Standards are also very much essential for orderly development of cities. In fact, the studies of the archaeological excavation at Harappa, Mohenjo-Daro and cities of the Indian civilization dating back to over 5,000 years ago reveal that considerable attention was paid to town planning standards. Healthy growth and development of human settlement is possible only by well laid standards.
The concepts, norms and standards for housing and human settlements may be taken as basis to assess the minimum needs of the people and also to quantify the extent of improvements required calls for realistic appraisal of the prevailing situation.
An attempt has been made by National Building Organisation and HUDCO to suggest minimum housing standards for low-income families both in rural and urban areas keeping in view their economic capabilities, social needs and level of technological development as well as within the overall resource constraints due to demographic explosion, rapid pace of urbanization, paucity of financial resources, scarcity of land particularly in urban areas and building materials, greater stress on healthy housing and environmental sanitation, growing expectation of overall improvement in the quality of life.
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