In light of the globalisation and urbanisation taking place around the world, India does not have sufficient planning institutes to produce an adequate number of skilled urban planners. There is a need to increase the number of planning institutes in the country, said Jamal Ansari, former director of the School of Planning and Architecture, at a roundtable conference of the Global Planning Education Association Network (GPEAN), held at the Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (Cept) University on Wednesday.
Ansari cited statistics to support his argument, saying that of the 553 planning schools in Asia, China has 37 while India has only 15. He also made an in-depth presentation on planning for housing in Indian cities. “As much as 32.6 per cent of the Indian population is poor. Poverty rates, coupled with the increasing shortage of housing in urban areas, have resulted in the proliferation of unserviceable, temporary and inadequate homes for the urban poor,” Ansari said. Though home ownership in India has increased, the number of households in greater than that of houses, and many of the existing homes provide inadequate shelter, he said.
“Most public-sector housing programmes do not target the poor. They have to access housing through the illegal and informal private sector, and the middle-income group benefits the most from such schemes,” Ansari said. Concluding that the only option for the future is to improve and increase access to serviced land, land sharing, incremental development and urban basic services, Ansari said, “Public-private partnerships can play an important role.”
The other panellists at the roundtable conference included YK Alagh, former Union minister for power, planning, science and technology; Dr Vanessa Watson from the University of Cape Town, South Africa; Lee Lik Meng, president of the Asian Planning Schools Association (APSA); and Utpal Sharma, dean of CEPT University.
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