India is the fastest growing economy in the world today—with a growth rate of 8.2 percent in the first quarter of 2018-2019 –63.67 million urban and rural households across India do not have adequate 2 housing. This massive number is cause for concern. The ‘Global Strategy for Shelter to the Year 2000’ declared by the United Nations 3 General Assembly in December 1988, defined “adequate housing” as “adequate privacy, adequate space, adequate security, adequate lighting and ventilation, adequate basic infrastructure and adequate location 4 with regard to work and basic facilities-all at a reasonable cost.”

In India, the 2012 report of the Technical Group on Urban Housing Shortage for the 12th Plan – set up by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation to estimate the urban housing shortage in the country for 2012-2017—pegged the total number of households 5 without “decent” housing in cities at 18.78 million. This number reflects an aggregate of those who live in non-livable, temporary, overcrowded and dilapidated homes: those who live in unacceptable conditions as well as those who are homeless. This, is the face of “housing poverty” in urban India.