The Census of India, 2001 estimated 4,47,585 houseless households throughout the country. 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. The policy aims at forging strong partnerships among the public, private and cooperative sectors for accelerated growth. However, ‘land’ and ‘colonisation’ being state subjects, it is for the State Governments to pursue the initiatives under the NUHHP:2007.
The Central Government is supporting the construction of housing for poor sections of the society in urban and rural areas.
• 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 15,40,611 houses have been sanctioned and Central share of Rs. 20130.79 crores committed for the purpose.
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.
• 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 Rs.. 5000 crores, seeks construction of 1 million houses for EWS/LIG/Middle Income Group (MIG) with at least 25% for EWS Category.
• The Government has announced a new scheme called Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) for providing support for making cities slum free to States that are willing to provide property rights to slum dwellers.
• Furthermore, Indira Awaas Yojana, a centrally sponsored scheme is being implemented by the Ministry of Rural Development in the rural areas of all States/UTs except Delhi and Chandigarh. Under it, financial assistance, which is shared between Centre and State in the ratio of 75:25, to the tune of Rs. 45,000/- in plain areas and Rs. 48,500/- in hilly/difficult areas is provided to rural BPL households for construction of dwelling units. The 11th Plan document seeks construction of 150 lakh houses in rural areas of the country during the 11th Plan period.