BANGALORE: The draft National Rural Housing and Habitat Policy, which civil organisations had helped bring out, has been endorsed by the Union Rural Development Ministry.

The Ministry will now approach the Planning Commission for the policy to be incorporated into its agenda for the 11th Five-Year Plan.

If implemented, the policy will help meet the present shortage of 14.9 million houses, of which rural housing constitutes 65 per cent.

The exercise, which began as part of an assessment of the National Housing Policy of 1998, found that there was an urgent need for a "rural housing and habitat policy that responds to the special character, priorities and potential of rural India," Zeenat Niazi, programme director, habitats, at Development Alternatives, told The Hindu.

Speaking on the sidelines of a State-level workshop on the draft policy, Ms. Niazi said that following several rounds of consultations at various levels, Union Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh had found it "very appealing" to align a habitat policy with the implementation of programmes like Bharat Nirman and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), as it would seek to harness human resources for integrated rural development. The draft policy envisaged the involvement of Panchayati Raj institutions and self-help groups in the creation of market linkages in habitat planning for an effective implementation of poverty alleviation and employment generation programmes.

Subsidies would also be allocated to gram sabhas, a part of which would be used for on-the-job training of local people. Both the Union and State Governments would contribute to the development of building materials and technologies based on agricultural and industrial waste and locally produced by small entrepreneurs.

Adequate land

The draft policy would also provide rural citizens with adequate land, security of tenure and access to finance through alternate methods of credit.

It was created by the Basin South Asia Regional Knowledge Platform, along with its partners Development Alternatives and the Poorest Areas Civil Society (PACS). The dialogue was triggered by research and documentation supported by the U.K.-based Building and Social Housing Federation and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.

In Karnataka, the Rajiv Gandhi Rural Housing Corporation had provided one million rural houses. Principal Secretary, Rural Development and Pancahyat Raj M.R. Srinivasa Murthy pointed out that the Government had come with the ambitious 1,000 villages- Rs. 1,000 crores Suvarna Gramodaya scheme that will seek to shift employment generation from land-based activities, even while maximising income.

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