Indira Awaas Yojana
Encyclopedia
Indira Awaas Yojana is a Government of India
Government of India
The Government of India, officially known as the Union Government, and also known as the Central Government, was established by the Constitution of India, and is the governing authority of the union of 28 states and seven union territories, collectively called the Republic of India...

 social welfare programme to provide housing for the rural poor in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. The differentiation is made between rural poor and urban poor for a separate set of schemes operate for the urban poor(like the Basic Services for Urban Poor). It is one of the major flagship programs of the Rural Development Ministry to construct houses for BPL population in the villages. Under the scheme, financial assistance worth Rs. 45,000/- in plain areas and Rs. 48,500/- in difficult areas is provided for construction of houses. The houses are allotted in the name of the woman or jointly between husband and wife. The construction of the houses is the sole responsibility of the beneficiary and engagement of contractors is strictly prohibited. Sanitary latrine and smokeless chullah are required to be constructed along with each IAY house for which additional financial assistance is provided from Total Sanitation Campaign and Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana respectively.http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=0 This scheme, operating since 1985, provides subsidies and cash-assistance to people in villages for construct their houses, themselves.

History

Started in 1985 as part of the Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Programme (RLEGP), Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY) was subsumed in Jawahar deepak 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.

Given that India has been historically a populous and poor
Poverty in India
Poverty is widespread in India, with the nation estimated to have a third of the world's poor. According to a 2005 World Bank estimate, 41.6% of the total Indian population falls below the international poverty line of 1.25 a day...

 country, the need of proper housing for the refugees and villagers has been a focus of Government
Government of India
The Government of India, officially known as the Union Government, and also known as the Central Government, was established by the Constitution of India, and is the governing authority of the union of 28 states and seven union territories, collectively called the Republic of India...

's welfare schemes since the time of India's independence. As a result various welfare schemes like House Sites cum Construction Assistance Scheme have been ongoing since the 1950s. However, it was only in the 1983 that a focussed fund for creation of housing for scheduled castes (SCs), scheduled tribes (STs) and freed bonded labor was setup under Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Programme (RLEGP). This gave birth to IAY in the fiscal year 1985-86.

Purpose

The broad purpose of the scheme is to provide lump-sum financial assistance to some of the weakest sections of society for them to upgrade or construct a house of respectable quality for their personal living. The vision of the government is to replace all temporary (kutchcha) houses from Indian villages by 2017

Eligibility Criteria

Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes, freed bonded laborers, minorities and non-SC/ST rural households in the BPL category, widows and next-of-kin to defence personnel/paramilitary forces killed in action (irrespective of their income criteria), ex-servicemen and retired members of paramilitary forces residing in rural areas form the primary target group of eligible candidates for the IAY Scheme.

Implementation

IAY is an allocation based, centrally sponsored scheme funded on a cost sharing basis between the Central Government and the State Government in the 75%:25% ratio, except in case of North-eastern states and Union Territories (UTs). For NE states the central government funds 90% and 100% for the UTs.

The funds are allocated to the states based on 75% weightage of rural housing shortage and 25% weightage of poverty ratio. The housing shortage is as per the official published figures of Registrar General of India based on the 2001 Census.

Current Provisions

As per the Budget 2011, the total funds allocated for IAY have been set at for construction of houses for BPL families with special focus on the Left Wing Extremist (LWE) districts.

Impact

Since 1985, 25.2 million houses have been constructed under the scheme. Under the Bharat Nirman
Bharat Nirman
Bharat Nirman is an Indian plan for creating basic rural infrastructure. It comprises projects on irrigation, roads , housing , water supply, electrification and telecommunication connectivity....

 Phase 1 project, 6 million houses were targeted and 7.1 million actually constructed from 2005-06 to 2008-09. Additional, 12 million houses are planned to be constructed or renovated under the Bharat Nirman Phase 2.

According to the official 2001 figures, the total rural housing shortage is 14.825 million houses. A yearwise breakdown is given below for the last 5 years:
S. No. Year Total
1 2005–2006 1,551,923
2 2006–2007 1,498,367
3 2007–2008 1,992,349
4 2008–2009 2,134,061
5 2009–2010 3,385,619
Total 10,562,319

Management Information System (MIS)

A software called AWAASSof was launched in July 2010 to assist in improved administration of this scheme.

See also

  • Bharat Nirman
    Bharat Nirman
    Bharat Nirman is an Indian plan for creating basic rural infrastructure. It comprises projects on irrigation, roads , housing , water supply, electrification and telecommunication connectivity....

  • Union budget of India
    Union budget of India
    The Union Budget of India, referred to as the annual Financial Statement in Article 112 of the Constitution of India, is the annual budget of the Republic of India, presented each year on the last working day of February by the Finance Minister of India in Parliament...

  • 2011 Union Budget of India
    2011 Union Budget of India
    The Union Budget of India for 2011-2012 was present by Pranab Mukherjee, the Finance Minister of India on 28th February, 2011. This budgetary proposals would be applicable from 1st April 2011 to 31st March 2012.- Highlights :Some salient features...

  • District Rural Development Agencies (India)
    District Rural Development Agencies (India)
    District Rural Development Agencies are district level development execution and monitoring agencies created under the Indian Societies Registration Act. Substantial sums of rural development funds of government of India were transferred and routed through them under various Centrally...

  • Minister of Rural Development (India)
    Minister of Rural Development (India)
    The Minister of Rural Development is the head of the Ministry of Rural Development and one of the cabinet ministers of the Government of India....


External links

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