Thursday, September 1, 2011

Dismal progress in social housing


  • The Interest Subsidy Scheme for Housing the Urban Poor (ISHUP), launched in 2008 to provide an interest subsidy of five per cent on a loan amount of Rs.100,000 to the economically weaker section and lower income group, has so far benefited only 7,805 people as against the 2012 target of 310,000.
  • Progress on the flagship project, the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, which has a provision of Rs.50,000 crore for the period 2005-2012, is no better. Only about 30 per cent of houses sanctioned for the poor under this scheme have been built.
Problems
  • poor conceptualisation of policies,
  • procedural inefficiency,
  • ineffective construction practices
EXAMPLES
  • ISHUP has failed to deliver because it is conceptually flawed.
  •  Policymakers assumed that the poor had access to land and needed only financial support to build their houses.
  • As a result, the focus was on making credit easily available
  • But reality is both land and capital are not available with urban poor
WAY AHEAD
  • If the demand for social housing is to be met, in addition to rectifying policies, construction practices and performance regimes need to be greatly improved
  • State-level housing boards must improve their capacity in order to fully utilise the available funds and deliver more houses.
UK EXPERIENCE
  • They formed productive alliances with the construction industry and adopted modern methods that increased the production of homes four-fold
  • It is only by adopting such innovative practices and radically changing the approach to the provision of social housing can the vision of making cities slum-free be realised

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