Terrain-specific houses for poor

Weather and terrain specific housing and identification of beneficiaries as per the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) would be some of the new features of the re-worked Mahatma Gandhi Rural Housing Scheme, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch next week.

The scheme, which is renamed as the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Awas Yojana, also increases the funds allocated for building a dwelling unit substantially. While earlier it was `75,000, now the funds have been increased from `1,20,000 to `1,30,000, along with `12,000 for building a toilet and 90 days of labour. The area of each unit would also be increased to 30 square metres from 20 square meters.

The refurbished 30-year old rural housing scheme would be launched as a national mission with a target to build 3.2 crore “pucca” houses for the poor over the next eight years, ministry of rural development secretary Amarjit Sinha told this newspaper. After he took over, PM Modi had announced his vision of housing with water, electricity and toilets for all Indians by 2022.

The rural development ministry has zeroed in on 100 weather specific designs for houses. While in the north east, houses would be made of wood and bamboo, in the north, they would be made using locally available materials.

Though the construction of toilets is mandatory since April 2013, barely 38 per cent houses reported the same because of insufficient funds and lack of coordination in provision for water and electricity, through convergence, is still optional. Mr Sinha said that as per the new scheme, those who construct their own houses can get mandays under the Nrega.

“There is also a programme, being run with the ministry of skill development, through which Nrega workers can get training in building houses,” Mr Sinha said.

Started in 1985 as part of the Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Programme (RLEGP), Indira Awas Yojana (IAY) was subsumed in Jawahar Rozgar Yojana (JRY) in 1989 and has been operating as an independent scheme since 1996. From 1995–96 the scheme has been further extended to widows or next-of-kin of defence personnel killed in action, ex-servicemen and retired members of the paramilitary forces who wish to live in rural areas as long as they meet basic eligibility criteria.