Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana is an initiative by the Indian government. In this, affordable housing will be available to the urban poor. In this, there will also be a target of building 2 crore (20 million) affordable houses by 31st March 2022.
This yojana has two parts: Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Urban (PMAY-U) for the urban poor and Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Gramin) (PMAY-G and PMAY-R) for the rural poor. This is a scheme converged with other schemes to ensure that houses have the following facilities- a toilet, Saubhagya Yojana electricity connection, Ujjwala Yojana LPG connection, Jan Dhan banking facilities, access to drinking water, etc. As of 28th December 2019, a total of one crore homes is approved against the demand of 1.12 crores.
Public housing programs started in India when the refugees were rehabilitated in India after independence. About five lakh families were provided homes in various parts of Northern India till 1960. In 1957, Village Housing Programs (VHP) were introduced with the advent of the second five-year plan of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. It provided loans to individuals and cooperatives up to Rupees 5000 per unit. In this scheme, only 67,000 houses could be constructed by the end of the fifty-Five Year Plan (1974-1979). After this, another scheme was introduced. It was called the House Sites-cum-Construction Assistance Scheme (HSCAS). It was transferred to the State Sector from 1974-1975.
The public housing program in India got a boost with the launch of Indira Awas Yojana (IAY) by then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. It happened in 1985. The government launched IAY as a rural housing program that targeted SC and ST and Minority populations. The government gradually extended this program to cover all Below Poverty Line (BPL) populations.
So, we can see that there were continuous efforts made by the Indian government to fulfill the housing needs of the rural and urban poor. As a part of this, the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana was launched by Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India in June 2015. It aimed at providing affordable housing. Under PMAY, it decided to build 2 crore houses for the urban poor. It included Economically Weaker Sections and Low Income Groups in urban areas. It was to happen by the year 2022 through the financial assistance of Rupees 2 lakh crore (US$28 billion) from the central government.
Under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, there was a subsidy of Rupees 2.67 lakh provided by the government on the interest of a home loan for buying a house. The Uttar Pradesh Housing Development Council provided houses at an affordable rate under this Yojana. In Uttar Pradesh, applications were sought under this scheme for about 3516 houses. The booking for these houses started on September 1st, 2020, and ended on 15th October 2020. These houses were located in 19 different cities in the state of Uttar Pradesh.
The people who were from poor families were able to buy these houses for only Rupees 3.5 lakh. Only people whose annual income was less than 3 lakh were able to apply for these houses.
