Should India implement Rights to Homestead?
Should India implement Rights to Homestead?
Congress has lost in the General elections. But the one thing in its manifesto cannot be ignored. It wanted to provide the poor households with the "Right to Homestead". The National Right to Homestead Bill of 2013 was designed keeping in mind the number of shelter less poor families resides in India. There are already several acts running in India to help the people get the cheaper homes. Do you think it is a wise idea to implement Rights to Homestead in India?
Yes
• Food, Clothes and home are said to be the basic necessities of people. They should be fulfilled at any cost.
• It is the responsibility of the government to take the required measures to develop the ignored sectors.
• In a country where 60% of the population owns 5% of the land there it is essential to bring in new and effective laws for providing shelter to the needy.
• Education that comes after home is now given for free under the RTE act, then how can you deny the right to homestead?
• People talking about subsidized rates and interest should understand that the act will be for poor shelter less people.
No
• Every time you cannot bring a new act for the poor people and say that it’s for their welfare. The fact is that only the corrupt leader benefit from such schemes.
• All the acts are carried out with the help of hard earned money deposited by people as taxes. First do something for the working class people who pay taxes.
• The percentages of people who don’t have homes in India go beyond 31%. It is a complex situation where it will not be easy to implement the act.
• There are many other important factors that need to be addressed before the Rights to homestead.
• Don’t distribute the land for free as it can be used for selfish motives. Instead they should be provided at subsidized rates.
• Middle class people also don’t have their own homes. They are even paying huge rents to get a shelter.
Conclusion
There is no doubt that India is having a high percentage of people who don’t have their own land. But technically it is not possible to distribute the lands and implement the Right to Homestead Act. It is better to design something more effective that can really help people in living a better life.
Discussion
- RE: Should India implement Rights to Homestead? -Karan (06/20/14)
- Rising poverty in india is an indication of soaring responsibilities of the government towards their people. Right to homestead ensures that every shelterless family would be provided with some space of their own for 10 cents for the next 10 yrs from notification, which means you are bringing some effort towards protecting the other complementary basic rights of any person.
So i concur that its a commendable bill been passed by the govt. - RE: Should India implement Rights to Homestead? -Deepa Kaushik (05/22/14)
- It is a nice act to provide shelter for the homeless. But this act is not all that easy to implement. This act is more of a lucrative offer, which could face either of the fates – it could be a beautiful opportunity for the corrupt politicians and officials to engulf the whole sum of money; or this could be bonanza for the poor who would simply sell the freely received property to get easy money.
The number of homeless people in India is beyond the ability of our Government to serve a free shelter for everyone. The act can be further amended and there could be a cost added to the shelter / home so provided, which could vary according to the income group of the different sect of the society. This could ease out the problem of covering all the needy citizens of India with equality.
Adding a value to the houses will also give responsibility to the needy people to take care of the house. There should also be a clause that they cannot sell or give the house on rent; otherwise the situation of being homeless will remain the same.
Thus, to be precise, this Act of the Right to the homestead, should be implemented after making some relevant and practical amendments.
