The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban)—Housing for All mission (PMAY-U), a flagship mission of the Government of India, aims to address the need for affordable housing in urban areas through five different schemes. One of these schemes is a housing subsidy scheme, the Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme (CLSS), which has significantly contributed to the success of PMAY-U. However, the design of the CLSS scheme favors households considered creditworthy, with stable and secure income streams. This article examines the gap between the policy design and practice of the CLSS scheme to explore how biases get embedded into the policy, resulting in the exclusion of economically vulnerable households. Schneider and Ingram’s Social Construction of Target Population (SCTP) framework is used to identify the target groups involved in the CLSS policy chain. These target groups and policymakers were interviewed to understand their interpretations of the concept of affordable housing. Using a relational lens, these interpretations are compared to know how the meanings of affordable housing get represented within CLSS policy documents. The analysis presents two key insights. First, the power and interests of the target groups predict their representation in policy design and policymaking. Second, privatized implementation design of the subsidy scheme embeds negative selectivism creating exclusionary tendencies in the CLSS design. Lastly, given the shrinking of the welfare state across the globe, this study raises the critical question of “who benefits and who loses?” while challenging the normative aspects of the policy goal of affordable housing.

中文翻译：

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设计排除：印度城市住房补贴计划的案例研究

Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana（城市）——全民住房使命 (PMAY-U) 是印度政府的旗舰使命，旨在通过五种不同的计划解决城市地区对经济适用住房的需求。其中一项计划是住房补贴计划，即信贷挂钩补贴计划 (CLSS)，该计划对 PMAY-U 的成功做出了重大贡献。然而，CLSS 计划的设计有利于被认为信誉良好、拥有稳定和安全收入来源的家庭。本文探讨了 CLSS 计划的政策设计与实践之间的差距，探讨政策中如何嵌入偏见，从而导致经济弱势家庭被排除在外。Schneider 和 Ingram 的目标人群社会构建 (SCTP) 框架用于识别 CLSS 政策链中涉及的目标群体。这些目标群体和政策制定者接受了采访，以了解他们对经济适用房概念的解释。使用关系透镜，对这些解释进行比较，以了解经济适用房的含义如何在 CLSS 政策文件中得到体现。该分析提出了两个关键见解。首先，目标群体的权力和利益决定了他们在政策设计和决策中的代表性。其次，补贴计划的私有化实施设计嵌入了负面选择性，在 CLSS 设计中造成了排他性倾向。最后，鉴于全球福利国家的萎缩，这项研究提出了“谁受益、谁受损？”的关键问题。同时挑战经济适用房政策目标的规范方面。