Valmiki Ambedker Malin Basti Awas Yojana (VAMBAY).
1. Introduction
Shelter is a basic human requirement. For a shelterless person, getting a house brings about a profound social change in his status and welfare, endowing him with a identity and integrating him with social milieu.
In the past urban housing for the poorest of the poor or those living below the poverty line did not receive adequate attention of Government. The population of urban India which was 21.76 Crores as per the 1991 Census is 28.53 Crores (provisional) as per the 2001 Census. The population of urban slums by 2001 is projected to be around 62 million (TPCO). The provisional estimates made from 2001 Census indicate that while India is urbanizing markedly, slums in urban India are increasing alarmingly, census data (2001) place annual growth of urban population at 2.7%; however, growth of population in urban slums is much higher at 9%.
It has been projected by the Planning Commission (Working Group on 9th Plan) that by the end of the 9th Plan and at the beginning of the 10th Plan, the shortage of housing in urban areas would be 16.76 million houses; of this 10 million houses would be needed for the economically weaker sections alone, who can be broadly categorized as below poverty line beneficiaries.
The slum population in urban India being around 62 million and the average family size being around 5, the number of urban households living in slums is about 12 million.
Though all slum dwellers are not necessarily below the poverty line, we may infer that much of the shortage of housing for the urban poor is slum related. The twin problems of shelter delivery for the urban poor and upgradation of urban slums are inextricably linked.
There is at preset no housing scheme in the Central sector for the urban poor. There are two Central sector programmes targeted towards the urban poor, namely the Swarna Jyanti Sharhari Rojgar Yojana (SJSARY) and National Slum Development Programme (NSDP). The SJSARY attempts to bring the urban poor above the poverty line through self-employment, wage employment and capacity building. The NSDP is basically a programme for the environment improvement of urban slums. If the concept of poverty alleviation includes ‘Roti, Kapara aur Makan’, the urban poverty alleviation strategy will be incomplete without a significant component pertaining to housing delivery for the slum dwellers. The Valmiki Ambedkar Awas Yojana (VAMBAY) is aimed to fill this gap. VAMBAY is also a reiteration of the target of “Shelter for All” fixed in the National Agenda for Governance and a concrete step in the implementation of the National Housing and Habitat Policy (NHHO).
Housing and slum improvement are primarily State subjects. Until now urban housing for the poor has been taken up through subsidized lending by the Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO). However, it has been noticed that not all States are able to afford even the subsidized loan made available by HUDCO. Many States which have been available the loan and have grounded successful urban housing projects in the past, are finding it increasingly difficult to take further loans due to financial stringency. This is reflected in the poor progress of urban housing projects. This is also reflected in the relatively slow progress of the 2 Million Housing Programme in the urban areas. Though, HUDCO is achieving the sanction targets and sanctioning loans to the respective States, the States on their part are not always able to avail of this sanction, due to their inability to afford HUDCO loans. This is largely because of the inability of the States to in turn recover housing loans from EWS beneficiaries. Therefore, there is a need to provide some incentive to the State Governments to enable them to come forward with greater vigour for housing the urban poor. As shelter delivery for the urban poor and slum upgradation are closely linked, the VAMBAY is a scheme, which intends to provide such an incentive.
In the rural areas, shelter delivery for the poorest of the poor is done through Indira Awas Yojana (IAY). Through, IAY has a credit cum subsidy option; IAY is largely, fully subsidized. The VAMBAY while being similar to the IAY is different in as much as the subsidy for all the beneficiaries is restricted to 50% of the unit cost. A slightly different model has been adopted for VAMBAY as compared to IAY for the following reasons:
i. The unit cost of an urban house is considerably higher than a house of similar size in rural areas. A 100% subsidy along the line of IAY will entail huge allocations.
ii. Urban slum dwellers even if they are below poverty line, often have some capacity for repayment unlike the rural poor.
iii. As the aim of “Shelter for All” is to be achieved in a finite time and as resources are a constraint, reducing the subsidy to 50% will enable Government to take up more houses.
The HUDCO is already providing lower cost loans to the Economically Weaker Sections. States which do not want to avail of the HUDCO loan will also be the given option for matching Govt. of India subsidy through internal mobilization of resources either from the beneficiaries, from urban local bodies, State Finances, other loans or any other method of resources mobilization.
2. Objectives
The objective of VAMBAY is primarily to provide shelter or upgrade the existing shelter for people living below the poverty line in urban slums, with a view to achieving the goal of ‘Shelter for All’ as outlined in the National Housing and Habitat Policy and the National Agenda for Governance.
The objective is also to utilize this initiative to achieve the Habitat goal of slumless cities. Equally important is the objective to provide not just shelter for the urban poor but also a healthy and enabling urban environment, to help them to come out of their poverty level. To this end, there is need to dovetail VAMBAY with NSDP and SJSARY to ensure that shelter delivery, environment improvement and income upgradation for the urban poor are synergized.
3. Target Group
The target group under the VAMBAY will be all slum dwellers in urban areas who are below the poverty line and members of EWS who do not process adequate shelter. However, preference is to be given to people below poverty line. 3A Slum- Definition
Different definitions of a slum exist in different statutes and in urban poverty literature. For the purpose of VAMBAY, it is proposed to adopt the definition given in the 2001 Census, which is as follows: -
a. All areas notified as ‘Slum’ by State/Local government and UT Administration under any Act;
b. All areas recognized as ‘Slum’ by State/Local Government and UT Administration which have not been formally notified as slum under any Act;
c. A compact area of at least 300 population or about 60-70 households of poorly build congested tenements, in an unhygienic environment usually with inadequate infrastructure and lacking in proper sanitary and drinking water facilities.
3B Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan
The definition of malin basti or slum is to be taken in a wider sense to cover not only inadequacy of houses or tenements but also other basic amenities such as water supply, toilet facilities, disposal system etc. which make habitation livable and environment friendly. It is for the local authorities to see that the water supply in the slum areas is suitable augmented either by providing connections or at least increasing the number of stand posts to take the availability to the minimum desired level of one public source for 20 families.
Another very important basic amenity for slum dwellers especially in congested metropolitan cities is the lack of rudimentary toilet facilities. A new National City Sanitation Project under the title of “Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan” being launched in the slums all over the country. Existing public toilet developed by local bodies in and around slums often become non-functional on account of lack of day-to-day maintenance Drawing upon the recent experiments in Pune Municipal Corporation it has been found that both the cost of construction and the cost of maintenance can be significantly reduced and the project made self-supporting if the tasks are entrusted to community based organizations of slum dwellers themselves. The sanitation units, notably urinals, WCs and bath units – may be constructed by the local body or the State PWD or any other agency preferably with the aid of NGOs and selected by the community of slum dwellers will be entrusted the job of maintaining the toilet block in a clean condition against a monthly salary of Rs. 1500-2000. In some cases, a residential quarter for him maybe built on the first floor of the toilet block. It has been found that this involvement of the community based on organization not only leads to better upkeep of the toilet but also makes it self financing at a cost much less than that made available by other private organizations.
20% of the total allocation under this VAMBAY will be used for infrastructure at the rate of Rs.200 crores as grant and Rs.200 crores as loan form HUDCO. The state Governments/ Local Bodies of course will be free to supplement this amount with their own grant or subsidy as the case may be.
The need for such community based toilets is particularly acute in six mendacities, metro cities and State Capitals where land is scarce and the density of slum population is very high. Since in many slum areas, some form of public toilet may be already in existence, the possibility of retrofitting/ repairing and upgrading the existing toilet complex which have become unserviceable for various reasons such as lack of sewerage system, lack of septic tanks, inadequate water supply etc. should be explored, since it significantly reduces the per unit cost of construction vis-à-vis units may be constructed by the local body or the State PWD or any other agency preferably with the aid of NGOs and participation through labour by the local slum dwellers but the design and implementation of the toilet units may be made in such a way that they can be kept in good hygienic condition with access to water supply and electric power connection. The average cost per such a community toilet unit or seat has been estimated to be Rs. 40,000/- per seat. Therefore, a 10-seat or a 20- seat toilet block meant for men, women and children with separate compartments for each group and special design features will cost around Rs. 4 lakhs or Rs. 8 lakhs respectively.
The existing pay and use toilet scheme operated by HUDCO which allows a subsidy per seat to NGOs Clubs, registered and unregistered societies, etc. can also be availed of in the vicinity of slums. Similarly, the wage employment component of the existing Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY) can also be utilized for augmenting the resources for construction of toilets. Such convergence of existing plan and centrally sponsored schemes will make the project cost effective.