Schemes for Slum Dwellers and Urban Poor

The Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja has said that the Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation (HUPA) is implementing the following schemes for slum dwellers and urban poor across the country:

(i) Under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) launched on 3^rd December, 2005, the Basic Services to the Urban Poor (BSUP) and Integrated Housing and Slum Development Programmes (IHSDP) are being implemented which focus on basic services to the urban poor and integrated development of slums. Under BSUP, 65 select cities in the country are covered and the remaining cities are covered under IHSDP. Under BSUP scheme, 527 projects have been approved with total project cost of Rs. 30188.69 crores for construction of 1017252 Dwelling Units (DUs). Under IHSDP scheme, 1084 projects in 928 cities have been approved with total project cost of Rs. 12048.50 crores for construction of 570951 Dwelling Units (DUs).

(ii) Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY) aims at providing gainful employment to the urban unemployed and under-employed poor, through encouraging the setting up of self employment ventures by the urban poor living below the poverty line, skills training and also through providing wage employment by utilizing their labour for construction of socially and economically useful public assets. This scheme is applicable to all cities and towns in the country. During the 2011-12, 353,803 beneficiaries were covered under   skills training and 79,804 beneficiaries under urban self employment programme components of SJSRY.

(iii) In pursuance of the Government’s vision of creating a Slum-free India, a new scheme ‘Rajiv Awas Yojana’ (RAY) has been launched on 02.06.2011.Under the Scheme financial assistance is being provided 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. The scheme is expected to cover above 250 cities, across the entire country by the end of 12^th plan (2017).The States would be required to include all the mission cities of JNNURM, preferably cities with more than 3 lakh population as per 2001 Census; and other smaller cities, with due consideration to the pace of growth of the city, of slums, predominance of minority population, and areas where property rights are assigned. Funds have been released to 34 States/UTs under Slum Free City Planning Scheme - the preparatory phase of Rajiv AwasYojana. The list of 185 cities in which preparatory activities are being undertaken are as per Annexure-I. In addition, 8 pilot projects with total project cost of Rs. 446.22 Crores involving Central Assistance of Rs. 197.09 Crores have been approved under RAY for construction of 8400 dwelling units. The first installment of Rs. 65.69 Crores has been released to the concerned states as per Annexure-II.

 (iv) The Affordable Housing in Partnership Scheme, which is intended to encourage public private partnerships for the creation of affordable housing stock has been dovetailed with RAY. Under this scheme, central support will be provided at the rate of Rs 50,000 per unit of rental/affordable dwelling unit or 25% of the cost of civic infrastructure (external and internal), whichever is lower. Under this Scheme, which is applicable to all cities covered under RAY, 8 projects have been sanctioned with a central assistance of Rs. 7.2 Crore for construction of 5776 Affordable dwelling units.

(v) To enable the urban poor to obtain credit for home loans at affordable rates, the Interest Subsidy Scheme for Housing the Urban Poor (ISHUP), which provides 5 % interest subsidy on loans up to Rs. one lakh, is being implemented. This scheme has been dovetailed with RAY.  As on date, 10,215 beneficiaries have been benefitted.

In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha  Kumari Selja said, for proper utilization of funds under these schemes, the Ministry of HUPA is regularly monitoring the progress through quarterly/monthly physical and financial reports, periodic review meeting at state/regional/city level and field visits by Ministry’s officers and monitoring agencies.

Click here to see Annexures