By Yasmin Bano
NEW DELHI: The government of India has launched a new scheme for providing interest subsidy on housing urban poor. The Interest Subsidy Scheme for Housing the Urban Poor (ISHUP) is meant to make the housing affordable and within the repaying capacity of Economically Weaker Sections (EWS)/ Low Income Group (LIG) of society.
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The scheme launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation encourages poor sections to avail of loan facilities through Commercial Banks/Housing Finance Companies for the purposes of construction/acquisition of houses and avail 5% subsidy in interest payment for loans upto Rs. 1 lakh.
The scheme of Affordable Housing in Partnership launched in 2009 with an outlay of Rs. 5000 crores, seeks construction of 1 million houses for EWS/LIG/Middle Income Group (MIG) with at least 25% for EWS Category. The Government has also announced a new scheme called Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) for providing support to States that are willing to provide property rights to slum dwellers. The Government’s effort would be to make India slum free through implementation of RAY.
The National Urban Housing & Habitat Policy (NUHHP) 2007 aims at promoting sustainable development of habitat in the country with a view to ensuring equitable supply of land shelter and services at affordable prices to all sections of the society. The policy aims at forging strong partnerships among the public, private and cooperative sectors for accelerated growth. The Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation of the Union Government is propagating and promoting the NUHHP:2007. However, ‘land’ and ‘colonisation’ being state subjects, it is for the State Governments to pursue the initiatives under the NUHHP:2007. The Census of India, 2001 estimates 4,47,585 houseless households throughout the country.
The Ministry is also implementing schemes for providing affordable housing to urban poor. The Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), launched by the Government in the year 2005, caters to provision of housing and basic services to urban poor in 65 specified cities under the Sub Mission Basic Services to the Urban Poor (BSUP) and in other cities and towns under the Integrated Housing and Slum Development Programme (IHSDP).