Improving Housing for Urban Poor - Learnings from BLC implementation in Odisha

In response to the Government of India’s PMAY mission, Odisha designed the Odisha Urban Housing Mission–Awaas to realise the goal of housing for all in the state. BLC vertical emerged as the most preferred, with an outlay of INR 200,000 (USD 2,857) as subsidy from the state government and the centre to the economically weaker sections for building houses on their own land. The study was designed with the aim of understanding (a) the impact of the distribution of Land Rights Certificates among the urban poor on their ability to leverage the housing subsidy under BLC and (b) the existing conditions and challenges in the construction of houses through BLC under PMAY in Odisha. For this purpose, a stratified sample survey of 250 households was carried out in three cities of Odisha – Dhenkanal, Gopalpur and Berhampur. In addition, key informant interviews (KIIs) and detailed case studies were undertaken to enable qualitative triangulation of the results of the household survey. While the impact of the LRC distribution was different in each city, convergence with other urban infrastructure/civic facilities and development schemes are at various stages of intervention across the three cities.