PMAY (rural) phase-2 houses must be in women's names

NEW DELHI: Turning the rural housing scheme into a weapon of empowerment, the Centre is aiming to ensure 100% women ownership of the houses being built for the poor. In the second phase of PMAY (rural), government will strictly implement the mandatory clause that the houses be registered in the name of the women members of the beneficiary households. PMAY (rural) has the option of "women ownership" and "joint ownership", while ruling out "male only" registration of the subsidised houses being built.

A senior official said the special focus on women has led to the scheme achieving 74% of the sanctioned houses being owned by women alone or jointly. "The scheme aspires to provide 100% ownership to women in the second phase," the senior official said. PMAY will complete eight years on Wednesday, having been launched by PM Narendra Modi in 2016 in Agra.



Importantly, Union rural development ministry is launching a fresh survey - Awas-Plus 2024 - to identify the beneficiaries for the second phase, with the provision of "self survey" to weed out the oft-heard grievances of households that they were left out by the surveyors. The option would involve the interested person uploading his image for "face-based authentication" and other credentials on the app. The survey has 10 criteria on the basis of which an aspirant would become eligible under the scheme.

While govt has a ready list of 1.2 crore beneficiaries, the survey would identify remaining 80 lakh persons to complete the two crore target for the second phase from 2024-29. However, the surplus names identified would be on the list for future.

The original list of beneficiaries was based on SECC 2011, after which it was updated through an "Awas-Plus 2018" survey. The RD ministry has directed the states to finish the surveys by November 30, and sanction housing for eligible families by December 31. Government has set a target of one year to finish the construction of houses.

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