Centre relaxes exclusion criteria under PMAY

• Recently, the Central Government has revised the automatic exclusion criteria for the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G).
• This broadens the scope of families eligible for the rural housing scheme.

Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G)

• Background
  • Indira Awas Yojana was started in 1996 to address the housing needs in the rural areas.
  • However, certain gaps were identified like lack of transparency in selection of beneficiaries, low quality houses, weak monitoring, etc by the CAG in 2014.
  • To address these gaps in the rural housing program, it was restructured into PMAY-G w.e.f. 1st April 2016.
• Aim: Providing a pucca house with basic amenities to all houseless householder living in kutcha and dilapidated houses by 2022.
• These houses built will be low-cost, disaster-resilient, and in line with the socio-cultural and geo-climatic conditions of the region.
• It is the centre's flagship mission by the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), implemented by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA).

Key Relaxations in Eligibility

• Families owning two-wheelers, motorized fishing boats, refrigerators, or landline phones and earning up to ₹15,000 per month are now eligible.
• Previously, these criteria would have led to automatic exclusion from the scheme.
• The land-related criteria had also been rationalized to facilitate eligibility.

Criteria for Automatic Exclusion

• Owning motorized three/four-wheelers
• Owning mechanized agricultural equipment (three/four-wheelers)
• Having a Kisan Credit Card with a credit limit of ₹50,000 or more
• Any household with a government employee
• Households running non-agricultural enterprises registered with the government
• Families with members paying income tax or professional tax
• Owning 2.5 acres or more of irrigated land

Current and Future Housing Targets

• This revision aligns with the Centre’s goal to construct two crore additional houses by 2028-29 under the rural housing scheme.
• This is over and above the original target of 2.95 crore houses under the Housing for All program, of which 2.65 crore houses have already been completed.

Financial Assistance Under PMAY-G

• Each beneficiary under PMAY-G receives up to
  • ₹1.2 lakh for homes in plains
  • ₹1.3 lakh for hilly areas, tribal regions, and backward districts under the Integrated Action Plan (IAP)
• The beneficiary is also offered 90 days of employment under the MGNREGA (approximately Rs 18000).
• Another Rs 12000 will be offered to construct toilets.

Funding Pattern

• The cost-sharing ratio between the Centre and states is 60:40 in plain areas and 90:10 for northeastern states, Himalayan states, and Jammu & Kashmir.
• The Centre fully funds projects in Union Territories like Ladakh.

Identification of beneficiaries

• The beneficiaries will be determined based on their social indicators as determined by the Socio-Economic and Caste Census or SECC.
• The respective gram sabhas will then determine data verification and will pass that information to the administration.

Prelims Takeaway

• Socio-Economic and Caste Census
• Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G)