Livability assessment of public housing for slum dwellers

Abstract

Urban Poverty is seen as a global issue today, especially in third world countries like India, where concentration of poverty-stricken population in cities is high. This phenomenon can be physically seen in the slums and informal settlements of those cities. As per Census 2011, the population living in these slums contributed 17.4% of entire urban population and there has been a 30.8% rise in urban slum population since 2001. To combat the challenge of slum proliferation and its implications, several initiatives have been taken by the government such as poverty alleviation and slum upgradation and redevelopment programmes and policies. These initiatives include approaches from community mobilization to construction of public housing for slum dwellers. Programmes and missions like Basic Services for Urban Poor under JnNURM, Rajiv Awas Yojana and recently launched Prdhan Mantri Awas Yojana have upgraded and redeveloped a number of slums across states, but surprisingly, out of 10,32,443 dwelling units constructed under them till date, 2,38,448 are still lying vacant (MoHUPA, 2016). The reasons cited for such high percentage of vacancy were reluctance of slum dwellers to shift in cases of relocation projects and/ or lack of or incomplete basic infrastructure and livelihood sources etc. This revelation has raised a distressing question over the livability of public housings that are being provided to urban poor. This study focuses on the same question as how acceptable these public housings are for the population for whom they are being constructed. The study seeks to review and assess every dimension and aspect that contributes in making a public housing a livable place. “Livability”, is a term that is usually used to define the quality of life. It refers to the state of living environment, which must offer an acceptable quality of life to the inhabitants of a particular locale (R Pandey, 2014). As the perception of livability varies with the profile of habitants, it tends to differ with contexts and cannot be generalized. Thus, to define the factors responsible for livability of public housings for slum dwellers in India, this study had to involve the beneficiaries in order to identify them. By defining the livability factors and formulating a framework to assess the livability of the site, a livability assessment tool, as an outcome can be used like a feedback mechanism for developing future housing policies in a better way. Hence, the aim of the study is to identify the livability factors as perceived by the occupants of public housings for slum dwellers and use them for assessing the livability. This aim is to be achieved through three objectives. The first objective is to identify livability factors and their indicators based on literature review, beneficiary perception and expert opinion. In the second objective, the identified livability factors and their indicators are used to assess the livability of selected public housings constructed for slum dwellers under a policy or programme. And finally, in third objective, recommendations to enhance the livability of assessed public housings and a livability assessment framework are proposed. The study is conducted in selected public housing projects constructed for slum dwellers in the city of Nagpur based on different typologies. Also, formulated livability assessment framework is in context to the public housings for slum dwellers in tier II cities only. Nagpur, being the city having as high as 35% of its total population residing in slums (Census, 2011), is selected for the study, where a number of public housing projects for resettling slum dwellers are being proposed as well as implemented. The three criteria to select public housings were, in-situ or relocation project; apartment or plotted development; and project before 2005 or after 2005. Based on these selection criteria, four public housings in the city were chosen, three out of them under Basic Services for Slum Dwellers (BSUP), and one under Valmiki Ambedkar Malin Basti Awas Yojana (VAMBAY). To achieve the first objective of identifying livability factors and their indicators, a comprehensive list of all possible livability factors is prepared from literature review, case studies and best practices. A total of nine case studies have been referred to, in which one was the international standards framed by UN-HABITAT for adequate housing, two case studies were from the developed countries of UK and Australia, two from the developing countries, Nigeria and Malaysia and four cases from India. The factors are then validated in context to public housings for slum dwellers through beneficiary perception survey, with a sample size of 150 residents conducted in the selected public housing projects as well as from experts. In this, identified livability factors were asked to be rated based on their level of importance in a housing as per the perception of the beneficiaries and the experts. After the finalization of the livability factors for public housing; indicators and scoring system to measure them are outlined through further review of literature and case studies. As a result, a list of 132 indicators are grouped under 26 selected livability factors and accordingly a scoring system is formulated. According to the scoring system, each indicator has 1 point, forming a total of 132 points scores. The number of applicable indicators for a particular factor varies with the typology of public housing available in slum settlements undertaken for the study. After assigning scores to each indicator based on their availability and coverage, the total score for each factor are to be brought down to same units. The total score of each factor is then normalized so that for all 26 factors the awarded score is out of 1, thus bringing all the livability factors to a comparable scale. As the number of factors were 26, after normalization, each factor gets a maximum score of one and the overall total livability is scored out of 26 points. In the second objective, to assess the livability of the selected public housings, a number of surveys such as sample surveys, interviews, focussed group discussion, photo-documentation, mapping, etc. were conducted to measure each indicator and score it likewise. Post assessment surveys and scoring, an insitu apartment project under BSUP scored highest livability points (20.01/ 26) and a relocation apartment project under VAMBAY scored lowest livability points (12.38/ 26). This was followed by a comparative analysis of livability of each selected housing, reasoning exactly in which factor each of the housing lacked and what were their positive achievements. The final objective was to put forward recommendations to enhance livability of each type of public housing and a proposal of a livability assessment framework for the target group. The proposed livability assessment framework would allow both public authorities and private developers to conduct livability assessments of constructed public housings for slum dwellers under any programme or policy and create a feedback report focusing on all the livability factors that are lacking and factors that are well-achieved. This feedback system would help policy makers to frame future policies in consideration to the perception of the target group for whom it is formulated and hence, would more likely be acceptable and successful.