Government of India has a vision of providing housing for all citizens by 2022. As a part of this “Housing for All” program, the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) has set a target of constructing over 19 million rural houses by 2022. Through this program, called the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana – Gramin (PMAY-G), the government is providing direct financial assistance for construction of houses in rural areas. A budget of over $ 36 billion has been allocated for the program over the next three years. MAITREE is providing technical assistance to the Ministry for integrating the vision of ‘Green’ and to prepare an implementation approach for the PMAY-G program.

An expert consultation workshop was held on July 17^th, 2019 to seek feedback on this Green framework developed by MAITREE. Mr. Prasant Kumar, Additional Secretary, Rural Housing, MoRD, chaired the event. Over 60 experts attended the workshop; which included developers, architects, NGOs, bi-lateral organizations, central and state government officials, and representatives of building material industry.

The technical approach and business models presented by MAITREE received wide acceptance and the Ministry has shown a keen interest to integrate Green in the PMAY-G vision, starting with construction of demonstration houses as a first step towards scaling up the initiative.