The magnitude of the problem of housing is ,indeed, gigantic as you will discover from the following data :
Based on population projections, it is estimated that India's population will increase from 684 million in 1981 to about 1000 million by the year 2001. This high rate of growth of population, which is of the order of 2.4 percent per annum, is bringing pressure on an already critical housing situation.
The population of India in the year 1991 was about 850 million and the proportion of rural population was approximately 72.5 percent. Nearly 612 million people live in 557,000 odd villages of this country.
For purposes of classification, rural houses have been divided into three categories, namely permanent, semi-permanent and non-permanent (requiring frequent renewals). Their percentages in the rural areas are 27 : 33 : 40 (NBO), approximately.
The average size of the rural household is 5.5 persons. Nearly 92 percent of the rural houses have no sanitary facilities.
India is one of the most thickly populated nations of the world, with an average of more than 210 persons per sq km. The land area is 329 million sq km, and 56% is covered by cultivation, 17% by forests, 10% by water bodies, 5% by meadows and 10% by waste- lands and less than 3% is covered by human settlements.
Official statistics (NBO, 1988) indicate, that there is a construction backlog of over 19.3 million units in rural areas and 9.2 million units in urban areas. In addition, 2 million houses are required each year for the increasing population.
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