The annual UN-HABITAT report this year has praised India and China’s effort in lifting people out of urban slums. The report specifies that both countries have lifted more people from urban slum conditions than any other countries.

The figures speak for themselves. China and India have improved the conditions of 65.3 million and 59.7 million respectively of the urban residents who were deprived of shelter since 2000, the report says. It further states that the proportion of people living in slum conditions came down from 37.3 percent in 2000 to about 28.2 percent in 2010 in China and from 41.5 percent in 1990 to 28.1 percent in 2010 in India.

The annual report of the UN body also underlines that countries across the world have done well in lifting 227 million people out of slum conditions, surpassing the Millennium Development target of 2015 by 2.2 times. 

Despite improved show by the countries across globe, the report cautions that programme to reduce slum populations and close the gap in living conditions between rich and poor are “neither good nor adequate.”

It has also stressed that the government city plans “must maintain ‘inclusiveness' policies to narrow the inequalities that divide many cities of developing nations.”  

Read the entire report here