IHF’s Five Pronged Approach
The goal of Indian Housing Federation (IHF) is to enable access to housing for low-income communities, by collaborating with various stakeholders along the entire housing value chain to bridge the gaps in the sector. Since 2015, IHF has aligned its work to support state governments in effectively implementing the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana - Urban (PMAY-U), the flagship national housing scheme of the Government of India (GoI), under all verticals and sub-missions of the scheme.
Over several years of field-level engagements in this space, IHF has identified five universal challenges for building more housing for low-income communities in India (see figure). While these challenges are universally present across all channels of housing supply, they are especially relevant to the self-build approach.
Figure: Five-Pronged Approach at IHF to Enable Access to Housing for Low-Income Communities
IHF is currently working on improving these five aspects, through a combination of field engagements, applied research and stakeholders networks.
The five aspects of IHF’s five-pronged approach are as follows:
Land and Tenure Rights
Secure tenure is a key challenge that prevents households from improving the quality of their housing. Due to the uncertainty of tenure, households don’t prefer investing too much money into their house. Inadequate tenure also prevents many financial institutions from lending to clients with such properties. Access to affordable land in critical locations also remains a challenge for mass-housing projects by government and non-government players alike, especially in large unplanned cities.
IHF supported Tata Trusts in implementing a pilot for the Odisha Land Rights to Slum Dwellers - JAGA Mission in Nolia Sahi, Konark.
Government Policies, Schemes and Subsidies
Despite many subsidised government housing schemes at both GoI and state levels to help low-income households in improving their housing situation, the targeting of these schemes faces implementation challenges. Marginalised households rarely get the right inputs to actually benefit from these schemes, while limited government machinery is unable to offer the hand-holding needed by the target communities.
IHF conducted the pilot demand survey under PMAY-U in Morigaon, Assam to ensure access to the scheme benefits for all eligible households.
Micro Housing Finance
Subsidies under housing schemes such as PMAY-U do not cover the entire cost of construction/ purchase, requiring households to raise the balance amount. It is, therefore, critical for low-income beneficiary households to have easy and universal access to micro housing finance. Although many affordable housing finance institutions (AHFIs) are providing credit to the economically weaker section (EWS), the awareness about these initiatives is inadequate and complex processes make these out of reach.
IHF works towards establishing financial linkages with banks and housing finance institutions to enable access to housing credit for self-built housing, as demonstrated in Tamil Nadu through credit camps organised in partnership with the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board (TNSCB).
Construction Technical Assistance
Construction practices make a huge impact on the affordability and quality of housing. The process of incremental housing can, in effect, be even more complex than greenfield construction, on account of limitations like constrained space, having to build while also dwelling in the same place, neighbourhood challenges, funding limitations as well as lack of professional advice and construction supervision. Some professional support can help in achieving better quality design, efficient planning to build over a period of time, use of appropriate technology/materials and reduced wastage.
IHF partnered with Drishtee Foundation to promote modern bamboo housing in Lakhimpur, Assam.
Post-Occupancy Operations and Maintenance
To ensure that the houses remain adequate for the households over their lifetime without decay in quality, it is important to invest in operations and maintenance of the built environment. There have been many instances where facilities provided by government and/or donor agencies as well as the ones that are self-built deteriorate drastically because of lack of proper maintenance.