A RAY of Hope? - An analysis of India’s slum policies and their performance

The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) ‘Housing for all’ programme was launched by the current Prime Minister of India in June 2015. As the name suggests, the programme envisages to provide affordable housing for the poor in urban areas. It falls under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation and is chaired by Mr. Venkiah Naidu. PMAY proposes to build 2 crore houses for the urban poor and economically weaker sections (EWS) of the society. The programme, though very optimistic on paper, is merely a redecoration and change in the title of an already existing programme, Rajiv Awas Yojana (2009), which was launched by the previous government (United Progressive Alliance or UPA), and was also a centrally proposed scheme set up to make India ‘Slum-free’ by 2022.

Prior to these programmes, the UPA government had also announced the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) in 2005 as a mission to improve infrastructure and standard of life in cities. Basic Services to Urban Poor (BSUP) and Integrated Housing and Slum Development Programme (IHSDP) were two programmes under JNNURM. It is no surprise if one tends to get lost in all these ‘yojanas’ and schemes adopted by the government. The crux of the matter that needs to be understood is if these schemes are implemented to the extent they are projected to do so or are they merely political stunts adopted by parties to lure votes from the weaker sections giving them an idealistic vision. To better understand this, a critical evaluation and review of these policies in a chronological order is required.

Basic Services to Urban Poor (BSUP) and Integrated Housing and Slum Development Programme (IHSDP) were two sub-missions under the JNNURM (2005). BSUP focused on providing services like water supply, toilets, waste water drainage, solid waste management, p power, roads, transport and access to legal and affordable housing for urban poor. IHSDP, on the other hand, focused on creating a more inclusive approach to urban planning and city management. The objective was to ensure land was available to the poor at affordable prices through the reservation of land for Economically Weaker Section housing and ensuring facilities for urban infrastructure, and transport services on the fringes of the cities, can provide alternatives that would restrict the formation of new slums. Under BSUP and IHSDP component housing units are provided to urban poor. As per GOI guideline beneficiary contribution could be around 12% of project cost for general category and 10% for urban poor belonging to Special Category.^[1]

According to data published by Graham Norton, the total projects that were  approved under BSUP were 213, with a total approved cost of INR 17,503 crore. The release (as of 2011) for the sample cities were INR 5,836 crores which is merely around 33% of the total approved cost.  Of these 213 approved projects, a mere five projects have been completed. The total expenditure (as of 2011) has been worth INR 4,280 crores which constitute around 24% of the approved cost and 73% of the total release till date. To quote the report, “In Chennai, the funds are released only after Third Party Inspection and Monitoring Agency (TIPMA) reports are forwarded to and approved by the CSMC. When the reports are delayed, the funds are consequently delayed.”

The projects get delayed due to this and the beneficiaries tend to lose faith in these projects and develop a strong resistance to relocation/development. Moreover, with the launch of Rajiv Awas Yojana, it was largely ambiguous to how BSUP and RAY were to be integrated by the state governments. Lack of suitable guidelines and delegation from the central government were reasons for the underwhelming results of the two relatively analogous policies. Under the report’s appraisal not even a single sanctioned project has been successfully completed under IHSDP scheme, while the BSUP component also has a low level of completion of 2%.

The Rajiv Awas Yojana was announced by the President in 2009.^[1] However, it took over two years to formally launch the programme, and another 2 years to transit to the implementation phase. RAY in the vision for a “Slum free India” proposes a two-step implementation strategy:  1) Preparation of Slum Free City Plan of Action (SFCPoA) and 2) Preparation of projects for selected slum. The implementation of RAY is divided into three levels, Central, State and City with respective authorities appointed to supervise it. Under RAY, The Central government provides an assistance of 50% of the project cost for Cities/ UAs with Population more than 5 lakhs, 75% for Cities/ UAs having population less than 5 lakh. There exist certain exceptions on the North-Eastern Region and special category States (Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh & Uttarakhand) where central share was an equivalent of 80%.  There is an upper ceiling of INR 5 lakh per dwelling unit (DU) for cities with population more than 5 lakhs and INR 4 lakhs per DU for smaller cities with population less than 5 lakhs. In North East (NE) and special category States, upper ceiling is INR 5 lakhs per DU irrespective of population of the city.

For the approval of projects, Detailed Project Reports (DPR) are submitted to the Ministry after the approval of State Level Sanctioning Committee. The DPRs are then appraised by the Central Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee (CSMC) after which a decision is taken with regard to the approval/sanctioning. The RAY was however remodeled and re-launched under the new name of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana by the current Prime Minister Narendra Modi.