Here is your brief note on Urban Housing Schemes

Our government has launched the following urban housing schemes since independence:

1. Residential Houses for Government Employees:

In India, central and various state governments have constructed a large number of houses for their employees.

2. Houses for Refugees:

Indian government developed many colonies and townships and houses for the refugees from Pakistan.

3. Housing Scheme for Economically Weaker Sections:

In 1952, subsidized industrial housing scheme was initiated for industrial workers. The housing scheme for mica workers was launched in 1953. In 1956, the Plantation Labour Housing Scheme was introduced under which loans were given to planters up to 80 per cent of the cost of construction.

4. Improvements in Urban Slums:

In 1991, about 51.2 million persons were living in urban slum areas. Several steps have been taken by the government to improve their conditions. During the second plan, a scheme was initiated for the clearance of slums in big cities.

But the scheme could not bring desired result due to non-availability and high cost of sites for re housing the slum dwellers. Growth of new slum areas is also being prevented. In future, the inflow of rural poor to urban areas should be checked to solve this problem.

5. Institutional Finance for Housing:

Up to 1970, the Life Insurance Corporation was the only public financial institution to provide loans for house-building. In 1970, the Housing and Urban Development Corporation

(HUDCO) was set up by the central government. The HUDCO grants financial assistance to the state housing boards, development authorities, municipal corporations for housing and urban development projects.

Since 1981, the Reserve Bank of India has been annually allocating a specified amount of commercial banks funds to housing finance. The Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) was set up in 1977 as a private sector housing finance company.

It provides long-term finance to individuals, housing cooperatives and companies for construction of new residential houses. Up to March 1990, the HDFC had sanctioned loans worth of Rs. 2089.4 crores. There were over 60,000 housing co-operatives by March 1991, with over 40 lakh members.

A national level organization ‘National Co-operative Housing Federation was set up to develop cooperative housing societies. The National Housing Bank was set up in July 1988 as an apex institution for housing finance.