Mother plan for slums

The mid-term appraisal of the Tenth Five-Year Plan is likely to recommend launching an Integrated Slum Development programme with a focus on public-private partnerships.

The new programme will involve merging the existing National Slum Development Programme, the Valmiki Ambedkar Awas Yojana and the Swarna Jayanti Swarozgar Yojana.

In order to enlarge the resource base available for urban renewal, the mid-term appraisal says that beneficiaries would have to contribute, as would the public sector, private sector and the financial institutions.

The focus on urban renewal is important because with rising income levels, basic nutritional needs are met. However, other needs like those of shelter, civic amenities, healthcare and education are still to be met.

At the national level, the percentage of the poor in rural areas is significantly higher than in urban areas. However, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Delhi have higher levels of urban poverty.

Stating that the increased emphasis on commercial functioning is affecting the availability of credit to the urban self-employed, the draft appraisal says that the SJSRY needs to be made a bank-driven micro-credit movement.

This is to encourage self-employment among urban youth. The strategy should be to use employment exchanges as the focal point for placement of unemployed youth, who can be trained under the SJSRY.

The wage employment component of the SJSRY should be used only for building assets and infrastructure relating to the urban poor and not for general municipal works, the draft says.

Requirements should be selected by beneficiaries and implemented by the community development societies, set up under the self-employment programme.

The focus in the Integrated Slum Development Programme would be on project related schemes identified by municipalities or state governments in consultation with slum dwellers.

This would ensure that only viable projects are taken up and community participation is forthcoming, say officials, adding that this way, resources would be put to optimal use.

At the state level, the appraisal suggests the setting up of taskforces to tackle urban poverty and slum development. At the municipal level, it suggests creation of urban poverty alleviation cells that would be overall in charge of concerned programmes.

These cells would include representatives of slums, community development societies and non-governmental organisations.