Home ownership has undergone a radical shift since PM's housing scheme launch in 2015, as 94 lakh of 123 lakh houses under the scheme are either in women's name or jointly owned, says a report.

The Prime Minister's Awas Yojana (PMAY) was launched in 2015 with a view to help ensure home for all the needy. Since then 123 such houses have been sanctioned. Of them, work on 101 lakh units has started as of FY22 and 61 lakh houses have been completed.

Of these 123 lakh homes sanctioned, as much as 94 lakh are in the name of women or are jointly owned by them, shows an SBI Research study of the scheme. Since June 2015, the government has approved Rs 2.03 lakh crore in central subsidy to 123 lakh homes, while the total investment needed for the scheme which seeks to build 20 million homes by 2022 is Rs 8.31 lakh crore. Of the approved funds, central assistance worth Rs 1.20 lakh crore have been released till FY22.

The scheme was initially launched to provide affordable housing to 20 million urban poor households by 2022 and it offers an interest rate subsidy of up to 3.5 per cent for a 20-year loan. The scheme was later extended to the rural poor and also to those earning less than Rs 18 lakh per annum and not owning a home.

The report also notes the ownership patterns from the bank credit disbursals, which clearly shows the number of female borrowers in new disbursements has increased significantly in FY22 in tier 3 & 4 districts.              

 Among the top 20 districts with highest share of female borrowers in fresh home loan disbursal in FY22, six districts are from Chhattisgarh, three each from Gujarat and Haryana. These districts have on an average 49% female share in total population.

But what is more interesting is that in districts like Dangs in Gujarat, as much as 86 per cent new home loan borrowers are women, while there share in the overall population is only 50 per cent.

The number is 75 per cent in Arwal of Bihar where females are only 48 per cent of the district population; in Gujarat's Botad the numbers are 63 and 48 per cent, respectively.           

In Haryana's Palwal, it is 58 and 47 per cent respectively, while in Jashpur of Chhattisgarh, it is  58 and  50 per cent and in West Godavari in Andhra, it is 57 and 50 per cent.              In Ballia of Uttar Pradesh it is 57 and 48 per cent, in Mungeli in Chhattisgarh it is 57 and 49 per cent, in Baghpat district of UP, it is 56 and 46 per cent, Gariyaband in Chhattisgarh (55, 51), Surguja of Chhattisgarh (55, 49) and in Bageshwar district of Uttarakhand, the numbers are 54 and 52 per cent respectively.                The other districts which have more than/up to 50 per cent female home loan borrowers include Banas Kantha of Gujarat, Kondagaon of Chhattisgarh, Sonipat and Kaithal of Haryana, Uttar Bastar Kanker of Chhattisgarh, Guntur of Andhra, Udham Singh Nagar in Uttarakhand and Dakshin Bastar Dantewada in Chhattisgarh.