Housing is one of the basic needs of every human being. The other two are food and clothing. Unless one has a house to live in, one cannot lead a settled life. Life without a house would be not better than that of a gypsy or a wanderer.
The requirement of houses depends on the population of a country. The more the number of people the greater will be requirement for houses.
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In India, the housing problem is very serious. There is an acute shortage of houses. Even the existing houses are generally below standard.
With the growth of population year after year, the problem of housing has become all the more complex.
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According to the National Buildings Organisation the shortages of houses was estimated as 213 lakh units – 165 lakhs in rural and 48 lakhs in urban sector.
Although in some of the big cities in India we see a large number of good houses yet there are millions and millions of people who either don’t have a pacca roof over their head or live in dirty and unhygienic slums.
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In the Sixth Plan period Rs. 837.37 crores were allocated for Social Housing Schemes and Rs. 353.50 crores for Rural House-sites-cum-Con- struction Assistance Scheme for the rural landless.
And under the Twenty- point Programme there is provision for clearance of slums and rehabilitating the people in houses. Still these efforts will remain far short of our housing requirements.
It is largely because of the growing population that we are unable to solve most of our problems including housing. It, therefore, goes without saying that population has a great impact on the housing problem.