By Avner Pariat
Meghalaya is experiencing rapid urbanization. Cities like Shillong, Tura, and Jowai are expanding quickly, but our urban infrastructure is struggling to keep up. Without a well-planned Urban Mission, the state risks facing severe challenges in Housing, Transportation, Waste Management, and overall quality of life. These, I would argue, are probably the most pressing political pressures that this (and any) government will have to face.
Let us begin with the vital issue of Housing. Our rising population density has increased the demand for affordable housing, but that demand has not been met. Most areas in the capital city lack proper planning, resulting in overcrowded settlements with inadequate sanitation and infrastructure. Trash is strewn about, waiting for the rain to wash it away and clog some pipeline downstream. Drains from household compounds open up directly into the streets, encouraging vermin and feral animals to thrive. It is no exaggeration to say that one can feel the palpable tension everywhere as one moves from slum to slum, tenement to tenement.
People are not happy. The grim reality is that to own land at these meagre salaries (Rs 10,000-20,000 per month) is a distant dream for most people under 40. On average, 4000 square feet of non-commercial land in a place like Langkyrding will set you back by about Rs 80 lakhs. That is just the land; I am not talking about the construction costs for a house itself. Without housing loans, which most of us will not get as we have no “fixed salary,” that would mean we are left to fend for ourselves. So, say a monthly income of Rs 20,000 gets my total yearly income up to Rs 2,40,000 per year. That would mean I can be the proud owner of my own small 4000-square-foot plot of land after 33 to 34 years. Oh, yay! In that 33–34-year period, of course, my entire salary must go towards paying for this land. I cannot eat, have a family, nor do anything else with my income except paying for those 4000 square feet of land. Is that not tragedy and comedy at the same time?
So, we are forced to rent instead. Have you seen the condition of the places they put up for rent these days? You can actually go online right now on Meta (IG or FB) and look at the places for yourselves. Let me summarize them for you: cramped, congested, safety hazards with no amenities, and very little natural light or ventilation. That is what you will get these days in various neighbourhoods around town. For the average person earning between Rs 10,000 – Rs 20,000 per month, they will have to move further away from the central parts and end up in places like Demthring, Nongrah, Mawlai, etc. Sure, rents here will be cheaper, say between Rs 5,000 to Rs 7,000 per month, but they will have to make peace with the fact that a large percentage of their earnings will be spent on transportation as the cheaper rental accommodations are further away from the commercial centres where they work. So, after all this, we will have a youth population that will be exhausted at the end of the day, poorer at the end of the month, and angry, all the time. Society will forever be in flux and in turmoil, and governance will always be unstable just because we did not want to provide cheap or free housing to the people.
So how do we fix this? It is quite simple, actually. If we are taking loans from so many places, it should not be a problem to take a billion-dollar loan from somewhere and just, you know, BUILD MORE HOUSES! The government can come in as the guarantor and ensure that people pay EMIs on the units for, say, 30 years. Who knows—with proper planning, the government could actually make some money from the entire enterprise. After that 30-year period, the units would belong permanently to the people and their families. We can build colonies, community flats from that billion-dollar loan, whatever it be. We need more of these types of basic interventions now, and not major events and concerts, that actually drain the Exchequer and do not add to our revenue.
The government should explore innovative solutions such as cooperative housing societies where individuals can pool resources to build cost-effective homes. Underpinning the entire project should be an emphasis and a foregrounding of the welfare of the local Labour force and not just the contractors. I have argued before for worker-led construction companies to take up infrastructure projects across Meghalaya. This massive project/undertaking could be the biggest improvement in their lives. Some might bring in the PMAY (Urban) Mission here for discussion but that has been a dead duck from the start because of the various fallacies in its design and I do not know any notable exceptions to this. For further reading one can refer to India’s Enduring Urban Housing Shortage: The Case for Upgrading Informal Settlements by Manpreet Batra, for a general overview of the scheme.
It is Science; it is Data. Housing has been studied closely and in great detail for decades from all over the world. Researchers have found, time and time again, that when people are secured (in terms of house ownership), they live better, happier lives and, crucially, they are better workers too, which leads to better productivity, which leads to better revenues for the state itself. So, in the long run, the provision of Housing is a win-win for everyone. Urban development should not be an afterthought; it should be the centrepiece of Meghalaya’s economic planning. The budget must reflect this urgent need before our cities collapse under the weight of neglect and mismanagement.