X

Housing the Poor

Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.

Majority of Indians have per capita space equivalent to or less than a 10 feet x 10 feet room for their living, sleeping, cooking, washing and toilet needs. The average is 103 sq ft per person in rural areas and 117 sq ft per person in urban areas.

Almost 1 billion people, or 32 per cent of the world’s urban population, live in slums, the majority of them in the developing world. Moreover, the locus of global poverty is moving to the cities, a process now recognized as the ‘urbanization of poverty’. Without concerted action on the part of municipal authorities, national governments, civil society actors and the international community, the number of slum dwellers is likely to increase in most developing countries. If no serious action is taken, the number of slum dwellers worldwide is projected to rise over the next 30 years to about 2 billion. In the United Nations Millennium Declaration, world leaders pledged to tackle this immense challenge, setting the specific goal of achieving ‘significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by the year 2020’. This means addressing not only the needs of slum dwellers for shelter, but also the broader problem of urban poverty, especially unemployment, low incomes and a lack of access to basic urban services.

Safe, affordable housing is a basic necessity for every family. Without a decent place to live, people cannot be productive members of society, children cannot learn and families cannot thrive. Until the housing crisis is remedied, other social problems will be inadequately addressed. Families will continue to lose the battle against crime, poor education, inadequate nutrition, decaying neighborhoods, insufficient health care and welfare dependency. The worlds largest democracy, India has seen rapid economic growth and made progress toward achieving most of the Millennium Development Goals. But poverty remains a major challenge though it is declining steadily but slowly. Government and World Bank data showed the national poverty rate has fallen from 37 percent in 2005 to about 32 percent in 2010. Most poor people live in the rural areas ,towns and cities, according to the World Bank. India faces a housing shortage of nearly 74 million housing units by the end of 2011, according to the National Housing Bank, the countrys state-owned lender to home-mortgage. The majority of the housing shortfall is in the rural areas. One in every five rural dwellers lives in katcha homes which are structures made of mud, thatch, grass or other non-lasting natural materials. In urban areas, the poor can be found living under bridges, on pavements, train tracks, highways and canals as well as in crowded slums. MTCT helps to turn expectations into reality by transforming lives through the provision of safe, decent and affordable homes. A decent home opens the door to improved health, greater economic opportunities and increased community cohesion. We act as a catalyst for such transformations, often achieving great success by working with like minded partners. The entire communities are also transformed when partners support us by providing power, water and sanitation facilities. MTCT works in partnership with local, grassroots non-government organizations, microfinance institutions and other partners throughout India to provide decent housing. MTCT wishes to charge this and tries to lend helping hand to make one room, one toilet scheme which costs Rs. 50000/- per house. Let us help the pavement dweller getting a new life in this scheme. Support this sections by joining with us.