HOUSING THE URBAN POOR POLICY AND PRACTICE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES Edited by Brian C Aldrich& Ravinder S Sandhu-Vistaar Vistaar Publications Rs 445
GARBAGE strewn all around... green pastures for flies ... long queues with containers at the tubewells --- and a sea of humanity crawling out of shanties to go about their daily routines. This is a typical slum in most parts of the Third World. The unhappy residents of these inhuman environs face unemployment and hunger on the one hand, and the apathy and ire of their wealthier neighhours, on the other, This is the problem which this tome addresses.
The book is essentially a compilation of analyses of the various methods used the developing world to 4 this problem. it attempts put the problem in its co4 perspective through detau case studies of program4 initiated in different countries to mitigate the problem.
Cedric Pugh's analysis, how the traditional pol of the World Bank (wB) to negative results and Bank later shifts to the policies, is interestin describes the importangi government prote ti housing from wB austle programmes.
The strength of the A lies in the case studies, -41 highlight the uniquenesF the problem in differl societies. There are . analyses of policy effort countries ranging fil Hong Kong to Thailand Brazil to India- Howeverl book does well to put problem in a global persi five. It shows how macroeo nomic factors such as the nature of the tie to the global economy" affects. the development of the housing sector.
But the book does not address the crucial issue of reducing the number of urban poor, which in the ultimate analysis can be the only real solution. The other solution is more than utopian - changing the world from a global village to a global city. Even with regard to housing the slum dwellers, the book fails to provide any politically, socially or economically practicable solution. In this sense it is incomplete. However, the chapters are well researched and will interest any person working in or studying housing development.
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