A bold plan to house 100 million people
584,338 views | Gautam Bhan • TED Talks India
Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata -- all the major cities across India have one great thing in common: they welcome people arriving in search of work. But what lies at the other end of such openness and acceptance? Sadly, a shortage of housing for an estimated 100 million people, many of whom end up living in informal settlements. Gautam Bhan, a human settlement expert and researcher, is boldly reimagining a solution to this problem. He shares a new vision of urban India where everyone has a safe, sturdy home. (In Hindi with English subtitles)
Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata -- all the major cities across India have one great thing in common: they welcome people arriving in search of work. But what lies at the other end of such openness and acceptance? Sadly, a shortage of housing for an estimated 100 million people, many of whom end up living in informal settlements. Gautam Bhan, a human settlement expert and researcher, is boldly reimagining a solution to this problem. He shares a new vision of urban India where everyone has a safe, sturdy home. (In Hindi with English subtitles)
This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.
About the speaker
Gautam Bhan studies how cities produce and reproduce poverty and inequality.
Somsook Boonyabancha | Environment & Urbanisation | Article
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Somsook Boonyabacha was previously the director of Community Organizations Development Institute (CODI) in Thailand. In her time there, she led what I believe is one of the best in-situ “slum” upgrading programmes in the world: Baan Mankong. Baan in Thai means house, Mankong means secure. The article above tells the story of what ended up becoming a national programme. Read this to get the story of how communities can lead upgrading, and it can translate into a national programme if we have the will to do it. Access it here.
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International Alliance of Inhabitants
In their own words, the Alliance is "is a global network of associations and social movements of inhabitants, cooperatives, communities, tenants, house owners, homeless, slum dwellers, indigenous populations and people from working-class neighborhoods. The objective is the construction of another possible world starting from the achievement of the housing and city rights." Check out their website for resources and events on rights to the city across the world.
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This report is an excellent set of case studies from around the world on how people resist evictions. It documents people-based initiatives and experiences of struggles against evictions, including how groups are securing rights to adequate housing, legal security of tenure and freedom from arbitrary destruction and dispossession, giving voice to people who are active on the ground and providing an opportunity for exchange and mutual learning.
Cirolia, L (Editor) ; Görgens, T (Editor) ; van Donk, M (Editor) ; Smit, W (Editor) ; Drimie, S (Editor) | JUTA and Company, 2017 | Book
Upgrading Informal Settlements in South Africa: A partnership-based approach
This timely edited volume is a set of essays on the South African experience of “slum” upgrading. They look at what worked and what didn’t. Most importantly, talk about why upgrading is slow to the uptake and what we can do to change that make it the go-to policy around the world.
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This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.