Housing is an integral part of rights to life but there is no enabling law to realise this basic human right. A sizable population of Odisha is deprived of a dignified and decent living due to continued State apathy in implementing housing schemes for the poor and the marginalised.
The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) as a scheme of housing for all by 2022 has targeted to construct two crore houses within a span of next six years. There have been housing schemes and programmes by the State and Central Governments targeting the rural poor and the marginalised, but still the progress is far from satisfactory. The poor performances of the State Government have been reflected in slow implementation and very insignificant achievement of targets of various housing schemes such as PMAY, Biju Pucca Ghar Yojana, Nirman Sramik Pucca Ghar Yojana and Biju Pucca Ghar Yojana (mining) for mining affected families in mines areas out of the District Mineral Foundation (DMF) fund. The various housing schemes have not even achieved one per cent of the target as revealed in the departmental review meeting and reported in media. This has raised concern and shattered the hope of the poor looking for shelter. It is told that housing for the poor in the State is moving very slowly because of lack of homestead land of beneficiaries and corruption by the local Government officials in implementation of the housing schemes for the poor and the marginalised section in rural areas. There are a number of genuine beneficiaries who are being deprived of getting allocation under housing scheme due to non-implementation of other related schemes that are precondition for construction of a house such as land patta and other rural infrastructure, electricity, linking road and drinking water sources. The strategy note of the State Government for rural housing for the year 2016-2017 says that the Revenue Department has been moved for providing house site to eligible landless households of mining affected villages, but unfortunately this is not being followed by the local revenue authorities in mining areas. It is also told that during field verification if it is found that the prospective beneficiaries are not in possession of recorded house site then the names of such beneficiaries must be enlisted and sent to the concerned tehsildar for allotment of homestead land to the beneficiaries on priority basis. But it is fact that in spite of knowing the ground reality, the Government has not been fulfilling the preconditions for implementing housing projects for rural landless poor. The condition in remote tribal areas is the worst because mostly many of the prospective beneficiaries have no record of rights over the land they are in possession of since generations and in many of the costal districts, the landless poor Dalit families for whom the housing schemes are targeted are not being able to access such schemes due to lack of record of rights over the land they have been staying for generations. The local revenue officials must solve these issues, lest the very purpose of the scheme should be defeated.
It is observed that many such poor beneficiaries are routinely visiting block and tehsil offices and spending time to present their cases before the officials in charge of issuing orders. Cases of corruption relating to issue of land patta or work order are reported in large numbers and suspension of revenue and block officials on charges of bribery is also reported most often. But this has not solved the purpose of ensuring land and housing to the needy. The displaced and affected families, primarily landless poor Dalits and Adivasi households in mining areas of the State are living in misery and migrating to other places in search of livelihood. It is found that many of such families are migrating to non-mining areas and to the periphery districts. The fund available with DMF must be allocated to such affected and displaced people and they must be rehabilitated and linked to the existing housing schemes of the Government. But the delayed action of the Government is making their condition more vulnerable.
A number of studies have found that lack of land and proper housing in mining areas have encouraged distress migration of Adivasies and other landless poor. Mining slums are habitation of causal and contract labourers in mining areas where mostly the poor workers and local Adibasi population are inhabitants. lack of proper shelter has an adverse impact on women, children and elders in family and encouraged social insecurity among the people.
The rural housing schemes are primarily targeting the rural poor, construction workers, agricultural workers, sharecroppers, rural artisans, Dalits, Advasies, distress women, and PWDs. These are mostly unorganized and have very limited information about Government schemes and programmes. It is good that the State Government has encouraged the participation of CBOs and NGOs in the implementation of housing schemes to facilitate handholding support to the beneficiaries. The block level Government officials are also encouraged with rewards out of administrative contingency of respective rural housing schemes. The Government must organise quality capacity building training programme for block level officials and CBO leaders, NGOs functionaries along with PRI leaders from rural, tribal and mining areas involving the marginalized sections representatives to make them understand the very purpose of housing schemes and operation procedure to ensure better impact. The dissemination of information and facilitation of the schemes with stakeholder involvement will help in bringing transparency and reducing corruption at local level. The local banks must provide supplementary housing loan to the beneficiaries of rural housing schemes as additional support at lower interest rate to make it more need-based. The other departments directly linked to beneficiaries such as ST and SC Development, labour, Women and Child Development and Mining have scope of convergence of their schemes for an integrated development and fullest utilization of the resources. The State Government must make efforts to make available building materials at low cost without restriction for the beneficiaries of the housing schemes.
In order to avoid the administrative blockage, the district level appellate committees to resolve grievances related to rural housing must have dedicated officials for timely action to minimize the administrative issues to speed up the implementation process and avoid interference in beneficiary selection and delay in payments and other related issues. The interdepartmental coordination and convergence of programmes is highly required for housing schemes because it is not just building a house but to make it a home or living space by ensuring related infrastructure and opportunities. The departments of Revenue, Panchayatraj, Rural Development, Energy, Mines and Environment must have planned and coordinated effort in facilitating the schemes. The most important aspect is awareness among the beneficiaries information about the schemes and their quality participation in accessing the schemes without social, economic and administrative barriers.
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