Secondary Report
Affordable housing as a part of the smart cities mission in Pune

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I.

Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1

II.

Literature Review..................................................................................................... 6
a. Affordable housing and slum redevelopment in a global context ..................... 6
b. Affordable housing and slum redevelopment in India ....................................... 7
c. Affordable housing and slum redevelopment in Pune ....................................... 9

III.

Need Assessment ................................................................................................... 10

IV.

Bibliography .......................................................................................................... 12

Introduction
The term, “smart city” can be rather nebulous when taken by itself; there exists no widely accepted definition (Ministry of Urban Development, 2015, p. 5). The significance of a smart city varies across countries and cities, making it imperative to examine what the name means in the Indian context.
As per the government, a smart city has three major features: a strong infrastructural core that induces high-quality living, a sustainable, clean environment and “smart solutions” (Ministry of Urban Development, 2015, p. 5).
Even this concise description of smart cities seems to depict a highly dense, multi-faceted landscape and thus it perfectly conveys the complexity of a city that is to be considered
“smart”.
Naturally, implementing such an ambitious model for urban development in India would require tackling an endless number of issues. This is why the following report chooses to focus on but one, examinable, component of a smart city; that being, affordable housing.
It can be inferred (and is stated by the government) that affordable housing fits into a smart city as a part of its infrastructural core. More specifically, it is clarified that this provision is aimed, “especially at the poor” (Ministry of Urban Development, 2015, p. 6) prompting us to analyze the meaning of the word “affordable” in this context.
Looking into the criteria suggested for evaluation of smart cities, the government emphasizes that achievements in affordable housing are indicated by slum redevelopment, slum up gradation and provision of housing (Ministry of Urban Development, 2015, p. 33).
It is thus clear that the policies meant to provide affordable housing for the “poor” should mainly focus on the urban poor dwelling in slums.
Although at first glance the meaning of the word “slum” seems clear, in many cases there is only a fine difference between what would be considered a slum and what would not. As such, the actual definition of the term must be agreed upon.

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As per the United Nations, there are five characteristics that define a slum and these are (UN
Habitat, 2016):
1) Insufficient access to water.
2) Insufficient sanitation and infrastructure.
3) Poor housing structures.
4) Overcrowding.
5) Insecure tenure.
Specifically, in the Indian context, the government follows its own, similar (although technically different), definition of a slum.
As per the Slum Area Improvement and Clearance Act, 1956 a slum is as any area with dwellings that are “in any respect unfit for human habitation by reasons of dilapidation, overcrowding, faulty arrangements and designs of such buildings, narrowness or faulty arrangement of streets, lack of ventilation, light, sanitation facilities or any combination of these factors which are detrimental to safety, health and morals.” (Government of India,
2013).
Keeping the above definitions in mind, it seems obvious that having a segment of the population living in slums is detrimental to a nation’s development. Tragically though, the number of slum dwellers in the world has increased by 55,000,000 since the year 2000 (UN
Habitat, 2016) and some sources estimate that up to 2 billion people in the world will be living in slums by 2030 (Eaves, 2007).
Clearly then, policies must be put in place to address this issue and this is where the idea of
“slum upgrading” comes in. In contrast to relocating slums or abolishing them by evicting their residents all together, upgrading slums aims at improving the living conditions in existing slums to better the lives of those who dwell there (Patel, 2013).
However, the smart cities mission as a whole does not solely focus on slum upgrading. As was mentioned, in its emphasis on affordable housing the mission also evaluates states for slum redevelopment or provision of housing in general. Clearly then, the prospect of relocating slums might also be open to a city.
Moreover, the smart cities mission is not the only government scheme that currently wishes to tackle the issue of slums and affordable housing in India; both the Atal Mission for
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Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) and the Housing for All initiative will address this problem. At the same time, officials have stressed that there would some
“convergence” between all of these urban schemes (Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty
Alleviation, 2015).
Taking up the case of Pune in particular, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has stated that the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) is to take on the task of slum redevelopment in the
Aundh-Baner-Balewadi (ABB) region, in association with the Slum Rehabilitation Authority
(SRA).
The SPV would also provide affordable housing to the Economically Weaker Sections
(EWS) of society and individuals that fall into Low Income Groups (LIG) while ensuring adequate skill development, healthcare and education in the ABB area (Pune Municipal
Corporation, 2015).
Having established this background of how affordable housing relates to the smart cities mission, taking up the case of Pune in particular, it seems useful to answer the question
“What can be done to ensure that the goals of slum redevelopment and provision of affordable housing (for the poorer sections of society) in the area of Aundh-Baner-Balewadi,
Pune are addressed as a part of the smart cities mission?”
It is to answer this query that a literature review for the topic of slum redevelopment must be conducted. 3

Literature Review
The following literature review is segregated into three, related parts:


First, the topic is seen in the global context and literature pertaining to slum redevelopment across the international community as a whole, and in specific foreign countries, is reviewed.



Second, literature pertaining to India is considered, in order to see how those global concepts of slum redevelopment are applied in India.



Finally, after having drawn lessons from India and the world, the scope of the review is narrowed down to literature specific to Pune. Going over the current state of the city, the review gives way for the next section to evaluate what concepts lie untested in the case of Pune and where there might be scope for research relevant to the delivery of affordable housing for the poor via the smart cities mission.

Within the above framework, this section attempts to overview past literature in a conceptcentric manner as per the recommendations of Webster & Watson (2002).

Affordable housing and slum redevelopment in a global context
In the year 2050, nearly 70 percent of the world is expected to be living in urban environments; Asia itself is projected to have to accommodate 120,000 persons into its cities each day, which requires roughly 20,000 housing units, per day (Habitat for Humanity, 2014,
p. 8) naturally, this huge increase in the urban population across the continent will inevitably lead to a rise in number of slums.
Clearly then the problem of slum redevelopment is one that extends far beyond India or any one country for that matter; as such, it is important to go over literature concerning international organizations and foreign nations in order to take into account recommendations and evaluations of policies from across the globe.
There is a far-reaching consensus that policies aimed at improving the basic infrastructure in slums are absolutely necessary for their redevelopment. Improvements in infrastructure here include the betterment of access to sanitation, water, durable housing and sufficient space to live along with secure land tenure; essentially, addressing all of the factors that define a slum
(Sheuya, 2008; Majale, 2008; Field & Kremer, 2006).
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The most complicated of these needs is that of land tenure. Minnery, Winarso, Argo, Hao,
Veneracion, Forbes & Childs, I. (2013) suggest that this issue of securing legal land ownership can be especially hard to overcome in more centralized states with complicated regulations regarding personal property, as was the case in Hanoi, Vietnam.
The Habitat for Humanity (2014) notes that developing countries usually feature land tenure in terms of unofficial recognition as opposed to any official legal standing, limiting access to mortgages and decreasing a dweller’s ability to invest in improving his or her home. Majale
(2008) also emphasizes that a lack of proper tenure is detrimental to slum upgradation since it discourages the inhabitants from improving structures they live in on their own accord, as they fear being evicted. Minnery, et al. (2013) confirm that a lack of land tenure has held back slum upgrading in many South East Asian countries.
With reference to Cambodia, some researchers have claimed that in addition to secure tenure, regulations that feature lofty minimum requirements for housing along with complicated legal processes to go through are also disincentives for slum redevelopment by the poor themselves. This is because too many requirements for building a home undermine the market for cheap, affordable housing and the ability of the poor to incrementally improve their slums legally. Also, long legal procedures in developing countries often lead to the system being run by bribes, which makes legally improving homes too expensive for those in slums (Payne, 2005).
Majale, (2008) proposes that secure tenure would help employment generation for the poor as it strengthens the foundations of small-scale industries based in slums, going on to recommend that the government help support these informal businesses. Similarly, according to Field & Kremer (2006) evidence suggests that an increase in tenure security leads to a boost in employment, although they attribute this to individuals wasting less time protecting their communities and houses.
On the other hand, case studies of South East Asian countries indicate that in many cases, despite improvements in tenure security, there have been no developments that uplift slum dwellers out of poverty (Minnery, et al., 2013).
Sheuya (2008) claims that the delivery of core infrastructural components is a necessary but not sufficient condition for improving the lives of slum dwellers; here, infrastructure is considered “hardware” contrasted by empowerment that acts as “software”. The latter term
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refers to policies that go beyond physical infrastructure and tenure in addressing the problems of slum residents. These “empowerment” policies could focus on skill-based education, strengthening community organizations, microcredit and so on.
Field & Kremer (2006) also suggest that beyond basic requirements, health and education must also be considered as indicators when evaluating the state of slums; the paper even recommends that emphasis be drawn upon non-traditional health indicators (mainly that of mental health) in order to assess the development a slum has undergone.
The need for policies addressing issues beyond basic infrastructure is evident in South East
Asian countries where, despite significant improvements in physical capital, there has not been a significant betterment in the livelihood of slum residents given the under-utilisation of skill-based training and poor microfinance schemes (Minnery, et al., 2013).
Microfinance is heavily emphasized by the Habitat for Humanity (2014) as it is said to help slum residents in incrementally improving their homes. They point to a successful pilot project to provide affordable housing via housing microfinance loans in Tajikistan that worked through making credit available and providing technical assistance to borrowers.
On the other hand, Minnery, et al. (2013) point to the only partial success of micro financing schemes (even that beyond loans specifically for housing) in the Philippines, where repayment rates were very low and only a few of the borrowers used their credit to start up new business ventures.
The much-celebrated Baan Mankong slum upgrading programme in Thailand took a very distinct approach to redeveloping slums by placing a heavy emphasis on slum communities working together for their own betterment, that is, empowering communities to drive the slum upgradation process as opposed to viewing them as nothing more than beneficiaries.
Provision of credit to large groups of people and the usage of collective savings accounts helped finance these communities, allowing them to themselves purchase the tenure they required and upgrade or relocate their slums. It is even suggested that strengthening the power of communities helped prevent individuals from selling their high-value newly acquire legal homes in order to move back to slums (Boonyabancha, 2009). In other instances, successful outcomes have been achieved not necessarily by communities themselves taking the lead but via general participation from a civil society that looks out for the interests of slum dwellers more closely, as was the case in the Philippines (Minnery, et al., 2013)
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Although most sources support the idea of involving slum communities in the process of redevelopment as opposed to taking a top-down approach, Field & Kremer (2006) point to the lack of convincing evidence which can support the claim that directly involving beneficiaries and encouraging local participation leads to better outcomes.
Clearly then, evidence from across the globe suggests that the process of slum upgrading extends beyond the provision of basic infrastructure and land tenure, it also includes policies that work toward better health and education, skill-development, provision of credit or finance and the inclusion of beneficiaries or local communities into the process of upgradation. At the same time, as was illustrated, the success of these “empowerment” policies vary greatly in different contexts and it is difficult to give objective recommendations to countries as to what process they ought to follow for slum redevelopment. As such, it is important to study the case of India in particular, and examine how it fits into this global context.

Affordable housing and slum redevelopment in India
Although most international literature suggests that the idea of slum upgradation extends beyond provision of basic infrastructure, some authors suggest that the luxury of basic infrastructure is not available to all slum dwellers in India, but only to those that are identified, or “notified” by the government; Subbaraman, O’Brien, Shitole, Sawant, Bloom and Patil-Deshmukh (2012), through quantitative and qualitative observations made on a nonnotified slum in Mumbai, claim that the government does not bother to address the basic needs of many slum dwellers. Subbaraman, et al. (2012) emphasize that a weak legal framework has lead to the needs of these slum dwellers being overlooked due to there being no objective criteria to define a “legal” or notified slum, leading to many slums falling under the category of non-notified.
Naturally, legal tenure is uncertain for most of these slum-dwellers however both
Subbaraman, et al. (2012) and Burra (2005), citing the case of Mumbai, argue that demolishing slums has not been effective in India as most residents will only end up rebuilding their dwellings elsewhere. Burra (2005) even suggests that governmnet schemes should not only focus on delivering infrastructural upgrades to those slum residents who have

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secured land lenture, but should also consider the needs of the majority of slum residents as a whole, in order to truly address the problems of slum-dwellers.
Evaluations of government schemes in Ahmedabad confirm that, even in India, securing land tenure encourages slum dwellers to consider upgrading their settlements themselves.
Evidence from the Slum Networking Programme in Gujarat goes on to suggest that, in order to achieve positive results, slum dwellers must be encouraged to act as community and their collective suggestions must be considered by the government when formulating schemes
(Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, 2013). Similarly, observations made by
Patel (2013) on the government’s Basic Services for the Urban Poor (BSUP) programme propose that not actively engaging slum-dwellers in the redevelopment process leads to negative outcomes. The author criticizes the top-down approach taken by the government and how many of the contractors were not accountable to the beneficiaries of the programme, even though the quality of housing they put forth was not in line with the needs of slumdwellers. Interviews conducted with the beneficiaries even highlight how many of them would have preferred to have the funds for the programme directly distributed to themselves, so they could take on the task of incrementally improving their housing on their own as opposed to receiving homes made from the ground up by the contractors.
Interesting models for slum upgrading are presently being implemented in Mumbai and
Gujarat. Both cities use high real-estate prices to their advantage and encourage private contractors to take on the task of re-housing slum dwellers in vertical complexes free of cost, allowing the contractors to use the freed land for their own commercial purposes. Although
Mumbai goes through with these upgrades only after the consent of slum-communities themselves, Gujarat has recently decided to take a more top-down approach (Srinivasan &
Viswanathan, 2014; Nair, 2015), the repurcussions of this are yet to be evaluated.
As a whole, it seems that the Indian government takes a linear, one-dimensional approach to slum upgradation, mainly focusing on providing slum dwellers with basic infrastructure and housing. In order to do so, many schemes seem do not consider the needs of the beneficiaries themselves or take into account their suggestions. Still, some literature would suggest that having slum dwellers involved in the redevelopment process is necessary for positive outcomes to be achieved, even in the Indian context. In order to decide which of these approaches is best suited for Pune, particularly the ABB region, a review of literature specific to the city must be conducted.
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Affordable housing and slum redevelopment in Pune
As of 2012, up to 1.2 million people in Pune can be classified as slum dwellers, with nearly a fourth of these residing in non-notified slums (Pune Municipal Corporation, 2012). Clearly then, the problem of insecure land tenure is very prominent in Pune.
Joshi, Sen, & Hobson (2002) stress, citing their own data collection, that more cooperation between the government, communities and NGOs helps tremendously with respect to collecting information regarding (and mapping) slums, steps that could assist the process of declaring slums.
The Shelter Associates, an NGO in Pune, criticzes the BSUP initiative by the government for focusing exclusively on particular slums, one at a time, and aiming at a simple conversion of infrastrucutre to fortified houses, without considering the needs of the slum dwellers
(Shelter Associates, 2016). However, Kulkarni (2015), in his article, notes that slum redevelopment in Pune is largely conducted by private builders, through the SRA, as opposed to the PMC.
Finally, having overviewed the case of Pune in particular, one can now look into the avenues that are open for research pertaining to the delivery of affordable housing as per the requirements of the smart cities mission.

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Need assessment
After conducting a literature review of what the international community as a whole has to say on the topic of slum upgradation and considering the case of India and Pune specifically, two main areas present themselves for research; that of community participation and that of skill-based training.
Firstly, given the lack of focus on slum-communities in many schemes for slum upgradation, before steps are taken towards improving the lives of slum dwellers in the ABB region through the smart cities project, it would likely be beneficial to conduct primary research on the needs of the beneficiaries themselves, and the extent to which they would be willing to involve themselves in the redevelopment process.
Although numerous authors have cited the need for community involvement in slum upgradation schemes, there exists no conclusive evidence as to whether local participation leads to better outcomes for these projects. As such, there exists scope for research in finding out whether slum-dwellers are themselves willing to participate in the process of improving their homes with the help of funds or microcredit (as was wished for in retrospect by some beneficiaries of the BSUP schemes) or, alternatively, whether they would prefer if the upgradation process was conducted wholly by the government.
Secondly, a great body of literature from across the globe suggests that slum upgradation which truly improves the lives of slum dwellers and uplifts them from poverty requires policies that address concerns beyond basic infrastructure.
Although most government schemes specifically focus on building infrastructure, the smart cities mission goes beyond this, stressing the importance of skill development and education in the ABB region.
As these policies would likely require assistance from local educational institutions such as
Symbiosis International University, it would be useful get information regarding the precise informal or formal sectors most of the urban poor are employed in and the skills that they believe would help enhance their employability. The outcomes of this could then be used to assess the feasibility of and craft the design for the skill development curriculum used in programmes aimed at these individuals.

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In conclusion, although it is common to view slum redevelopment as a simple process of relocating slum dwellers into more fortified, vertically oriented, homes, a policy which actually improves the standard of living for slum residents must address concerns regarding the needs of the slum population, the extent to which they can be incorporated in schemes striving for their own betterment and the ways in which these schemes can be tailored to ensure that their lives are, in fact, permanently better when they are rehabilitated out of slums. 11

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