Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana
Also called: PMAY · Topic: Human Settlements and Urbanisation in India · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) is the Government of India's housing scheme for poor families. It helps them build or get a proper house of their own. It has two parts. PMAY-Urban started in 2015 for towns and cities. PMAY-Gramin started in 2016 for villages, and it replaced the older Indira Awas Yojana. In 2024, PMAY-U 2.0 set a target of 1 crore more urban homes (verify current). The scheme matters because cities are growing fast and many poor migrants live in crowded slums. It also reaches census towns, which are places that have become urban in size and work but are still run by gram panchayats.
Example
In a big city like Mumbai (Maharashtra), PMAY-Urban gives slum families help to move into proper homes. In a village in Bihar, a family's mud hut can be replaced by a pucca house (a house made of brick and cement) under PMAY-Gramin.
Don't confuse with
- Indira Awas Yojana: this was the older rural housing scheme. PMAY-Gramin replaced it in 2016, so it no longer runs on its own.
- AMRUT (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation, 2015): it builds city services such as water supply, sewerage and parks in 500 cities. It does not build houses for families.