Habitat for Humanity India raise awareness for adequate housing

India joins rest of the world in marking World Habitat Day on October 3, 2011.

The United Nations has designated the first Monday of October every year as World Habitat Day to draw attention to the current global state of the human habitat and to push toward adequate housing for all.

Habitat for Humanity, a Christian non-profit organisation that addresses issues of poverty housing, will engage in a month-long observance, highlighting challenges of housing and sustainability faced by communities across India.

"We would join nations across the globe in marking World Habitat Day, a time when we can highlight the problems of homelessness and the challenges in addressing the issue," said Justin Jebakumar, Director of Habitat for Humanity India, Delhi HRC.

"Habitat's vision is to have a world where everyone can have a decent place to live, as safe shelter brings dignity and honor to all especially women and children. To achieve this, we aim to develop innovative housing and shelter assistance models," he expressed.

Since its inception in 1983, over 175,000 people have been benefited through 35,000 safe and decent houses built or repaired by Habitat in India.

Speaking on World Habitat Day's significance, Justin said Habitat will engage in a series of special activities over six weeks to address the need for safe, decent and affordable shelter.

For this year, the United Nations has chosen the theme 'Cities and Climate Change' to point to impacts of disasters resulting from climate change.

"World Habitat Day falls during the month when demographers predict our planet's seven billionth inhabitant will be born. The future that this child and its generation will inherit depends to a great degree on how we handle the competing pressures of growing population growth, urbanization and climate change," UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said.

Every week, more than a million people are born in, or move to, cities in the developing world.

According to UN-Habitat, by the year 2030, an additional 3 billion people, about 40 percent of the world's population, will need access to housing. This translates into a demand for 4,000 new affordable units every hour. Currently, over 1.6 billion people live in substandard housing.

In India, Habitat for Humanity has been implementing many initiatives to address poverty housing issues as well as matters relating to disaster response.

Says Justin, from the 1999 Orissa cyclone, to 2001 Gujarat earthquake, 2004 Asian tsunami and 2010 Leh flash floods, Habitat has built thousands of houses for families who were affected by these disasters.

He adds: "From Mumbai and Bangkok to Haiti and Sao Paulo, urban areas face different and great challenges when responding to disasters. These dangers and challenges require effective and creative policies from governments and humanitarian groups around the world."

On Oct. 3, Habitat for Humanity International will dedicate its 500,000th house in Maai Mahiu, Kenya.

In recognition of the day, the Christian housing ministry will unveil its 2012 Shelter Report in Washington, D.C., held in conjunction with a Brookings Institution event.

The report entitled "Build Hope: Housing Cities after a Disaster" focuses on the critical need for disaster planning and long-term recovery particularly in urban and developing areas with large populations.