Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY)
Posted on: 26/Dec/2016 1:00:24 PM
Housing is one of the basic requirements for human survival. For a normal citizen owning a house provides significant economic and social security and status in society. For a shelterless person, a house brings about a profound social change in his existence, endowing him with an identity, thus integrating him with his immediate social milieu. A housing programme for the rehabilitation of refugees was taken up immediately after partition by the Ministry of Refugee Rehabilitation and this lasted till around 1960. Approximately 5 lakh families were housed in various centres mainly located in Northern lndia.
A Village Housing Scheme was also launched as part of the Community Development Movement in 1957, in which loans to individuals and cooperatives were provided up to a maximum of Rs. 5000/- per house. However, only 67000 houses were built under this scheme by the end of the Fifth Plan (1980). In 1972-73, the Estimate Committee of the Lok Sabha in its 37th Report pointed out that the Committee is distressed to note that although 83% of India`s population lives in villages and about 73% of the rural population reside in unsatisfactory kutcha structures, the problem of rural housing has not received the close attention of the Government.
Following this, certain initiatives were undertaken by Government including the launching of the House Sites cum Construction Assistance Scheme which began as a Central Scheme in the 4th Plan and was transferred to the State Sector with effect from 1.04.1974 on the recommendation of the National Development Council (NDC). The genesis of the Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY) can be traced to the programmes of rural employment, which began in the early 1980s.
Construction of houses was one of the major activities under the National Rural Employment Programme (NREP), which began in 1980, and the Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Programme (RLEGP), which began in 1983. There was, however, no uniform policy for rural housing in the States.
For instance, some States permitted only part of the construction cost to be borne from NREP/ RLEGP funds and the balance was to be met by beneficiaries from their savings or loans obtained by them. On the other hand, others permitted the entire expenditure to be borne from NREP/ RLEGP funds. Further, while some states allowed construction of only new dwellings, others permitted renovation of existing houses of beneficiaries.
As per announcement made by the Government of India in June 1985, a part of the RLEGP fund was earmarked for the construction of houses for SCs/STs and freed bonded labourers. As a result, Indira Awaas Yojana (lAY) was launched during 1985-86 as a sub-scheme of RLEGP. IAY, thereafter, continued as a sub-scheme of Jawahar Rozgar Yojana (JRY) since its launching in April, 1989. 6% of the total JRY funds were allocated for implementation of lAY. From the year 1993-94, the scope of lAY was extended to cover below the poverty line Non-Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled Tribes families in the rural areas.
Simultaneouously, the allocation of funds for implementing the scheme was raised from 6% to 10% of the total resources available under JRY at the national level, subject to the condition that the benefits to Non-Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled Tribes poor should not exceed 4% of the total JRY allocation. IAY was de-linked from JRY and made an independent scheme with effect from 1st January 1996.
Since 1999-2000, a number of initiatives have been taken to improve the Rural Housing (RH) Programme by making provision for upgradation of unserviceable kutcha houses and by providing credit with subsidy for certain sections of the poor. Emphasis has also been laid on use of cost affective, disaster resistant and environment friendly technologies in rural housing.
For more details visit rural.nic.in/sites/programmes-schemes-rural-housing.asp
