The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee presented the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) incentive awards to State, UTs and Cities today (January 21, 2014) at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi.

Speaking on the occasion, the President said that urban poverty is multi-dimensional. The traditional income and consumption parameters are inadequate to fully capture the nature of deprivation. A more holistic vulnerability-based approach spanning the three key areas - residential, occupational and social - is required to effectively combat poverty. Unless urban poverty is understood in the context of vulnerability, any policy intervention would fail to deliver the expected outcomes.

The President said that increasing the accessibility of the urban poor to formal housing underlines the need to address their affordability concerns as well. He stated that the sustainability of poverty alleviation schemes rests on the broader interventions of skills and livelihoods training and creation of self-employment opportunities. The SJSRY scheme and the NULM have to be leveraged properly for true empowerment of the urban poor, he added.

The President said that cities are the focal points for individual and collective well-being. If the people residing in cities are bogged down by lack of basic amenities, they would be unable to unleash their full potential; to pursue creative efforts. He stated that we have to enable people to make their best contribution. Everyone has to partake the benefits that a city provides. Otherwise, we would fall short of success in our endeavours.

Two books ‘Report on State of Urban Poor’ and State of Housing in India-A Statistical Compendium 2013’ were released and their first copies were presented to the President on the occasion.