If we compare to the preceding 60 years of Congress Government, prior to the BJP Government, the Congress program was limited to food, clothing, shelter, and manrega. Congress has done little in the last 60 years Before Modi Government. In the last ten years, the Modi Government has granted 40 million homes to those living below the poverty line under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), Through the PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, Prime Minister Modi offers free food grains to 800 million people, water is now reaching over 140 million rural families through the Jal Jeevan Mission, PM Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY), which is the world’s largest Government-funded health insurance plan, covers over 550 million individuals from 120 million vulnerable families. Totaling 102.7 million. Ujwala gas connections are provided to low-income families and those living below the poverty line.
Poverty is defined as having insufficient financial assets or income to meet a person’s basic needs. Poverty can take various forms, including social, economical, and political. Absolute poverty is defined as the entire lack of the resources required to meet fundamental personal requirements such as food, clothes, and housing.
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan attempts to minimise open defecation by developing in-house toilets and locally owned toilets, as well as to maintain cleanliness surrounding streets, roads, pure water to drink, and residences. The Ujjwala Yojana’s attempts to provide LPG gas connections reached “102.7 million”. Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana aims to open up zero-balance accounts, and Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana aims to help below poverty families construct “40 million” houses all over India.
The Bhartiya Janata Party Government-backed initiative known as Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana was introduced on June 1, 2015, with the goal of assisting the urban poor by encouraging the development of cost-effective, environmentally friendly housing.
PMAY schemes are classified into two groups based on the region of focus.
1) The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Gramin
The PMAY Gramin plan has been implemented to assist economically disadvantaged and low-income families in obtaining reasonable housing financing.
2) Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Urban
The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana scheme spans 4,041 cities and towns throughout India. The Yojana entails the buildup of around 20 million homes at cost-effective rates. The budget for the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana was raised by 66 per cent in 2023, reaching over Rs. 79,000 crore.
Under the direction of Honorable Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Union Government inaugurated the “Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana” (PMUY) social welfare program on May 1, 2016, with the slogan “Swachh Indhan, Behtar Jeevan.” In addition to reducing air pollution, health issues, and deforestation, the campaign will enhance the use of LPG, with Government support of Rs 1,600 for each connection, to over fifty million below-the-line (BPL) families in a three-year period.
During its first year of debut, twenty-two million connections were issued, compared to the goal of fifteen million. Thirty million connections had been allocated as of October 2017. Prime Minister Narendra Modi handed a gas cylinder to the eighth crore beneficiary of this program on September 7, 2019.On August 10, 2021, the Prime Minister introduced the Ujjwala campaign-two, which aims to supply gas cylinders to one crore families that were excluded from the original campaign.
The advantages of Ujjwala 2.0
Migrant workers can obtain a free cooking gas connection under Ujjwala 2.0 by self-certifying; no paperwork, such as proof of address, is required. Ujjwala 2.0 seeks to give those with limited incomes that were not included in PMUY’s initial phase deposit-free LPG connections.
The total number of active household LPG consumers increased from 145.2 million as of April 2014 to 313.6 million by March 2023. This massive increase was particularly due to a scheme known as the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, which increased LPG distribution from 62 per cent in 2016 to 104.1 per cent by 2022.
On July 17, 2023, Niti Aayog announced that the percentage of poor people in the entire nation has decreased significantly, from 24.8 per cent to 14.9 per cent between 2015-16 and 2019-21. This growth was linked to advances in nutrition, years of education, cleanliness, and the availability of subsidized gas for cooking. According to the research, about 135 million individuals in India were lifted out of multiple forms of poverty between 2015-16 and 2019-21.
The execution term for the PMAY-Urban program has been extended to December 31, 2024. The Union Cabinet acted in response to asks from the union territories and States.
