Over the past decade, India’s housing landscape has transformed under the ambitious ‘Housing for All’ campaign. Launched in 2015, the twin pillars of this mission: Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Gramin (PMAY-G) for rural families and PMAY-Urban (PMAY-U) for city dwellers have delivered staggering numbers. Yet behind the statistics lies a more nuanced story, one that reveals both triumphs and terrain still to be tackled.
PMAY-G: Rural Reach Meets Growing Pains
By March 2024, PMAY-Gramin had sanctioned homes for nearly 3.79 crore rural households, with 3.34 crore sanctioned and 2.69 crore completed. That is a colossal feat—bringing safety, dignity, and permanence to millions. Indeed, women now own or co-own about 72% of these houses, far exceeding the national average of 43%. Moreover, around 11.4 million homes have been built for SC/ST households, covering 22% of those in need.
Yet the scheme’s rapid pace has triggered concerns. Construction times have halved from 242 days to around 150 days in recent years, a speed that may come at the cost of durability. A parliamentary review also flagged weak quality monitoring and reliance on geo-tagged photos as inadequate oversight.
PMAY-U: Urban Aspirations, Mixed Achievements
Urban India, too, has seen progress. In smaller cities like Ranchi, 11,052 of 12,587 PMAY-U homes have been built, a strong 88% completion rate. Odisha has constructed 1.36 lakh houses out of 1.84 lakh sanctioned, achieving a 73% completion level.
Despite these bright spots, the broader picture is less encouraging. The ISSR (In-Situ Slum Redevelopment) vertical, intended for landless slum dwellers, remains significantly underutilised, only a fraction of the demand has been sanctioned or delivered. Overall, PMAY-U has addressed merely 25% of the estimated urban housing shortage, well short of its promise.
There's also a looming discrepancy in implementation across states. While regions like Goa, Telangana, and Gujarat have exceeded 70% completion in PMAY-U, others like Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Manipur, and Mizoram lag well behind, some recording completion rates below 30%.
Structural Challenges and Ongoing Gaps
Several systemic issues undercut the scheme’s success. Land acquisition in urban areas remains prohibitively expensive or simply unavailable, stalling projects. The insistence on beneficiaries owning land for certain scheme verticals (like BLC and CLSS) excludes many slum dwellers who lack formal documentation or property title.
Critiques also highlight mismatches between scheme provisions and real household capabilities or needs, often rooted in rigid income brackets that don't account for urban cost burdens like commuting and utilities. This is compounded when affordable housing is built on city peripheries creating homes that are financially cheaper but life-costlier, degrading access to jobs and services.
Financial mechanisms aren’t a panacea either. The Credit-Linked Subsidy Scheme (CLSS) intended to ease loans for EWS/LIG beneficiaries has limited reach in the informal sector, where documentation is sparse and credit is hard to access.
Fresh Funds and Future Focus
Even as existing challenges persist, the government continues to renew its commitment. Following electoral concerns, rural housing subsidies are slated to increase 50%, reaching over $6.5 billion, enabling the construction of 20 million more homes. And in urban renewal, Maharashtra’s Nagpur delivered 480 homes at “half the local market price” under PMAY, with ambitious plans to scale further.
Bringing It All Together: Lessons from the Field
India’s housing drive is consequential, if not always coherent. PMAY-G has made visible strides in sheer numbers, empowering women and marginalized groups, though accelerated timelines risk quality outcomes. PMAY-U delivers promising results in specific regions, but broader urban goals remain elusive, thanks to land constraints, design misalignment, and uneven execution.
For meaningful progress, schemes must evolve beyond unit counts to include infrastructure, livelihood proximity, and social services. Holistic design, better targeting, inclusive finance innovations, and tighter quality control are key to bridging the gap between aspiration and everyday reality.
