Government’s Initiative for a Slum Free India - JnNURM & RAY

Introduction

The image of the Indian city is often a tapestry of stark contrasts. Gleaming skyscrapers and sprawling shopping malls stand shoulder-to-shoulder with dense, informal settlements—commonly known as slums. These areas, while vibrant hubs of community and enterprise, are frequently characterized by a lack of basic services: insecure tenure, inadequate access to water and sanitation, poor structural quality of housing, and overcrowding. For decades, the approach to these settlements vacillated between neglect, eviction, and piecemeal rehabilitation.

The turn of the 21st century, however, marked a significant paradigm shift. The Government of India launched two ambitious, mission-mode programs that sought to address urban poverty and housing deficiency in a structured, holistic manner: the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM) and its more focused successor, the Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY), often heralded as the direct initiative for a "Slum Free India."

This document summarizes the journey, philosophy, components, and critical lessons from these two landmark missions, illustrating the evolving understanding of urban informality in India.

Part 1: The Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM) – The Foundational Catalyst

Launched in 2005, JnNURM was not exclusively a housing or slum development program. It was a massive, multi-sectoral urban renewal mission with a much broader vision: to create "economically productive, efficient, equitable and responsive cities." It recognized that the rapid pace of urbanization was straining urban infrastructure and governance, and that a fundamental upgrade was necessary.

The Core Objectives and Two Tracks:

JnNURM was split into two main sub-missions:

1. Sub-Mission for Urban Infrastructure and Governance (UIG): Focused on large-scale infrastructure projects like water supply, sanitation, sewerage, solid waste management, urban transport, and redevelopment of inner city areas in 65 select cities.

2. Sub-Mission for Basic Services to the Urban Poor (BSUP): This is the component most directly relevant to the slum-free agenda. BSUP aimed to provide basic civic services and housing security to the urban poor, primarily through the integrated development of slums.

The BSUP Philosophy: A Step Forward

BSUP represented a significant departure from earlier approaches. Its key principles included:

• In-Situ Rehabilitation: Instead of large-scale evictions and relocating slum dwellers to the peripheries of cities (which often destroyed livelihoods and social networks), BSUP emphasized in-situ slum rehabilitation. This meant upgrading the existing settlement or rebuilding housing on the same or nearby land.

• Public-Private Partnership (PPP): The mission actively encouraged the involvement of private developers in slum redevelopment, often through mechanisms where developers were granted additional development rights (FSI/TDR) in exchange for constructing housing for the poor.

• Holistic Development: The goal was not just to build houses but to create sustainable habitats. Projects under BSUP were required to integrate physical housing with basic infrastructure like water, sanitation, roads, and electricity.

• Community Participation: The guidelines mandated the involvement of community organizations, like Slum Dwellers’ Associations (SDAs) and NGOs, in the planning and implementation process, moving towards a more participatory model.

The Implementation and Challenges of JnNURM-BSUP

While the vision "Slum Free India" was laudable, the implementation of BSUP revealed several critical challenges:

• Scale and Pace: The problem was immense, and the pace of construction often lagged. Delays in land acquisition, securing clearances, and finalizing beneficiary lists were common.

• The "Project" Mindset: BSUP often operated as a series of discrete projects rather than a comprehensive, city-wide strategy. It addressed specific, identifiable slums but failed to create a framework to prevent the formation of new slums.

• Beneficiary Identification and Tenure: Determining who was a legitimate beneficiary was a complex and often contentious process. The focus on "legal" slums sometimes excluded many vulnerable households living on non-notified or precarious land.

• Post-Construction Issues: In many cases, the newly constructed housing, while an improvement in physical structure, was located in areas with poor connectivity to employment centers. Furthermore, maintenance of the new infrastructure often became a problem.

• Lack of Affordable Rental Housing: The model was heavily skewed towards ownership, ignoring the need for affordable rental options for the vast migratory population in cities.

Despite these challenges, JnNURM-BSUP was a crucial learning experience. It laid the groundwork, invested significant central government funds in urban housing, and established important principles like in-situ development. However, it became clear that a more targeted, rights-based, and preventive approach was needed.

Part 2: The Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) – The Blueprint for a "Slum Free India"

Learning from the experiences of JnNURM, the Government of India announced the Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) in 2009, with the explicit and ambitious vision of creating a "Slum Free India." It was launched in 2013 and aimed to build on the lessons of BSUP while addressing its shortcomings.

The Paradigm Shift in RAY's Philosophy

RAY was not just an upgraded version of BSUP; it represented a fundamental shift in policy:

1. The "Right to Shelter" Focus: RAY was conceived within the emerging discourse on housing as a right. It aimed to provide property rights and formal housing to slum dwellers, bringing them into the formal urban fabric.

2. A Comprehensive City-Wide Approach: Instead of a project-based approach, RAY mandated the preparation of a Slum-Free City Plan of Action (SFCPoA). Every participating city had to undertake a comprehensive survey and mapping of all its slums—notified and non-notified—and create a detailed, phased plan for addressing them all. This promoted a more strategic and holistic view.

3. Prevention as a Key Pillar: A revolutionary aspect of RAY was its focus on preventing the emergence of new slums. This was to be achieved through:

   • Promotion of Affordable Housing: Encouraging the creation of a large stock of affordable housing through various incentives for the public and private sectors.

   • Legal and Policy Reforms: RAY required states and cities to enact critical legislative changes, such as amendments to rent control acts, and, most importantly, the enactment of a Regulatory Framework for Affordable Housing to make the market more responsive to the needs of the poor.

4. Emphasis on Property Titles: A cornerstone of RAY was the provision of formal property titles or some form of legally enforceable tenure security to slum dwellers. This was seen as the key to unlocking their economic potential and integrating them as full citizens.

5. Inclusivity: RAY explicitly aimed to include all slums, regardless of their legal status (notified or non-notified), and a broader cross-section of the urban poor, including those in rental arrangements.

The Two-Phased Structure of RAY

RAY was designed to be implemented in two phases:

• Phase I - The Preparatory Phase: This involved the support for preparatory activities like the comprehensive slum surveys, GIS mapping, and the creation of the Slum-Free City Plans of Action (SFCPoA). This phase was critical for building the evidence base for effective intervention.

• Phase II - The Implementation Phase: Based on the approved SFCPoA, cities would receive central assistance for the actual implementation of projects, which could include in-situ redevelopment, slum upgrading, or, as a last resort, relocation with proper rehabilitation.

The Unfulfilled Promise and the Transition to PMAY-U

Despite its progressive and comprehensive design, RAY's nationwide implementation was limited in scope. It was launched in a preparatory phase in select cities, but before it could be rolled out fully across the country, a new government took office in 2014. The new administration launched an even more ambitious flagship program—the "Slum Free India" Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana - Urban (PMAY-U) in 2015—which subsumed RAY and all other existing urban housing schemes.

Therefore, RAY, in many ways, never reached its full potential. However, its intellectual and policy legacy is profound.

Part 3: The Enduring Legacy and a Comparative View

While JnNURM-BSUP was the operational groundbreaker, RAY was the visionary blueprint. The transition from one to the other shows a clear evolution in policy thinking.

The Legacy Lives On in PMAY-U

The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana - Urban (PMAY-U), with its target of "Housing for All by 2022," is the direct successor and carries forward the core lessons from both JnNURM and RAY.

• It has adopted RAY's comprehensive, city-wide planning requirement.

• It emphasizes in-situ slum redevelopment using land as a resource, a principle championed by BSUP.

• It includes a strong component for affordable housing through credit-linked subsidy, acknowledging the need for market intervention to prevent future slum formation—a key tenet of RAY.

• It promotes women's empowerment by mandating the house to be in the name of the female head of the household or jointly.

Conclusion: An Unfinished, Yet Transformative, Journey

The initiatives of "Slum Free India-JnNURM and JAY" represent a critical chapter in India's urban story. They mark the transition of urban housing policy from a welfare-oriented, ad-hoc activity to a central pillar of national economic and social development strategy.

JnNURM-BSUP demonstrated the immense complexity of the task on the ground, highlighting the pitfalls of implementation, governance bottlenecks, and the limitations of a project-centric view. It was the necessary, if imperfect, first step.

RAY, though short-lived, provided the intellectual framework for a more just and sustainable solution. Its emphasis on property rights, prevention, and a comprehensive, city-wide strategy moved the discourse from mere "slum clearance" to "inclusive city-making."

The dream of a "Slum Free India" is not merely about the absence of informal settlements. It is about the presence of inclusive, equitable, and sustainable cities where every citizen has access to decent housing, security of tenure, and basic services. The journey from JnNURM to RAY, and now to PMAY-U, reflects the nation's ongoing struggle and commitment to turning this dream into a reality. The path is fraught with challenges, but the evolution in policy thinking itself is a testament to a growing consensus that the future of Indian cities depends on how they treat their most vulnerable inhabitants.