In-situ housing, the best method of slum rehabilitation, says expert

In-situ housing project is the best method of slum rehabilitation, said Sharad Mahajan, architect and founder of Mashal (Maharashtra Social Housing and Action League) while speaking on ‘Housing for the poor’ on the penultimate day of the three-day international conference on ‘Healthy cities: Perspective of Asian Concerns’ organised by the Bhanuben Nanavati College of
Architecture (BNCA) at Hotel Marriott on Friday. 

Mahajan was of the opinion that in-situ (in the same location) homes were the best method of slum rehabilitation. 

According to Mahajan, multi-storied slum rehabilitation projects made no sense to slum dwellers, as had been experienced in Mumbai. 

Mahajan, who had earlier worked on the Mumbai projects said, “Almost 70% of the slum dwellers, who were given flats in seven storied buildings refused to live in them. Multi-storied buildings are an alien concept to slum dwellers. The lifts in these buildings do not work making life very difficult for the residents.” 

Mahajan’s Mashal is one of the few successful NGOs, which have partnered with the Pune Municipal Corporation in constructing 945 low cost in-situ housing projects for the poor in two slums of Yerawada. 

The basic Mashal modus operandi is to identify slum homes that do not have reinforced cement concrete (RCC) structures and construct a 270 sq feet RCC home for them at the same spot. 

According to Mahajan, this policy has yielded rich dividends. “The slum dwellers for whom we constructed new homes are extremely happy that they have new homes in the same location. This is the only way we can solve the problem of slum rehabilitation.”