Home ownership, a roof over our heads to call our own, is not just a matter of economic security, but also a marker of stability and social status. This essential understanding has underpinned the unwavering commitment of the state to home ownership since the early years of the Indian republic.
From building refugee housing in the wake of Partition to setting up State Housing Boards in the ’50s and ’60s, to a push to growing the housing sector via the Housing and Urban Development Corporation and the National Housing Bank in the ’80s, the state pushed to provide ownership housing to urban residents across income groups. Post liberalisation, the state receded further from the role of housing supply, and the policy focus shifted to mortgage financing, though modest amounts of public housing was constructed via urban renewal programmes.
Parallelly, the approach to urban slums changed from slum clearance to slum improvement, ‘sites and services’, and resettlement schemes. Since the 1990s, slum redevelopment projects that involved the private sector sought to provide tenure secure housing to slum dwellers. Except for employee-provided housing, home ownership has remained the bedrock of housing policy through the decades and continues to do so today, with the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) scheme racing to fulfil the government’s commitment towards Housing for All by 2022.
Recognising housing needs of mobile workers
Against this backdrop, the Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHC) Scheme, added to the PMAY last year, is a bold step in a new direction. Announced as part of the Atmanirbhar Bharat package in response to the enormous hardships faced by migrants and informal workers in the wake of the Covid-19 lockdown, the ARHC acknowledges – for the first time – the needs of mobile workers who spend short periods of time in the city and do not seek permanent housing. Seasonal and circular migration has been a longstanding feature of India’s economy, which has relied on ‘footloose labour’ to fuel key sectors of the economy like agriculture, construction and manufacturing.