Over 11 million houses are lying unused and vacant in urban India reveals this new report on urban housing shortage for the 12th plan period (2012-17) released by the Ministry of Urban Housing and Poverty Alleviation.

Government of India have recently announced Rajiv Awas Yojana under which every citizen is to be provided access to basic civic and social services and decent shelter.

The core belief of National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM) is that the poor are entrepreneurial and have innate desire to come out of poverty. The challenge is to unleash their capabilities to generate meaningful and sustainable livelihoods. The first step in this process is motivating the urban poor to form their own institutions.

This paper focuses on the key elements of sustainable building, giving starting points for further research concerning the environmental, economical, social and political implications and offering different concepts, where the decision clearly depends on nontechnical choices.

This brief status report of human rights in India gives a general overview of the most critical human rights issues in India today.