. It is visible in

the form of inequality in the quality and coverage of urban infrastructure and services in

slum and non slum areas and northern and southern sectors. Majority of the poor people

live in southern sectors particularly in peripheral area and the quality of life in these

sectors is very poor in comparison to the northern sectors, inhabited by higher income

groups.

Housing shortage is acute and it is assuming alarming proportions in Chandigarh despite

initiatives of Chandigarh Administration. With the rapidly escalating prices of plots and

flats, affordable housing is slipping out of the reach of most of the urban poor and low

income groups. The recent boom and extreme co modification of land and housing has

forced the poor to either move towards slums or the villages where housing conditions are

very poor.

Chandigarh Administration has been trying to provide housing to the poor from early years

of the emergence of slums, but its efforts seem to have got momentum during last few

years. To address the problem of housing for the urban poor mainly living in slums

Chandigarh Administration implemented Slum Rehabilitation Project under Chandigarh

Small Flats Scheme 2006 under BSUP of JNNURM. Project aims at providing hygienic and

better living conditions and housing to the slum dwellers identified through a Bio-Metric

Survey. Housing works started at eight sites for rehabilitation of slum dwellers and

possession to the slum dwellers has been given at three places. Earlier beneficiaries

encashed the subsidy by selling of the unit and returned again to the slums. Now all

allotments are done on affordable monthly license fee basis, with the option of owning the

house only after twenty years. Chandigarh has been given two awards under JNNURM

namely ‘Best City in Earmarking of Land for the Poor’ in December 2009 and ‘Best City for


best Planned Habitat for Urban Poor’ in December 2010. Although field observation and

views of the beneficiaries of newly developed rehabilitated colonies under Chandigarh

Small Flats Scheme 2006 highlights that:

1. The poor were not involved in preparation of plan and design of the house units for

them.

2. The needs of urban poor were not considered while designing the housing unit.

3. Infrastructural inadequacies within and outside the housing units.

4. Use of poor quality material in construction of the houses.

5. Spatial/physical planning is not in tune with the specific requirements of the

residents.

6. Maintenance of the units and upkeep of the infrastructure is not taken seriously.

7. Poor sanitation, sewerage/ drainage systems seem to pose problem regarding

health and living condition of residents.

8. No proper course of action in place for checking grievances.

9. All the above mentioned problems, difficulties need to be paid special consideration

while formulating housing policies for the urban poor.

Though the Chandigarh city has the highest per capita income in the country, a section of

population largely those living in slum areas are relatively very poor. The recently

completed projects on urban poverty reduction strategy for the city of Chandigarh show

social and human deprivation in the city in terms of housing conditions, basic amenities

and civic services and most importantly livelihood options. Although urban poverty ratio

has declined but multiple challenges associated with fast growth of urban population are

crucial challenges. To tackle these problems of inadequate livelihood/ employment

opportunities, the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation has been taking certain initiatives

under Swaran Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY). The financial inclusion is being

promoted through CDS system. In addition to the vocational training self employment

subsidies and loans have been provided to large number of people. Chandigarh has started

taking lead in urban poverty alleviation programme but still a long way to go as poor

continue to flock the city in search of green pastures. More resources and strong


Plate 25: Schemes and Programmes under MoHUPA

institutional mechanism is required to scale up the urban poverty alleviation programme in

Chandigarh.

There is a need to upscale the efforts towards planning housing and poverty alleviation

activities for the up liftmen of the urban poor. More inclusive measures need to be taken for

well being of the urban poor living in highly deplorable conditions in slums. More intensive

efforts are needed to bring in people in mainstream urban society from segregated and

isolated human settlements. In the past local administration has been apathetic to the

housing, basic services, livelihood and employment needs of the slum dwellers, but some

recent initiatives with help of Central Government towards housing and urban poverty

alleviation are quite impressive.

The housing for the poor may

be planned by involving the

urban poor in planning the

same. The choices and voices

of the poor in planning the

location of the rehabilitation

project should be heard. The

design of the house, number

of rooms may be provided on

the basis of actual

requirement of the families

after a proper need

assessment survey.

Maintenance and upkeep of

the infrastructure and services created is crucial for higher satisfaction of the beneficiaries.

Chandigarh must have a strong poverty reduction strategy which should be revised

regularly. The CDP needs to be upgraded with more inputs on planning for the poor. It is

hoped that New Master Plan will come out with the rational policy framework and realistic


Plate 26: A Convergence Model

options for housing of the poor in order to eliminate the growth of slums in the city. The

effective implementation of various schemes of Ministry of Housing and Urban Alleviation

may help the Chandigarh Administration to tackle the multiple dimensions of poverty such

as housing, basic services and livelihood etc.

The learning from best practices in poverty alleviation initiatives such as Kudumbashree–

Kerala; AP Urban Services to the Poor (Municipal Action Plan for Poverty Reduction-

Andhra Pradesh); Ashray Nidhi or Shelter Fund (Madhya Pradesh); Self-Employed

Women’s Association (SEWA), Ahemdabad; Slum Networking Project of Ahmedabad; Rajiv

griha kalpa project for good quality housing for lower income groups (Andhra Pradesh);

The Society for the promotion of area resource centre (SPARC) for providing housing and

infrastructure to the urban poor (Mumbai); Access to water for the urban poor (Andhra

Pradesh); Indore habitat improvement project for providing adequate shelter and services

(Madhya Pradesh); Slum networking project through mobilization of internal resources

(Baroda) will be useful for Chandigarh Administration to improve the effectiveness of its

planning for the poor including women and destitutes.

The focus of the Chandigarh

Administration during 12th Five

Year Plan should be on

improvement of overall human

well being and capability

formation of the urban poor. To

achieve this, a comprehensive

integrated and visionary plan

comprising major pro poor thrust

areas of the Plan should be

prepared and given priority. The

Plan should enable convergence

of major schemes and programmes thrusting upon to reduce inequalities regarding

housing, basic services and livelihood. Regulation of migration and land use is necessary


for protection and sustainability of landscape pattern of the city. Community based

participatory planning strategies need to be evolved to address the socio-economic

inequalities. More self employment micro financing schemes should be started for poor

communities with greater participation of women and youths. Pro poor city friendly

sustainable planning and growth aimed at equitable distribution of resources and clear cut

vision for future will help to regenerate the physical, socio-economic and environmental

conditions of the city. Effective implementation of a comprehensive integrated

development plan will certainly help to protect and sustain modern architectural grandeur

of this planned city and maintain and cherish the unique beauty of the city. This will also

help to improve social order by inculcating feelings of equality and sense of security in

underprivileged classes for maintaining harmony, integrity and unity in different sections

of the society.

There is need to augment the level and quality of basic services in slums at par with the non

slum areas. The local government may prepare a separate policy for basic services for the

urban poor in conformity with the sub-mission on BSUP and RAY. Separate earmarking of

funds in municipal budgets for basic services to the urban poor is must to take up the cause

of development of slums. Changes are required in existing pricing policy for water supply,

sewerage, garbage collection and other basic services to cross subsidize the urban poor.

There is a need of greater institutional collaboration for adequate provision of basic

services in slums. Increase municipal expenditure on water supply, sewerage, solid waste

management, streets, street lights to be provided in slum areas. The neighbourhood

sanitation scheme can be launched in slum areas to improve the sanitary conditions in

participatory manner. The industrial and business houses can be sensitized to adopt slums

and provide adequate basic services in those slums. A city level policy for upgrading

coverage and quality of basic services for urban poor in a time bound manner can help to

address the multiple concerns of the poor.


REFERENCES

Biometric Survey of Colonies (2006), Estate Office, UT Chandigarh

CRRID (1999), Report on Baseline Socio-economic Survey of Unauthorized and Rehabilitated

Colonies of Chandigarh, submitted to the UT Administrator, Chandigarh (unpublished),

Chandigarh: CRRID

Census of India (2001), Chandigarh, Series 5, Provisional Population Totals, Rural Urban

Distribution, Paper-2 of 2001, Directorate of Census Operations, Chandigarh

Census of India (1991), District Census Handbook, Chandigarh, Series 28, Directorate of

Census Operations, Chandigarh

Census of India (1951, 1961, 1971, 1981, 1991, 2001 and 2011), Registrar General, Census

Operations.

Dear, Michael and Scott, Allen J. (Eds) (1981), Urbanization and Urban Planning in Capitalist

Society. New York: Mwthuen & Co. Ltd.

D’Souza, V S (1989), Forward to R S Sandhu’s, The City and Its Slums, G N D University

Press, Amritsar.

Davidge, W. R. (1909-1910), ‘Town Planning Systems’, The Surveyors' Institution

Transactions, 42: 31-63.

Economic Survey (2000-01), Poverty Alleviation, Government of Punjab, Chandigarh.

Gupta, JP and Teotia, Manoj kumar (2004), Innovative Municipal Management for

Mobilization of Financial Resources and Up gradation of Environmental Infrastructure (A


case study of Chandigarh Municipal Corporation), an unpublished report submitted to

NIUA under FIRE (D) project of USAID, CRRID, Chandigarh.

Gore, M.S. (1971), ‘Urban Planning and Some Questions of Social Policy’. Economic and

Political Weekly 6:1619-25.

Gill, Rajesh (2003), ‘Planning Urban Settlements for People: A Social Agenda’, Urban India,

1:39-49.

Howe, Frederic C.(1912), ‘The City as a Socializing Agency: The Physical Basis of the City: The

City Plan’, American Journal of Sociology, 17:590-601.

Kalia, Ravi (1987), Chandigarh: The Making of an Indian City, Oxford University press

Krishan, Gopal (1999), Inner spaces- Outer Spaces of a Planned City A Thematic Atlas of

Chandigarh, celebrating Chandigarh

National Buildings Organization (2010), Urbanisation and Poverty in India: A Statistical Compendium, Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Government of India

National Institute of Urban Affairs (1988), State of India’s Urbanization, NIUA, New Delhi.

National Urban Housing and Habitat Policy (2007), Ministry of Urban Development,

Government of India, New Delhi

Pathak, Vidyadhar K. (2003), ‘Improving Urban Planning and Decision Making Process’, in

National Workshop on Municipal Reforms for Good Urban Governance, New Delhi: National

Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP),

July 16-17, 2003


Report of the National Commission on Urbanization (1988), Ministry of Urban Development,

Government of India.

Roweis, Shoukry T. (1981), ‘Urban Planning in early and late Capitalist Societies: Outline of a

Theoretical Perspective’, in Michael Dear and Allen J. Scott (Eds) Urbanization and Urban

Planning in Capitalist Society. New York : Mwthuen & Co. Ltd.

Rabeiro, E F N (1982), ‘Planning for the Urban Poor: Basic Needs and Priorities’, in Social

Action, 32 (2), April-June, pp. 127-150.

Report of the National sample Survey Organization in India (2008-09).

Report of the Task Force on Urban Governance and Financing (2001), New Delhi: Ministry of

Urban Development, Government of India (referred as TFUGF).

Sachdeva, Pardeep (2000), Urban Local government and Administration in India, New Delhi,

Kitab Mahal

Sandhu, Ravinder Singh (1989), The City and Its Slums: A Sociological Study. Amritsar: Guru

Nanak Dev University.

Sarin, Madhu (1982), Urban Planning in the third world The Chandigarh Experience

Alexandrine Press, oxford

Sivaramakrishnan, K. C. and Singh, B. N. (2004), ‘Urbanization’ in Sinha, R. K. (Ed) India

2025: Social, Economic and Political Stability. New Delhi: Shipra Publications. pp 146-176.

Sandhu, Ranvinder Singh (2003), ‘Introduction’, in Ranvinder Singh Sandhu (ed)

Urbanisation in India: Sociological Contributions. New Delhi: Sage Publications. Pp 23-46

Teotia, Manoj Kumar (2007a), Strengthening and Sustaining Vitality of Urban Areas: A Case

of Northwest India, in: Sociological Bulletin, January- March 2007.


Teotia, Manoj Kumar et al (2007b), Urban Poverty Profile for the city of Chandigarh (UT,

India) submitted to the AIILSG, Mumbai.

Teotia, Manoj Kumar (2003), Urban Regeneration through Environmental Revitalization in

Rehabilitated Colonies of Chandigarh: A Case study of Ramdarbar, an Unpublished report:

CRRID.

Teotia, Manoj Kumar (2002), ‘Preventing Pauperization of UT’, February 25, The Hindustan

Times, Chandigarh

United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (UNCHS) (1996), An Urbanizing World: Global

Report on Human Settlements. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

World Bank (2000), Cities in Transition: World Bank Urban and Local Government Strategy,

World Bank: Washington DC

World Bank (2001), World Development Report 2000/2001: Attacking Poverty, New York:

Oxford University Press.

Zevelyov, Igor (1989), Urbanization and Development in Asia, translated from the Russian by

Margaret Webley, Progress Publishers, Moscow.

Websites:

Website of Chandigarh Administration, Municipal Corporation and Chandigarh Housing

Board (http//chandigarh.nic.in/)

Website of Google Earth (http.//googleearth.com/)

India Urban Portal, Best Practices

(http://www.indiaurbanportal.in/BestPracticesResult.aspx?Type=4)


Acts:

The 74th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992

The Development & Regulation Act, 1952

The Slums Areas (Improvement and Clearance) Act, 1956

The Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act, 1976

Guidelines:

Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM)-jnnurm.nic.in/

Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rojgar Yojana (SJSRY)-http://mhupa.gov.in/pdf/guidelines-

scheme/urbanemp-povallev/Swarna%20Jayanti/ReGuidelinesSJSRY.pdf

Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY)-http://mhupa.gov.in/pdf/guidelines-scheme/urbanemp-

povallev/Swarna%20Jayanti/ReGuidelinesSJSRY.pdf

Other references/ reading material

Chandigarh Housing Board (2006), Slum Rehabilitation Construction of 6368 small flats,

detailed project report for grant Under JNNURM, CHB Chandigarh

City Development Plan Chandigarh submitted by Finance Secretary, Chandigarh

Administration under the JNNURM, Ministry of Urban Development, GOI

Chandigarh Housing Board (2009), Rebuilding Lives, Chandigarh


Dwivedi, Rishi Muni (2007), Urban development and housing situation in India from 1947-

2007

Duggal, Bindu (2010), Chandigarh Slums: Issues of Poverty and Human Rights, CRRID:

Chandigarh.

Joshi, Ravikant (2009), “Evaluation of Demand and Reform Based Centrally Sponsored

Programmes” India Infrastructure Report 2008, New Delhi: Oxford University Press

Mishra, S. N. (2005), Poverty and its Alleviation, Deep and deep publications, New Delhi

Ministry of Urban Development, (2007-08), Annual Report, New Delhi, Government of India

Publication

Ministry of Urban Development (2006), Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission:

Modified Guidelines, New Delhi, Government of India Publication

Mengers, Harry A. (1998), Urban Development in the State Karnataka, India: Policies, Actors

and Outcome,(Nijmegen Studies in Development and Cultural Change, vol 27),Frensdorf:

Printshop

Mid Term Appraisal of the Eleventh Five Year Plan of Chandigarh (CRRID 2010)

Planning Commission (2007- 2012), Government of India, Eleventh five year plan

Thompson, W.S (1935), Urbanization in Encyclopedia of Social Sciences, Vol. XV, Macmillan

The Mckinsey Global Institute (MGI) (2010), India’s Urban Awakening: Building Inclusive

Cities, Sustaining Economic Growth, The Mckinsey & Company April 2010

(http://www.mckinsey.com/mgi/reports/freepass_pdfs/india_urbanization/MGI_india_ur

banization_fullreport.pdf).

http://www.mckinsey.com/mgi/reports/freepass_pdfs/india_urbanization/MGI_india_urbanization_fullreport.pdf

http://www.mckinsey.com/mgi/reports/freepass_pdfs/india_urbanization/MGI_india_urbanization_fullreport.pdf


The High Powered Expert Committee (HPEC) for Estimating the Investment Requirements

for Urban Infrastructure Services, March 2011, Ministry of Urban Development (referred as

HPEC)

Deaton, Angus and Dreze, Jean (2002), ‘Poverty and Inequality in India: A Reexamination’,

EPW 37 (36) September 7-13, 2002

Hanumappa, H G (1991), Urban Poverty. Jaipur: Printwell

Mehta, Rekha and Santosh Bhandari (2005), ‘Poverty in Asia: Trends, Issues and Policies’, in

K Nageswara Rao (ed) Poverty in India: Global and Regional Dimensions. New Delhi: Depp

& Deep Publications Pvt Ltd. pp 50-66.

Planning Commission (2002), Report of the Committee on India Vision 2020. New Delhi:

Planning Commission

Poverty (http://www.indianngos.com/statistics/poverty.htm).

Ribeiro, EFN and Khosla, Renu (2006) Urban Spaces and the Poor (www.

Janaagraha.org/indiausp/Final_Paper.doc)

Sen, Amartya (1999), Development as Freedom, New York: Knopf, and Oxford: Oxford

University Press.

Teotia, Manoj Kumar (2007), Urban Poverty Reduction Strategy for the City of Ludhiana and

Ambala, submitted to NIUA, New Delhi under UNDP-GOI project on preparation of National

Strategy for the Urban Poverty Reduction.

http://www.indianngos.com/statistics/poverty.htm

planning for the urban poor in northwestern india: emerging

Documents