Home is an integral part of life and determinant of standard of living and progress of society. Rural Odisha witnesses a very poor standard of habitation and lack of proper housing for lakhs of poor people who are dreaming of a house of their own to live with dignity.
Socio-cultural barriers, landlessness and lack of credit for housing are some of the major reasons which deprive rural poor of well-furnished houses. The rural poor face both man-made and natural disasters like flood, cyclone, earthquake, elephant menace, fire, caste and ethnic violence, riot and migration which are major cause of destruction of habitations.
During last 50 years, a number of projects have come up in rural, coastal and forest areas such as industry, mining, dam, conservation projects, ports, railway, highway and urban expansion. These projects have been evicting people without proper habitations.
It has been extremely difficult for the rural poor to relocate themselves in new habitations without adequate housing facility. Our socio-economic system has pushed many people to live without basic amenities for life and just using the available open space as habitations. lack of adequate shelter for a dignified life perpetuates poverty, diseases, social tension and indiscipline in public life.
Historically, rural habitations in Odisha are built up in most unplanned way and not being developed with basic minimum facilities.
Many of the habitations are not being recorded as revenue village, without linking roads, drinking water, sanitary facility, drainage lines, garbage pits, electricity, play grounds, space for socio cultural activities, burial ground, parks, village forests and water bodies.
In multi-caste habitations, the commons are under traditional hegemonic control of dominant castes. In many villages, the dominant people occupy the road for private use and block one part of the road with same kind of activities.
The village commons are illegally occupied and included in private plots. Vested interest people gang up and use political power to defend their private interest. Public spaces are being occupied in the name of socio-religious activities and causing inconvenience to local public.
International human rights law recognises the right to adequate housing as human rights. The Constitution of India Article 19(1e) and 21 say about housing as integral part of right to life but there is no enabling law to realise this right.
The Central Government has drafted the National Rural Housing and Habitation policy and many States have started responding to the issues of rural housing. The right to housing also includes protection against forced evictions and arbitrary destruction and demolition of one’s home, free from arbitrary interference with one’s home, privacy and family; and right to choose one’s residence, to determine where to live and freedom of movement.
Indira Awas Yojana (IAY) is the most popular independent rural housing scheme for the poor. It was started in 1996 with Budget sharing of Centre and State in a ratio of 75:25.
It has been providing houses in rural areas to the poorest of the poor and most vulnerable sections in villages which includes families of BPl, SC, ST, minority, PTG, manual scavengers, bonded labourers, PWD, transgender and women headed family, women in difficult circumstances, widow, divorced or deserted, women victim of atrocities, widows and next of kin of members of defence, paramilitary, police force killed in action.
Odisha has got allocation of 1.6 lakh houses for 2014-15 for beneficiaries of ST, SC, minority, PWD and others. In February 2013, the Ministry of Rural Development (MRD) issued a circular to all States to allocate Rs70,000 for construction of house, Rs20,000 for purchasing homestead sites and Rs9,000 for construction of toilet under Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan to each beneficiary of IAY.
Odisha has very poor implementation of IAY in comparison to States like Kerala, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and AP where the State Government plays a very proactive role.
The convergence of IAY with drinking water, total sanitary campaign, toilet under Nirmal Bharat Yojana, electrification under Rajiv Gandhi rural electrification programme and dairy and poultry and kitchen garden under different IGP schemes has been done by many States which Odisha should follow.
It is also important that while allocating homestead site, the revenue officials should consult the community and allocate land in a single patch so that a habitation of socio-economically homogenous groups can be built up with community and livelihood infrastructural facilities.
The Odisha Government has no additional support to IAY beneficiaries. Many of the prospective beneficiaries are unable to avail the schemes because they are homestead landless but the State Government has made no effort to provide homestead land to the landless.
Even the State has not availed the grant to purchase homestead site for IAY beneficiaries given by the MRD since 2009 when about 11 States excluding Odisha have received Rs348 crore during 2009-2011 to purchase seven lakh homestead sites.
Access to finance is important for rural housing but it has been observed that non availability of credit for housing is a major problem in rural area. People are forced to take loan from local money lenders with very higher rate of interest to build house.
National Housing Bank (NHB), NABARD, and Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) are involved in rural housing and NHB is the apex financial institution for housing in the country.
Many State Governments have promoted rural housing schemes such as Kaliagar housing schemes in Tamil Nadu, EMS housing in Kerala, Indiraamma in AP, Sardar Patel, Ambedker, Dinadayal Awas Yojana in Gujarat, Birsa Munda and Sidhukanhu Awas Yojana in Jharkhand, Basav Vasati Yojana in Karnataka, and Rajiv Awas Yoyana in Himanchal Pradesh.
‘Mo Kudia’ housing scheme started by the Government of Odisha in 2009 is mostly for vulnerable groups who are not featured in BPl but otherwise genuinely poor. It works as a programme by the State to attend the left out in IAY. But the State has no rural housing scheme for different category of economic groups in rural area.
The Odisha co-operative housing and corporation ltd is more urban focused. The Odisha rural housing and development cooperation (ORHDC) has existence since 1994 but it is not effective in comparison to other State housing schemes.
Odisha should have a rural housing policy and plan to involve banks along with housing finance institutions integrating with rural housing schemes for economically weaker section of people in rural areas along with habitation development.
The rural poor are facing bureaucratic hurdles and corruption in getting sanction order for IAY and for each installment they have to visit the officials.
Many genuine beneficiaries are not being enlisted because of local influence of ruling party leaders in Palisabha and Panchayats. large majority of rural homeless poor are illiterate and from socially marginalised groups with very restricted access to Panchayat office and other Government offices and banks.
The non-availability of building materials is always a problem due to restriction in collection and monopoly of local contractors. The people in remote forest and hilly areas, river in lands without all weather communicating roads are facing problem of transportation of building materials. There are also areas vulnerable to natural disaster and in close proximity of highway and railway line which need special attention.
The Panchayat Raj Institutions should have active involvement in habitation planning and a major role in selection of beneficiaries under different housing schemes. The local banks, cooperatives, Tehsil office and blocks can be integrated for land, credit an infrastructural development for housing and habitation development. There must be habitation and housing planning unit with blocks and panchayats to rebuild rural areas, villages and making that habitable and inclusive for all.
(The writer is a rights activist, who can be contacted at ojaabbsr@gmail.com)
