Journal Articles

Prime Minister’s Awas Yojna (PMAY) – Urban (U) – a Centrally sponsored Mission mode program launched in the year 2015 – embarked on the  ambitious  journey of provisioning Housing for All by 2022. Seven years into the implementation, it emerges that almost 70 percent uptake of PMAY is for the Beneficiary-Led Construction (BLC). This was not the case in the initial days. Not having the ‘Right’ papers restricted uptake of the BLC implementation. Most states in the beginning insisted on Records of Rights (RoR) as the adequate evidence of ownership. The poor especially in small and medium towns, most often will not have RoRs. The urban poor mostly use their plots for self­use; so not enough incentive for them to get the RoRs which is administratively complex, expensive and time intensive. Many states addressed these barriers through process innovations   and facilitated the urban poor to gain access to subsidy under BLC. This paper highlights the specific processes involved in Odisha for obtaining the ‘Right’ papers and innovations adopted by the State for regularising the land titles of the urban poor. These innovations facilitated the urban poor in the state of Odisha to access subsidy under BLC.