Relevance: GS-2: Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes.

Key phrases: Hosing for all, PM Awas yojana, Gramin, urban, PPP, CLSS, and EWS.

Why in News?

• India’s flagship housing scheme, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), which aims at housing for all by 2022, is witnessing pandemic-induced hiccups with less than 50 per cent of the homes sanctioned being completed in the urban areas. The rural segment has fared better with a 65 per cent completion rate.

Housing for All in India:

• 2022 is the year in which the NDA regime had originally hoped to realise its mission of ‘Housing for All’ under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), its ambitious mission of ensuring pucca houses for 5 crore rural and urban poor.
• Covid-related disruptions led to these targets being scaled down with completion dates deferred to 2024. By this January, PMAY-Rural had delivered 1.7 crore homes against the promised 2.9 crore, while PMAY-Urban had seen just 54 lakh homes completed against the 1.14 crore target.
• In the urban segment of the scheme (called PMAY-Urban), Data from the Ministry and trade sources show PMAY-U, as on January 3, around 114.06 lakh homes have been already sanctioned by the government. But the number of actually completed homes is just 47 per cent of the sanctioned or the total or 53.42 lakh homes have been completed/delivered. Around 91.47 lakh homes have been grounded.
• According to a response in the Lok Sabha in July 2021, the construction of a total of 45.7 lakh houses was complete under PMAY-U in the five-year period from 2016-17 to 2020-21. The scheme came into effect mid of 2015 onwards.
• In 2021, the Union Cabinet approved the extension of the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana – Gramin (PMAY-G) till March 2024 (from March 2021), in order to achieve the total target of 2.95 crore rural houses. As on date, 170.30 lakh houses are have been completed that is 65 per cent of the total sanction 262.89 lakh units.

Problem with Housing Scheme in India:

• PMAY-U’s Credit Linked subsidy scheme (CLSS) component offers interest rate subvention on housing loans borrowed by the Economically Weaker Section (EWS), low and middle income groups. However, the subvention amount is insufficient for private housing in major urban centres of tier-I cities. After all, tier-I cities are characterized by high housing prices
• A prime reason behind the lack of affordable housing supply is high land prices.
• According to a social consultancy FSG, a quarter of India’s urban population (upto 37 million) lives in slums/ informal housing. Awareness of the possible benefits under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana is still unknown to a big portion of this population.
• Most of the EWS/LIG projects are located in outskirts of the cities. The connectivity & infrastructure pose a challenge for the aspiring home buyers to make a purchase decision.
• There is a gap between demand and supply for EWS/LIG housing units. Developers are focusing equally on MIG Units. However, majority of the beneficiaries lie in EWS/LIG category.
• Slum redevelopment and EWS projects have made little progress for lack of private sector interest.
• Bottlenecks in property records: An important aspect of PMAY is interest subsidy on a home loan and the direct subsidy for individual house construction or enhancement. However, to avail these subsidies, title documents to the property are required.

Way Forward:

• As the Budget draws near, different developers call for enhancing outlay in metros – where urbanisation pace has picked pace – bringing back the credit linked subsidy schemes; and ensuring faster clearances to ensure completion of home construction.
• Extending PMAY-CLSS (credit link subsidy scheme) scheme for next three years up to March 2025 will give impetus to the affordable housing segment.
• New construction technologies, which are adaptable, sustainable and low cost, can be used for creating large-scale affordable housing at rapid pace and reach out to a larger audience.
• PPPs in Affordable Rental Housing Complex.
• There is a need for the government to expedite the affordable rental housing complex (ARHC) scheme under PMAY-U, launched in 2020. Under the ARHC scheme, government housing complexes lying vacant are to be converted into rental housing under PPP model and rented to urban migrants at concessional rates.

Source: The Hindu BL

Mains Question:

Q. PMAY-U is certainly filling an important gap in India on the affordable housing front. However, given the overall fiscal implications for India, measures are certainly needed to ensure prudence and seek permanent solutions. Critically analyse.