World Habitat Day, celebrated on the first Monday of October every year has been an occasion to reflect on the state of human settlements and the right to shelter. This is more crucial given the threats faced by the planet earth from climate change and over crowding of towns and cities.

Rapid urbanization is a big issue indeed; in 1950, only one third of the world’s population lived in cities. In year 2000, in another 50 years, the urban population bulged and absorbed half of world’s population. It is expected to swell further absorbing two thirds of the total population (6 billion people) by 2050, into this urban vortex. In a sense, Habitat Day is a reminder to the world of its collective responsibility about the future of human habitat.

Anna Tibaijuka, Executive Director, United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN-HABITAT), releasing some new facts from the latest State of the World’s Cities 2006-07 report, called the world’s attention to the “rapid and irreversible urbanisation”. The world is entering into a new urban millennium with majority of world population living in cities and towns. Paradoxically, the number of slum dwellers on the opposite side is also increasing and is estimated to reach one billion.

According to a 2007 survey report by the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS), 836 million Indians live on less than 20 rupees per day. Global indicators suggest that 93 percent of the future urban population growth will occur in the cities of Asia and Africa, and to a lesser extent, Latin America and Caribbean.

Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is on record emphasising the twin phenomena—migration and urban growth—posing unprecedented challenges. The collective efforts of UN member states along with non-governmental organisations, the private sector and citizens worldwide, are required as never before to ensure sustainable urbanisation and inclusive cities.

‘A Safe City is a Just City’

The global observance of this year’s World Habitat Day took place at Hague on Monday 01 October 2007 followed by other extended celebrations in Monterrey, Mexico. ‘A Safe City is a Just City’ was theme of the celebration as the UN chose it in order to raise awareness and encourage reflection on the mounting threats to urban safety and social justice, particularly urban crime, forced eviction, and insecurity of tenure as well as natural and man-made disasters, whether violent or not, are becoming serious threats to urban safety all over the world.

As the world becomes increasingly urban, it is essential that policymakers understand the power of the city as a catalyst for national development. Cities have to be able to provide inclusive living conditions for all their residents. Rich or poor, everyone has a right to the city, to a decent living environment, to clean water, sanitation, transport, electricity and other services. The management of this aspect will perhaps be one of the greatest challenges facing by the humanity.

“The subject that brings us here today, is something that touches us all. Crime and fear of crime is growing unacceptably fast at a time half of humanity is now living in towns and cities. There is no doubt, that today most crime and violence occur in cities. And this is the reason, we decided to choose the theme ‘A Safe City is a Just City’ to mark the occasion of World Habitat Day this year”, said Tabaijuka at the event.

Incidents of forced eviction are regularly reported from all parts of the world. Such urban causes are often linked to bulldozing of squatter settlements and slums—especially in developing countries—as well as to process of gentrification, beautification, and urban redevelopment in cities and towns of both developed and developing countries. In recent years, forced evictions have been highly publicised as freedom from forced eviction has been recognised as a fundamental human right under international human rights law.

Natural Disasters

Disasters, natural and man-made, are yet another serious threat to urban safety. Recent evidences indicate that such disasters are gradually increasing in the world over and the trend has partly linked with climate change. between 1975 and 2005, the number of disasters in the world increased from 100 to 400 per year. Hurricane Katrina, the Asian Tsunami, and the Pakistan Earthquake are some of the recent disasters that exposed the woeful lack of preparedness.

Concerning the collective threats to urban safety, both state and central governments in many countries are trying to stand up to the challenge to implement strategic plans to prevent the world from falling apart. This is also one of the objectives behind the UN’s World Habitat Day. “It is in moments like this that we gather to ask the awkward questions about our joint future. We have no doubt that our future is an urban future. We know that for most of humankind, it will be the only future”, said Sheila Sisulu, Deputy Executive Director, United Nations World Food Programme, Rome and former Ambassador of South Africa to the United States.

Sweet ‘Green’ Home

Today, authorities all over the world are encouraged to work on participatory environmental planning and management for sustainable cities. In an overpopulated country like India, having the world’s largest number of poor people in a single country, the innovative concept of ‘green building’ is a great initiative.

Out of the one billion plus population, an estimated 260.3 million in India are below the poverty line, of which 193.2 millions are in rural area and 67.1 million are in urban area.

Green buildings imply increasing the efficacy of buildings and intelligent use of energy, water, materials, and reducing adverse impacts on human health and the environment through better construction designs. Green materials and the equipment available in India include fly-ash cement, fly-ash block, recycled aluminium, bamboo-based products, and low VOC paints.

To meet the challenge of designing and constructing environmentally sustainable habitats in urban and rural pockets, various organisations all over India are attempting to introduce housing for poor at affordable rates. “As per the nature of the local environment we introduce cost effective eco-friendly houses that integrate benefit for urban poor”, said Pratima Joshi, Director, Shelter Associates, Pune, (http://shelter-associates.org). According to her, the organisation comprising architects, social workers, GIS experts, and community workers is working with the urban poor to facilitate community-managed housing (slum rehabilitation) and infrastructure projects.

Though architects have been sporadically adopting concepts like passive architecture and natural air-conditioning, an integrated approach towards rapid development of green buildings in India is yet to take off. The overall investment towards urban building construction in India is estimated to be US$1.27 billion annually, according to NICMR. If a 5 percent of this investment is channelled into green buildings, it can trigger a larger contribution from the sector, which will be more than the current share of 10 percent to the GDP.

It has been decided that the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and the Green Building Council (GBC) will work together with governments to devise appropriate mechanisms to develop green building codes. MK Electric (India) Ltd, a Chennai-based manufacturer of electrical accessories has launched integrated intelligent building solutions to help integrate the concepts of green buildings into construction activities in India.

Says R Parasuraman, Managing Director, MK Electric (India) Ltd: “Though the company had been selling many of the products that go into the construction of green buildings, it was only now that the integrated concept was being marketed”. Energy Consultancy, TERI, provides a rating mechanism to encourage green buildings, as a framework for assessing building performance and building sustainability goal.

It is hoped that the future prospect of green buildings in India is quite rosy more as a solution to the mounting challenges surfacing from the pressure of population boom and depleting resources.