What can India learn from Tamil Nadu's success in leveraging affordable housing subsidies?

Tamil Nadu is leading the way in construction driven by housing subsidies under the Indian government's Beneficiary Led Construction (BLC) scheme. To date, it has approved more than 340,000 houses, representing 90% of total demand in the state. The BLC scheme helps poor households who already own land with a subsidy towards the construction of a pucca house. Athena is undertaking a critical analysis of the of state's execution of the scheme, which is a vertical under the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana Mission (Housing for All Programme). This involves seeking perspectives on the state's implementation from various stakeholders, including the government and beneficiaries. Using the cities of Chennai and Coimbatore and a town panchayat, it examines the factors behind the scheme's success in the state. It also seeks to determine the challenges beneficiaries face in successfully leveraging the scheme. The study will conclude by documenting Tamil Nadu's best practices, serving as benchmarks for the rest of the country. These benchmarks will also help address gaps to facilitate more effective subsidy utilization and improvement of low construction completion rates.