Homeless Families

By A T Bureau

The Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja has said that the Census of India 2001 does not define homeless and instead ‘Houseless Households’ have been enumerated as households who do not live in buildings or census houses but live in the open on roadside, pavements, in Hume pipes, under flyovers and staircases, or in the open in places of worship, mandaps, railway platforms, etc.. The Census of India, 2001 estimated 1,87,810 houseless households throughout the country in urban areas. Statewise details of urban houseless households are given at Annexure.

In a written reply in the Lok Sabha today she said, the National Urban Housing & Habitat Policy (NUHHP) 2007 aims at promoting sustainable development of habitat in the country with a view to ensuring equitable supply of land shelter and services at affordable prices to all sections of the society. However, ‘land’ and ‘colonisation’ being state subjects, it is for the State Governments to pursue the initiatives under the NUHHP:2007.

She said, however, the Central Government is supporting the construction of housing for poor sections of the society in urban areas through various programmatic interventions namely:

§ The Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), launched by the Government in the year 2005 supports provision of housing and basic services to urban poor in slums in 65 specified cities under the Sub Mission Basic Services to the Urban Poor (BSUP) and in other cities and towns under the Integrated Housing and Slum Development Programme (IHSDP). The schemes are demand driven and so far 16,12,503 Dwelling Units have been sanctioned for construction/upgradation in 936 cities/towns under BSUP & IHSDP components of JNNURM as on 12.07.2011.

§ The Interest Subsidy Scheme for Housing the Urban Poor (ISHUP) provides for interest subsidy on housing loans to the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) and Low Income Group (LIG) as part of credit-enablement measures and encourages those households to avail of loan facilities through Commercial Banks/Housing Finance Companies for the purposes of construction/acquisition of houses and avail 5% subsidy in interest payment for loans upto Rs. 1 lakh. The scheme aims to cover 3.10 lakh beneficiaries over the 11th Plan Period. Cumulatively, as on 03/08/2011, 7904 beneficiaries in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka , Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra , Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu have been covered under the Scheme and a subsidy of Rs. 12.27 crore has been released.

§ The scheme of Affordable Housing in Partnership seeks assembly of land for construction of affordable housing and provides Central Government assistance towards provision of internal and external infrastructure connectivity. The scheme which was launched in 2009 with an outlay of `. 5000 crores, seeks construction of 1 million houses for EWS/LIG/Middle Income Group (MIG) with at least 25% for EWS Category.

§ A new scheme ‘Rajiv Awas Yojana’ (RAY) has been launched on 02.06.2011. The Scheme will provide financial assistance to States that are willing to assign property rights to slum dwellers for provision of decent shelter and basic civic and social services for slum redevelopment, and for creation of affordable housing stock. Fifty percent (50 %) of the cost of provision of basic civic and social infrastructure and amenities and of housing, including rental housing, and transit housing for in-situ redevelopment – in slums would be borne by the Centre, including operation & maintenance of assets created under this scheme. For the North Eastern and Special Category States the share of the Centre would be 90% including the cost of land acquision, if required.

Kumari Selja said, BPL Cards are issued by State Governments in their respective States.