Outside urban areas, owning land is a prerequisite to having a semblance of a roof over the head. While over 2 million people are homeless in Indian cities, a huge but indeterminate number in small towns and rural areas don’t have ‘homes’. A Planning Commission document admits to the government’s "failure to curb or prevent concentration of urban land holdings, profiteering and ensure equitable distribution of land". The government has taken over 220,000 hectares of land, declared as surplus, for housing development for the poor. Only 8 per cent of this has been utilised.
