Two million houses needed to fulfill right to housing

Kathmandu, July 22

Minister for Finance Dr. Yuba Raj Khatiwada said on Monday that the government had to build about 2 million houses if the right to housing was to be fulfilled as provisioned in the Constitution.

"Decent housing is included in the Constitution as the fundamental right of every citizen. But it is a distant dream given the limited resources currently available," he said while addressing the inaugural ceremony of conference on 'The path to universal social protection in Nepal: the role of integration and harmonisation'.

The government had launched Janata Awas Programme in 2010 to provide shelter to the deprived communities, Dalits and people in vulnerable conditions.

Social protection is a fundamental right of every citizen in the country as it is enshrined in our Constitution so it’s a constitutional process, not political, said the Minister.

FM Dr. Khatiwada said that the government needed to increase its institutional capacity and resource mobilisation to fulfil the constitutional demands of social protection.

However, he maintained that work and employment were the best and sustainable ways of social protection while other measures were only for those who were unable to join the labour market.

"Enhancing the capability of every citizen in the society is the main aim of the government. People must be benefitted in a socially justified way," he said.

Dr. Khatiwada said that social protection was a powerful instrument of the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

"I believe that the income of poorer households should grow faster than the richer ones. For this, you have to invest in the rural infrastructure and job creation," he said.

According to him, the government is working to make the country a welfare state in medium term.

Old-age pension, youth scholarships, child grant, decent housing were some of the social protection schemes in practice in Nepal.

Minister Dr. Khatiwada said that there was need of consolidating all the schemes to eliminate the possibility of duplication and mulling to make them sustainable.

Jasmine Rajbhandary, Senior Social Protection Specialist at the World Bank, said that the establishment of unique beneficiary identification system and integrated database were the major challenges in social protection practice in the country.

Stating that social protection was needed to address inclusion, poverty and resilience, she maintained that the focus should be shifted to establishing an integrated policy framework, harmonising system, enhancing delivery and improving the design.

About 35 per cent Nepalis are covered by the social protection schemes like old age pension, single women pension, disability grant, child grant, mother protection and earthquake relief.

The seminar was jointly organised by the government and German Development Agency (GIZ).

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 23 July 2019.