PMAY-U’s “In-situ” Slum Redevelopment scheme: A critical analysis

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The Union Cabinet of India approved the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-U) 2.0 on 9 August 2024. The scheme aims to provide one crore houses for urban poor and middle-class families over the following five years. “In-situ” Slum Rehabilitation (ISSR) was an independent scheme component in PMAY-U 1.0 designed to provide affordable housing to slum dwellers by leveraging land as a resource and attracting private investments. In PMAY-U 2.0, the government subsumed the ISSR under the Beneficiary Led Construction (BLC) and Affordable Housing in Partnership components. Considering a new policy approach by the government, it is pertinent to analyse the performance of ISSR and the strategies the government can take to address the limitations of the scheme’s implementation.

As 60 percent of slums in India are on government land, the scheme focused on upgrading the infrastructure at existing slum sites instead of relocating people.

The basic premise of the ISSR under PMAY-U 1.0 was to provide affordable housing to slum dwellers by attracting private investments. As 60 percent of slums in India are on government land, the scheme focused on upgrading the infrastructure at existing slum sites instead of relocating people. Private players who undertook redevelopment could use the remaining parcel of land for commercial purposes. Furthermore, the government assured the private entities an average assistance of INR 1 lakh per unit. In return, the slum dwellers were provided free housing units. The scheme, on paper, ensured a win-win situation for every stakeholder. However, the scheme performance showcased a contradictory reality.

Table 1: ISSR Performance

Source: Ministry of Information & Broadcasting

According to PMAY-U data, the lowest number of houses were sanctioned to the ISSR vertical. The central government sanctioned 2.95 lakh houses under the vertical. A staggering 63 percent of houses are at different stages of completion and remain unoccupied, highlighting sub-optimal scheme performance. The above data, however, does not provide a holistic view of the scheme’s progress. The 2.95 lakh number is as per the data of revised sanctioned houses. A closer look at the ISSR-sanctioned data from 2022 presents a grim reality.

Table 2: ISSR Target Revision

Source: Standing Committee on Housing and Urban Affairs

The data indicates that even the sanctioned projects were dropped. Further, if the number of occupied houses is compared with initially sanctioned houses, it is evident that only 8 percent of ISSR houses are occupied. In other words, only a handful of ISSR projects have been successful across the country.

Slow on-ground progress might be the most significant factor in the government’s decision to subsume the scheme. However, to understand the policy loopholes, it is necessary to unpack other factors responsible for the slow progress. 

Scheme limitations 

• Absence of reliable data: As per the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs Rajya Sabha unstarred question no. 556, “State-wise and year-wise data on the number of people living in slums for the last five years is not available.”  The Ministry relies on 2011 census data. With the constant increase in population, there is inward migration towards urban areas. The unaffordability of housing pushes many to seek shelter in slums. There is no mechanism in place by the Ministry or any other government agency to track slum populations. The absence of slum tracking measures by central, state, or local governments means that thousands of slums are unrecognised. It translates into them being invisible from an administrative viewpoint and outside the ambit of policy prescription.
• Slum identification: The PMAY-U 1.0 guidelines define a slum as “a compact area of at least 300 populations or about 60-70 households of poorly built congested tenements, in an unhygienic environment usually with inadequate infrastructure and proper sanitary and drinking water facilities.” The Urban Local Body (ULB) is responsible for surveying such areas in the city and declaring them as a slum. However, ULBs avoid enumerating an area as a slum. If enumerated, they must provide essential services such as roads, water, and sanitation to slums.
• Tenability and viability of slums: A slum needs to be tenable and viable to be considered for an ISSR project. As per definition, a tenable slum is suitable for human habitation and can be regularised in the exact location. Untenable slums are located on environmentally hazardous sites (such as riverbanks, pond sites, hilly or marshy terrains), ecologically sensitive sites (mangroves, national parks, or sanctuaries), or land marked for public utilities and services (such as major roads and railway tracks). All untenable slums logically and justifiably fall outside the purview of the ISSR scheme. Furthermore, those slums classified as tenable should be categorised based on viability. It entails determining whether there is economic sense in the redevelopment of slums based on factors like location, size, land, and market value of current housing. The majority of slums in smaller cities and towns fail to meet the viability criteria. Overall, a small number of slums pass the tenability and viability criteria.

Several other factors hamper the implementation of the ISSR. However, factors such as the absence of data, non-recognition of slums by local bodies, tenability and viability factors, and lack of land rights are the crucial obstacles that inhibit implementation, as they narrow the pool of slums that qualify under the ISSR (see Table 3).

Table 3: ISSR Performance in Union Territories

Source: Ministry of Information & Broadcasting

The above data shows that no ISSR project has been sanctioned or is in progress in Delhi or Chandigarh. According to the 2011 census, 1.785 million and 95,000 people reside in slums in Delhi and Chandigarh, respectively. The scheme’s limitations are narrowing the pool of qualified slums, leading to injustice to the slum population. 

Recommendations

• The first step in providing affordable housing to slum dwellers is to recognise their existence. The government needs to undertake a nationwide survey for slum enumeration and provide strict guidelines for ULBs to follow.
• To incentivise recognition, the government can earmark development funds for ULBs based on the number of slum residents in each ULB. It can incentivise ULBs to identify slum populations and help address the unavailability of data and slum recognition obstacles.
• After addressing the slum data and recognition issues, the central government can draw inspiration from the Punjab Slum Dwellers (Proprietary Rights) Act 2020, which provides secured tenure and land rights to slum dwellers. As per the legislation, slum dwellers get proprietary land rights after the ULB adopts it. The Act provides a framework to integrate slum dwellers in a formal framework and provides legal recognition. A unique aspect of the legislation is that the proprietary rights of the land are inheritable but not transferable for 30 years. This ensures long-term security and avoids the trading of allocated land. Moreover, if the land currently occupied by slum dwellers belongs to the government, they are granted proprietary land rights. These rights are either free or provided at subsidised rates based on the socio-economic category of the dweller. The national adoption of the Act will support slum regularisation and tenure security.
• The current policy approach involves engaging private players for slum redevelopment. This strategy has notable limitations. The government needs to develop a multifaceted framework based on tenability and viability factors.

• For tenable and viable slums, the existing ISSR model can be deployed.
• The government can implement the successful Odisha Jaga Mission model for tenable and unviable slums. This model focuses on land rights for slum dwellers by creating a working title. This right is heritable but not transferable. Further, the government invests in the redevelopment of the housing units and ensures the provision of basic facilities like roads, water, and sewerage in the entire slum area.
• Slums classified as untenable cannot meet viability criteria, as untenability will preclude economic and development feasibility. Consequently, all untenable slums are unviable. The government should provide adequate support to relocate these slum dwellers to nearby housing projects.

The government needs to adopt a balanced approach of incentives and enforcement to ensure slum enumeration across India.

Conclusion

Acknowledging the existence of slums is the first step towards ensuring housing for all. The government needs to adopt a balanced approach of incentives and enforcement to ensure slum enumeration across India. The central government can draw frameworks from state governments. The Punjab Slum Dwellers (Proprietary Rights) Act 2020 provides a comprehensive framework for granting tenure rights to slum dwellers across India. Moreover, Odisha’s Jaga Mission offers a holistic framework for slum redevelopment that goes beyond tenure rights and promises substantial investment by the state government towards improving the physical infrastructure of the slum. This model can be adopted for tenable and unviable slums as it provides a sustainable and inclusive opportunity for slum communities. The central government needs to deploy a bouquet of solutions based on the specificity of slum requirements. The one-size-fits-all approach of the ISSR has failed to deliver exceptional results.

Akshay Joshi is a Public Policy Practitioner.

• Domestic Politics and Governance
• Urbanisation in India
• India
• affordable housing
• housing infrastructure
• housing viability
• Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban 2.0
• Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban 2.0
• public-private partnership
• slum redevelopment
• tenure security
• tenure security
• urban local bodies
• urban poor

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