Inclusive Housing: Another Mountain to Climb!

Twenty two years of campaigning for “inclusive cities” – has helped us as an organization to get very near to the people in Patna who live in mostly subhuman conditions. 

With a new government in place and new bureaucrats, the entire process begins anew. 

To my utter surprise, I was quite taken aback when I went to meet the newly appointed Principal Secretary of the urban and housing department of the government of Bihar. 

He simply didn’t want to acknowledge the previous schemes that were in favour of the urban poor for housing.  He seemed to be only talking about the present PMAY - Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – housing scheme of the prime Minister. 

In a way it has cautioned me about the manner in which I should converse about these matters.

He was explicit and in no less words mentioned – no one will get any houses for free.  We discussed at length the fact of houses built in neighboring small states but Bihar has been a failure in this matter. 

After presenting him with the findings of how houses were built in Ranchi, he seemed to be disinterested though it was his proposal to study and share the findings with him. 

With all this information which we received from the Principal Secretary we thought it was important that we become proactive.  We invited the leaders to the office, so that we could update them of what could happen. 

It was an interesting meeting as we listened to the painful stories of their past and how there is no trace of their roots back in the village. We began to say that they must learn to save money on a daily basis, so that when this proposal becomes a reality they will not be in a difficult situation.

In our calculation that when this will be realized each house will cost something like 5 lakhs, so we are proposing that people begin to save and collect at least 2 lakhs, which may go up as well as time passes. 

There seems to be great hope; our only fear is that with an unfavorable government whether this will stand the test of time.

Our people are hopeful, we have to pursue this and ensure that the government will keep their word. 

With the new master Plan in place and the plan to extend the township of Patna to the adjacent villages, we seem to be able to find this as a possibility. 

But will the housing find priority in the list of the government agenda, is something that we have to wait and see.  This is going to be a challenge, we hope that someday this will be turned into a reality.