India is a land of villages. About three- fourth of Indian population lives in villages. To solve the problem of rural housing, our government has initiated the following steps:
1. A Village Housing Scheme was introduced in 1957 to remodel villages in groups of four to six villages. Loan assistance up to Rs. 2,000 per house was to be given for building and improvement of the house.
The scheme made a very little progress as by 1960-61, lay-out plans had been drawn up for 1,600 villages only. Several factors were responsible for this slow progress.
(a) Widespread illiteracy prevails among the villagers. They have great attachment to their ancestral houses.
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(b) Shortage of funds.
(c) The villagers are too poor to afford the cost of improved houses.
2. Indira Awas Yojna has been started by the government to construct houses for the poorest belonging to scheduled castes/tribes and released bonded labourers in rural areas.
Under this scheme, one million houses were to be built during the seventh plan. In 1994, 3.76 lakh houses were constructed under this scheme. These houses were given to them free of cost. 6 per cent of the total expenditure incurred on Jawahar Rozgar Yojna will be spent for this purpose.
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3. Valmiki Ambedkar Awas Yojana (VAMBAY):
On 2nd December 2001, this scheme was launched by the Prime Minister. This scheme seeks to improve the conditions of the urban slum dwellers living below the poverty line that do not possess adequate shelter.
The Central Govt provides subsidy of 50%, the balance 50% being arranged by the State Govt, with ceiling costs prescribed both for dwelling units/community toilets.
Till January 2003, a total sum of Rs. 211.87 crore has been released as subsidy for the constructive and up gradation of 106038 dwelling units and 20817 toilet seats under the scheme.