The Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation was a ministry of the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

responsible for urban

poverty Poverty is the state of having few material possessions or little income. Poverty can have diverse social, economic, and political causes and effects. When evaluating poverty in ...

housing Housing, or more generally, living spaces, refers to the construction and assigned usage of houses or buildings individually or collectively, for the purpose of shelter. Housing ensures that members of society have a place to live, whether it ...

, and

employment Employment is a relationship between two parties regulating the provision of paid labour services. Usually based on a contract, one party, the employer, which might be a corporation, a not-for-profit organization, a co-operative, or any othe ...

programs. It involved in national policy decisions and coordinates with Indian central

ministries Ministry may refer to: Government * Ministry (collective executive), the complete body of government ministers under the leadership of a prime minister * Ministry (government department), a department of a government Religion * Christian mi ...

, state governments, and central sponsor programs. The Ministry was created in 2004 after splitting it from the

Ministry of Urban Development The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) is a ministry of the Government of India with executive authority over the formulation and administration of the rules and regulations and laws relating to the housing and urban development in Ind ...

. The government, in 2017, merged the urban development and housing and urban poverty alleviation ministries as the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA)

Responsibilities

Overview

The

Indian Constitution The Constitution of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme law of India. The document lays down the framework that demarcates fundamental political code, structure, procedures, powers, and duties of government institutions and sets out fundamental r ...

has allocated responsibility for

and

urban development Urban means "related to a city". In that sense, the term may refer to: * Urban area, geographical area distinct from rural areas * Urban culture, the culture of towns and cities Urban may also refer to: General * Urban (name), a list of people ...

to the state; and the 74th amendment to the Constitution delegates some responsibility to the local governments. The ministry is responsible for the

national capital territory Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

and union territories. It also provides finances through federal institutions and allocates resources to the state governments. The ministry supports the country's external housing and urban development assistance programs.The Ministry.
The Ministry of Housing And Urban Poverty Alleviation. Retrieved 8 April 2013.

Divisions

The ministry has administrative control over the

National Buildings Organisation National Buildings Organisation (NBO) is an autonomous organisation of the Indian Government established in 1954. The organisation is responsible for collecting, collating, validating, analysing, disseminating and publishing housing and buildin ...

(NBO) attached office and the Hindustan Prefab Limited (HPL) and

Housing and Urban Development Corporation The Housing and Urban Development Corporation Limited (HUDCO) is a central public sector undertaking under the ownership of Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India in India. History This institution came into existence on 25, ...

(HUDCO)

public sector undertaking A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn profit for the governmen ...

s. It is also responsible for the following statutory and autonomous bodies: *Building Materials and Technology Promotion Council (BMTPC) *

Central Government Employees Welfare Housing Organisation Central Government Employees Welfare Housing Organisation is an autonomous organisation of the Indian Government established in 1995. The organisation was established to construct and manage non-profit housing for serving and retired employees o ...

(CGEWHO) *National Cooperative Housing Federation of India (NCHFI) *Principal Account Office (PAO)

Sectors for improvement

For poverty alleviation programs to be successful, the following sectors should realise improvements: Income generation, health, shelter, education, environment and infrastructure. Environmental Improvement for Urban Slum, Urban Basic Service programs, Nehru Rozgar Yojana, Shelter and Infrastructural facilities, and Low Cost Sanitation Night Shelter are examples of schemes to meet these objectives. The Ministry has constituted a Committee on Streamlining Approval Procedures for Real Estate Projects (SAPREP) under the Chairmanship of

Dhanendra Kumar Dhanendra Kumar (born 1946) is a civil servant who was the first Chair of Competition Commission of India (CCI). Kumar formerly served as Executive Director at World Bank. Biography Born in 1946, Kumar joined the Indian Administrative Service ...

, former Chairman of Competition Commission of India. Amongst other things, the concept of single window clearance as advocated by this committee report draw parallels with government's effort towards improving ease of doing business in the country.

National programs and legislation

The

has launched various programs since its

independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...

, such as some of the five-year plans, to alleviate poverty and address the widening income gap, both, amongst the upper and lower classes of society, and amongst the rural and urban parts of the country.Pdf version.
/ref> For instance, the " Eighth Plan policy guidelines envisages integrated approach to alleviation of urban poverty and servicing the urban poor with basic facilities so that their quality of life improves." As trends in the Gini coefficient reflect, the income gaps were not as pronounced until the early 1980s, but the situation has been continually getting worse since. Misplaced priorities of the Indian Government and bad planning of subsidy programs is largely responsible for this. Hosting the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi in 2010 that cost the exchequer an approximate , excluding the price of non-sports related infrastructure, is a case in point. While newly launched programs like

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 or MNREGA, earlier known as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act or NREGA, is an Indian labour law and social security measure that aims to guarantee the 'right to work'. This a ...

(MNREGA),

National Rural Health Mission The National Health Mission (NHM) was launched by the government of India in 2005 subsuming the National Rural Health Mission and National Urban Health Mission. It was further extended in March 2018, to continue until March 2020. It is headed b ...

(NRHM), Food Security Act, Mid-day Meals and Bharat Nirman Yojana have demonstrated success in the initial stages, their performance over the long-run still remains to be seen. The shortsightedness of the Indian government often leads it to launch populist programs that may not necessarily work well. Low-hanging fruit like increasing worker's

minimum wage A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation by the end of the 20th century. Bec ...

can go a long way in achieving the goal of poverty alleviation, but are yet to be taken up in spite of reminders from leading

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

s. On 6 September 2012 by the Union Minister,

Kumari Selja Selja Kumari (born 24 September 1962) is an Indian politician and former parliamentarian. A member of the Indian National Congress, she has been the Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment and Tourism in the Government of India during Manmo ...

, introduced to the Street Vendors Act, 2014 in the

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past ...

Ministers

References

External links

Official website
{{authority control H Poverty in India Housing organisations based in India

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Urban development in India