The public sector has been a prominent actor in the urban housing sector in the State of West Bengal for the past three decades. Reform measures introduced since 1990 have led to a shift in the mode of public housing delivery from direct provision to providing housing in the market model. The concept of private-sector participation in construction and finance has emerged as a natural response to meet the colossal demand for housing within government's dwindling budgetary capacity and a need for a catalyst to boost macroeconomic conditions. Paradoxically, the public-sector agencies are leading the reform initiatives by assuming the role of a real estate developer. The paper reviews the housing output in Kolkata in the pre- and post-reform eras in terms of housing quantity, quality, price and affordability. It is argued that new reforms have been successful in stimulating the overall housing market, but more targeted programmes are needed to improve the supply, quality and affordability for low-income families in the city.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Adams, J. (2002) India's economic growth: how fast? How wide? How deep?, India Review, 1(2), pp. 1—28.
2.
Angel, S. (2000) Housing Policy Matters: A Global Analysis. New York: Oxford University Press.
3.
Angel, S. (2001) The housing policy assessment and its application in Panama, Journal of Housing Economics, 10, pp. 176—209.
4.
Arimah, B.C. (2000) Housing-sector performance in a global perspective: a cross city investigation, Housing Studies, 37(13), pp. 2551— 2579.
5.
Baer, W.C. (1976) The evolution of housing indicators and housing standards: some lessons for the future, Public Policy, 24(3), pp. 361—391.
6.
Baken, R.-J. and Smets, P. (1999) Better a `hut' on the ground than a castle in the air: formal and informal housing finance for the urban poor in India, in: K. Datta and G. Jones (Eds) Housing Finance in Developing Countries, pp. 101—118. London: Routledge.
7.
Ballesteros, M.M. (2002) Rethinking institutional reforms in the Philippine housing sector. Discussion Paper Series No. 2002—16, PhilippineInstitute for Development Studies, Manila .
8.
Banerjee, S. (2004) Revisiting Kolkata: as an `NRB', Economic and Planning Weekly, 39(45), 4 December.
9.
Bose, N.K. (1973) Calcutta: a premature metropolis, in: D. Kingsley (Ed.) Cities: Their Origin, Growth and Human Impact, pp. 251—262. San Francisco, CA: Freeman.
10.
Buckley, R.M. and Tsenkova, S. (2001) Housing market systems in reforming socialist economies: comparative indicators of performance and policy, European Journal of Housing Policy, 1(2), pp. 257—289.
11.
Chakrabartty, S. (1959) Housing Conditions in Calcutta. Calcutta: Bookland Publishers.
12.
Chakravorty, S. (2000) From colonial city to global city? The far-from-complete spatial transformation of Calcutta, in: P. Marcuse and R. Van Kempen (Eds) Globalizing Cities: A New Spatial Order?, pp. 56—77. Oxford: Blackwell.
13.
Chakravorty, S. (2004) Reforms and re-forming Indian metropolises: the arguments for contextual policy, in: Forum on Urbanizing World and UN Human Habitat II, pp. 1—12. New York: IRFD Publications.
14.
Chakravorty, S. and Gupta, G. (1996) Let a hundred projects boom: structural reform and urban development in Calcutta, Third World Planning Review , 18, pp. 415—431.
15.
Chatterjee, S. (2000) Changing skylines, Economic Times , 28 September.
16.
Chatterjee, N., Bhattacharya, N. and Halder, A. (1998) Socio-economic profile of households in Calcutta metropolitan area: 1996—97 . Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority.
17.
D'Costa, A. (2005) The Long March to Capitalism: Embourgeoisment, Internationalization and Industrial Transformation in India. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
18.
Deb, G. (2002) Operation shelter. Keynote paper presented at the National Conference on Housing, Kolkata, December.
19.
Dwyer, D.J. (1979) People and Housing in Third World Cities: Perspectives on the Problem of Spontaneous Settlements. London: Longman.
20.
EPW (Economic and Political Weekly) (2004) Editorial: housing finance: who benefits?, EPW (Mumbai), 15 May.
21.
Fiadzo, E.D., Houston, J.E. and Godwin, D.D. (2001) Estimating housing quality for poverty and development policy analysis: CQIQ in Ghana, Social Indicators Research , 5(2), pp. 137—162.
22.
Flood, J. (1997) Urban and housing indicators, UrbanStudies, 34(1), pp. 1635—1665.
23.
Flood, J. (2001) The global urban observatory databases: analysis of urban indicators. Report for UN-Habitat (http://ww2.unhabitat.org/programmes/guo/guo_analysis.asp; accessed 18 July 2006).
24.
The Ford Foundation (1971) The summary of findings and recommendations. Unpublished report financed by the Ford Foundation.
25.
Garg, Y.K. (1998) India case study. Paper presented at the IFC Conference on New Directions in Asian Housing Finance , Bali, Indonesia, February.
26.
Goodman, J.L. (1978) Causes and indicators of housing quality, Social Indicators Research, 5, pp. 195—210.
27.
Gowb (Government Of West Bengal) (1988) Economic review 1987/88. State Planning Board, Kolkata.
Gowb (2004a) Economic review (2003—2004). State Planning Board, Kolkata.
30.
Gowb (2004b) West Bengal human development report. Development and Planning Department , West Bengal.
31.
Green, R.K., Malpezzi, S. and Vandell, K. (1994) Urban regulations and the price of land and housing in Korea, Journal of Housing Economics, 3, pp. 330—356.
32.
Harris, R. and Arku, G. (2004) Housing and economic development: the history of an idea. School of Geography and Geology, McMaster University , Hamilton, Ontario.
33.
Jain, A.K. (1996) The Indian Mega-city and Economic Reforms. New Delhi: Management Publishing Co.
34.
Kmda (Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority) (1982) Shelter programme and perspective: Kolkata metropolitan district. KMDA, Kolkata.
35.
Kmda (2000) Vision 2025: perspective plan of KMA—2025. KMDA, Kolkata .
36.
Kritayanavaj, B. (2002) Financing affordable homeownership in Thailand: roles of the government housing bank since the economic crisis (1997—2002) , Housing Finance International, 17(2), pp. 15—25.
37.
Kutty, N. (1996) Indicators of housing quality, HousingScience, 20(3), pp. 151—166.
38.
Malpezzi, S. (1990) Urban housing and financial markets: some international comparisons, UrbanStudies, 27(6), pp. 971—1022.
39.
Malpezzi, S. and Mayo, S. (1997) Housing and urban development indicators: a good idea whose time has returned, Real Estate Economics, 25, pp. 1—11.
40.
Myers, D., Baer, W.C. and Choi, S.Y. (1996) The changing problem of overcrowded housing, Journal of the American Planning Association, 62, pp. 66—84.
41.
National Institute Of Urban Affairs (2001) Urban statistics handbook 2000. National Institute of Urban Affairs, New Delhi.
42.
Patel, S. and Burra, S. (1994) Access to housing finance for the urban poor: institutional innovations in India, Cities, 11(6), pp. 393—397.
43.
Planning Commisson Of India (2002) Tenth five year plan (2002—2007). Planning Commission , New Delhi.
44.
Pugh, C. (1990) Housing and Urbanization: A Study of India. New Delhi: Sage Publications.
45.
Pugh, C. (1994) Housing policy development in developing countries: the World Bank and internationalization, 1972—93, Cities , 11(3), pp. 159—180.
46.
Quercia, R.G. and Galster, G.C. (1997) The challenges facing public housing authorities in a brave new world, Housing Policy Debate, 8(3), pp 535—569.
47.
Rao, P.S.N. (2000) Housing and land development case study: India . Paper presented at the World Bank's South Asia Urban and City Management Course, Goa, India, January.
48.
Ray, M. ( 2002) Growing up refugee, History Workshop Journal , 53, pp. 149—179.
49.
Roy, A. ( 2003) Global histories: a new repertoire of cities. Paper presented at the conference on New Global History and the City, St Petersburg, January.
50.
Roy, D.K. (1983) The supply of lands for the slums of Calcutta, in: S. Angel, R. Archer, S. Tanphiphat and E. Weglin (Eds) Land for Housing the Poor , pp. 98—108. Singapore: Select Books.
51.
Sengupta, U. (2006) Government intervention in public private partnership in housing in Kolkata, Habitat International, 30(3), pp. 448—461.
52.
Sharma, S.C. (2004) Current housing development. Paper presented at the National Seminar on Contemporary Architecture and Built Development in Cities, Kolkata, October.
53.
Sivam, A. and Karuppannan, S. (2002) Role of state and market in housing delivery for low income groups in India, Journal of Housing and theBuilt Environment, 17(4), pp. 69—88.
54.
Sivam, A., Evans, D., King, R. and Young, D. (2001) An approach to improved housing delivery in large cities of less developed countries, Habitat International , 25(1), pp. 99—113.
55.
Smets, P. (1995) Poor and in need for a house in the city! The government is there to help, but who is really helping who?, Nagarlok , 28(4), pp. 78—92.
56.
Smets, P. (1997) Private housing finance in India: reaching down market, Habitat International, 21(1), pp. 1—15.
57.
Struyk, R. and Ravicz, M. (1992) Housing Finance in LDCs: India's National Housing Bank as a Model?Washington, DC: The Urban Institute Press.
58.
The Telegraph (2003) Real facts on real estate , 13 September.
59.
Tipple, A.G. (2000) Extending Themselves: User-initiated Transformations of Government Built Housing in Developing Countries. Liverpool : Liverpool University Press.
60.
Tipple, A.G., Korboe, D., Garrod, G. and Willis, K. (1999) Housing supply in Ghana: a study of Accra, Kumasi and Berekum, Progress in Planning, 51(4), pp. 253—324.
61.
Tiwari, P. (2001) Home mortgage risk: a case for insurance in India, InternationalReal Estate Review, 4(1), pp. 57—59.
62.
Unchs (United Nations Centre For Human Settlements) (1993) The housing indicators program: extensive survey preliminary results. UNCHS/World Bank, Washington, DC.
63.
Unchs (1997) The Istanbul Declaration and the Habitat Agenda, with subject index. UNCHS, Nairobi.
64.
World Bank (2004) IBRD program document for a proposed programmatic loan to the amount of US $ 100 million to the United Mexican States for affordable housing and urban poverty sector adjustment loan. The World Bank, Washington, DC.
