Owning a home is a financial goal for most individuals. However soaring real estate prices in the past and insufficient life savings have been a dampener for many. This is especially true for  those who belong to the poor sections of the society. Therefore, to provide affordable housing to those living below the poverty line that the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana Gramin  came into effect in 2016. PMAY Gramin is a restructured version of the rural housing scheme of yesteryears. It aims to construct close to 2.75 crore houses with basic amenities for India’s poor by 2022.

Who is it targeted towards?

PMAY G aims to provide pucca houses to those who are genuinely deprived of a house or those living in damaged housing conditions. To ensure objectivity and verification, a beneficiary is selected through a triple stage process. In the first stage households are shortlisted according to the guidelines for housing deprivation listed in the Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) dated 2011.

This is then verified by the respective Gram Sabhas. Households without a house and those living in temporary kutcha facilities are enumerated and a permanent wait list is generated. This ensures each state has details of households that can seek assistance through Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana Gramin in the future leading to the effective implementation of this scheme.

Execution and implementation

PMAY Gramin which falls under the Ministry of rural Development uses several measures to monitor progress as well as achieve a smooth and effective implementation of the scheme such as:

1)  Skill development: This includes providing training, certification and career avenues to masons working in rural areas across states and union territories to ensure construction of quality houses.

2)  House design assistance: Beneficiaries can choose from an array of house designs with disaster management features in accordance with their climate conditions and geography as per their needs. Each PMAY G member is tagged with a government officer at the field level and a rural mason as well to assist them from the start to the finish of the building process.

3)  E-governance: The online service delivery platform AwaasSoft streamlines the workflow of PMAY across critical function areas starting from beneficiary identification to required housing assistance. The mobile application Awaasapp provides real time monitoring through date and time stamped and geo-referenced house images through the construction process. This helps to identify any loopholes  in the implementation of the scheme. Once a beneficiary registers in AwaasSoft MIS, direct bank transfer is enabled to the linked bank or post office account for added convenience.

Assistance provided

A PMAY G beneficiary is entitled to a house with a minimum area of 25 square meters with a hygienic cooking space as well as financial assistance. Those residing in plains can avail Rs. 1.20 lakh whereas an amount of Rs 1.30 lakh is extended to households living in hilly or IAP areas. Both the central and state government share the cost of assisting the construction of houses in the ratio of 60:40 for the former and 90:10 for the latter.  

Benefits to the poor 

Apart from institutional finance for housing, a PMAY Gramin beneficiary also gets access to other facilities since this scheme converges with other government funded initiatives as well. LPG connections are provided under Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Scheme and toilets thanks to Swachh Bharat Mission or Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme(MGNREGS).

The Ministry of Power schemes take care of the electricity and Jal Jeevan Mission of the water connection. Apart from this, 90-95 days of work is provided to each PMAY beneficiary under MGNREGS. The Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihood Mission (DAY-NRLM) also works towards developing opportunities for livelihood as well as diversification of 1.82 crore households in rural areas.

Till now, a record 1.10 crore houses have been built including pucca accommodation for 1.46 lakh landless poor under Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana-Gramin. A study by National Institute of Public Finance and Policy revealed that work under PMAY is completed within 114 days now, which is almost 6 months earlier than the figure of 314 days earlier.

Not only this, 72 lakh houses have completed construction under Indira Awas Yojana which is under the purview of The Ministry of Rural Development. This brings the total number of houses built since 2014 to 182 lakh. PMAY is a boon for those in the lower income groups to realise their dream of owning a house and have a roof on their heads.

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