Affordable houses: survey puts onus on government

Housing topped the list of priorities for vast majority of the people with education and healthcare coming a close second. Around 65 per cent of the people surveyed were emphatic about the fact that the city has no affordable housing. This,despite the fact that most of those surveyed have in fact been living in Mumbai since their birth. Around 18 per cent of those surveyed had no bathing area while 44 per cent had no access to even public bathing area; similarly 32 per cent had no toilets at home while 27 per cent had no access to public toilets.

“Since the last census of 2001,the numbers of people living in informal housing i.e. slums has grown by 21per cent to 8.89 million. The demand supply deficit of formal housing is 1.02 lakh units in Mumbai. Our survey shows that most people want heavy state intervention after the current policy of leaving housing to private players failed miserably,” said Pankaj Joshi,executive director or UDRI. He said the trend has been more evident post nineties wherein the state moved out of the provision of housing almost entirely leading to a sudden spike in slum settlements.

Joshi pointed out that even though the average density of Mumbai is 32.750 people per sq km,the density in certain areas like C ward (Kalbadevi,Bhuleshwar) is as high as 1.02 lakh people per sq kms. “This is amongst the highest in the world and ironically these are the areas where the government is adding more people by giving additional FSI for cluster redevelopment of cessed structures,” he said.

The BMC has already started the exercise of drafting the new Development Plan,which once ready in 2014,will dictate the way Mumbai is shaped over the next two decades and will serve as a blueprint for Mumbai’s land use for essential amenities. The draft DP will be put in the public domain for two months for suggestions and objections in 2013. Joshi said that the limited time given to public opinion will reduce the entire exercise to sheer tokenism. He added that once the UDRI survey for the remaining 14 wards is complete,the results will be forwarded to the chief minister and municipal commissioner.

Last year,ex commissioners DM Sukhtankar,Jamshed Kanga and Sharad Kale has written a letter to the BMC commissioner stating that all stakeholders in the city should be involved in the DP drafting process right from the inception so that it is “truly a democratic plan,of and for the people,to be able to fulfill their current and future needs as well as their aspirations.”