A/HRC/34/51/Add.1 I. Introduction 1. The Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context, Leilani Farha, conducted an official visit to India from 11 to 22 April 2016, at the invitation of the Government. 2. The Special Rapporteur visited New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru, as well as periurban and rural areas near those cities. She is grateful to the Government of India and the state governments of Karnataka, Maharashtra and the National Capital Territory of Delhi for their cooperation throughout the visit. She thanks the staff of the office of the United Nations Resident Coordinator for their support for the visit. She is deeply appreciative to those who generously met with her in their homes, on the pavements and settlements, and in shelters, sharing their living conditions and struggles. She extends her gratitude to the civil society and community organizations, academics, lawyers and experts who shared their experiences and insights, many of whom travelled to meet with her. 3. India is proud to be the “largest democracy in the world”, based in part on its historic roots and in part in the magnitude of the country’s population of 1.31 billion people. Projections for 2022 and 2050 suggest that the population will reach approximately 1.4 billion and 1.7 billion respectively, marking only a handful of years before India becomes the world’s most populated country. 1 Additionally, as a federal State, with constitutionally devolved powers in the area of housing, variances occur between states, including with respect to the implementation of national government policies and programmes. The Special Rapporteur recognizes the difficulty in governing such a large and diverse democracy and has tried to consider that in her analysis. 4. Unlike in other emerging economies, the Indian population remains primarily rural, with an estimated 67 per cent of the population living in rural areas. 2 However, trends indicate that urbanization has accelerated in recent years. Between 2010 and 2015, the urban population grew at a steady annual average of 2.38 per cent, while the average rural growth was just 0.7 per cent annually, 3 as a result of increased migration and displacement to urban and peri-urban centres. An estimated 180 million rural residents live next to the 70 largest urban centres in India. According to the 2011 socioeconomic and caste census, there are 7,933 cities and towns of different population sizes, including megacities of over 10 million inhabitants. In some cities, such as Mumbai, half the population lives in informal settlements.4 The average size of households in India is estimated at 4.8 members, with wide variations between rural and urban settings. 5 5. There may be no better way to describe in a nutshell the Special Rapporteur’s experience of India than to say that it is a country of stark contrasts: extreme poverty and deprivation in the face of extreme wealth, a gap which is steadily growing and overtly visible. In 2011/12, a reported 21.9 per cent of the population was living below the poverty 1 2 3 4 5 United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, World Population Prospects: The 2015 Revision, Key Findings and Advance Tables, Working Paper No. ESA/P/WP.241, p. 4. See http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.RUR.TOTL.ZS. See https://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/CD-ROM/, WUP2014-F06-Urban_Growth_Rate.xls and WUP2014F07-Rural_Growth_Rate.xls. The terms “slum” and “slum dweller” are widely used in India. The Special Rapporteur prefers to use “informal settlement” and “resident” or “inhabitant”. See http://censusindia.gov.in/default.aspx. 3