Question : SLUM DWELLERS IN URBAN AREAS

(a) whether the Government has any specific policy and strategy to rehabilitate all the slum dwellers in the urban areas of the country;

(b) if so, the details thereof and the time by which it is likely to be implemented;

(c) whether slums are enormously increasing in urban areas causing crimes and felling heavily on civic amenities; and

(d) if so, the measures being taken/proposed to be taken by the Government in this regard;

MINISTER OF THE STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HOUSING AND URBAN POVERTY ALLEVIATION (KUMARI SELJA)

(a) to (d): Slum being a State subject, it is upto the concerned State Governments to draw specific policy and strategy to rehabilitate the slum dwellers in the urban areas of their respective States within a certain time frame depending on their priorities and the available financial resources. However, to address the problem of affordable housing and providing basic amenities in urban areas, the Government launched the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) to assist States/Union Territories for taking up housing and infrastructural facilities for the urban poor in select 65 cities in the country under the Basic Services to the Urban Poor (BSUP) Programme. For non-Mission cities, for taking up housing and slum upgradation programmes, the Integrated Housing and Slum Development Programme (IHSDP) has been launched with the objective to strive for holistic slum development, with a healthy and enabling environment by providing adequate shelter and basic infrastructure facilities to the slum dwellers including the EWS. Both BSUP and IHSDP are under implementation since December-2005. The duration of JNNURM is seven years beginning from the 2005-06.

In pursuance of the address of the President of India, to both Houses of Parliament in June 2009 and the address of Prime Minister on Independence Day, in which the Government’s vision of a “Slum Free India” was announced, the Government has launched the preparatory phase of Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) supporting States for activities like slum Survey, GIS mapping of slums, preparation of slum free City and State Plans etc.