chieving the Housing Objective of Millennium Development Goals

(MDGS): The Promise of Co-operative Housing

Peter O. Adewale, Ahmid B. Siyanbola, Serifat O. Siyanbola

Abstract

One of the targets of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is to achieve a significant improvement in
the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by the year 2020. Nigeria’s commitment to this Declaration
has led to a plethora of economic reforms that address housing inadequacy and other development
challenges. Among these is a policy shift from direct government participation to private sector participation
in housing delivery. Several studies have, however, shown that, despite all these reforms, a great proportion
of its population still lives in substandard and poor houses and in deplorable, unsanitary residential
environments. The objective of this paper is to review some of these strategies vis-à-vis the socio-economic
context of the nation’s polity with a view to finding the reasons they have not delivered as expected. The
incompatibility of the market-driven reforms with the social and cultural needs and aspirations of Nigeria
society was identified as a major impediment to housing delivery in the country. The paper contends that
housing problem as a social good or service will remain intractable if its production is still controlled by the
market forces. It then concludes by advocating cooperative approach to housing delivery and the
management, maintenance and revitalization of the existing housing stocks.

Target 7.D:
Achieve, by 2020, a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million
slum dwellers

 Between 2000 and 2014, more than 320 million people living in slums gained access to
improved water sources, improved sanitation facilities, or durable or less crowded housing,
thereby exceeding the MDG target.
 More than 880 million people are estimated to be living in slums today, compared to 792
million in 2000 and 689 million in 1990.
Objectives • Provide every family with a pucca house, with a water connection, toilet facilities, and 24x7
electricity supply and access. • Build 2.95 core housing units in rural areas and 1.2 crore housing units in
urban areas. Current Situation The President’s clarion call to ensure the provision of houses to every
family remains the key objective of the ‘Housing for All’ scheme. Following this announcement, the
government has made it clear that one of its key priorities is to ensure safe and affordable housing for
all. This mandate also includes upgradation of slums. Recent estimates of the Ministry of Rural
Development and Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs indicate a housing shortage of nearly 3 crore
units in rural areas and 1.2 crore units in urban areas. Achieving the goal of ‘Housing for All’ will be a big
step in the realization of New India Vision 2022 that will trigger economic growth and create millions of
jobs for skilled as well as unskilled workers. Moreover, given the forward and backward linkages of the
housing sector, the focus on affordable housing could bring rich dividends for other distressed sectors
such as steel and cement. Since 1985, the Government of India has been implementing a rural housing
scheme for families living below the poverty line (BPL). A new scheme, the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana
(Gramin – PMAY-G) was launched in 2016. This scheme now provides per unit assistance of INR
1,20,000/- in plain areas and INR 1,30,000/- in hilly states/ integrated action plan districts/difficult areas.
This support is provided to homeless families or to those who live in kutcha houses as per the
SocioEconomic Caste Census (SECC), 2011 data. PMAY-G is converged with Swachh Bharat Mission
(Gramin) and Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) for the
construction of sanitary toilets and also to provide the unskilled wage component. Under PMAY-G, it
was proposed to build one crore rural houses in three years between 2016-17 and 2018-19. The
estimated financial requirement for the construction of one crore houses in these three years is INR
81,975 crore. During 2016-17, about 32.14 lakh houses were constructed. For the financial year 2017-18,
the government set a target of completing 51 lakh houses; 51.38 lakh houses had been sanctioned and
44.54 lakh houses (i.e., 87.29 per cent of the target) had been completed by the end of March 2018.
Under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (UrbanPMAY-U), the mission aims to achieve the objective of
‘Housing for All’ by 2022 through its four pillars – a) in-situ slum redevelopment; b) affordable housing
through a credit linked subsidy scheme; c) affordable housing in partnership between public and private
agencies and d) subsidy for beneficiaryled individual house construction or enhancement. For financial
year 2017-18, the PMAY (Urban) 9
f you are looking to own a home of your own, under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban), PMAY (U) scheme,
here are few important things to consider about the PMAY scheme, even while you arrange the amount for down
payment, decide the location, builder and the home loan lender.

The Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme (CLSS) for Middle Income Group (MIG) to be called CLSS for MIG I and MIG II,
which was initially approved for implementation for the year 2017 has been extended up to 31.03.202 ..

Read more at:

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/wealth/borrow/you-can-still-get-benefit-under-pmay-even-if-your-parents-own-
a-home/articleshow/58003642.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

Housing 8.18. As per the PMAY-G scheme, houses will be provided to all by the year 2022. In order to
meet this goal, 10 million houses will need to be constructed by March, 2019. This is a fairly ambitious
objective and will stretch the capacity of the states considerably. 8.19. To ensure that the goal is met, it
is crucial that state specific plans are developed along with a work schedule and explicitly defined
targets. These plans should include details of various types of low-cost and disaster resilient housing
models which can be designed with materials that are available in various parts of the country. Another
important step that should be taken on a priority basis is the creation of dedicated project management
units at the state level13 supported by the Technical Support Agency at the National level. These units
could help to coordinate the progress being made as per the state plans as well as build the capacity of
the field staff and masons. Training of 75,000 masons should be undertaken in rural areas over the next
three years. 8.20. Another priority is to ensure that funds are released in a timely manner based on
evidence of completion of each stage of construction. Due to delays in the release of payments, there is
a back-log of half-finished structures14 in several areas. The monitoring mechanism should be
strengthened by the introduction of geo-tagged photographs of house construction as well as
compulsory social audits. 8.21. A scheme for the provision of interest subsidy to every rural household
that is not covered under PMAY-G has recently been approved by the Union Cabinet15. Steps should be
taken to ensure convergence of this scheme with PMAY-G, including the provision of technical support
to beneficiaries by leveraging the existing structures.