Author bio
Name: Nisha Bhaskar
The author has completed her law degree from Faculty of Law, University of Delhi in the year 2023 and her masters from National Law University, Delhi in 2024 with specialization in Public Law. Along with this she holds a PG Diploma in International Humanitarian and Refugee Law from Indian Society of International Law. She is currently working as Asst. Professor of Law in KLE Law College, Bengaluru.
Introduction
Affordable housing is one of the crucial tenets of the Urban Housing Plans and facilities whether by the Central government or the State governments. This includes development on the line of credit linked subsidy, public-private partnership, and slum development among others. These State-administered housing projects aim to provide housing facilities to the income category that cannot afford it. The proposed plans work on the scheme where the State (inclusive of the centre and states) works in partnership with the private and parastatal bodies to provide housing facilities at a subsidized rate. This is not only an extra burden on the State exchequer but also not feasible for the economy. Rather the affordable housing facility should be in developed pari passo to the place of employment.
The Current Schemes: A Brief Description
To understand the need for such development it becomes pertinent to understand the affordable housing schemes in the present. The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna (Urban)- Housing for all (PMAY for brevity) has been one of the active schemes of the instant government. The initiative launched in 2014, envisioned Housing for all by 2022. However, with the near culmination of 2024, even this most active initiative has not been achieved yet. Affordable Housing in Partnership or AH-P has been one of the four program verticals of PMAY, the other three being Slum rehabilitation of Slum Dwellers with participation of private developers using land as a resource or in-situ slum redevelopment, Promotion of Affordable Housing through Credit Linked Subsidy, Subsidy for Beneficiary-Led individual house construction /enhancement. The PMAY aims at providing affordable housing structures to the EWS category and lower income groups or LIG category. The EWS as defined in the Scheme Guidelines is ‘households having an annual income up to Rs. 3,00,000 (Rupees Three Lakh)’, while LIG includes households having annual income in the bracket of 3,00,001 to 6 lakhs. The definition is however, not exhaustive as the states and union territories have the flexibility of redefining the same in light of the local conditions. Further, the PMAY scheme funding is shared by both the central and the state governments as other than the Credit Linked Subsidy vertical, all three program verticals are centrally sponsored schemes in contrast to the central sector scheme. AH-P aims to provide affordable housing with the help of the private as well as public sector, inclusive of parastatal agencies. To facilitate the same in 2017 the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India released the Public Private Partnership Models for Affordable Housing. PPP has emerged as a crucial method of implementing AH-P. In the year 2018, the government of Uttar Pradesh came up with the model of PPP for AH-P. The scheme charter benefits the developers along with that for the beneficiaries. In recent years the central government has approved AH-P as part of the Rajiv Awas Yojna for the three states of Karnataka, Gujarat, and Rajasthan. Different states in India too have affordable housing projects on the PPP model. Tamil Nadu Shelter Fund, supported by World Bank is one such initiative. Other state government-administered schemes include Maharashtra’s Housing and Area Development Scheme, the well-known Delhi Development Authority and DDA housing scheme, NTR Urban Housing Scheme, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala Housing Board Scheme, Haryana Housing Board Scheme, Odisha government’s AAWAS Scheme, Karnataka One lakh Housing Scheme among others.
The Proposed Model
All these Urban development housing schemes aim toward promoting and developing housing resources for the EWS and the LIGs. The location, availability, and accessibility are drafted from the perspective of the EWS and the LIGs such that the middle class remains excluded from their benefits. These schemes are primarily socialist and therefore, the implementation gap. The grip of capitalism on the economy cannot be discarded and therefore what Roark states in Fountainhead remains applicable in the contemporary. Affordable housing should not be aimed towards a particular section, rather it should be all-inclusive. In the contemporary, the beneficiaries are less and the projects are more. Rather than aiming for individual and affordable housing solutions the aim of the government ought to be accessible housing solutions. One solution towards the same can be the housing facilities at the place of work. Rather than having permanent ownership and possession, the government can aim solely towards ownership. The collaboration can be with the companies, industries, and institutions to develop housing facilities for their employees based on their salary structure and their designation. However, the designation as a criterion ought to be reasonable. This can be included as part of their CSR particulars. Contemporary projects are always aimed at a future date however, housing solutions need to be deliberated in the present as housing demands are one of the most vital needs for a prosperous society. Further, instead of segregating the housing beneficiaries based on family ties, their place of business ought to be taken into consideration. This shall be crucial for giving housing ownership independence to the women employees as well. The challenges arise with the pervasive unorganized sector within the economy. The unorganized sector never exists in silos, they are dependent on the organized sector. Thus, they can be placed in the housing scheme developed for organized employees on similar parameters. However, this cannot be achieved without the centre-state co-operation. Both the centre and the states need to draft these regulations in light of the contemporary requirements. UIDAI can be resourceful for its actualization.
Citations
https://pmayg.nic.in accessed 20 October 2024.
https://pmay-urban.gov.in accessed 20 October 2024.
https://mohua.gov.in/cms/rajivawasyojana.php (last visited October 20, 2024).
https://mohua.gov.in/cms/AffordableHousinginPartnership.php (last visited October 20, 2024).
https://tnifmc.com/shelter-fund/ (last visited October 20, 2024).
https://mhada.gov.in/ (last visited October 20, 2024).
https://dda.gov.in/ (last visited October 20, 2024).
https://ap.gov.in/ (last visited October 20, 2024).
http://www.keralahousingboard.gov.in/ (last visited October 20, 2024).
https://haryanahousingboard.gov.in/ (last visited October 20, 2024).
https://housing.odisha.gov.in/ (last visited October 20, 2024).
https://karunadu.karnataka.gov.in/ (last visited October 20, 2024).
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