Measuring housing quality in India on the basis of amenities and facilities,household size, neighborhood and their location.

1. MAULANA AZAD NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, BHOPAL (M.P.)
A
paper ON
“Measuring housing quality”
SUBJECT – housing

2. MEASURING HOUSING QUALITY
Bhawani Shankar (091110232), 4th sem., B.Planning, MANIT, Bhopal (M.P.)
MEASURING HOUSING QUALITY
ABSTRACT –
Housing is always attached with the services. There are some natural human needs, which are required to be provided with housing, they are the services. One can measure the housing quality by the” level and quality” of services a community is enjoying. However the quality of service is dependent upon the investment of capital for a dwelling unit. Poorly people can’t afford the good quality of housing. Thus it is required for the government to form policies for the poor, specially in urban areas. Housing determines the quality and standard of living of the people of any community. It is very important for people to get good quality of housing and services, in order to maintain the health, wellbeing, and a cheerful community. Because of increasing population and limited resources, housing remains a major problem in the developing countries. The overall good quality of housing is the key of sustainable development of a country. Housing affordability is also an important thing to keep in mind.
INTRODUCTION –
Houses, or dwelling units, are found universally throughout every society. The quality of accommodations can vary considerably from household to household, and in some contexts, creating a measure of housing quality can be quite difficult. Dwelling units that are secure, sufficiently large to minimize the feeling of crowding, and appointed with amenities thought to be necessary for a comfortable life are a goal of many households across diverse social and geographic settings. Dwelling units constitute both an important asset and a critical aspect of consumption. Valuable houses can serve to buffer economic uncertainty, and for many, a dwelling unit that is recognized to be of high value is a preferred way to demonstrate social status.
Housing quality is measured by the quality of services that comes with the housing such as, water-supply, electricity, security, efficient transportation and connectivity, greenery and calm environment, education, employment,

3. hospitals, market, open-spaces, recreation facilities etc., which are easily accessible from the residencies. This enables the people to live a healthy and peaceful life. The good quality of housing enhances the standard of living of people, development index (per capita income) etc. by the means of employment opportunities and balanced economy.
Due to the importance of dwelling units in the household economy, much can be learned from including measures of housing quality in social- demographic surveys. For instance, measures of housing quality can be used to examine the consumption patterns of remitting migrant household members. Indeed, past research has found that migrant remittances make up a significant portion of rural household’s cash flow, and are commonly spent on consumption needs. The term housing affordability has come into popular usage in the last two decades replacing ‘housing need’ at the centre of debate about the provision of adequate housing for all. According to Fallis (1993), this move could be attributed to the increasing adoption of more market-oriented reforms within the housing sector in many countries. Consequently, increasing concerns over rising levels of homelessness, housing costs, mortgage defaults and foreclosures, trap of ‘negative equity’ experienced by households, declining neighbourhoods, and over-heated housing markets have concertedly pushed housing affordability into the centre of housing policy discourse since the early 1990s. While the current housing affordability debates tend to be focused on countries with developed market economies, most of the issues surrounding the debate even holds more relevance for developing countries that are caught in the crossroads of pro-market economic and housing reforms. This is especially so given the increasing tendency by International lending agencies such as the World Bank to coerce these countries to pursue these pro-market policy reforms. However, the evident increase in urban housing affordability problems and decline in housing conditions for the majority of urban dwellers, seem to raise serious doubt about the efficacy of the market approach. This dissertation is concerned with the construction and implementation of a new set of housing indicators. A policy definition of decent housing is first developed from past efforts. Federal attempts to measure housing quality are shown to have focused on aggregate urban conditions, rather than individual households. It is argued that housing indicators thus have potential uses which remain largely unexplored.

4. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES –
In the cases of developing countries, the problem of housing is very crucial. Since in developing countries there are all classes of population which exist together. The housing must be provided with the basic human needs, various public amenities and services that would satisfy the majority of the population. There is a certain class which need visual sense of the range of housing styles and to obtain an intuitive sense of the relative value of various dwelling units. Every human needs its social status and low cost house which leads to haphazard development, thus it is specially needed to form the norms, such as, Master plans, housing norms etc. so that the irregularity in development must be avoided and the needs and aspirations for the future generations can be met. There must be an approval from the authority or the government with the specifications, design, plans etc. and the approval must be made after the basic services and amenities are satisfactorily assigned. Housing Quality Standards (HQS) are established by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to guarantee a basic level of health and safety for all units leased under the Housing Choice Voucher and Moderate Rehabilitation programs so that housing for all may be provided.
Housing is an important thing for human, and it is required that all the class of people across the globe has the right. Government has to be responsible to providing the housing facilities to the population of its country. There is need to reform the housing policies and frame new policies based on the fact to provide housing for all with the maximization of amenities and services, by the means of master plans etc.
While planners are limited as to how they influence the interiors of housing units, they do play a substantial role in covering these human-health issues in relation to development standards expressed through development review, site review, and environment impact assessments. Beyond regulation, planners have the opportunity to work with publich health to incorporarte human health objectives into housing plans and policies (Miles 2005a). Aswith the rest of this Design for Health project, we are primarily concerned with the link between environmental and housing quality and human health rather than broader ecological effects.

5. SCOPE AND METHODOLOGY –
In this paper we develop a new approach to the measurement of housing quality as part of the services involved in the housing with considering the costs of Dwelling Units. It is very important for any developer to design housing works with keeping in mind about the maximisation of services to be provided with the housing. By the means of internet and library, it was possible to get some results and knowledge about the research works, which gave the information of the needs of various class of the people across the globe.
Nang Rong is a rural, agrarian district located in Thailand’s Northeast, the poorest region in the country. Using data from Nang Rong, we develop a method of measuring the relative quality rating of several dwelling units that takes advantage of general knowledge within an area as to what constitutes high-quality versus low quality housing. Low quality housing has shown a negative effect in the housing satisfaction and ill effects in its community.
This is a methodology adopted by U.K. ‘HOUSING QUALITY INDICATORS’. The main body of the HQI form contains information on the ten indicators that measure quality. Each indicator contains a series of questions that are completed by the developer or client. The indicators are – Location, Site - visual impact, layout and landscaping, openspace, routes and movement, size, layout, noise, light and services, accessibility, energy , green and sustainability issues, Performance in use.
As per the housing quality standards these are- Sanitary facilities, Food preparation and refuse disposal, Space and security, Thermal environment, Illumination and electricity, Structure and materials, Interior air quality, Water supply, Lead-based paint, Access, Site and neighbourhood, Sanitary condition and Smoke Detectors.
This is the survey by Emmanuel FiadzoIn Ghana, two people per room indicates crowding, and overcrowding occurs when there are 2.5 or more people per room., suggests Asiama (1990). This research indicates that roughly 44.5% of all households live in overcrowded housing in Ghana -- a situation that has serious implications for health and urban planning in the short and the long run, thus supporting the premise that, current housing conditions in Ghana are far from ideal. This survey was to conduct housing quality index for Ghana which is calculated by the time taken for the nearest distance services available for them and its percentage availability. On an average, households

6. living in owned homes exhibited HQI scores 2.35 points lower than households not living in owned homes. Although the result differs from housing quality studies in other developing countries.
The characteristics of the environment where one lives or works can have a number of potential effects on human health. Where one lives, the places where one’s children play, and other factors may expose individuals to signifi cant health risks and pollutants. These risks may be associated with nearby land uses, traffi c-related exposures, previous activities on a site, building materials, and quality of housing.
CONCLUSION –
The developing countries are unable to provide the basic facilities and amenities to all, in order to cope with the situation, there is a strict need of governing bodies to interfere and reform the norms for housing and development works. The norms must comprise of necessity of amenities and services with good dwelling units. The overall effects of good and poor housing quality is having a wide difference thus to overcome the needs of this situation there is an important need, that the government becomes strict enough to implement its norms and regulations. The development work must focus on sustainable and eco- friendly developments.

7. REFERENCES -
1. Exploring housing qualities in Philippines- Becky love yust, Tasoulla Hadjiyani & Lucylen B.Ponce
2. Measuring the value of housing quality – John F. Kain, John M. Quigley
3. Housing Quality Indicators – Andrew Harrison
4. Housing Choice Voucher Program Guidebook, chapter 10
5. Estimating the Determinants of Housing Quality:The Case of Ghana, Emmanuel Fiadzo
6. HEALTHY VILLAGES: A GUIDE FOR COMMUNITIES AND COMMUNITY HEALTH WORKERS- chapter 7 Housing quality
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