[Urbanstudy] Workshop on BROADENING POVERTY DEFINITIONS IN INDIA: BASIC NEEDS IN URBAN HOUSING on May 25, 2010 at 3.45 p.m. at CPR.

[Dr. Nandlal Jotwani]

Dear Dr. P.B. Mehta, Ms. Marie-Hélène Zérah and Mr. Partha Mukhopadhyay:
Greetings.
 
Thank you for your 'invite' for the Workshop, which indeed was close to my head and heart. However, owing to preoccupation, I regret my inability to participate in it.
 
I wish the Workshop a great suceess.
 
Sincerely,
 
Prof. Nandlal Jotwani, Ph.D.
57 Vinoba Puri, Lajpat Nagar-II
New Delhi-110024
Mobile: 9311902211
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From: PRESIDENT <president_cpr at vsnl.com>
Date: 21 May 2010 15:01
Subject: Workshop on BROADENING POVERTY DEFINITIONS IN INDIA: BASIC NEEDS IN URBAN HOUSING on May 25, 2010 at 3.45 p.m. at CPR.
To: nandlaljotwani at yahoo.com









Dear Friend
As part of our new Urban Workshop Series, the Centre for Policy Research (CPR) and Centre de Sciences Humaines (CSH), Delhi are delighted to invite you to a workshop by Prof. S. Chandrashekar,  Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai and Prof. Mark  Montgomery, Stony Brook University and Population Council, New York, USA  on BROADENING POVERTY DEFINITIONS IN INDIA: BASIC NEEDS IN URBAN HOUSING.
Date: Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Time: 3:45 pm
Venue: Conference Hall, Centre for Policy Research, Dharma Marg,  Chanakyapuri, New Delhi – 110021.
 
In this paper, we ask whether the official poverty definition in India gives sufficient attention to basic needs in urban housing. When the Indian poverty lines were worked into their current form, the procedure that was used was based on a nutritional norm, and it provided some assurance that households living at the poverty line would have the means to consume a minimally adequate level of calories (Government of India, 1979, 1993). But the definition left unresolved whether households officially classified as non-poor would have adequate resources on hand to meet their non-food needs, whether in housing or in other dimensions of need.
 
Among all non-food needs, those in housing present especially vexing problems, because the term “housing” is shorthand for a number of shelter-related characteristics that affect individual and family well-being. In addition to security of tenure, these include the physical condition of the dwelling, whether the household has access to adequate drinking water, sanitation, and drainage, the social and environmental risks presented by any given location, and the access to employment that it provides. Access to improved water and sanitation can help in reducing occurrence of water borne diseases and diseases caused by poor sanitation. 
  
If housing needs are to be expressed in monetized form (as basic nutritional needs have been) then the money costs of these bundled characteristics must somehow be estimated. Drawing upon the 58th Round NSSO survey of housing conditions we use a regression based approach to estimate monthly rents. 
  
We estimate monthly rent levels for basic-needs housing at Rs 495 per household based on ordinary regression model and Rs 518 using the median regression model. If we translate these figures to per- member equivalents, it works out to Rs 124 per person using the OLS results. In the context of urban poverty line the 1962 expert group (Gadgil et. al.) made the following suggestion: "An element of subsidy in urban housing will have to be included after taking Rs 10 per month, or 10 percent as the rent element payable from the proposed national minimum of Rs 100 per month (1960-61 prices)." 
  
We arrive at an amount equivalent to 22–32 percent of the urban poverty line depending on the methodology used. We present our result not as being definitive but rather as an opening for a broader constructive conversation on the multiple dimensions of poverty in urban India. 
  
Yours sincerely, 
 Pratap Bhanu Mehta 

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Dr. Pratap Bhanu Mehta
President & Chief Executive
Centre for Policy Research
Dharma Marg, Chanakyapuri
New Delhi - 110 021 [INDIA]
Tel: +91 11 26114797
Tel: +91 11 2611 5273-76 (4 lines)
Fax: +91 11 26872746 / 26886902

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