Shelter for Urban Poor

By A T Bureau
The Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja has said that migration of people from rural areas to urban areas is one of the factors in increase of number of urban poor. As per the report of Technical Group on Estimation of Urban Housing Shortage, as on 2007, the estimated urban housing shortage in the country was 24.71 million. Out of this, the estimated urban housing shortage for the State of Uttar Pradesh was 2.38 million.

In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today she said, as per the report of Technical Group on Estimation of Urban Housing Shortage, the projected housing shortage by year 2012 will be 26.53 Million. Out of the total housing shortage, more than 99% shortage is projected for the EWS & LIG categories of urban households. The Government is implementing Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission ( Basic Services to the Urban Poor and Integrated Housing and Slum Development Programme components), aimed at providing basic amenities and affordable housing to the urban poor, since December, 2005.

She said, the Government has recently launched a new scheme called Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) on 02-06-2011 for the slum dwellers and the urban poor. This scheme aims at providing support to States that are willing to provide property rights to slum dwellers.