In 1985, the United Nations designated the first Monday of October every year as ‘World Habitat Day’ with the objective to reflect on the state of our towns and cities and the basic right of all to adequate shelter. It is also intended to remind the world of its collective responsibility for the future of the human habitat. Each year, World Habitat Day takes on a new theme to bring attention to UN-Habitat’s mandate to promote sustainable development policies that ensure adequate shelter for all. The theme for World Habitat Day, 2nd October 2017, is ‘Housing Policies: Affordable Homes’. This World Habitat Day will focus on promoting all levels of government and all relevant stakeholders to reflect on how to implement concrete initiatives to ensure adequate and affordable housing in the context of the implementation of the New Urban Agenda at all levels, as well as the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. The day also marks the official start of Urban October, a month of celebrations and citizens’ engagement in the urban life worldwide. In his message for the occasion, UN-Habitat Executive Director, Dr. Joan Clos highlights that an analysis of housing affordability over the last 20 years reveals that despite increasing demand, housing -and rental housing- has been largely unaffordable for the majority of the world population. He reminds that housing was at the epicentre of the eruption of the global economic crisis of 2008, instead of being at the heart of the urban policy. He also points out that today, 1.6 billion people live in inadequate housing, of which 1 billion live in slums and informal settlements, and while millions of people lack suitable homes, the stock of vacant houses is gradually increasing. Ensuring housing affordability is therefore a complex issue of strategic importance for development, social peace and equality, the UN official stresses. In the local context, Nagaland has not been immune to population growth in urban and sub-urban towns. There has been a paradigm shift in the trend of urbanization with the urban population expanding over the years, thereby the problem of oversaturation of decent dwellings. The state government has roped in various flagship programmes from the Centre targeted to provide housing for the urban poor and marginalized sections, such as the Jawarharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), National Urban Livelihoods Mission(NULM), and Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Housing for All (Urban) among others. But whether the projects are properly implemented and monitored, and whether they reach(ed) targeted beneficiaries are some questions that surround these programmes as with any other government programmes. To cite an instance why, under the JNNRUM housing scheme, a sprawling complex consisting of several buildings with 700 plus “low-cost” dwellings units have been constructed in the outskirts of Kohima at K Badze, near BSF Camp. Sadly, the said project has been mired with a number of controversies, from misuse of fund to nepotism in selection of beneficiaries and ineligible beneficiaries, to name a few. It was reported that while the criteria for one to avail the dwelling unit is that he/she should have a monthly income below Rs.5000, a large number of ‘beneficiaries’ whose monthly incomes exceeded the prescribed average were listed for booking of the housing units and those who are eligible have no idea that such facilities exist for them. As per records, Kohima alone has more than 8000 people living under BPL (below poverty line). The question here is, how many of these people who are genuinely living BPL are actually know of, or availing, the programmes that are meant for them? What we have briefly highlighted here is just about one project. What about the others? The people who are in power- politicians, bureaucrats, government employees and public leaders- need to know that they, along with the Central government, would be failing the people as well as the project itself, if they are not accessed by genuine beneficiaries. Selection of beneficiaries for any scheme meant for any marginalized community, in a nepotism-smeared state like Nagaland, will always remain a challenge, however, the state government must pull up its sleeves, root out fake beneficiaries and strictly adhere to the conditions prerequisite for a specific scheme. That is, if we are to uphold the UN’s call to ensure adequate and affordable housing for the marginalized. And also, if we have any humanity or integrity left in us.
