Making housing scheme for cities target-driven

The Union Cabinet’s decision to provide assistance for construction of additional three crore houses under the flagship Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) signals the priority set by the new National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. During the earlier terms of the Modi government, 4.21 crore houses were built under the scheme. Successful implementation of the scheme has multiple benefits apart from meeting housing needs of poor and marginalised people. Construction of the PMAY houses generates huge employment opportunities in the construction sector for masonry, plumbing and electrical works. Creation of rural employment helps to augment household income. This in turn helps to increase consumption in rural as well as urban markets benefitting small traders, retailers, and transporters of goods,thereby strengthening the economy. PMAY is also aligned with other flagship schemes including piped water supply to each rural household, electrical connection, and LPG connection, thus removing the worries of beneficiaries about toiling hard for years altogether to save money and access these basic amenities. Concrete houses built under the scheme provide a secure shelter to family members of beneficiaries, boosting their confidence to focus on agriculture, allied activities or other livelihoods, leading to improvement in living standards. States adopting digital solutions for monitoring the progress of release of funds and construction of PMAY houses as well as convergence of other amenities can ensure smooth transformation of lives of beneficiaries and help them come out of multi-dimensional poverty. Allegations of discrepancies in selection of beneficiaries must be investigated by the implementing authorities so that genuine beneficiaries are not deprived  More emphasis should be laid on conducting the social audit in respect of all flagship schemes so that fund utilisation meets their objectives. In the past, housing schemes undertaken by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre failed to meet the objectives with middlemen siphoning the money intended for beneficiaries. The Modi government’s initiative of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) to bank accounts of the beneficiaries at the click of a mouse was the game changer. It removed the middlemen and ensured that the funds disbursed were fully utilised, which brought transparency in the utilization of taxpayer’s money. Improving the living conditions of the rural poor is critical to improving the country’s economy. Agricultural distress pushes marginalised families into penury, and in striving to increase household income for housing and other needs, members of farming families migrate to cities and towns. Apart from push factors behind such outmigration, there are also pull factors of generation of demand for construction and other service sector workers due to rapid urbanization, expansion of highways, and huge investments in education and health sectors both by the government and the private sector. Migration, however, has fuelled the housing needs for urban poor who migrate from rural areas to work as daily wage earners. The proposed construction of additional three crore PMAY houses covering adequate number of urban beneficiaries is important. Unlike the rural poor, the problem of the urban poor is more acute due to landless condition. The PMAY-Urban-Housing for All Mission has been extended to this year end. States prioritizing this mission to provide concrete houses with basic civic infrastructure such as toilet facilities, water connection, electricity supply, cooking gas connection and access to other civic amenities to all eligible urban households is critical to make cities sustainable. If housing demand is not met,then urban landless households are left only with the option of migrating to a new city or encroaching upon government land leading to expansion of slum areas.In a city like Guwahati, this has brought about encroachment of hills and wetlands, posing environmental threats to permanent dwellers of the city. Outmigration of landless urban poor can trigger shortage of labour in the city, making development projects undertaken by city authorities or private investors unviable. Timely completion of PMAY houses is essential to prevent cost escalation. Assessment of housing needs for urban poor will help the States in setting targets to bridge the gap. Aadhar linkage provides technological solution to filter out ineligible applicants. Confiscation of PMAY houses and other amenities from beneficiaries who are found encroaching upon government lands, forest areas, and wetlands can act as deterrent against unauthorised settlements and mushrooming of illegal slums. Assam needs to be more vigilant in this regard to prevent unauthorised settlement of illegal Bangladeshi migrants in Guwahati and other towns which aggravates the demographic threat to indigenous population under the garb of urban landless poor. Periodic inspection of settlement of migrant population needs to be carried out by police stations to detect presence of any such settlement of illegal migrants and usurping of benefits under flagship schemes like PMAY. States drawing up comprehensive list of eligible beneficiaries will facilitate smooth implementation and generate associated livelihoods for the benefit of the marginalised. The government can also explore the possibility of changing PMAY-Urban from a demand-driven scheme to target-oriented scheme, so as to address the growing housing demand of migrant populations in cities and towns.