This document provides information on the evolution of the Housing and Urban Policy in India since the 1950s, which was the beginning of urbanisation and migration of people from rural to urban areas. Urbanisation was then perceived negatively as a drain of resources to feed the population from cities and the contribution of cities in the economic development of the country was not appreciated.
The document describes how the policy evolved from the First Plan in (1951-1956) to the Eighth Plan in (1992-97), which for the first time explicitly recognised the role and importance of urban sector for the national economy.
The Plan identified the key issues in the emerging urban scenario that included:
- The widening gap between demand and supply of infrastructural services badly hitting the poor, whose access to the basic services like drinking water, sanitation, education and basic health services was shrinking
- Unabated growth of urban population aggravating the accumulated backlog of housing shortages, resulting in proliferation of slums and squatter settlement and decay of city environment
- High incidence of marginal employment and urban poverty as reflected in NSS 43rd round that indicated that 41.8 million urban people lived below the poverty line.
The response of the Plan to this scenario was the launching of Urban Poverty and Alleviation Programme of Nehru Rojgar Yojana (NRY).
The original document can be viewed here on the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (Government of India) website.
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