Bharat nirman and rural housing: An in-depth study

“Bharat Nirman (BN)” was introduced in 2005–06 in a bid to develop rural infrastructure and provide basic amenities to the rural people living in rural areas. There is no denying the fact that a major chunk of population of our country live in rural areas. So the development of rural areas is urgently needed. “Bharat Nirman” program launched by the Government of India identified six core infrastructure sectors in rural areas viz., rural housing, irrigation, drinking water, rural roads, rural electrification and rural telephone connectivity. The attention needs to be taken for each and every sector. The overall development of rural areas through ‘Bharat Nirman’ will help make our country a prosperous one. Our government since its (BN) inception has put stress on its effective implementation that has resulted in establishment of quality and affordable infrastructure in rural areas and improvement of the quality of life of the rural citizens of the country. The rural-urban divide may be marginalized if the program is implemented in toto. Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY) is one of the components of “Bharat Nirman”. It aims at providing financial assistance for construction/upgradation of houses to below poverty line (BPL) rural households belonging to SCs, STs, free bonded laborers, non-SC/ST rural households etc. In this paper, an attempt has been made to assess how the rural people get benefited through ‘Rural Housing Scheme’ under the name of Indira Awaas Yojana’.