World Habitat Day is marked to reflect on human habitat situation at the global level. It is a call to governments, planners and leaders to take the lead in solving the growing habitat problems which deprive millions of people their basic human right to a decent shelter. The United Nations recognizes the right to shelter as a basic right. The day is also intended to remind the world that everyone has the power and the responsibility to shape the future of towns and cities.
World Habitat Day was first reported in 1968 in Nairobi, Kenya. The theme was “Shelter is my Right. The theme for 2022 is: Mind the Gap, Leave No One and Place Behind.
It is pointed out that the basic right to a decent shelter is getting more and amore a global problem. Cities and towns are getting crowded and slums are on the increase. People live in suffocating conditions. The right to shelter will also include the right to health and other basic amenities.
In a world where some leaders are giving extra weight to animal habitats and spending millions of dollars to buy, transport and shelter animals from other countries to give them a luxury treat, the number of people lacking basic shelter rights is on the increase.
Among the largest slums in the world, South Africa’s Cape Town claims to have a slum population of 400,000. Forty percent of its residents are under 19 years of age. Kenya’s Nairobi has about 200,000 to one million people living in the slum. India’s Dharavi, situated in the heart of Mumbai, has one million people in the slum with multi-ethnic and multi-religious diversity. Orangi town of Karachi in Pakistan claims to have over one million slum population. Mexico’s Neza-Chalco-Iza has four million slum residents. With about four million residents it claims to be the largest alum area in the world. All over the world there are many more slums.
According to the census, the slum-dwelling population of India had risen from 27.9 million in 1981 to 61.8 million in 2001. Within last two decades up to 2021 the number must have gone up. Population living in slums (% of urban population) in India was reported at 35.2 % in 2018, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators. Millions live in rural and urban India lacking access to decent shelter and facilities for health and hygiene. Greater Mumbai has 41.3 of its households as slum dwellers; Kolkata has 29.6; Chennai 28.5; Delhi 14.6; Bengaluru 8.5.
Very often politicians look upon slum dwellers as only vote banks. Hence, they look the other way when elections are over and their garlands wither away. Unless elected representatives and civil authorities take the habitat situation seriously, the denial of basic right to shelter continues to become a perennial problem.