WORLD HABITAT DAY 2022: The United Nations observes the first Monday of October as World Habitat Day. The day calls to reflect on our towns, cities, and the basic right of all to have adequate shelter. It serves as a reminder that we can shape the future of the place we live in. The day came into existence with a resolution by the UN General Assembly in 1985. This year, World Habitat Day will be observed on October 3. Here’s everything you need to know:
World Habitat Day 2022: Theme
This year’s theme is “Mind the Gap. Leave No One and Place Behind”. The focus is on the growing inequalities and challenges in cities and human settlements. These are the problems that have been aggravated due to what the UN calls triple Cs: Coronavirus (COVID-19), Climate, and Crisis. These triple Cs have hampered the progress made against poverty. The UN calls tackling urban poverty and inequality an “urgent global priority”. They have called for local actions toward Sustainable Development Goals.
World Habitat Day: History
As urban cities continued to grow and rapidly become economic centres, inadequate planning and lack of resources brought about major problems. In response to this, in 1985, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution to observe World Habitat Day. It was to be observed on the first Monday of October every year.
First celebrated in 1986, Nairobi was the host city. The theme was “Shelter is My Right”.
In 1989, the UN Human Settlements Programme launched “The Habitat Scroll of Honour award”. It is the most prestigious human settlement award in the world. The aim is to acknowledge outstanding contributions towards shelter provision, bringing the hardships of being homeless to light, leadership in post-conflict reconstruction, and developing and improving the quality of urban life and human settlement.
World Habitat Day: Significance
World Habitat Day is observed to advocate the basic right to shelter. Every person on this planet deserves a good home. Because a decent living condition is a stepping stone to success and opportunities. The day also helps bring to light the need for keeping a check on our environment due to ongoing urbanization. To create a world our future generations will be proud of living in.
World Habitat Day 2022: Quotes
- “Housing is a human right. There can be no fairness or justice in a society in which some live in homelessness, or in the shadow of that risk, while others cannot even imagine it.” ― Jordan Flaherty, Floodlines: Community and Resistance from Katrina to the Jena Six
- “Whether or not it has fully dawned on society, the reality is that Gen Y will soon have to assume the responsibility for a world crafted by previous generations.” ― Charlie Caruso, Understanding Y
- “Do not despair, my friend. Today is theirs, but the future is ours.” ― Rodman Philbrick, The Last Book in the Universe
- “Poverty has many dimensions, but its causes include unemployment, social exclusion, and high vulnerability of certain populations to disasters, diseases and other phenomena which prevent them from being productive.” ― Oscar Auliq-Ice
- “A healthy, sane and sustainable society is where the state is responsible to support the people, but not to such an extent that the people become reliant on the state, and where the people are capable of taking care of themselves with minimum support from the state.” ― Abhijit Naskar, No Foreigner Only Family
