PURA (Provision of Urban Amenities to Rural Areas) was a policy measure to create a common development platform for rural and urban areas.
Its potential goes beyond mere creation of economic infrastructure, and involves social infrastructure too, in which housing is a significant component.
What is PURA?
There are growing disparities of material status in India.
In this regard, PURA is a framework to mitigate the country’s socioeconomic problems.
It works at creating a common development platform for rural and urban areas.
PURA is a scheme that proposes a holistic and accelerated development of compact areas around a potential growth centre in a Gram Panchayat(s).
It is carried out through Public Private Partnership (PPP) framework.
It aims at providing livelihood opportunities and urban amenities to improve the quality of life in rural areas.
PURA’s design goes beyond the mere creation of economic infrastructure and employment opportunities.
It also aims to develop social infrastructure.
To further this objective, access to good housing, including housing amenities, should become a priority.
What is the current housing scenario?
Housing in rural areas is one sector that has consistently suffered from the lack of meaningful market interventions.
Supply of developed land and financing for housing has been lacking.
Due to incompatibilities in supply and demand, millions of Indians dwell in unsecured housing.
This is largely driven by shortages in the supply of housing and a lack of redevelopment of collapsible or dilapidated units.
Dilapidated units have contributed towards a high level of housing amenities deprivation.
This is because they cannot safely be connected with electricity or solar energy, latrines, and drinking water, due to associated structural risks.
How does this reflect in poverty scenario?
India did pursue effective poverty alleviation measures.
But, in effect, the interventions carried out have hardly worked in minimising urban-rural divides.
Officially, the incidence of housing-related poverty is in the order of 25.85 million.
This is roughly 82% in rural areas and 18% in urban areas.
Menial occupation workers and low-income earners have been facing these forms of poverty the most.
The poor housing scenario has resulted in multiple deprivations of:
45% of rural families without electricity, biogas and LPG
over 69% without household latrines
over 82% of families without treated water for drinking at household levels
Thus, the composite deprivation is in the order of over 58%.
However, the regional picture depicts two contrasting scenarios of lower and higher levels, respectively, in 19 and 9 independent States.
The lower range of deprivations is at around 20-52% and higher range at around 60-75%.
These lead to higher rates of internal migration both due to dissatisfaction with housing arrangements and prospect of better housing elsewhere.
What do these call for?
India needs an integrated housing development strategy for the rural context to be implemented in “mission mode”.
Most importantly, it requires political will as expressed in party election manifestos.
Development interventions must focus on rural and urban areas with due consideration for new construction and redevelopment of existing, dilapidated units.
There must also be accountability in terms of implementing the mission agenda on a continuous basis, with social audits at multiple levels of governance.
Also, a realistic resource allocation is required given the cost of redevelopment and new housing units besides other development costs.
For these, penetration of the market, including the cooperative sector for the supply of critical inputs such as land and finances, is essential.
Public-private-partnership projects should be encouraged on public or government-owned lands, with fiscal and other incentives.
Landowners should be encouraged to develop incentive-based affordable housing projects.
The people facing housing poverty must be made partners.
Micro finance and self-help groups could also be roped in to this end.
