Livability in Urban India: Plan versus Reality

Abstract

One of the most persistent problem that the world is facing today is to provide adequate and affordable housing to all. Over the years, countries have tried various methods in terms of policies, standards, construction methods and techniques, financial models, subsidy, technologies etc.but there is hardly any improvement in quality, quantity or affordability of housing for poor. None of the approaches has been able to bridge the gap between demand and supply or slow down the slum growth rate. This has actually created a paradoxical situation: whereinat one end of the spectrum there is a hugehousing shortage but on the other end millions of housing units are lying vacant! This indicates that the supply market has not taken into consideration the people’s willingness to pay or ability to pay. The willingness/ability to pay (affordability) is based on consumers/beneficiaries perceived value of property, which leads to the livability index.

Therefore, tohave a meaningful solution towards affordable housing one must look into the livability dimension before supplying the affordable housing. When the livability factors (enablement factors) are included in the affordability measures, the supply mechanism will be able to match the demand.However,in the various resettlement and in-situ projects one observes that the planning and designing are based on the standards and professionals understanding of livability which most of the times do not match with the users’ perception of livability. This difference in the conception of the project by the professionals and user perception leads to the malfunctions of the planned design elements and creates disruption in the enablement of the community. This leads to poor livability standards affecting the value of the projectthus the affordability (people’s willingness to pay).

The focus of this research paper, therefore, is to understand the level of difference in perception by the professional and inhabitants by studying an in-situ slum development project and a resettlement project from Kerala based on various livability attributes derived from the social, cultural, economic, environmental, political and institutional framework. For assessment, a simple random sampling without replacement of 219 households from above mentioned residential projects was done in both qualitative and quantitative manner.This detailed study when carried out by studying and understanding the people’s behaviors, perception&aspirations through observation, activity mapping, surveys and interview helped in identifying the livability parameters that facilitatedthecommunity in their enablement and factors that deprived them from attaining higher livability standards. The analysis highlights the difference in livabilityperception of inhabitants and the professionals. The paper concludes by proposing a livability index model that could be used at the initial stage of the planning and designing for a successful implementation of affordable housing schemes to improve the affordable housing outcome.