PM Awas Yojana: More than 29.5 m rural houses will be built by March

The Narendra Modi-led government will have constructed more than 37 million rural houses by March, against about 32 million under the erstwhile Indira Awas Yojana in 29 years, a senior government functionary said on Wednesday, highlighting the government's rural push.

Under the PM Awas Yojana (Gramin), the Modi government is expected to wrap up the construction of 29.5 million houses by March in a bid to ensure every family in rural India has a house of their own. This is on top of the 7.6 million houses that the NDA government had built under the Indira Awas Yojana between 2014 and 2016, said the person, who did not wish to be identified.

The government had launched the PMAY (Gramin) in November 2016 by revamping the earlier Indira Awas Yojana. Under this scheme, the Centre bears 60% of the construction cost in most states, while state governments pitch in with the rest. However, the Centre's contribution goes up to 90% for north-eastern and hilly states and to 100% for Union territories.


'Lakhpati didi'

The rural development ministry is planning to take more steps to ramp up the participation of women in economic activity through self-help groups (SHGs), said the person cited earlier. It aims to raise the number of women earning more than Rs 1,00,000 per year to 30 million in the coming years from about 10 million now through steps that would help them in earning sustained livelihood.

The number of SHGs backed by the government has breached the nine million mark, against just 2.13 million in 2013-14, the person said. The number of village organisations has increased to 502,660 from 88,105 in 2013-14.